Kauai is ultra kewl

So I landed in Kauai to find a costco! And even a Walmart! I am really surprised, but looking at everything else, the island put me in a state of bliss. A state where I really would do what I desire and leave earthly pressures behind. I take this trip as a vacation from a vacation!! Can you believe that? I need a vacation from my vacation. My body was so beat up with scratches and bruises that I was just starting to sit around. Now in this second level vacation, I feel a relaxation from my first vacation. So from now on I'll make it a point to always have 2nd level vacations and maybe will even go to the 3rd level, if needed. Well, in this mini-vacation, I am having a ball!!!

I met with a med student who's out in Oahu for a month for a job and we went to Kauai. His name is Andy and he's a cool kat. We get along really well. Reminds me of a highschool kinda friendship. Its been a while since I had a new friend like that. Well... since high school. So this morning we headed out to a waterfall where they have a rope swing. 20 feet high above the lagoon this swing seemed kinda dangerous, but wow, once I got on, I didn't look back. It was a BLAST!! The lagoon had warm fresh water that felt really good to swim in.

Then after we finished there we headed out to shipwreck beach. We were going to to jump a 50 feet cliff, but when we got to the top and looked down into the blue. We were like, oh SHIT! Our excuse was that there was no local person there jumping and we didn't want to jump at the wrong spot and into the rocks! That would certainly hurt.

And THEN, we went over to some other beach where we went to a spot where the lava had formed into a huge jaccuzi. It was a great spot to relax until massive waves started to beat down on us.

Then we went to a fresh water cave where that was getting real dark. It was like the earth's mouth about to swallow us and honestly it scared the big jesus out of us. But we ended up swimming a little bit in the cold, cold water but didn't have the guts to go into the depths where it was dark as hell and bats could have housed us.

oh, and I had some shaved ice today! Yummy

DiamondK injured last two days

Since Wednesday, my right shin is totally bruised and unusable after I fell off the ledge. My windsurfing was cancelled yesterday cause there was no wind and I didn't want to get into the water cause that little wound hasn't clotted yet. Sharks would be like "Yummyyy!" Its still bleeding 2 days later!! I just sat with a fan on my leg for one hour hoping it will start to dry up and its finally starting to look it its going to clot. YES!!! Clot dammit so I can get back into the water.

On another note, I am going to Kauai today!!! YEEEEEEHAW! Going to jump on a flight soon and I'll be posting my first pictures of Kauai tomorrow. This island is known as the garden of Hawaii.

Argh, I just looked again and its again wet and gooey :-O. These pictures really don't show the damage, but local people have said comments like, "Dude, you just lot a chunk of your meat."

DiamondK has other talents besides physical activities - Macrobiotic Cooking

Macrobiotic Cooking is a religion of cooking of which I learnt a little yesterday. It pays really close attention to how food affects your body and your mind. For every season and every day, you can eat a certain way to make yourself feel great! Its also a way to eating low glycemic index WHOLE foods to support a better health and longer life. On a macrobiotic diet, a guy ran 100 miles a day EVERY day until he ran straight across the continental USA. Amazing huh? I real life Forrest Gump. His energy levels were insane, his recovery time was insane, and he was also insane. Thats makes for one potent combination of insanity. I been working on my diet to get me to the point where I wanna be, which is insane. I ran a half marathon in Feb on just my own energy (meaning without any supplements during the race like gatorade or GU, just water). I messed up my knee, so it didn't work as well as I wanted.

After and hour of learning how to cook macrobiotically, we finally were able to enjoy the goodies.

Soup

Salad

Fried Rice

Blueberry Swirl (yummy)

DiamondK going DEEP

I had a great time yesterday scuba diving. There's definitely something cool about being 40 feet under the ocean. I couldn't believe how easy it was. After a 30 minute class on all things diving, we did a few underwater tests and we were off into the blue. We saw sharks, turtles, eels, crabs and tons of fish. I also learnt that turtles are really curteous. One of them was swimming towards a fellow diver who was in the turtle's path. When the turtle reached the diver, he waited until the diver got out of his way and then proceeded onward.

I am late for a windsurfing lesson today already, but I also did some running yesterday! 4.4 miles in 39 minutes. Pretty leisurely, but fun nonetheless. I also managed to fall off a ledge during the run while jumping between two ledges. It didn't stop bleeding all night. Its a deep one. Chunk of my skin is missing. This one hurt!
All Patched up!
You know, I am putting lots of thoughts down everyday about people and life, but now I am really looking for the big thing. The meaning of this trip. There's gotta be some big lesson that I can take back from this trip and keep it close to heart forever. We'll see. I am searching.

Getting Schooled!

Yesterday was the first day in my WHOLE life when I went forward with my kicks. I had an excellent coach. John swims channels whenever he feels like it. He's an olympic level long distance swimmer and he was helping me improve my freestyle stroke. At the start, I was abysmal. He was chuckling :-). But with a few minor corrections in my form, I was doing awesome! When I put the fins on, I was like a motor boat, just flying across the water. People used to make fun of me cause I'd go backwards with my kicks :-D.

Funny, but it took a little guts to admit I suck in front of everyone, but with the right attitude to try to learn something, someone was able to help me get to the next level. AND I am not stopping now. Off to the beach to do some more swimming!

Downtime Day was Yesterday

Wow, wow, what a day yesterday was! Since I woke up more sore than usual cause of the 5 hr hike, I decided to call it a rest day today in terms of excercise. Instead, I decided to work on my ultra brilliant super duper unbelievable incredible idea. I ended up at starbucks in Ala Moana mall and started reading the book on UML (Unified Modeling Language). That book will be my guide to designing my idea into something tactile. Incredible book.

Well, surely enough, while I was at a cafe, I started talking to a couple of strangers. Obviously, they aren't strangers anymore. Ray is the striking gentleman in the picture. He is a true free spirit in the midst of self discovery. After working so many years under the "head" (which I am doing also), he decided to leave it all to pursue peace of mind. Now, he's been living in Hawaii for three years and he's never been happier! Currently, he's a freelancer and he's focusing on writing his own novels. Talking to him open doors to new ideas for me. Folks, this is rare that someone gives me something new to think about. He talked about how there's a link between the human collective and each individual and how that link affects us daily. Some aspects are positive and some things aren't, but they shape our lives and guide us to our destiny! I had never thought about this concept before in detail so now I have some more thinking to do. Claudia is the beautiful lady in the picture. She is a marine biologist who left the blase life of materialistic pursuits in long island to do what she loves the most. That move takes a lifetime of courage since everyone else is doing the path that was obviously paved for them! She's very young, but has the intellect of someone far more experienced. From our conversation, I noticed that the best part about her is that she's ready to learn new things and keep an open mind to whats out there. Thats remarkably different that most people who have their opinions and will not budge. This point touches back to my blog about variable change and how someone who can deal with it is most likely to achieve what he/she desire. The most succesful people (with regard to any goal) are the ones with open minds. And by success, I don't mean wealth. To each person, success is different. It could be to discover a new species. It could be to help the poor. It could be to raise your kids such that they have a better life.

Speaking of success, my goal in my twenties is financial freedom. My ultra brilliant super duper unbelievable incredible idea is how I am going to get there. As I read the UML book, I started to see how I could put this thing together. I have this dream and using this book, I am seeing the steps I need to take to get to where I am going!! Its SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL! I took my first steps yesterday on how to get my idea off the ground. Here's another beautiful part. Actually its very beautiful. Its the most beautiful thing. All the resources I need to achieve my goal are all within my means. I want everyone who read this sentence to realize how incredibly lucky I am. There's a lot of people out there who have passion, who have ambition, who have drive, but they just don't have the resources. They can't get the resources. Thats a sad situation to be in and majority of the world faces this problem. Lucky, I am (Yoda style).

Ok, I am off to swim today and maybe I can find a swimming lesson to help me out with my kicking.

Sunday's a great day for some INTENSE hiking on Wiliwilinui

Just look at me. Thats a happy face.

THATS WHAT I LIKE TO SEE!!! See the bright light of truth right behind me. Its Luminous.

This hike lead to top of a mountain high as the himalayas. It was so rainy and foggy and windy that we all thought we were f****** at times. Nonetheless, we forged on to the summit. The ridges were we walking on were only a few feet wide at times and we were in slippery mud. Deceptively, the white out fog made us totally oblivious to the bone crunching fall we could have taken. GOOD, otherwise we probably wouldn't have gone. I was trying to take a picture of a huge valley with my digi cam, but I was just getting white out

Now think about it, you are on a mountain looking over a ledge onto a huge valley, supposedly. BUT there's no direct proof. Its blocked!!! There's supposed to be this grand view. What view? I don't see it. Is it really grand? Is it all what people said? Can I trust them? I was asking myself these questions. I was definitely not getting the feeling of inspiration that I wanted. I was doubtful of the whole thing. We could have been just a few feet off the ground for all I knew. Well, now I have something to say about my bad attitude :-).


Sometimes I HAVE TO JUST BELIEVE. Give trust when its just so hard. I am so afraid to put ourselves on the line. I have been duped so many times; I am jaded. Now, I say PISH-POSH! I'll use my gut. I'll not let slight setbacks ruin my times. I'll look at the big picture.


There is a view! It is inspiring! I'll go back to see it before I leave hawaii. I'll touch more on this subject at other times as I learn more about it. I didn't get a chance to think during the hike cause I had so many people with me to talk to.

Everyone in the group just had something very cool about them. They were all so open and so relaxed. They are all going to live long and happy lives. I feel privileged to have met them. And so we finished the trail with great passion and drive and lived to tell the story to our grandchildren, but we got really muddy.

Ok, I am going to go watch Serendipity.