Honolulu - Day 5 and Day 6

Day 5 is another quiet day. We hang out at the beach in the AM watching boogie boarders catching the surf.
And I tried renting a surf board in the afternoon but the board renters told me the surf is not good due to high tides and bad winds. So she told me i'm better off waiting for the next morning =( bummer.
But i end up going boogie boarding in the pm but it's tough to catch a good wave without my fins. All in all, not an eventful day.
Dinner however, was a different story. We went to a really nice restaurant called the House without a Key.
It has a really good Mai Tai, and we had Ahi Poke, onion soup, grouper, coconut cake and Lychee/pineapple sorbet. That's a really good dinner.

There's also entertainment by a really good Hawaiian band with Hula dancing by a former Miss Hawaii. She's really good and the background is really nice

Day 6
We rented a car and drove around Oahu for the day.
The first stop is at Pearl harbour and we visited the museum.

Subsequently, we went to North shores and had some very nice view of Hawaii shores. We took a picnic lunch and snorkelled at Sharks Cove. The snorkelling there is really good and we saw 2 turtles playing around the reef. Very cool

After the snorkelling, we went to Ted's bakery http://www.yelp.com/biz/teds-bakery-haleiwa
We had a piece of the Haupia pie (which is coconut pudding with choclate pudding.. yummy) and their garlic shrimp. After driving more, we realized the north shores are famous for shrimp trucks.. no wonder those shrimps are soo good..

 

Garlic shrimp at Ted's bakery


After the shrimp, we went to Huli Huli truck http://www.yelp.com/biz/mikes-huli-huli-kaneohe and packed their pork kalua and barbecue chicken for dinner back at the hotel.
And we drove around to the south shores before heading back to the hotel.

The next day, we took a hike on Diamond head before heading to the airport.



The crater

 


Waikiki Beach from the top of Diamond Head



Honolulu - Day 3 and Day 4

Day 3 was a quiet day for me. Peregrine arrived at 2pm and I was waiting for its arrival with minimum activities. I went for a Mai Tai at Shore Bird restaurant in Outriggers Hotel On the Reef.
It's a good deal ($3.50) and I enjoyed it before walking to the Marina to welcome Peregrine.

There's a welcome party by Pacific Yacht Club for the boat and we all hanged out for a while, before heading for a Barbecue dinner at Shore Bird. (no photos as i was too hungry and wolfed down the food before i can take photos)

Day 4 is surfing day for me!
Initially there's no other person to form a group lesson with. So i would have to pay 90 to get a private lesson. Luckily, Zach was supposed to take his private lesson at the same time but he was kind enough to share it with me to form a semi private lesson.
Background: private lesson - 90, semi private - 75, group - 50
Outcome- I paid 75 instead of 50 for my lesson, Zach paid 90 and got a semi private lesson. We both got free CDs showing our surfing pictures.
Did i mention Waikiki is super touristy and they really know how to make $$ out of tourists? But i'm not complaining as i think it's a great momento for my first surfing attempt.
Before you are too impressed, i'm given a really big board that aids balancing. Also, the instructor pushes me in the right direction with added momentum that makes this a lot easier.
Aka, if i'm going to do this again in SD, i don't think it will be this easy. But i'm hooked now to learn more about surfing !



wooo.. wobbly




that looks really cool




oops.. board incoming




i'm getting down.. not up..




getting down before i get thrown off




glad i did all those push ups at the gym




paddling away..




Way cool !

  

just one more..





yay ! i'm still alive




The ocean and a board



Hawaii - Honolulu Day 2

A morning view of Waikiki Beach

I had only one thing booked/planned for Waikiki in this trip. That's a scuba diving trip on Saturday AM, that includes a free dive refresher course in Marriott hotel pool.
Ironically, I forgot to bring my Padi certified diver card and for some bizarre reason, they could not find me on the diver system.
Anyway, i was treated with some suspicion whether i lied about the certification but it all ended well once i'm in the water and they realize i know how to use the equpment and I can dive. But i'm quite happy with the suspicion as there's nothing scarier with going with a dive group who doesn't care who they bring into the ocean.

Anyway, the instructor is really good and entertaining during the refresher course (comments like "do not touch anything alive down in the ocean, which includes me. I do have a dive knife and i will stab you if u disturb me"). It's also a good refresher course for me as I haven't dived for 2 years.
I was worried that we will be diving with a bunch of non-divers which will slow us down. But there's a smaller group of 3 of us with a Dive Master that works out really well.

We went out in a really nice Catamaran boat that's configured for scuba diving and it's one of the best diving boat that i have been on. A Puerto Rican guy Jose (who is the other diver) kept getting his photos taken with me as the Dive Master thought we are there together. It's pretty funny.

Coral fishes are breath-takingly colorful with very unique lava coral. We saw crabs, sharks, moray eel and played for a long time with a cute octopus. The dive master took a digital camera with him and took lots of photos and even a couple of videos. I end up paying 35 bucks for the photos as i really wanted the memory of that octopus.




Getting Ready for First Dive




I'm doing OK





Cheesy Aloha rock at the bottom

 


Coral fishes




Crab hiding inside Coral




Playing with the little squid




School of fishes




More fishes




funny looking fish




Scary looking fish



My only regret is the rubbery air from breathing through the regulator still makes me nauseous. I was puking my guts out by the end of the 2nd dive. This made me reconsider my decision of going for another day of scuba diving, especially with the high price tag.

After the dive, I went back to the hotel room and had a nap. I walked around the Waikiki International market at night and saw a really nice sunset back ground with the Duke Statue.

Waikiki Sunset view

Hawaii - Honolulu Day 1

I'm off to Hawaii for 6 days. It's unplanned until 2 weeks ago and i'm glad i made this trip.

I found a cute studio apartment from VRBO which is one block away from Waikiki Beach that's really functional and a good deal.
http://www.vrbo.com/227175
It has a nice ocean view from the balcony. I remember sitting in the balcony with my breakfast of Orange juice and Nutella sandwich, thinking of the mastercard advertisement "view - priceless"

I got complimentary upgrade to business class (aka USA first class) on my flight ! The food on the plane was so good (good airplane food ??.. what a bizarre idea??) First 2 photos are food on the flight out.. next 3 photos are food on the way back.



Hawaiian nuts with Bourbon coke



Sea Bass with mushroom rice

Scallop appetizer

Pasta Bowl

Ice cream sundae for dessert

I touched down about 7pm in Honolulu and took a airport shuttle ($9) to get to Waikiki Beach.
I ended up being the last person to be dropped off by the bus driver and end up getting a free tour around Waikiki Beach on the bus (not that i know where i'm going).
Conclusion is there's a lot of small streets with a lot of pedestrians and a lot of traffic.. not a good idea.
The bus driver (who is from Taiwan) ripped off the bus's bumper getting out of Marriott hotel.

Finally, I got to Pacific Monarch Hotel with no problem and managed to get cash from the ATM to pay for the room. A pretty eventful first day =)

Mexico Trip - Ensenada & Tecate

We went for a quick getaway last weekend in Mexico.

It is the first time that i'm in Mexico. It's ironical that it was not safe to go into Mexico for 4 years due to drug lord war and yet i'm only a border away.

Anyway, we decide to follow Andrew Zimmerin episode of Baja Mexico and visit some of the places that he recommended. http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Bizarre_Foods/Episodes_Travel_Guides/ci.Episode_Baja_Mexico.map

We crossed the border at 11am, after getting insurance for the car near the border.

After that, it's a 1.5 hours drive across Tijuana down the coast to Ensenada.

Traffic is really good and we got to Ensenada and checked into the hotel by 130pm.

The first place that we went is Mariscos Navolato. It's a good place for Cerviche. A medium cup full of yummy shell fishes, oysters etc etc for $7 USD. It's so good that we went back for breakfast the next morning =)

After a  good cerviche, we walked around the port and went into the fish market and saw fishmongers selling shrimps, oysters, fishes, clams, geoduck and more for a very low price. They also have nicely arranged shrimps that's really interesting.

We went for a really good fish taco near the port, followed by Hussong Cantina for a margaritha and then a nice churro with caramel/choclate filling. Best churro i ever had.

That night, after some trouble, we located Manzanilla and it was a great place to eat. Had 6 oysters as appetizers (herb butter and pate vinegarrete), 2 grilled portabello mushroom with cheese that's local to Baja Mexico, a seafood Risotto (that's sadly a little undercooked but amazing flavours) and a molten lava choclate cake (we got comped on the chocolate souffle cake as it burst =))

The next morning, we drove down the vineyard Road in Ensenada on the way to Tecate. Stopped at LA Cetto winery for wine tasting and bought a couple of bottles of wine and olive oil.

In Tecate, we stop at a place with excellent bread and brought a whole box of pastries back =)

All in all, a good trip to Mexico. Looking forward to my next trip!