Before Christmas we wanted to travel somewhere, but we didn't know where to go. Then Gaja, a very good Indian friend of ours, came over for Thanksgiving dinner, since I said I wanted to go somewhere that had a lot of sightseeing with beautiful flower and plants, he recommended we go to Kauai, Hawaii.
I didn't know Hawaii was the name of a group of islands, that are a state in the United State. Each island has its own name, and is very different than the other islands. I loved the idea of visiting Hawaii, but which island I should choose for my first Hawaiian trip? Well, we finally decided to go to Kauai since Gaja said it was very beautiful. So, Kawai, here we come....
To fly to Kauai from California, we had a layover of couple of hours in Honolulu airport (located on Oahu island). We decided not to discover Honolulu this time and go straight to Kauai so we could spend the whole 8 days there. Some people said Kauai is the best place for a visit compared to the other Hawaiian islands, but I think it's different for each person. Anyway, we finally chose Kauai of our first trip to Hawaii (many thanks to Gaja for his great recommandation). Alright, tickets bought, everything packed, and we're ready... Let's go!
I can not tell you how excited I am to see the real Hawaii with my own two eyes and not just in the movies. When I was in Vietnam, I never thought I could step on these islands one day. Oh wow, my dream is coming true... On the way to the airport it was raining cats and dogs....I was thinking....hm.... we are going to have some nice weather in Hawaii and leave this rainy cold winter behind... well, winter in California is not as bad as in other states.
It took almost 6 hours to fly from Orange County airport to Honolulu airport, and then another 35-45 minutes from Honolulu to Kauai. While waiting for the flight to Kauai, we had some time to rest, walk around, and enjoy the nice view of Japanese Garden. Even though Honolulu airport is pretty small, the way we had to tranfer to another terminal was kind of interesting. Unlike other airports, it's a path outside, one side has the Japanese garden and the other is airport where you can see many planes. So of course, we didn't forget to take a few pictures for some nice memories. Ok, time to get on the plane and continue to Kauai... Aloha (goodbye) Honolulu airport!
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40 minutes later we landed in Kauai. After picking up the laguage, we went to pick up our rental car and drove to the hotel. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the hotel that was located in the center. When I say center, I mean that there's a road that goes almost completely around the island and we chose to stay about half way from each end. By the time we checked in, it was around 11pm. But we didn't forget to ask the receptionist for information on what to do in Kauai since at this point we had no idea where to go or what to do (well I should call this is a "blind-date with Hawaii" LOL). Lucky for us, he was very friendly and helpful, as well as pointing to us the information desk near by that had a lot of brochures (I believed they have the same free information desk at most hotels). He also told us the information desk opens at 9am so we could ask them for more information in the morning. We were so tired after the long flight.... so the next step was to get some good night sleep on our first night in Hawaii.
Sweet dreams everyone!