Big Island

The Great:

• It is a tie between U.S. State and National Park facilities on Big Island (Hawaii) and the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Centre run by the Hawaii University.
o United States park facilities: our camping sites where very clean, run by competent and friendly employees, and very cheap. At 5 $ a night, you can’t beat that price to camp right on the beach in Hawaii.
o The Hawaii University Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Centre gives outstanding presentations. As a visitor, I could use 10 to 15 different telescopes for my own stargazing experience. Astronomers helped us understand all the different constellations and planets. Seeing the satellites of Jupiter and all the craters on the moon is quite a sight! The presentation lasted a solid 2 hour. Price of entry to the site, cost of presentation, and fee paid to use the telescopes: zero. Unbelievable.

The Hidden:

• Definitely the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Centre. There are not that many tourists. Most of them just go to the top of Mauna Kea, watch the sunset, stargaze a bit, then head back the hotel. They are missing out on the incredible presentation delivered by the astronomers at the Education Centre.

The Overrated:

• Big Island is trying to position itself as the “historical island” of Hawaii. However, we found that explanations about historical sites left us with more questions than answers. For example, we saw some great looking glyphs in the Petroglyphs field in Volcano Park. However, we could not find any written explanations about the glyphs. Why are they there? When were they left there? How did the natives manage to engrave lava rocks? Without proper explanations, most historical sites were underwhelming.


The Ugly:

• Driving in general on Big Island. Roads are often too narrow. Elevation can change quickly and without any warning. We felt like we were on roller coasters. The brakes on our rental car were busted for obvious reasons.

But worst of all were road signs on Big Island. They were either non-existent or placed in the worst possible locations, for example right when it is time to turn. Hawaiian tourist guides warn us tourists that it is dangerous to stop at crossings to get directions. Well, dear Big Island tourist officials, if tourists abruptly stop at crossings, it is because you did such a poor job at managing our expectations of what is ahead. Get a grip!

Other observations:
• We reached the Southern Point on Big Island at 18’54’39 parallel north. This is no ordinary place. The United States of America does not extend south of parallel 18’54’39 parallel north.
• Wine prices : 4.99 $ for a yellow tail shiraz. 6.49 $for a Turning Leaf, one of Ania’s favorite. I felt like a child exploring the alley full of cheap wines! Taxes on the precious liquid are too high in Canada!

But then as we exited the grocery store, a lady from a charity organization asked us if we would like to donate food or money. She mentioned that 1 in 5 Big islander food assistance. 1 in 5? I was shocked.

No taxes on wine, but no safety net for the poor folks. I guess there is no perfect world. Both sides have good argument. For now we chose to drink our Turning Leaf right on the beach :)

• “Kona Joe Coffee” was a great stop. We met a couple who were from the Ukraine. Both of them had managed to find an internship on Big Island. Life is so hard when your internship is in Hawaii. :)

Is Big Island affordable?

It is. But one needs to wander off the beaten track.

Lodging on Big Island can be two things – dull and expensive (any hotel) or exciting and cheap (Hookena Beach Park).

What comes to mind when I say “Hawaii”?

White sand beaches? Great surf? Expensive hotels? A good friend of mine grew up in Hawaii. He told me he has fond memories of camping on the beach; the sound of waves crashing gently on shore; the fresh wind after a very hot day; stunning sunsets.

Well Ania and I had the chance to do what no other tourist staying at the most expensive resort can do: get up from bed and put our feet right in the sand!

That’s right, Hookena Beach Park allows camping directly on the beach. The sound of waves, the palm trees, the birds singing Hawaiian songs in the morning. All of that, dear Lord, cost us 5 $ each every night. Unbelievable. Expensive resorts can never match that offer!

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Free snorkeling - We discover the beautiful reef around Pu’ohonua by chance – we had stopped a few hundreds meters away at an historical site called (Pu’uhonua O Honaunau - these names are impossible to remember). As we were touring the historical site, we noticed lots of snorkelers. We decided to jump in the water.

The snorkeling was stunning. The reef was huge, fishes of all colors, the coral beautiful and plentiful. And the best part was that the reef was literally a meter away from the rocky beach. This is a very rare occurrence. Reefs tend to be far from the beaches and require transportation. However, lava outflows on the island created rocky formations in the ocean that is ideal for the creation of coral.

I saw 5-6 boats unloading snorkelers about 150 meters from the beach. I snorkeled my way to their boat and asked the operator if the boats were part of an organized tour. The response was yes.

See, these poor chaps paid 60 $ to come to a reef that is definitely inferior to the reef that is just next to the beach. I know for sure because I snorkeled close to the boats to see what was out there. A lesson here: snorkeling is always great. Free snorkeling is even better.

Walking on fire

One of the biggest tourist attractions on Big Island is the most active volcano on earth. As a visitor you can see old lava from former eruptions, assess the damage on the rainforest caused by eruptions, and… watch hot lava flow into the ocean.

An active volcano is not an easily controlled tourist attraction. When Volcano Park was created, you could watch lava in there. However, lava did not respect national park boundaries and for a few years now, it has moved several kilometers outside the park, cutting a local road in half and creating an unexpected and new booming tourist center in the middle of a moon-like landscape created by old lava from past eruptions.

There are many possibilities for lava-watchers: you can go over the lava in a helicopter, approach it on a ship from the water, or, if you are more adventurous, just walk over there and see it right in front of you.

We opted for the last possibility. I don’t know exactly what I expected, but when I started walking, I understood that the fumes quite far away. We hoped to be able to see the lava at sunset before watching it in the dark. So we immediately set off at a quick pace.

Walking on lava is not simple – the surface is uneven and easily cuts through cloths and skin if you happen to fall. And you have to watch for cracks that can be several meters deep. Walking through it in the dark required all out attention. So imagine my feelings when suddenly I realized that the lava under our feet was actually warm! Well, let me tell you, my first thought was: “let’s get out of here!” this was more easily said then done, as all we could see around us was lava and there was no saying which one would be colder than the rest…

And then, just when I was starting to regret ever coming on Big Island, a lady in flip-flops approached us and asked if we were lost. As it turns out, there is a village hidden in the middle of the lava rocks. The houses once had backyards and driveways – those luxuries were swept off by lava. But the houses are still there and the lady who found us does not dream about moving anywhere else. She likes the moon-like landscape and when she talked about lava she actually used the ….. “she”.

Our savior explained to us that the lava rocks we were walking on were 3 months old and still cooling off – but apparently they were no longer dangerous. She also walked with us for almost half an hour to show us the trail and on the way we passed old washing machines trapped in the lava since the eighties, a mango tree grove that was swept away three months ago and many other interesting artifacts.

The watching of the actual lava was as amazing as it was scary – as I said earlier, an active volcano is not an easily manageable tourist attraction and watching it from a distance of 50 meters and knowing that there was actually lava flowing under the rock I was walking on, certainly did not add to my comfort level.

The lessons I learnt from this experience are the following:
1. It is Ok to walk on a hot lava rock, as long as there is no steam coming from the cracks.
2. It is hard to decide if I felt more panic or exhilaration while watching the lava flowing. I am probably not a candidate for tornado watching. Marc, you will have to do it alone!
3. After seeing the volcano village I can appreciate more living in Ottawa, where only an occasional earthquake disturbs my daily peace 

It got very cold on Big Island (Hawaii)

We are at 3000 meters above sea level. Temperature is unknown, but certainly below zero. Ania and I both have our Gore-Tex and two layers. And we still feel cold.

Did we come all the way from Canada to experience freezing temperatures?

Absolutely.

Each minute spent at the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Centre is a minute of pure bliss. We get to journey through the universe using the telescopes provided by the centre. The moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and the Orion constellation suddenly have no secrets for us. Astronomers help us understand the world that is above and beyond our planet earth.

At the top of the mountain are some of the most powerful telescopes on earth. Why Mauna Kea? Because Mauna Kea has almost perfect night skies. Big Island has passed strict laws to prevent any light pollution.

Mauna Kea is the highest peak on planet Earth. Most of us believe that the Everest is the highest mountain on earth. It isn’t. The bases of mountains start below sea level. Mauna Kea only reaches 4200 meters above sea level. But its base reaches a staggering 8000 meters below sea level. Mauna Kea is THE highest mountain on earth.

Mauna Kea, from sunset to stargazing, is a unique experience.

San Francisco

Time to wrap up our San Francisco tour.

Here are a few of my impressions:

The Great:

• Eating out is cheap, varied and generally excellent. We bought full meals (Chinese, Mexican, etc.) for 6.50 $ every night. An excellent Hefeweizen (wheat beer) will set you back 3 $.
• Pedestrians, rejoice! This is a city where drivers actually respect people who cross streets in front of them. Drivers do not attempt to squeeze an inch in on you when they turn right. What a difference from our get-out-you-are-standing-in-front-of-my-car culture in Ottawa.

The Hidden:

• The view from the coastal walk from the Golden Gate Park all the way up to the Golden Gate Bridge is stunning.

The Overrated:

• The painted sisters seen from the Alamo Square, a famous San Francisco landmark, is “bah!” at best.

The Ugly:

• Lots of homeless folks. Not dangerous, but pan handling gets on my nerves after a while.

***First pictures have been uploaded!

Silence is gold?

We are sitting in a hostel lounge, chilling out after a long day of sightseeing. Around us currently 5-6 people on big comfortable sofas – all with their laptops, or, the trendiest of them, with IPads. Marc and I are bringing down the statistics, as we only have 0.5 computer per capita. But since I have taken the computer from Marc, he keeps asking: “so what are you writing?” and “And what are you writing now?”, which makes me think that maybe we should have brought 2 laptops instead of one…

This morning we noticed that several people preferred to have their breakfasts in front of their computers, rather than with other guests of the hostel Marc observed that nowadays people often prefer to stay in touch with their friends from far away rather than with people physically around them. And this evening seems to confirm his theory – half of the people around us are currently on Facebook, chatting with their friends. So everybody is chatting, and yet, it is dead-silent in the lobby.

Marc is saying that it is a sign of times. He says that it was different when we were young. I’m of a different opinion – partially because I don’t like to be thrown into Marc’s remarks about what was it like “when we were young” –I’m not yet 30 so I like to think that I am still young. And partially because I choose to think that computers enhance human interaction rather than inhibit it.

So I explained to Marc that this hostel is different: most of the guests in our hostel are not your everyday traveler. There are a lot of international students who stay here for several months and need to do their homework every night. They probably don’t have time for empty chats. And, more importantly, the hostel doesn’t have a bar, or rather has a very teasing bar that is closed because the liquor license has not arrived yet. I bet, I explain to Marc, that once Napa valley’s wines start to flow through the veins of the hostel guests, the atmosphere will change.

Marc is ready to give the hostels of today a benefit of a doubt. But if our next experiences in hostels are similar to this one, I will be willing to admit that my mentality might be closer to Marc’s generation than to the “youth of today”. Although I will never go as far as to admit that I’m actually the same generation as Marc!

BoB is on the move!!

This is an update for my dear co-workers:
Although this picture was taken in Toronto, I assure that BoB arrived safely in San Francisco and was even acknowledged by a US immigration officer at the airport :)

Those dangerous clementines

The card read : “Do you bring any food with you to the United States?”

Well I have a few clementines, but these will be in my stomach while we wait for the plane. So I check “no”.

Big mistake.

The U.S. Custom Agent asks me the same question. I tell her that I have a few clementines in my bag and that I do not intend to bring those to the U.S.

She tells us that we have to go through these revolving doors for a “secondary search”. Ania is angry at me. She had told me to get rid of those before we reach U.S Customs agents.

It is 9:15 AM and our plane leaves in 45 minutes. We all know that these “searches” can last an eternity if conducted by a jittery agent.

Thank God the fellow at the “Agriculture Department” booth where we are sent is not a zealot. He simply asks us for the clementines and drops them in a bin. Phew!

Two lessons for me here:

1 – Don’t underestimate the threat represented by clementines. In the hands of Evil Doers, the can become a national security issue.

2 – Listen to Ania. :)

The countdown has started

Our mobile phone lines have been deactivated.

We are returning our cable modem to Rogers.

Without Internet (Ania would prefer "without my mobile phone"), there is no going back; we are almost on our way!


The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

Backpaking then; backpacking now

About ten years ago, I was backpacking in Australia. To communicate with friends and family, fortunately, there was Internet. But Internet was restricted to Internet cafes. Checking my emails at a local Internet cafe, when I could find one, exposed me to a lot of nasty risks: account hijack, keylogger attacks, financial account phishing scams, identity thefts, to name a few.

The farther away from civilization I was, the more expensive the browsing experience. I could easily pay 10$ for 30 minutes on the Web.

That was then.

Today wireless Internet (WI-FI) is everywhere. And best of all, it is often free: municipal libraries, hostels and even Starbucks offer free WI-FI.

That being said, using free WI-FI can be as hazardous as logging onto my email account back in the days. Free WI-FI makes it very easy for a smartass to sniff out information sent over the connection (passwords, banking account information, etc.). It can lead to disaster.

We want the goodies without the risks.

A backpacker serious about computer security should do the following if he wants to use a netbook on his trip:

1) Disable drive C sharing
2) Disable Windows XP firewall and use a standalone free firewall (Comodo firewall)
3)Disable all useless (or outright dangerous) Windows services, including the notorious "Universal Plug and "Pray""
4) Create a strong Windows password
5) Install anti-spyware software (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Emisoft Anti-Malware, Spywareblaster)
6) Update your free antivirus (Avast)
7) Encrypt your data (Cryptainer Le)
8) Install a Virtual Private Network (HotSpot shield)

The last two items are key to a successful defense against computer, financial or identity theft. We have need to carry a few documents that contain
sensitive information. Obviously, we want to protect ourselves against the risk that somebody steals our netbook and finds all this sensitive information.

So what I've done the following: create a folder buried deep in system32 windows folder; change all .doc filenames to .dll and encrypt the folder to make it invisible (the folder is also password-protected 256 bite SSL).

So John steals our netbook in Manilla. First he needs to crack Windows XP's password (doable). He looks in the folder "documents". He finds nothing. He searches the C drive by files (all .doc). He finds nothing. He goes into each and every folder on the C drive (takes him forever) and manages find a suspicious folder with...no files in it. He opens up Cryptainer Le and needs about 160 years to crack the strong 256 bite SSL password. Very unlikely he'll accomplish anything.

Now onto Hotspot Shield, the real gem. This software is a free Virtual Private Network. Basically, if we browse with this service activated, it works the same as our private network at home: the best defense in town. Free WI-FI suddenly tastes so much better!

No browsing is ever 100 % safe. But we are pretty damn close with this set-up.

Is there anything I forget?

The joys of plunging exchange rates

Our trip should have started in April. Back then, a Canadian dollar was worth 1.15 Australian dollar. Today, a Canadian dollar is worth a bit less than an Australian dollar! http://www.google.ca/finance?q=CADAUD

So if we spend 10 000$ in Australia, this amounts to a loss of 1 500$.

This is no joke.

It is impossible to hedge currency fluctuations in Canada when our wonderful banks do not allow us to hold other currencies in our accounts (other than USD, which is now correlated to the Canadian dollar. I know, it is crazy).

Why would they want to stop over in Miami?

A few of you may ask yourselves: "hey, I see that you guys are stopping over in Miami.
There must be more exotic places to visit!"

Well the way a round-the-world ticket works is that we only have 16 segments with maximum mileage of 39 000 miles. The way we are set up right now, we use about 38 536 miles, which is really just short of the maximum allowed. So after exiting Lima, we still had a segment left. However, because of mileage restrictions, we had to fly on a straight line to Ottawa.

We didn't want to lose this last segment. Why not a cruise around the Caribbeans to finish up? :)

Any reasonable hostel in Toronto?

Well, Toronto does not value backpacker dollars or the city would have reasonable accommodation for us. I was reading the comments about the ten or so hostels in Toronto: eight of them seem to come straight from a film noir with dark, shoddy rooms and nasty front desk staff.

Who would want to start a round-the-world trip in a place like that?

I am sure we will end up in a dark and smelly hostel room at least once during our trip. It is just too early for that :)

Beware those who think they can visit Toronto on a budget: options are few and far between.

Round trip ticket ready!

All right.

Here's a breakdown of where we are going:

Departure: November 8

Ottawa to San Francisco (stay in San Francisco – November 8 to November 12)

San Francisco to Honolulu (stay in Honolulu – November 12 to November 26)

Honolulu to Fiji (stay in Fiji – November 28 to December 6)

Fiji to New Zealand (stay in New Zealand – December 6 to December 17)

New Zealand to Australia (stay in Australia – December 17 to March 17)

Australia to Singapore (stay in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia – March 17 to April 13)

Singapore to Philippines (stay in Philippines – April 13 to April 23)

Philippines to Thailand (stay in Thailand, Hong Kong – April 23 to May 15)

Thailand to Oman (stay in Oman – May 15 to May 24)

Oman to Egypt (stay in Egypt, Jordan, Israel – May 24 to June 26)

Egypt to Frankfurt (stay in Poland – June 26 to July 6)

Frankfurt to Buenos Aires (stay in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru – July 6 to October 29)

Lima to Miami (stay in Miami – October 29 to November 4)

Miami to Ottawa (Friday 4th, 2011)