Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Once upon a time in Maui...

Sol & I were lucky enough to have our best man Jonas get stationed on Oahu last fall. Previously Jonas was living in Enterprise, Alabama for flight school. During his time in AL he made frequent visits to Little Rock but we failed to make a trip to Enterprise. (Darn) Being the good friends we are, we thought to ourselves, "Gosh he must be lonely in Hawaii, we had better go visit him!" So we decided we would!
So How did we make it to Maui? Well after we booked our tickets Jonas found out he was going to be gone for training during the first few days we were supposed to be in Oahu so we decided to head to Maui on our own adventure as a couple. It was definitely an adventure...

After almost four years of marriage you'd think I'd know that my husband hates long days of travel and that I'd plan trips accordingly. Well I forgot and I didn't plan accordingly, so after 12 long hours of flights and 4 hours of layovers I thought Sol was going to hurt someone. His frustration was first directed at the aggressive sales lady at the rental car place while she continually harassed us in an attempt to make us buy more insurance since the Road to Hana was dangerous and "you never know what could happen". We managed to leave without hurting anyone. We then hopped into our shiny black Mustang convertible and I informed Sol our hotel was 30 minutes away and I knew he was going to hurt me instead :) But luckily he didn't. :)
During our time in Maui we stayed in Wailea Beach at the Marriott Resort. When we checked in we were lucky and they upgraded us to an ocean view deluxe room. The room/view looked a little something like this:

And on the first night the sunset looked a little something like this:


Day two in Maui -
Goal: Conquer the Road to Hana
Task: 52 miles each way of winding roads consisting of 620 sharp curves, 59 bridges, 46 of which are one lane bridges. The road carries you along the sea coast, through lush tropical rainforest, and past multiple waterfalls.
The day started at 6am since that was really 11am our time. We had the convertible top down, sunglasses and sunscreen on, and were on our way to Hana by 7am. At first we kept thinking how easy the road seemed and how this cannot be the road that we had heard so much about. Little did we know we just hadn't made it far enough yet.
Here are a few shots from the drive to and from Hana:


 If you look closely below you can see where the road is cut into the curved cliffs
 We had to pull over and take a few breaks from the winding roads and unavoidable nausea they caused :)

We stopped at a hippie roadside stand and found these enormous avocados

We ended up buying a pineapple and two Jamaican passion fruit at the hippie stand. The combination turned out to be pure evil for Sol's stomach later that day but luckily we were already back to the hotel by then!
Anyways we made it to Hana in 3 hours and here's our proof:
The drive back took only 2 hours since we were not stopping to look at waterfalls or the scenic overlooks. More to come about the rest of our time in Maui and our week in Oahu!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

India Parts 2-3-4-5... Sorry for the delay!

I'm embarrassed this has taken me so long to post but believe it or not I have written this post twice before and lost it thanks to blogger! But here goes....
The rest of the trip in India was filled with lots of travel from place to place, lots of obligations and little time for communication and little internet access.  After leaving the "small city" of Nadiad, we were driven back to Ahmedabad where we stayed the night.  Traffic is steady in the city 24hrs a day and honking went on all night long and could be heard CLEARLY from our hotel room. Here is a quick shot of what traffic in Ahmedabad looks like. "Lanes" do not exist in many places in India it's every man, woman, and child for themselves as you can see below.


The next morning we headed to the airport and we flew to Mumbai where we caught our connecting flight to Trivandrum. Here is a quick shot of a typical flight board; you better know your flight number!


Trivandrum is in the state of Kerala on the south west side of India on the beautiful Arabian Sea.
Kerala is called "God's Own Country" and after staying there I know why. This part of India is much different from the north. The literacy rate is much higher and while poverty seems to be everywhere compared to what we are used to in the US, it appears to be less in Kerala than in northern India.
Here are a few of my favorites from our stay at a resort near Trivandrum in a small town called Kovalam:





After our time in Trivandrum/Kovalam we drove to Kumarakom. This trip according to our driver would take "three hours" however, due to the terrible washed out condition of what they call "roads" it was actually closer to SIX hours!
Along the drive we stopped to meet this guy. He was working hard moving giant logs.



While in Kumarakom we stayed on the famous Kerala backwaters. The Kerala backwaters are a network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes and inlets that form more than 900 km of waterways, and is sometimes compared to the American Bayou. During our stay we had the opportunity to go on a short ride on a kettuvallam, or an Indian houseboat. The kettuvallams were traditionally used as grain barges, to transport rice which is harvested in the fields that line the backwaters but have now become a tourist attraction and people travel from all over to relax and even spend the night touring the backwaters on a houseboat.
Here are a few of my favorite pics from Kumarakom:
^ Our room

^ The backwaters

^ Our ride




Here is a final shot from Kumarakom of us gathered around a traditional lantern in the lobby of our hotel. They were kind enough to light it for us and come to find out they only light this lantern for large celebrations about once or twice a year! 

^From left to right: My co-worker Dawn, Dr. Anila Abraham (our amazing friend who showed us around India), my boss Denise, me, Dr. Walker and his wife Gail. 

Our final stop before heading home was Calicut. It was a short drive and flight away from Kumarakom but this is where a good portion of our business meetings took place. Here is a picture of Anila's family who opened their home to us while we were in town.


Here are a few other shots from our time in Calicut:

^ Everywhere we went we were stared at. Anila informed us few American's visit Calicut and that's why we were so interesting to the locals.



Lastly I have to give a HUGE thanks to Dr. Walker & Gail for letting me experience international business up close and personal. They are a huge inspiration to me and I am so thankful for them and the whole experience!!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Northern India, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Nadiad

Hello Blog stalkers! Here is a brief update I will post details of the trip once I get back but I wanted to get some pictures up for those stalking the blog and waiting so patiently!
Mumbai - for a extremely huge city it is not at all metropolitan as we think of here in America. Right next to our hotel, The InterContinental was shack after shack. Here is the view we woke to in the morning after we arrived to Mumbai.
^The illegal homes are constructed on from random scraps the person collects. At anytime the "home" can be destroyed by the owner of the property.  
^ after being awakened by the Muslim call to prayer broadcast over loudspeakers, this was the sun rising in Mumbai.

Next we flew to Ahmedabad and traveled with hired drivers 1.5 hours to Nadiad. The city of Nadiad has hundreds of thousands of people but the infrastructure of a small village. Here are a few pictures from the area.
Above is the toilet in the women's restroom that was available at the Ahmedabad airport. I waited for the "western toilet" the only one with toilet paper.
^Gujarat
^A typical, non-congested street in Nadiad. Again, this is a 'small city'

^ One of the children at the orphanage we visited

^ They loved seeing their pictures on our cameras!

^Our room in the "guest house" at the hospital in Nadiad. The only hotel in town did not have bathrooms in the rooms so we opted to say in the resident quarters "guest house" instead.

^One of the beautiful flowers by the "guest house"

That's all for now... I'm going to bed I will trying to make another post soon about the next portion of our trip to southern India, Kerala.
Stay Tuned!



Friday, November 26, 2010

Thanksgiving & Preparing for India...

My parents came down to visit and celebrate an early thanksgiving with us November 13th. This was my attempt at making thanksgiving dinner.

This year their trip was filled (as it always is when they visit) with projects and more projects. This year my dad and Sol helped fix: our front door, areas where our soffit had rotted, our fence gate, our cars, and other small projects like floor trim around the house. My mom and I were busy sewing an Indian Kurti and a Salwar Kameez for me to wear for my trip to India.


Here is one of the finished products - Thanks Mom!


Some other items I will be needing for India:

GoGirl - so us ladies can pee more easily into the holes in the ground when we are out and about. Google "GoGirl" to get an idea what I'm talking about.

To go along with my 6 vaccinations - Lots of drugs!
Malaria drugs - well you can guess why
Papaya enzyme - to help digest the new and different foods
Prescription strength emergency stomach meds - again, Indian food
Over the counter stomach meds - are you getting the picture?

Oh and lets not forget the passport...

and my India Visa!
and the list goes on....

I leave Saturday morning for NYC and then we depart for India at 8:20pm. We will be arriving in Mumbai Sunday at 9pm! That's all I have to offer you for now. Keep checking, I will try to post a few pictures and updates while I'm there!
Oh, and call my husband, he might get bored during the 10 days I'm gone. Then again he might not :)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

F is for FAIR, frog legs, freak shows, farm animals, and friends...

...and the best of all those Fs is FRIENDS! Gosh I'm cheesy, sorry. Anyways, back in October Jonas and Laura, two of our friends from college, came to visit us in Little Rock. Jonas is currently stationed in Enterprise, AL and has just graduated from his black hawk pilot training there (CONGRATS JONAS!). Laura is currently living in Memphis, and working at the University as a student activity coordinator. Since they were relatively close they made the drive so we could all be together one last time before Jonas moves away to his new base in Honolulu, HI!

Saturday we went to the Arkansas State Fair and we all got to share the southern fair experience with our friends. The fair offered a whole new level of people watching, the best and longest corndogs in the world, deep fried frog legs and did I mention awesome people watching? We ventured through the cow barns, visited with the goats, ducks and horses and watched the new born piglets as they  fought each other for a spot to eat.

After getting our fix of animals we decided to spend the extra three bucks on the freak show (which we were pretty sure was going to be a joke). After walking inside the tent I was immediately angry that I had given up three whole dollars to look at a bunch of mannequin replicas of freaks from the past. After all most of the people working inside the tent didn't look too much different from the people walking around the fair, that is until the show began. Once the freaks came out we got to see a man who swallowed everything from swords to light sabers then hammered a nail straight back into his head through his nostril. The show went on with a girl who climbed a ladder made of machetes, lifted heavy things with a chain attached to her tongue and girl who was able to juggle flaming batons and put them out and re-lit them with her mouth.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend adventures:

^Jonas and Laura eating the famous Corn Dogs
Below you will see the frog legs... Yes, they did eat them.
Me and Laura rating the "freak show" a thumbs down... Until the real freaks came out 
College Family Photo- We love you guys!