We continued further and head to the rental place. Now there’s various options, you can take a guided tour with lunch provided that would cost $119 per head or rent a double seater kayak and head out for half that price. If you know what your doing, it’s cheaper to just rent the kayak. You get to watch a video on the do and don’ts, ocean kayaking is a little bit different than in a lake or river, take off and landing matters. Once we had all our stuff locked up and had on our sunscreen lotions, we headed out to where the kayak’s were, its a few feet down the road. The kayaks are moored in this stream, so u start there and have to cross a sand bank to get to the ocean, which involves dragging the kayak for some distance. It wasn’t bad though, once we were past the sand bank we were ready to launch. Just watch out for the waves and we were all set to go. There’s multiple places you can head out from there, Flat Island which is directly opposite, Lanikai beach or directly to Mokulua Island. We just headed for Mokulua Island, reached there in 1 1/2 hrs, rested for a while took some nice snaps, had lunch and ventured across the island. We then headed back to Kailua beach, we didn’t want to make another stop, so we skipped Lanikai beach. Went back dropped the kayak and headed out to the next beach along the way.

Our next stop was Waimanalo beach, which is a local beach and didn’t have the tourist crowd unlike Waikiki. We spent a couple hours swimming and relaxing on the beach. We had more to see before the end of the day and headed back to Waikki along the eastern side of the island. Along the way we stopped at Makapuu Point, which is one of those scenic points along the way, worth stopping. We continued along the coastal road, stopping by Sandy beach, Halona blowhole and arrived at the last stop for the day, Hanauma Bay. Hanauma Bay is a nature preserve for coral reefs. It’s a wonderful place to snorkel, we just hand’t planned on that, it’s surely on our list for the next trip. You can get rentals there, so just go by and be prepared to spend a few hrs. At this point we were exhausted and wanted to go take some rest. We headed back to the hotel, rested for a while and then finished the day with a Hula performance at Kaipio beach in Waikiki. It’s a state sponsored Hula, free to all that takes place around sunset.

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8 days is not enough to cover the islands, so we just opted to cove most of Oahu and the Big Island. We spent 3 days on Oahu and 5 days on the Big Island. Here’s an overview of the trip, I’ll get into the details in successive posts.

• Day 1: Oahu – Mokulea Islands, Pali lookout, Kailua/Lanikai Beach, Hanauma Bay Nature Reserve Park and Waikki.
• Day 2: Oahu – Sunrise at Makappu Point/Lighthouse, Pearl Harbour, Kualoa Ranch.
• Day 3: Big Island – Volcanoes National Park.
• Day 4: Big Island – Volcanoes National Park, Hilo, Mauna Kea.
• Day 5: Big Island – Scenic Drive along Hamakua Coast, Akaka Falls, Waipio Valley, Hapuna Beach, Kona
• Day 6: Big Island – Kona, south & north Kohala Coast, Pololu Valley Lookout.
• Day 7: Big Island – Drive along Kona coast to the southern most point and back to Hilo.
• Day 8: Oahu – Drive through East and North Oahu, Haleiwa, Sunset Beach Park, Dole Plantation and airport

There’s just so much to see in Hawaii that it’s impossible to cover in a single trip. On the way back we were already planning our next trip.

Hawaii in a larger map

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I’ve taken the following mentioned drives in the article:

• Big Island, Hawaii (Sep 09)
• Florida Keys (May 09)
• Ozarks, Arkansas (Oct 08)
• Mount Hood, Oregon (Sep 07)
• Pacific Coast Highway, California (Mar 06)
• Navajo Lands, Arizona (Aug 05) – slightly altered route
• Southwest’s Four Corners (Aug 05) – slightly altered route

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2009 Additions

• The Wadden Sea,Germany and the Netherlands
• Mount Wutai, China
• Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, South Korea
• Dolomite Mountain Range, Italy
• Sulamain-Too Sacred Mountain, Kyrgyzstan
• Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal, U.K.
• Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System, Iran
• Tower of Hercules, Spain

(Image Courtesy of World Heritage Tour)

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Maldives in a larger map

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Day 1: Birmingham – Tampa, mostly spent driving.
Day 2: Tampa, Busch gardens.
Day 3: Orlando, Epcot.
Day 4: Orlando, Universal Studios.
Day 5: Miami, lazing around South Beach and a trip to the Everglades.
Day 6: Miami – Key West, jet skiing, lazing around.
Day 7: Key West – Tampa, Mostly driving, drop by at Everglades.
Day 8: Tampa – Hattiesburg MS, full day driving along the Gulf coast.
Day 9: Hattiesburg – Conway, back home.

The first 3 days were the typical theme park holiday, spent a day each at Busch Gardens, Disney’s Epcot and Universal Islands of Adventure. One day in Miami is just not sufficient, we went on a airboat ride in the Everglades, spent time shopping and dining on Lincoln St in South Beach and kinda just strolled the beach due to the continuous bad weather during our trip. The drive to Key West is fun and need to be enjoyed through out, no sleeping . There’s tons of things to do there, we did the glass bottom boat ride to the reefs and a 27 miles jetski tour around the island. The return was more or less driving, break, driving. Although driving along the gulf coast starting from Tallahasse was interesting, there was a diverse change in terrain and locality.

Florida Planning:

There’s a lot to planning information available on lots of sites, but there always some information those sites miss out on. Here’s my todo list before you depart for Florida.

• Sunscreen lotion, whether you go to the beach or theme parks.
• A hat or cap and sun glasses, flip flops.
• Every theme park has some rides that get you wet, so prepare in advance for that. Wear something that dries quickly.
• If you plan on driving a lot, and beyond just Orlando its good to get a Sun Pass mini sticker. There’s lot of toll areas and the worst part is some of the exits are specifically for Sun Pass customers, if not you’re out of luck. You can’t get in or get out at such exits.
• Small Dry bags for keys and wallet while at the beach or even the theme parks.

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The Great Wall of China was built in through several centuries to provide as a fortification against the constantly invading Mongols. Over the years many parts of the great wall have collapsed due to lack of maintenance. The wall is the longest human made structure stretching for about 4000 miles (6400 Km). The Great Wall started as earth works thrown up for protection by different States. The individual sections weren’t connected until the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.). Qin Shihuangdi, First Emperor of Qin began conscripting peasants, enemies, and anyone else who wasn’t tied to the land to go to work on the wall.

Petra, Jordan was the capital of the Nabataean Empire of King Aretas IV (9 B.C. to 40 A.D.). The Palace Tombs of Petra, with the 42-meter-high Hellenistic temple facade on the El-Deir Monastery are architectural wonders of the Middle East. The Nagataeans were excellent canal builders, and their ability to control the water led to the rise of this desert city. The city saw rapid increase in trade and urbanization in the first century AD.

Christ the Redeemer, Brazil is the statue of Jesus standing 38 meters tall atop the Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro. It took 5 years to build it and was opened in 1931. Its stands as a symbol of the openness of the Brazilian people.

Machu Picchu, Peru the “Lost city of the Incas” was built around 1450 AD by Emperor Pachacútec at the height of the Inca empire, and was abandoned less than 100 years later, as the empire collapsed under Spanish conquest. It was home of the upper class, 2,430m in the Andes mountains above the Urubamba Valley. Its a wonder how the stones used to build the settlement were carried here with out the aid of modern machinery.

Chichén Itzá, Mexico the Mayan temple city served as the political and economic capital of the Mayan civilization. The pyramid of Kukulkan, the Temple of Chac Mool and the Hall of the Thousand Pillars are some of the structures that are still standing today. The Mayan civilization demonstrated considerable knowledge in architecture and town planning.

The Colosseum, Italy is a landmark of ancient Roman architecture. The Colosseum is a massive arena which held various shows and gatherings and where the infamous gladiators fought to their death. The location where the Colosseum stands today used to be a lake, all the water was drained and drains built to ensure that water did not stagnate in the building. The building uses the well know Roman arch throughout.

Taj Mahal, India the symbol of everlasting love. It is the mausoleum built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Construction began in 1632 and was completed in 1648. The building combines elements of Islamic, Indian, Persian and Turkish architectural styles. The building was constructed of pure white marble with a reflecting pool and gardens around the site. The building always makes one ponder what all can be done for love.

All the nominated wonders seemed to be in place and had some significance except Christ the Redeemer. It is not an architectural wonder, not artistic, did not require considerable human effort and was not ahead of its times. There were better choices instead of that. Christ the Redeemer is in the same league as Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower etc, it doesn’t fit in the 7 Wonders of the World list. This makes me think the whole process was a publicity stunt, each of the chosen wonders should have a strong backing of why it was chosen which this one dose not have.

Its done now, not going to change, lets look back at the “7 Ancient Wonders of the World” of which only the Pyramids of Giza are still standing, also the pyramids are placed as a honorary candidate in addition to the current 7 wonders list.

• Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Statue of Zeus at Olympia
• Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
• The Colossus of Rhodes
• The Lighthouse of Alexandria

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