The Aloha State! (Journal Entry)

When Marvin and I touched down in Kauai, Hawaii, I felt self-conscious about my luggage, because I didn't want another L.A situation. For those of you who don't know what happened while I was there, I had forgotten my suitcase. When we got out of the airport we were greeted by local women wearing woven grass skirts, with flower necklaces, with pink and yellow flowers in their hair. They also had flowers surrounding their waist, and a shirt from their necks to their belly button decorated with flowers. They all said “ALOHA! WELCOME TO HAWAII!” They all said it in sync. I just smiled, blushed and greeted them. I then walked to my driver and asked my driver what Aloha meant? He replied “It means to say hi or say bye in Hawaiian.”I just nodded and told him to drop Marvin and I off at the entrance of Waimea Canyon. Luckily I brought my 3,000 U.S dollar drone. I told the taxi driver to wait for us, and we went off to the sightseeing spot. The view was incredible! I am a Catholic while Marvin is a Christian, and we both still did not believe that God could not have possibly created this beautiful scene. It took our breath away that we were just stood there like two zombies. I then took out my drone, and flicked the on switch. The drone woke up with a clink and its turbines span so fast that it knocked all the leaves away. NOTE TO SELF: It makes and excellent dust/leaves cleaner. The other tourist just backed out and watched in amazement as the drone flew higher and higher and higher. Then a handful of people including Marvin stood near me and watched as the screen flickered to life. Everyone gasped as they saw the view of the canyon. It then seemed as if my luck has happened the same way in L.A because my drone suddenly pitched forward and then all the camera just showed was a lump of feathers. Marvin then handed me a pair of binoculars and looked at my drone. It was being carried by an eagle! Everyone just laughed as the eagle carried it away, probably to its nest of other drones. I handed Marvin the controllers since he had a plan to escape. A few minutes later I heard a huge squawk as if a bird just got hit by a bat. Everyone applauded as Marvin maneuvered the drone onto the platform we were standing. A few minutes later we were on the road going to go kayaking called the Pali Sea Cliff. When we arrived, I told the driver to wait for us.  Marvin chose an azure colored boat that camouflage with the water. While I was in the bathroom Marvin told the worker to put me on a bright pink boat with a Hello Kitty face and stars. I wanted to desperately change my boat but the guide said once you made your decision, you can’t change it. I just sighed and hopped onto my boat. Me, Marvin, and the guide paddled along on to the water, with every splash we make the more we were destroying the peaceful water. It was so unpleasing to see that I stopped making splashes and rode gently. The tour guide then said “ the Waimea Canyon have another name which is called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.” Naturally bad luck seemed to follow us every time. Once we reached a place under a rock shaped arch, Marvin accidently hit the wall of rocks with his paddle. We all just paddled on with Marvin behind trying turn, but suddenly without warning, a couple of chunks of rocks fell down on Marvin. My heart felt like a bowling ball sinking down and down the water. I saw Marvin yelp as his boat flipped over. He looked at me with fear in his eyes and suddenly he was underwater. There were splashes and suddenly the air was filled with eerie silence. I yelled his name, while the guide talked on his walkie talkie to send help. A long heart beat later, Marvin appeared and floated next to my kayak. I jumped up in fear and fell of my boat. My God, Marvin stayed so still I didn't know if he was still breathing when I went up to him and checked his heartbeat. Yes! he was breathing, but unconscious. I sighed with relief, then I got jump scared again since something nudged my leg. I thought it was a shark and I screamed and thrashed around. I heard a chuckle and realized it was actually Marvin. At least he is still conscious I thought. Once help arrived, the paramedics checked Marvin’s condition and later reported that he was alright with just a few bruises. The kayak that Marvin rode on was still not yet to be found because of it’s azure color. Luckily our insurance paid for everything and a little extra too! With the extra money we went back to the driver and treated him with lunch. Marvin chose a restaurant that was near and on a beach. This time men greeted us but they wore things different than the woman. They clothes more simpler. They still wore flower necklaces though. They wore shirts that were heavily decorated with patterns of flowers, shorts that also were decorated with flowers. Their clothes would camouflaged perfectly into the a garden that it would be impossible to spot. They greeted with me with the same words that the ladies at the airport said. “Aloha, Welcome to Hawaii.” I smiled feeling warm and was guided towards a 4 seater table out on the beach with a huge umbrella protecting us from the sun. Wow, these people are so fashionable!  I ordered chicken wings, Marvin ordered beef, while the driver just ordered a caesar salad. I picked up a brochure from the table. It mainly was about beaches. It read Topographic Diversity. It read “Ranges from the 3,567-foot deep Waimea Canyon stretching 14 miles across the western end of the island – and the 3,000-foot-high cliffs that rise from the ocean floor to the magnificent, Napali Coast.”When I am done reading my food had arrived. It was so delicious! By the time I finished my meal the others were done as well. We then went back to the car, and I told the driver to go to Kauai Cruise Port. From there we will venture to the islands of Maui. The name Maui even got featured in a movie called Moana. Where Maui is a demigod in polynesian mythology. Marvin and I then went to Maui via boat.

When we arrived in Maui, it looked like a beautiful place to go, like in the movie “Madagascar” The type of beach that Alex the lion, Gloria the hippo, Melman the giraffe, Marty the zebra, got stuck in. The weird thing is that when I got to the beach, I heard one of the travelers say something about being three colors of sand and being lucky to land in the white on. I then recalled that a travel brochure in Maui said something about there is 3 colors of sand in Maui. One color of sand is white. It is mainly made out of small shells and small corals which made it color white. The second color of sand is black. It is mainly made out of pulverized volcanic rock. The last color of the sand is red sand, it got its color from lava. When Marvin and I hopped out of the boat. We then went directly to a restaurant to eat. Marvin  has chosen Poi and Lomi Salmon, while I chose Lau Lau, and Kalua Pig. I finished it quickly and that was my first taste of Hawaiian food and it tasted strange in a weird flavor but otherwise, it tasted awesome. I then hailed a taxi to drive me to kaluhu airport. When I got off and paid the taxi driver I went up and greeted a person holding a sign that read “For a Martin and a Lee Yen” We walked up to the guy and greeted him, then he ushered us to his navy blue and white striped helicopter. Once he finished going over the rules we sat in the copter comfortably while I got my HASSELBLAD H4D 200MS with QHY QHY12 One Shot Color CCD lens. It was extremely expensive, but I bought it because of my 40 days in the U.S trip. As the copter’s blades started to rotate faster and faster I hoped that God would keep the bad luck away for this time since I am in a helicopter. We flew all over Maui, while the pilot pulled a “Gabato in the helicopter/Nautilus” in the movie called the “Mysterious Island 2” (If you don’t know what it is please search it up so you will get it.)We hovered and thundered over rainfalls, mountain ranges, canyons, lagoons, and finally our final sight before going back is the Haleakala volcano. There was lava spilling out of a dormant volcano. As we hovered over the volcano I took picture after picture of the volcano as the lava slowly went down the black 9 degree slope. The pilot then stated that “lava can be shot out of the volcano up to heights of 600m which is as tall as around 2 Eiffel towers.” I marveled at the height of that but then suddenly without warning lava spewed upwards from the crater of the volcano. It nearly hit us but the helicopter maneuvered away. I thanked the pilot for that, it seemed that God have finally been on our side. As soon as I thought of that an alarm went up blinking red, from the cockpit. The pilot grimaced and said that the back rotor temperature has gone up by a two hundreds degrees. That could two things. I jinxed myself about God helping us, and the other is that we won’t be able to steer, or turn. But for Marvin he calmly took a video of what was happening while making sure to capture me screaming “WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!!” repeatedly. I imagined a scene from the movie called “The Mysterious Island 2” The scene when the helicopter crashed because of the back rotor and main rotors failed. I also envisioned other movie scene like “Jurassic World” “The Matrix” or “The Losers” (you have to at least understand one of these movie references, if you don’t just watch it on youtube then you will get it) Anyways, while I was screaming my lungs out the pilot just went straight ahead with tons of major turbulence. While on the way to repair I took out my drone and captured a scene. But photoshopped it later to show it to my parents. After landing, the pilot and the manager apologized to us and told us that the ride was free. Once me and Marvin got into a taxi, we went directly straight to a local diner. We decided to try local Hawaiian food. Marvin ordered squid Luau, which was basically colored green soup with squid. As for me, I ordered Chicken Long Rice. It looked like translucent noodles with sliced boiled boneless chicken. It was delectable to eat and I finished mine so fast that I forgot to breathe. Once done, we were driven to a hotel I booked online. Once we were done taking a shower, I wrote a letter to my parents to tell them that I am fine. That was why I doctored the photo, so that they wouldn’t worry about my trip and what I have been through so far. Besides, I promised to send them a letter. After I was done with the letter, I sealed it up and placed it in my backpack, then crashed onto my bed and laid there until my eyelids started to get heavy. Then sleep took the best of me. When I woke up, I turned around and looked at Marvin, who was still snoring with him sucking his thumb. I then grabbed my backpack and post card and went out the door of the hotel. Marvin said that his thumb hurts and will go to the nurse while I went to the post office to send the postcard to my parents. Well that was a pretty fun trip indeed!