Meng's Travels: Hawaii - Part 1: A Bumpy Road to Heaven

I've been travel-starved since my last trip to Singapore and Sri Lanka in early 2020. Except for a few trips to New York City to see my kids and grandkids and a 3-week camping trip to Colorado and Utah, I've been home-bound in Arizona most of the memorable pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Earlier in 2021 anticipating that the infection rate would ease up I started to think of some of the safest places I could go without taking too much of a risk.

Hawaii seems like a good choice although at that time there were very strict COVID-19 guidelines before you are allowed to visit one of the islands. I've been to Oahu and Maui but not to Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii. When I saw my friend Gary posting some beautiful pictures of the Big Island, that made my decision. I want to go some place where it's not crowded and yet has interesting places to discover.

Gary owns a coffee farm on the Big Island. I asked for recommendation for an inexpensive hotel. He suggested the Manago Hotel. It's a no-frills simple hotel that has been around for over 100 years. You can get a room for about $500 a week! Compared that to all the fancy hotels with bells and whistles that may charge you up to $500 a night! In May when Southwest Airlines announced that they are starting service to the Big Island, all the other airlines match its prices. I was able to purchase a round-trip ticket with Delta Airlines for about $300 or 30,000 Delta SkyMiles. Then I reserved a medium-size car through Costco Travel but it costs $1,000 a week! Apparently, in 2020 during the pandemic, all the rental car companies sold their inventories and cancel their new car orders. This created a big shortage of rental cars and the prices shot right up.

Then in June Gary made me two offers that are hard to refuse. He offered to rent me his late wife's Jeep for a very nominal amount. A few weeks later he told me he wasn't going to be back in Hawaii when I am there. So he offered to let me stay at his house, again for a very nominal amount. His house is on his coffee farm overlooking the ocean.

We were picked up at night by Gary's step-daughter Scarlett and driven to his house. It was dark and we couldn't see where we were going but it was mostly a bumpy unpaved road. You need a 4-wheel drive to get up there.

In the morning when we went outside it was one of the most beautiful views you can ask for. Right below us, on the left and right are rows and rows of coffee trees. Over the horizon is the Pacific Ocean. This is going to be a tough two weeks - staring down at a very tropical green hillside, with mango, papaya, avocado, breadfruit and coffee trees, and a deep blue ocean beyond. A heavenly site indeed!