Day 2 on the lines of day 1, also began early in the night. Somewhere between 3 to 6.30 AM. This would be the pattern of mornings through the vacation. I am talking of a good 3 and half hours in terms of range, that’s because we had originally decided to get up at 3 and head to a mountain top for the sunrise. But I chickened out...and so we decided to linger on to the bed...all the way till 6.30. I will come back to the ride to the mountain top later. The itinerary for today was, take the top down on the mustang and drive around the island like there is no tomorrow. Oops...that was what I was silently thinking. WUBI moment noted. Missez on the other hand had dug through the dearth of literature collected overnight and found a mile by mile "attractions guide" for the "Road to Hana". The erstwhile road is a zig-zag pathway through the rocky east coastline of the island. This would be quiet an understatement of the beauty of the road if I left the description at that and I will diligently correct my folly immediately.
As the name suggests, "Road to Hana" is basically a motorway from the center of the island, that is roughly the Kahului airport, to a town called Hana located on the easternmost point of Maui and beyond. I would love to have a map of the island right about now so that I can simply point out the spots. But then the picture that I am about to paint will be lost. Now lets follow the LIFO (in layman terms Last-In-First-Out) approach here. Starting with the beyond part, which basically consists of one spot as per the guide. And here I might be making the name up but bear with me. The seven sacred pools or Ohe'a Gulch. It’s supposed to be a series of waterfalls and pools. And I am speculating here because we didn't visit the spot...as it was way beyond and my adventurous spirit was taking a break in our hotel pool at that very instant in time. At one point of time one could circumnavigate the island going way way beyond from here...but a recent earthquake had rendered that part of the road useless. Continuing on our journey backwards...Hana is a beautiful little coastal town. It reminded me quiet a lot of Goa. The same colonial style houses, laid back atmosphere and pristine beaches. But the town per se is just the means to an end. Because if you just blindly run though the erstwhile road you would miss 99% of all the famed beauty and will end up massively disappointed with the 1% that you actually find at Hana. The last line is a gist of the story of a journo that the missez narrated to me during our drive. Her rationale behind the story was to make me stop at all possible touristy attractions peppered throughout the road. And she was partially right in that because I was driving literally like a hypnotized zombie, hypnotized by the sheer zigzags of the road and zombified by the top down mustang. The distance from the airport to Hana is roughly arnd 60 miles. An hours drive on a freeway, 40-45 minutes for a loony. But it took us nearly 5 hours to reach Hana courtesy the umpteen stops. We waded for some time on the black sand beach at Hana after I had stuffed my face with chips, grilled cheese sandwich and some local chicken delicacy. Right before Hana we took a left turn into some local park. Another missez discovery. Another black sand beach. There was also a very interesting lava cave right on that beach. We actually went inside it and it ended right into the sea. The rest of the coastline was pretty rocky, with picturesque stone arches formed as a result of the never-ending battle between land and sea. There was also a curious little hole in this rocky landscape, another cave evidentially with one end opening to the skies and the other end into the sea. It was aptly named Devils' hole credited to the ghastly noises of the sea breaking on the rocks underneath. Not to mention the chance of sucking in a hapless bystander.
Also along the way were umpteen shacks selling everything from barbecued kalua pig - a local delicacy to banana bread - another local special. Missez finally made me stop at one of them literally by pulling the handbrake. I promptly claimed that this precise shack was the one that I had been looking for all along and this was the best amongst all the rest, meekly pointing to the board that proudly said "Best Banana bread in the world".
There was another detour, before this whole banana incident. This one led to a spell binding rocky coastline. The waves were almost 6 to 8 ft high, thundering on to the rock face and we were standing right beside them to catch the spray of that clear blue and white froth of salty water. Its amazing how the same terrifying water on the rock feels so soothing on ones skin. I also must note the clarity of the sea water here. It was a uniform light blue and transparent allowing us to peep right into the belly of the mighty pacific. Also on our way was the "Garden of Eden". A small drive through of sorts amongst countless species of Birds and Bushes. At the U-turn point was a small cabin with a view of an amazing waterfall on one side and a beautiful valley opening into the deep blue ocean on the other. This waterfall is supposed to be the opening sequence of the first Jurassic park movie if you remember. I can't really confirm this fact but I would like to believe it. Incidentally a good part of the movie was shot in and around these islands. Also on the way was a supposed hidden waterfall, which remained hidden despite our valiant attempts at discovering it. I actually hiked 2 different trails to find even a hint of a waterfall, even a small puddle of water would have done in the end but failed. I promptly had my revenge by gulping down a full half liter bottle of water down my throat.
Also, before figuratively hitting the road, we had stocked ourselves with a 24 pack of water bottles, a sunscreen lotion, a beach mat and other assorted stuff. I generously helped myself with the sunscreen, but my original skin tan finally broke through soon enough. Part credit also goes to the top less mustang. The top was down throughout the TO journey and up and down in intervals on the FROM journey. There was a heavy downpour on our way back, but I still managed to open up the top on every few minutes of the clearing in the heavens above. Any description of the road would be incomplete without a comment on the actual road. It really is an engineering marvel. The road has been cut out literally from the rock face, and is right by the sea for the good part of it. Due to the terrain, it keeps dropping and rising in elevation every now and then leading to countless hairpin and blind turns through lush green forests. The ample bubbling brooks lead to countless bridges, with traffic on one side halting every now and then to let the oncoming traffic pass on the single lane path. The average speed is around 15 miles for an hour and should be a good 5 miles/hour less to appreciate the beauty surrounding you. The countlessness of the bridges and hairpins though is a writers privilege. There are 56 bridges and 600 curves on this enchanting motorway.
We stopped at a surfing beach on our way back, but a heavy downpour and 2 fragile bladders cut short the stay. It was already dark when we reached back to the hotel. So with relieved bladders, the taste of a frozen pizza in the mouth and the dream of a dip in the hotel pool, it was lights out for day 2.
PS : Needless to say, we clicked a lot of snaps. The count at the end of day was some 150 odd.
As the name suggests, "Road to Hana" is basically a motorway from the center of the island, that is roughly the Kahului airport, to a town called Hana located on the easternmost point of Maui and beyond. I would love to have a map of the island right about now so that I can simply point out the spots. But then the picture that I am about to paint will be lost. Now lets follow the LIFO (in layman terms Last-In-First-Out) approach here. Starting with the beyond part, which basically consists of one spot as per the guide. And here I might be making the name up but bear with me. The seven sacred pools or Ohe'a Gulch. It’s supposed to be a series of waterfalls and pools. And I am speculating here because we didn't visit the spot...as it was way beyond and my adventurous spirit was taking a break in our hotel pool at that very instant in time. At one point of time one could circumnavigate the island going way way beyond from here...but a recent earthquake had rendered that part of the road useless. Continuing on our journey backwards...Hana is a beautiful little coastal town. It reminded me quiet a lot of Goa. The same colonial style houses, laid back atmosphere and pristine beaches. But the town per se is just the means to an end. Because if you just blindly run though the erstwhile road you would miss 99% of all the famed beauty and will end up massively disappointed with the 1% that you actually find at Hana. The last line is a gist of the story of a journo that the missez narrated to me during our drive. Her rationale behind the story was to make me stop at all possible touristy attractions peppered throughout the road. And she was partially right in that because I was driving literally like a hypnotized zombie, hypnotized by the sheer zigzags of the road and zombified by the top down mustang. The distance from the airport to Hana is roughly arnd 60 miles. An hours drive on a freeway, 40-45 minutes for a loony. But it took us nearly 5 hours to reach Hana courtesy the umpteen stops. We waded for some time on the black sand beach at Hana after I had stuffed my face with chips, grilled cheese sandwich and some local chicken delicacy. Right before Hana we took a left turn into some local park. Another missez discovery. Another black sand beach. There was also a very interesting lava cave right on that beach. We actually went inside it and it ended right into the sea. The rest of the coastline was pretty rocky, with picturesque stone arches formed as a result of the never-ending battle between land and sea. There was also a curious little hole in this rocky landscape, another cave evidentially with one end opening to the skies and the other end into the sea. It was aptly named Devils' hole credited to the ghastly noises of the sea breaking on the rocks underneath. Not to mention the chance of sucking in a hapless bystander.
Also along the way were umpteen shacks selling everything from barbecued kalua pig - a local delicacy to banana bread - another local special. Missez finally made me stop at one of them literally by pulling the handbrake. I promptly claimed that this precise shack was the one that I had been looking for all along and this was the best amongst all the rest, meekly pointing to the board that proudly said "Best Banana bread in the world".
There was another detour, before this whole banana incident. This one led to a spell binding rocky coastline. The waves were almost 6 to 8 ft high, thundering on to the rock face and we were standing right beside them to catch the spray of that clear blue and white froth of salty water. Its amazing how the same terrifying water on the rock feels so soothing on ones skin. I also must note the clarity of the sea water here. It was a uniform light blue and transparent allowing us to peep right into the belly of the mighty pacific. Also on our way was the "Garden of Eden". A small drive through of sorts amongst countless species of Birds and Bushes. At the U-turn point was a small cabin with a view of an amazing waterfall on one side and a beautiful valley opening into the deep blue ocean on the other. This waterfall is supposed to be the opening sequence of the first Jurassic park movie if you remember. I can't really confirm this fact but I would like to believe it. Incidentally a good part of the movie was shot in and around these islands. Also on the way was a supposed hidden waterfall, which remained hidden despite our valiant attempts at discovering it. I actually hiked 2 different trails to find even a hint of a waterfall, even a small puddle of water would have done in the end but failed. I promptly had my revenge by gulping down a full half liter bottle of water down my throat.
Also, before figuratively hitting the road, we had stocked ourselves with a 24 pack of water bottles, a sunscreen lotion, a beach mat and other assorted stuff. I generously helped myself with the sunscreen, but my original skin tan finally broke through soon enough. Part credit also goes to the top less mustang. The top was down throughout the TO journey and up and down in intervals on the FROM journey. There was a heavy downpour on our way back, but I still managed to open up the top on every few minutes of the clearing in the heavens above. Any description of the road would be incomplete without a comment on the actual road. It really is an engineering marvel. The road has been cut out literally from the rock face, and is right by the sea for the good part of it. Due to the terrain, it keeps dropping and rising in elevation every now and then leading to countless hairpin and blind turns through lush green forests. The ample bubbling brooks lead to countless bridges, with traffic on one side halting every now and then to let the oncoming traffic pass on the single lane path. The average speed is around 15 miles for an hour and should be a good 5 miles/hour less to appreciate the beauty surrounding you. The countlessness of the bridges and hairpins though is a writers privilege. There are 56 bridges and 600 curves on this enchanting motorway.
We stopped at a surfing beach on our way back, but a heavy downpour and 2 fragile bladders cut short the stay. It was already dark when we reached back to the hotel. So with relieved bladders, the taste of a frozen pizza in the mouth and the dream of a dip in the hotel pool, it was lights out for day 2.
PS : Needless to say, we clicked a lot of snaps. The count at the end of day was some 150 odd.
1 comment:
Too good mate!!
"I actually hiked 2 different trails to find even a hint of a waterfall, even a small puddle of water would have done in the end but failed. I promptly had my revenge by gulping down a full half liter bottle of water down my throat."
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