Back the Kailua-Kona, 18 May 2010 Tuesday

Unhurriedly, we readied ourselves to go diving again. Setting off from Honokahao Harbour in Moana Lu'u, we sighted dolphins as we moved out from the harbour. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to swim in the harbour due to boat traffic. Moving out, we had 2 pleasant morning dives.

On the first dive, a large black eel with white spots was disturbed by a middle-aged male diver who attempted to tickle its tail which was visible through the twisting rocks. He succeeded in making the eel very snappy as half its body came right out of its hiding place and I managed to snap a photo of that big angry eel. We then found a gigantic lobster shell, which had unfortunately been devoured by some other lucky creature.

When we surfaced, we told our dive guide about the huge lobster, and he told us, "Generally, we allow our divers to remove and feast on lobsters from the sea in the months which contain the letter R. That would be January, February, March, April, September, October, November and December. Unless, of course, if you're Japanese, that includes Jurai as well," to our great amusement.

The second dive was pleasant as usual, with lots of swimming through lava caves and exploring beneath the shelves. We managed to find a rather large black-tip reef shark and chased it out of its cave. It was about 2 feet long, but unfortunately, my picture had very bad back-scatter due to the flash mode it was in. Ending our dives with the usual jovial company of the crew, we headed back to shore cheerfully.

After lunch, we stumbled onto the rental shop for scooters again. This time, a Vespa was available, to our delight. We rented the Vespa despite neither of us possessing a motorcycle license [which was not needed] nor any form of driving license [which was at least required] and begun exploring further than Kailua on our new-found freedom of movement. I, at least, knew how to drive back in Malaysia, but I was very uncomfortable riding two-wheel vehicles, being rather unsteady, so Kenon being the pillon was impossible. Kenon have absolutely no idea how to drive, but he was good with balance, so I constantly shouted into his ear while he rode.

The first right turn that we made, we almost died. American vehicles drove on the right side of the road, but Kenon turned into the left side and met oncoming trucks. Fortunately, with very quick reflexes, he rode uphill into a petrol station at the corner of the road, narrowly avoiding the monster trucks that thundered forward and would have instantly crushed our very tiny bike. Heaving long sighs of relief, we rested to gather our wits before continuing. This time, we quickly adjusted and kept to the correct side of the road.

We decided to go along Ali'i Drive which was less busy than the highway and had much slower moving traffic. It was a pleasant ride along the beach, both of us helmet-less and with my long hair let loose and streaming behind in the wind. The surf pounded endlessly on our side and the sun shone brightly in the clear sky overhead. It was wonderful to be back on arid land, where humidity was only 40-50% and the temperature was only 25 degrees Celsius maximum despite the brilliant summer sun.

The first time we stopped the bike, Kenon did not know how to restart it. After pushing all the buttons on the handles without knowing what they were for, the bike still did not start. We asked a passer-by whether he had any idea, but he did not either. Fortunately, by pressing the starter button and revving the accelerator, we managing to get the Vespa to sputter to life.

We drove on past Kailua, into Keahou, passing into small towns that we had not encountered before. There was a black beach with lots of surfers and sunbathers catching the last of the afternoon sun's rays. Reaching Keahou, we stopped by Keahou Shopping Center and walked around the large ground-storey complex, having a drink at a fast-food cafe run by cantonese-speaking Chinese. We found a Sports Bar and Grill at Keahou and settled down for dinner, which was a mistake. The spicy ribs were so spicy that even I could not eat half of it. We should have gone back to Outback Steakhouse in Kailua, but it was too late.

Turning around, we drove back into Kailua to retire back at our hostel, spent for the day. Despite being bone-tired, we met a German couple who were sharing our apartment with us for two nights. We had previously met them in Hilo Bay Hostel and we all broke out into noisy animated chatter well into the night. They had graduated half a year ago, and decided to take six months prior to starting work to travel around the world. They had started with Europe, going through the Middle East, where tourism were escorted by "big guns", through to China and Japan, before coming to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. Their next stop would be to cross the rest of the Pacific into the States and returning via the Atlantic to Germany again. They had, however, completely bypassed South East Asia, and we spent our time enticing them with the wide variety of food, cheap prices, and a totally different culture.

Finally, at midnight, I rested my extremely sleepy head onto my pillow, thankful for rest, thinking to myself that I had not been this tired since I quit doing hospital calls.

Day in Hilo, 17 May 2010 Monday

Disturbed by noises, I was awakened by the other girls in the hostel dormitory at 6am. The sun had already risen considerably and lots of golden sunlight illuminated my bed, which was on the top bunk. I was forced to wake up sleepily. Proceeding to take a hot shower, I realized that the body shampoo was with Kenon and he was sleeping in the male dormitory. What an inconvenience!

I washed my face and went down the street in search of my favourite breakfast drink, coffee. I found a cafe after a short walk in the crisp and cool morning air. Bringing a few pastry and my large cup of coffee back to the hostel, I sat at the common table and enjoyed my slow morning.

The interior of the Hilo Bay Hostel was a restored Burns hotel. There was even a display museum glass case showing very old artifacts. It was a very charming lobby with a sky-roof that allowed sunlight to shine through right in the middle of the lobby, a humongous bird cage with one parrot was placed along a large plant just below. All the furniture were made of wood or wicker and there was a decidedly British colonial feel to everything. I sipped my coffee while looking through the book of Aloha detailing Hawaiian proverbs that I bought the day before.

Kenon finally woke up two hours later, and we checked out, carried all our luggage [which is only one rucksack] and went to explore Hilo beyond the Suisan Fish Market, where our efforts were thwarted the day before. We stopped at the now open fish market first. There were only a couple of yellow-fin tuna for auction, but Poke was sold at an air-conditioned enclosure next to the market.

Poke is a delicious local delicacy, that I first tried at Big Island grill. It was made of square pieces of raw tuna marinated in soy or other types of marinade like chilli, pickle, curry, etc. We ordered rice and piled it high with different marinated raw seafood. Kenon chose chilli tuna and pickled seaweed with kelp. I chose baby lobsters and the largest mussels that I'd seen so far.

After having eaten lunch al-fresco, we continued down Banyan drive to the famed Liliuokalani Japanese gardens. A large portion of Hilo townspeople were actually Japanese, and Ralph from Big Island Divers had earlier told us that the Japanese "mafia" controlled almost all organizations in Hawaii. As we strolled in the garden, a young Caucasian man in his early thirties was playing with his young daughter and son. He was teaching them to swing on lichens like Tarzan and Jane. Kenon and I decided to try our hand too, but found the roots too slippery to hold onto.

The garden itself was a sight to behold. Black rocks were carefully arranged on white pebbles to outline a spiral path down the middle. Half the garden were shallow fresh-water ponds, lined on the side by grey rocks and half full of clear water. Little black and grey fishes swam, likely cichlids, underneath lily pads and darting in between the rocks. A red wooden bridge arched over the waters, over little stone lanterns on the edges of the ponds. The still ponds contrasting strongly with the blue ocean separated by just a one-lane road away. A light sea-breeze blew, and the sky was azure with clear-weather cirrus high above.

Passing the garden onto a small beach littered with tall hotels, we decided to return to the Mooheau Bus Terminal to wait for the Hele-on bus and return to the leeward side of the island, which I much prefer. The tropical weather was already too humid for my liking.

The bus came on time at half past one, and duly transported us back to Kona. We dropped off at Macy's, and bought tickets to watch Iron Man 2. The rest of the evening was plasantly unremarkable, and I was too exhausted to pay much attention to anything else.