Wanderlust

At the Makena - La Perouse State Park, Maui

Some days you feel like taking the back road. Today was such a day. After a long soak in the ocean that left us feeling exfoliated :-), and being beaten by the surf, at the Makena “Big” beach, we decided against going back to West Maui immediately. After all, the road did continue south, and we did not know what waited there. It got narrow as we went on, and soon we were onto a lava field. Turned out that this was the remnants of the 1790 eruptions of Haleakala. In the distance, you could see the cinder cones. Today the area is out-of-bounds for hiking and conserved under the Ahihi-Kina’u natural underwater preserve.

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A day at the Makena Big Beach, Maui

Hang Loose! You are on vacation!

It was our first day on Maui. It was supposed to be a ‘vacation’ day, not a ‘travel’ day. So, whats the best thing to do but hit the beach? And when you do that, you might as well find the best beach in Maui. It had to be the Makena ‘Big’ beach, even if it is an hour drive away from West Maui.

So, on we went to the Big beach, and was impressed right at the start. Golden sand, turquoise blue water, sunshine, waves; it was a piece of paradise.

You could stay there forever!

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The charms of Lahaina, Maui

Lahaina, Maui.

If you visited West Maui, you have definitely stopped at Lahaina. After all, it’s the most happening town in West Maui (though that’s not perhaps saying much). It has all the tourists descending on its oceanside Front Street in the evening. The endless passage of tourists, the restaurants, the shops, the scamming salesmen hawking free almost everything, the hustle and the bustle. This is the touristy place in Maui. If you want peace and quiet, you should rather be watching sunset from Piilani Highway.

Lahaina used to be a whaling town long ago, before petroleum became the fuel of choice over whale oil. The Whale Museum preserves some of that heritage. There is a old-world look about the Front Street area of Lahaina. The coral-walled fort (that is no longer there, save for a wall), the coral-walled prison (that is still there, with walls made using the coral bricks from the fort), the storefronts with balconies, all evoke memories of a time long past.

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Sunsets over Maui

Maui has spectacular sunsets, as is expected from a Pacific island. Here is a collection of sunsets from Maui, from my week-long vacation in there.

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The many faces of Ladakh, India

Ladakh! Its one of those unspoilt areas of India that has remained so by virtue of being so inaccessible. Roads to Ladakh are closed for nearly all the year, save for three months in summer. Most of Ladakh is a high altitude (some 10000 feet or more) desert in the rain shadow of the Himalayas. It is surrounded on all sides by four different mountain ranges, the Himalayas, Karakoram, Ladakh and Zanskar.

The place is isolated, cold, dry. The people are warm and friendly. Here is my tribute to the many people I have met in my travel to this far corner of India. How can I ever forget them? Tsiring, who patiently drove us around Ladakh; Padma, and her pashmina goats, in the remote corner of Ladakh, where we stayed one night; Zarina and Gulam Nabi of the Sia-La guest house, who made us feel at home in Ladakh. They all leave behind memories that will last a lifetime.

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