1. Worked for an hour thereof 2. Went to the driving range to practise my golf 3. Swam laps in the private pool 4. Enjoyed a hot tub 5. Enjoyed a sauna 6. Enjoyed a steam bath 7. Enjoyed yet another beautiful sunset:
hey all the past few days have been pretty uneventful until today. This morning Aunt Yen Yee signed us up for some outrigger paddling, sorta like kayaking but with six people in a canoe. I would just like to say that we saw some pretty great stuff out there, plus the fact that I saw dolphins swimming next to our canoe, like just twenty feet away. They were grey on the top and pink below, and they started jumping out of the water! I saw two of them jump out of the water next to our outrigger canoe, and I couldn't believe my eyes. This was the sight of wild dolphins jumping out of the ocean - this was not Sea World or Sentosa Underwater World. This was wild dolphins jumping out of the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Who the hell else sees this kind of thing!? I felt very blessed that I saw this rare sight.
Ian didn't see this though, but what followed was a truly shared experience. Since both of us were in different canoes, he did not see dolphins. But we both heard the whales. My guide Daniel was telling us about King Kamehameha who united all the Hawaii islands through fighting and bloodshed, when suddenly he said "Oh look there're the whales". All five of us in the canoe turned our heads immediately towards where he was pointing, and true enough we saw the sprout of water shooting from just beneath the surface. Eagerly we peeled our eyes from more signs of the whales, hoping beyond hope that we could see the big mammals. And true enough, we were rewarded.
From deep beneath the surface of the water, a deep ethereal sound permeated through the body of water that distanced us from the whales. It surrounded us from all around. Below us something so special was happening. I can only try to describe it. A beautiful deep tone, followed by many squeaks and then the deep tone again. The whales were singing. From underwater, we heard the whale song. All of us stopped paddling, and we were astounded. There're no words to describe the wave of emotion that I felt when I heard the sounds of the whales. Ian later said that it was a haunting sound. I disagree. While the song may have been haunting and melancholic, it was undoubtedly the most beautiful thing I have been blessed to hear in my entire life. You cannot imagine how I felt when I heard them. Humans are so wrong to believe that they were the only intelligent beings. How could they say that! These people have definitely never heard a whale song. These huge beings sang and sang, and unwittingly touched the lives of the ten people above them that were so fortunate to hear their voices. Stephanie, the paddler behind me, could not stop gasping as she was so bowled over by the magnitude of beauty in their song. Truly, magic was off that island of Hawaii this very morning, in those waters that hid so much and yet gave us all a transcendental experience.
And the acrobatics began. Randal and Daniel, our two guides for respective canoes, agreed that that morning was one of the best of this year, if not the best. The whales, I thought there were two but Ian later clarified there were three, two fully grown adults and a child, started frolicking at the surface of the water. We spent the rest of the morning trying to chase all of them, but it was to be an easy task. The three whales keep leaping out of the water, and in one instance they were so close I could see the colour of the fins of the whale as they jumped out and entered the water. They could not have been thirty feet away. Again I must reiterate, the brevity of this moment had not escaped me. These were WILD WHALES IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN showing us their simple beauty. These whales put up the show of a lifetime for all of us out there that morning, but to them they were just playing in the water. It is peculiar how so little meant so much. I could not believe my eyes and ears the whole time.
These past three days I have been truly blessed to taste some of the greatest food (last night I had roasted potatoes and turkey breast and salad - AMAZING); eat to my hearts' content; and to experience the rarest most revered sights of my life. Suffice to say that I am physically and spiritually gratified.
Hey guys, been a few days since we last posted. Nothing much has been going on, been busy with school details and work around the house.
Till this morning of course. There are certain things in life that you know you would never go through again. This was one of them.
We arrived slightly before 10am to the beach shack down by the ocean activity centre and 2 out-rigger canoes were being prepped for launch. Imagine a bright yellow boat with a banana like extension of the left side of it, and long enough to fit 6 people. After a brief explanation and demonstration from the instructors, we took off into the Pacific Ocean, paddle in hand and eager to explore.
Going for about 20mins of paddling out into open water, they told us to stop paddling and just chill out and watch the ocean. The younger kid in my canoe wanted to jump into the ocean, (Vincent and I were on seperate canoes, but we were close-by to each other's), so the instructor told her to go ahead, and he added to her to go under water to see if she could hear and whale echolations.
The MOMENT he said that, not sooner or later, i heard it. That ethereal-like call, like something out of this world. It was a slow and gentle song, and as hard as i try to crack my head to find words to describe it, i cant place a finger on it. It was just surreal. A Whale Song.
Everyone got really excited and starting looking around eagerly to spot the whales. The instructor, (I should probably mention his name now, Randall.), said that its rare to hear them so loudly, which means that they were really close-by, like 40-50 yards. They could be really deep down too though. They werent though. With a loud puff of air, her blow-hole sent a spray of water up into the air and dove back down back into the ocean. "Thats probably all we're gonna see of them." said Randall, apparently because they only come up to breathe every 30-45mins and just head deep back down into the ocean.
Thankfully, that was not the case.
The great hump-back whales then began to put on a most spectacular show. It was a mother and a calf, and what looked like, to this untrained eye at least, a teenager probably. They were cresting with their small dorsal fins breaking the surface, almost as if they were peeking at us and diving back down again. The calf frolicked near the surface, swirling and turning, its white underbelly contrasting the deep blue, flapping his fins on the water, waving to us, almost. We were probably no more then,i dont know, maybe 20-30metres away from them. The calf at one point started to get, according to Randall, a little curious about our floating banana boats and starting making his way towards us. Slightly alarmed, we began to backpedal the boat as the mother herded her calf away from us. Yes, we were that close.
We just sat there on our boats, lost in the beauty and mesmerized by the show mother nature was putting on for us. It was absolutely the most wonderful experience i have ever had. Something that left a very deep impression on me. During dinner, my uncle Paul was talking about the whaling going on in Japan and condemned it, rightfully so. I think back to the sights i saw in the morning, and wonder sadly, about the morality of it all. I believe myself to be very lucky to be able to watch these endangered animals in their natural habitat, and hope that future generations can enjoy it for many more years to come.
Im sorry there aren't and pictures of this, because we totally were not expecting to even see whales on this paddling trip. But it would be cool if you guys go look it up on youtube or wiki, and perhaps be more aware of the precarious situation that our Ocean's wildlife are in, like Sharks for shark's fin and the Whaling industry.
It was a beautiful morning indeed.
EDIT: Here's what we heard, its not IT exactly, but you get the picture:
Today saw a bunch of folks come on over for dinner, and me and Fun were tasked to do dinner duties, which included taking out the dishes and so on. Earlier today we were working on a new project, gainfully employed to fill up the holes in the floor with nail polish. In the afternoon Fun made corned beef with rice, so thanks man. It sure pays to have someone who knows how to cook.
After that I was entrusted with the car (WOOHOO) to run and collect char siew from the chinese restaurant 20 minutes away, and whilst driving Fun kept making stupid comments about the fiasco with the buggy. When we picked up the mail we saw the guy who scolded me yesterday. Ian couldn't resist teasing me about the possibility that the guy will see me driving the BMW. "Dude this guy was here yesterday breaking flower pots with a golf buggy and he's here TODAY WITH A 4.4L BMW!?"
For once, I did not have a retort. Oh the shame.
Fun says:
I couldnt help but thank my lucky stars I survived his drive. And things all around got more beautiful.
Here are some random photos cause i cant find any place to fit them in lol. Enjoy.
The Locklin's! Preview!
Fred's Place!!!
Fun says:
Whatever he said.
Im kidding. But he did pretty much lay it ALL out for you guys. Nevertheless i'll just give my point of view.
Its a totallllllll bummer that Brent and Alicia had to leave! For soooooo many reasons. First of all they were awesome company and were the nicest people, but Alicia is (that's)"not-nice". Arent you Alicia, if your reading this lol. Another reason is because that leaves us with only 2 of us who cant (or on a tight-leash) drive. *coughvincentandbuggyincidentcough* We got in the car with them the day before and had one last car ride with them to the Kona airport to send them off back to Chico.
Anyways, that just leaves me with Vincent now. Joy.
The past few days have been quite eventful with the Luau and dinner at Fred's. Fred is seriously the funniest guy ive met, the things he say and the stuff he does just really cracks everyone up. While we were having dinner on the verenda at his place, which was btw, overlooking the smaller towns and settlements downhill and the ocean sun-set, a feral roach, as he describes it, flew onto the rim of his wine-glass. That man loves his bugs, he tried to coax it off the rim of it but guess what...
"I knew you were gonna do that you little bitch."
The roach fell into his wine. And as he babbled at it he reached in and pulled the bugger out and lay it on the porch. Big surprise, it flew back into the glass.
"They got good taste, my bugs."
Alicia was HORRIFIED by what he did next. He once again took the bug out, and then begin to drain the rest of his wine.
The rest of the night was fun as we sat around his man-made fire. It was basically just a big bronze container with firewood and alot of flammable liquid which Fred added in generous amounts. Apparently the wood hes used to fuel the flames was old wooden logs he kept since he first owned the place, and i forgot the name, but they burn really really hot (800F was what i heard. Dont ask me in C.) and the interesting thing is that they burn down to nothing more than a handful of ash. Not one log. but the whole pit of it. They last really long too. Everyone exchanged stories and discussion on National service and the Gahmen. I didnt feel the need to participate, probably because i didnt feel very strongly towards either matter. I was just mesmerized by the dancing, licking, hungry flames. I remember Mr.Ng our geog teacher in Sec school saying that Alvin (Lim) drew relaxing fire. I really thought that was total bullshit lol. But i stand corrected. Fire is beautiful and relaxing as you watch the logs crumble to silvery ash. Another interesting fact was that the bronze pit got SOOOOO hot that green flames started to appear. The wood got the fire burning so hot that the chemical reaction on the pit caused shimmering green flames. Awesome really.
Ah. And i would like to rant about something else that happened today, as minor as it is. I ordered an acoustic guitar from Amazon sometime last week and my aunt received a phonecall saying a package had came in!! So as excited as i was, i still had a rather large portion of salt-laden wood i had to clean. Dear Vincent who was efficient as always *snigger* was already done with his part, so i told him about it and he said that he go fetch the mail.
He came back with some pool-cleaning device. Good Game.
And he.... Well read bout it in his post.
Oh btw i know we've made promises to upload pics and vids, but we've been pretty darn lazy. Imma put some pics up after this post. Beautiful sunsets and beaches guys and gals!
the past few days have been surreal. we have been swimming almost everyday and in the most beautiful places imaginable. second day saw us with brent and alicia in the 4WD BMW going to the Waikoloa Village. The original plan was to go hiking near Waimea. Unfortunately for all of us, me and ian woke up too late and we could not make it in time. We stopped by an italian deli where we had great food and did a little bit of shopping. It was a long drive, about an hour and a half, up the mountains and down again, and it started to rain. At first ian thought it was cuz we were driving into clouds (at the top of the mountain) and the condensation caused the rain, but no it was really raining. But it was like we were not on the Big Island anymore, the scenery was so picturesque and beautiful, it was like being in Ireland.
That night we drove back and made it in time for the Luau, which was this traditional Hawaiian ceremony. Actually come to think of it, held at a hotel and for tourists, how authentic could it be right? But there were free drinks (unfortunately we were both 'carded' - which is what it means to be checked for IDs) which although we could not have, Brent and Alicia were too nice to go an extra round to get me drinks (ian does not drink - teetotaller lol). We set and saw the perfect setting sunlight. The host showed us all how Hawaiians cooked their meat in what is called an Earth Oven, and I can't remember exactly how it was done, but something about piling lots of soil over the chicken over layers of white cloth. Anyhow i took a video of it so when I put it up again you guys can check it out.
The later part of the evening saw the lovely hawaiian ladies and men demonstrate their traditional dances and I tell you, theres something about these people and how perfect their physique was. The ladies had the most psychadelic hips ever. In the words of Ian, its like they "disjointed their hips from the rest of their bodies and let them swing from side to side REALLY fast". The men were HUGE. Andrew you can suck it. Thats just how huge they were. AND add to that they were well-defined and really really muscular. In the nice way. I like that.
After the luau, Brent asked if there was anything that we wanted to do. I was silent for a while but I couldn't take it anymore so I asked if we could find a place which sells Jagermeister, an alcoholic drink I am currently infatuated with. Earlier that day we had went to Costco, and I just couldn't find it there! That left me a little depressed. But Brent chuckled and drove us to Safeway, and there, I saw the beautiful green bottle. I bought two for a total of US$48. Oi Hanrong, Singapore's totally ripping us off those bastards. Fuckin two bottles for the price of one bottle in singapore lah! fuck!
The third day we went to Fred's place. Fred's this really funny American friend of Ian's uncle Paul, so earlier on the first day we were having dinner and we sort of invited ourselves to his place. Anyway I digress. We went over to Fred's house, which we were told it was really huge.
The house itself wasn't exactly huge, but the land it sat on was HUGE. And the house itself was BEAUTIFUL. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL. The house had a pool, which overlooked the Pacific ocean and I tell you, the sunset there, is just fantastic. Me and Ian jumped into the pool and sat there wishing either one of us was a girl so we could share that pretty pretty moment. Its just surreal. It was truly the Hawaiian dream. Sitting by a pool with a sunset and beer (yes there was beer). We had beers and a nice garden salad and four pizzas after that swim. Later on Fred set up a fire pit which is basically a homemade campfire, and we set there in our deckchairs talking warming ourselves by the fire pit, talking everything from singapore politics (guess who was doing most of the talking) and national service. Alicia agreed with me on some issues, which was sort of a big deal for me cuz she's Californian and she sees the point that we couldn't even vote to fight for our country and our government. Uncle Paul and Fred disagreed, until I qualified myself and said that I would fight for my country but not the government, and we sort of left it at that. It was an interesting conversation that night.
Yesterday was sort of a work day. I tried to edit the videos for upload onto this blog, but Premiere Pro kept screwing up on me and refused to add the audio with the video, and to spare you from the details let me just say that it was absolutely shit. I have given up with the video logging thing for now, but when we get back I promise I'll get something up. Me and Ian also worked on the house for a bit, seeing that I'm living off charity and accumulating LOTS of debt with the Locklin's (Ian's aunt and uncle) I felt it was better to start clearing my credit. Not a bad job, cleaning the wood by the oceanfront. We had a spectacular view. We also sent Brent and Alicia back to their beautiful Chico in California. Aunt Yen Yee wanted to see how I would drive, so today, for the first time, on the 22nd of March 2009, I drove a 4.4litre BMW Z5 4WD on an American road. I tell you now, thats a damn powerful car lah! Just a fantastic feeling.
Today I had a little accident as I was picking up the mail for the Locklin's. I drove the golf buggy off to the resort office, and was just pulling into the parking lot when I braked, and took my foot off. Now for buggies you gotta really press the brake down until it sticks. I didn't, and it started rolling backwards. I panicked and tapped the accelerator. The whole buggy bolted straight in front, and hit this potted palm tree. The pot broke into a million pieces, and the tree fell onto a window of the facility's office. Luckily the window did not break, but I was given a telling off by the staff. I felt really bad about it, and after picking up the parcel I went straight back to the house, and told them what happened, and apologized profusely. They made several phone calls but otherwise it was okay, nobody was injured and nothing was damaged save for that clay pot. I told them I would foot the bill and they agreed. Thank god nothing really bad happened. Looks like my chances of driving the Porsche is shot to pieces now. Or even the BMW. Sigh... I was so embarrassed, it looked like i couldn't even handle a golf buggy! Argh!!
And now I gotta go off for dinner! Can't wait! Last night I had HUGE US steaks grilled on our barbeque, and tonight its Hainanese chicken rice. Should be good!
after what seemed like many days and nights I have finally reached Kona. i think i would probably snap if I got onto another airplane after the admittedly rather short 30 minute flight on the Hawaiian airlines. the leg between narita and honolulu was the worst - kids with their familes; babies with their overly-concerned parents. i tried making conversation with the ang moh family beside me but I think the father was just trying to take care of his kids and wasn't in much mood for conversation. or maybe it was the fact that he had to take care of his 7 year old daughter who was sitting between us, seeing how I am usually so good with the ladies.
OH! and i should probably say this, i was supposed to fly off with fun on monday 16th but i woke up with 39.2degree celsius that morning and was horribly sick after. thankfully the airline waived the charges for postponing the flight because of my terrible plight (and also because I can be so good with the ladies...even when I'm sick ahahaha). ANA is simply amazing. they have such good service - you know how the japanese are one of the politest people in the world, and imagine them serving you for 6 hours at one shot. They really deserve my personal shout out for ANA. service is excellent, always attentive and meticulous to every detail.
i'm sitting in our room that was allocated for us and it is absolutely amazing. the house is not a brick-motar type room, instead, imagine an estate with several rooms. instead of a common rooftop over everyone's head, natural light is incorporated into a room that is seperated *each* by their own sliding doors and glass panels. In the middle of the whole thing is a small pond with about 10 full-grown koi. One of the golf holes is just in front of the balcony, and needless to say the ocean is just right there in front of the verenda.
i'm suffering from intense jet lag at the moment and just wish with all my heart to be asleep . Fun keeps saying thats the worse thing to do since i will probably just drop dead once my head touches the pillow and I'll wake up during the night at about 2 or 3AM knowing that i can't go back to sleep. Frankly right now i'm just too tired to care...
-vincentt-
Fun says:
Ive been here for a couple of days now. The weathers been gloomy so far, with light showers. Yesterday was probably the only beautiful day ive seen here so far. But when the clouds are gone and the rain lets up. Its really beautiful. REALLY.
Vincent just arrived today after having been sick for the past few days and missed taking off with me and my cousin, Sandra (who stopped off at Honolulu to visit her brother, my cousin, who is studying there), leaving me all alone by the roadside of Kona airport waiting for my Aunt to come by. The past few days have been rather uneventful, but by no means boring. A routine day would sound something like,
Waking up at 6am. (I never knew i could do it out of my own accord.) And taking a stroll or a buggy ride on the pathway along the sea and volcanic terrain. Cruising on the buggy with the breeze in your face and listening to the waves slosh on the rocks is just pure relaxtion. Occasionally Ill just park by the buggy aliltte off the path and just sit, staring out at sea, watching the whales blow their spouts and playfully flap their fins down on the ocean's surface and breach the surface somewhat like dolphins, sending white jets of the sea up as they land.
In the afternoons I mostly tagged along with Brent and Alicia ( My Uncles Paul's nephew and his girlfriend.) to town to grab some food and head to the stores. Good fun hanging out with them . =)
Well, now that Vincent is around the days are gonna get wilder for sure. We just had a manic buggy ride around the resort, with us two crazy asian kids yelling at each other and laughing their asses off.
I have taken quite a few pictures since ive arrived and am gonna upload them tonight. So hopefully we can share those with you guys later. Vincent has fallen asleep despite my kind warnings so im gonna go stick my socks up his nose right now.
