At-least I am. Lulu is blissfully in no-work-land.
Funny how Intel can get you back in work-mode instantly. Monday the 15th was my first day back at work and I got to work at 9.30ish. I'm still working my way through the 1000+ emails but I get an IM asking if I'm back and whether I'd be able to make it to a 11am meeting. That same day, someone had scheduled a 5pm meeting as well. So much for a lazy first day back from a sabbatical.
It feels strange to be sitting in front of a keyboard tapping your life away while you've spent the past 2 months living out of a 40lb backpack, getting up every morning not knowing where you're gonna have lunch or dinner. It's not just a physical shift; it feels odd having a routine - the commute, the weekly team meetings, lunch at a fixed hour - all the trappings of life on cube-island. Speaking of The Cube, my cube seems ever more sterilized, as compared to, say, the crazy rainy roads of Guayaquil, Ecuador on a certain night...
I have to wait 6 more years for another paid 2 months of vacation. Sigh. Back to the keyboard it is.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
California dreaming
We just got back after a 6 day road trip to Bay Area, CA. My aunt and her family live in Saratoga and we had a wonderful weekend at their place. We also visited a couple of Lisa's friends in Berkeley and spent Friday night munching deep-fried Chinese vegetable dumplings and sticky brown rice with mangoes and coconut milk, egg puffs, some black mushroom fungi dessert and a sesame treat. Yum. Even these gargoyles in Villa Montalvo, Saratoga liked it. They're still reminiscing about it.
Villa Montalvo near Saratoga, CA.
On our way back, we spent one night camping at the Harbin hot springs resort in Middletown, CA. It was a great place but a bit too commercial for me. Photography was prohibited, so we only have a couple of stealth photos of the hubba-hubba (our backpacking tent) roughing it out on a deck by the creek.
We were hit by a spring snowstorm on the drive up into Oregon and had to motel-it in Grants Pass.
Marcel taking a pit stop on the shoulder of I-5
He was awed by the fresh March-snow
A continental breakfast of a bagel and butter later, we were on our way to Umpqua hot springs, 65 miles east of Roseberg, OR. These are wonderful rustic springs by the N. Umpqua river. Because it was a weekday and it was snowing, there weren't a lot of people and it was great to have the springs pretty much to ourselves.
On the way to Umpqua HS
The 3 lower pools
View from the main pool
Toketee Lake near Umpqua HS
Villa Montalvo near Saratoga, CA.On our way back, we spent one night camping at the Harbin hot springs resort in Middletown, CA. It was a great place but a bit too commercial for me. Photography was prohibited, so we only have a couple of stealth photos of the hubba-hubba (our backpacking tent) roughing it out on a deck by the creek.
We were hit by a spring snowstorm on the drive up into Oregon and had to motel-it in Grants Pass.
Marcel taking a pit stop on the shoulder of I-5
He was awed by the fresh March-snowA continental breakfast of a bagel and butter later, we were on our way to Umpqua hot springs, 65 miles east of Roseberg, OR. These are wonderful rustic springs by the N. Umpqua river. Because it was a weekday and it was snowing, there weren't a lot of people and it was great to have the springs pretty much to ourselves.
On the way to Umpqua HS
The 3 lower pools
View from the main pool
Toketee Lake near Umpqua HS
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Hawaii !
I started writing this when we got back from Hawaii but between de-compressing from the hawaii trip and getting ready for the California road trip, we never quite managed to post.
We spent a great 12 days in Hawaii - all on Maui. We had plans to take the ferry to Lanai and camp there for 2 days but that was the day of the tsunami warning and we found ourselves instead at 4000 ft on the Haleakala mountain waiting out the 2-ft tsunami waves.
We were camping at olowalu campground, about 30ft from the beach on the morning of the tsunami. At about 6am, the sirens started blaring and when we peeked out of the tent, everyone was making a beeline for the parking lot. One of the women had a weather radio and she told us there was a massive earthquake in Chile and that they're predicting the waves to hit Maui at 11.30am. Whew! We had 5 hrs to get to higher ground. It was surreal knowing that there had been a massive earthquake in Chile - we were in Chile 7 days ago. Our thoughts go out to the friendly people of Chile who are still experiencing aftershocks even as of today.
Of course, the whole island was up and gas stations were perhaps the best place to observe the state of panic. The lines from gas stations were extending all the way into the highways, causing huge backups. Walmart was chaotic too, but a bake sale went on despite the warnings with children selling brownies and spam musubi on a table in a makeshift stall outside the walmart. I'm sure they did brisk business; one lady was buying 10 musubis and taking them to go.
Finally, after about an hour of stocking up of 4 days' worth of supplies, we perched ourselves in a meadow outside a lavender farm beside the road at about 4000ft on Haleakala and waited it out for about 5 hrs until they gave an all-clear indication on the radio. Turns out the biggest waves were about 3ft high at Malakea harbor - not quite the mayhem that was predicted but better safe than sorry...
The other fascinating part of the trip was the hike into Haleakala. We backpacked for 3 nights through some of the most bizarrely spectacular scenery I have ever seen: miles of barren lunar landscapes interspersed with giant cinder cones, endless stretches of red sand, volcanic rocks, lava bombs, hawaiian silver swords (they wait up to 50 years to bloom), lush green Paliku valley and the other-worldly hike up to the Holua campsite. I probably had the best birthday view on the 24th when we got up at about 6am to view the sunrise from Holua: clouds had drifted inland from the coast and though we couldn't see the sun rise, it was wonderful to be looking at clouds while being immersed in them with faint pink sun rays making their way through to us. Amen!
While at Olowalu, we rented kayaks for a day ( this was on the day before the tsunami) and went paddling for a few hours. It was windy but we were rewarded by greetings from several green turtles popping out of the water to say hello.
Here are some photos taken by a brown and a white turtle.
Halaekala en route to Paliku campsite
Looking down at the clouds while climbing out of the valley
Kayaking near Olowalu
Makena - big beach
Sunset from Makena
We spent a great 12 days in Hawaii - all on Maui. We had plans to take the ferry to Lanai and camp there for 2 days but that was the day of the tsunami warning and we found ourselves instead at 4000 ft on the Haleakala mountain waiting out the 2-ft tsunami waves.
We were camping at olowalu campground, about 30ft from the beach on the morning of the tsunami. At about 6am, the sirens started blaring and when we peeked out of the tent, everyone was making a beeline for the parking lot. One of the women had a weather radio and she told us there was a massive earthquake in Chile and that they're predicting the waves to hit Maui at 11.30am. Whew! We had 5 hrs to get to higher ground. It was surreal knowing that there had been a massive earthquake in Chile - we were in Chile 7 days ago. Our thoughts go out to the friendly people of Chile who are still experiencing aftershocks even as of today.
Of course, the whole island was up and gas stations were perhaps the best place to observe the state of panic. The lines from gas stations were extending all the way into the highways, causing huge backups. Walmart was chaotic too, but a bake sale went on despite the warnings with children selling brownies and spam musubi on a table in a makeshift stall outside the walmart. I'm sure they did brisk business; one lady was buying 10 musubis and taking them to go.
Finally, after about an hour of stocking up of 4 days' worth of supplies, we perched ourselves in a meadow outside a lavender farm beside the road at about 4000ft on Haleakala and waited it out for about 5 hrs until they gave an all-clear indication on the radio. Turns out the biggest waves were about 3ft high at Malakea harbor - not quite the mayhem that was predicted but better safe than sorry...
The other fascinating part of the trip was the hike into Haleakala. We backpacked for 3 nights through some of the most bizarrely spectacular scenery I have ever seen: miles of barren lunar landscapes interspersed with giant cinder cones, endless stretches of red sand, volcanic rocks, lava bombs, hawaiian silver swords (they wait up to 50 years to bloom), lush green Paliku valley and the other-worldly hike up to the Holua campsite. I probably had the best birthday view on the 24th when we got up at about 6am to view the sunrise from Holua: clouds had drifted inland from the coast and though we couldn't see the sun rise, it was wonderful to be looking at clouds while being immersed in them with faint pink sun rays making their way through to us. Amen!
While at Olowalu, we rented kayaks for a day ( this was on the day before the tsunami) and went paddling for a few hours. It was windy but we were rewarded by greetings from several green turtles popping out of the water to say hello.
Here are some photos taken by a brown and a white turtle.
Halaekala en route to Paliku campsite
Looking down at the clouds while climbing out of the valley
Kayaking near Olowalu
Makena - big beach
Sunset from Makena
Tsunami survivor?
Really? This guy was spotted at the Maui airport. I took a few stealth photos from behind his back. The front of his t-shirt had the tsunami hit times for each of the 5 islands, band-style:
Big island: 2/26/10 11.05am
Maui: 2/26/10 11.30am
Lanai: ...
I was told that these tees sold pretty fast in Lahaina (the leeward and hence the sunny, resort-y part of the island). I don't know what to make of it. I definitely commend the entrepreneurial spirit of the person who had the brilliant idea of pressing tees within hours of the tsunami. I don't know if I quite agree with the term 'tsunami survivor' . If you were lashed by 50 ft waves (think Indonesia/Thailand circa 2004) and you made it out, that's commendable (and lucky). But watching 2 ft waves from the comfort and safety of the 40th floor in your warm sunny Four Seasons resort hotel room, I'm not quite sure that deserves the term survivor. tourist-laden-with-wads-of-money-and-not-quite-sure-what-to-do-with-it : yes, but not survivor.
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