Hi Everyone!


Welcome to a blog of my travels. Hopefully this will serve as a good way to keep family and friends updated on my this upcoming period of travel, force me to actually edit the photos/videos that always pile up, and have a cool document of my travels to look back upon. No promises on the frequency of posts but it'll probably depend on whatever I'm up to.




Sorry if I don't reply to your texts I'm already terrible at responding and being in another country will likely make me even worse :(

San Francisco

Flew to San Francisco on June 27th to stay with my cousin Ned and Juhi at their lovely apartment. After complications with flights (NEVER flying Sun Country again) which were solved after running around BWI cancelling a flight AFTER we made it to the gate, we were able to get to SF safe and sound though much later than expected. In typical Ned fashion, his idea of "showing us around SF" was actually just visiting the nature of the surrounding area. Over the 4 days we were there we saw Inside out 2 in theaters, ate AMAZING food, hiked through some redwoods, made gluten free chocolate chip cookies (not bad), drove down the coastal highway to Santa Cruz (If Juhi is reading this I was an exceptionally safe driver with your car). In the city we were able to visit for SF pride which was awesome and exhausting, walk around Golden Gate Park, as well as eat at a sushi restaurant which delivered food on a rocket ship.

Dramatic coastal cliffs and beach landscape during golden hour.
Silhouetted rocks against an orange sunset over the ocean.
Ocean waves crash against rocky cliffs during golden hour.
Silhouettes of figures walking along a beach at sunset.
Misty coastal scene with waves crashing against rocky outcrops in ethereal lighting.
Birds soar across a misty gray sky creating a serene natural backdrop.
Dramatic silhouette of coastal cliffs against a golden sunset sky with birds flying overhead.
A dark silhouette of a person walking along a cliff edge at sunset.
Seabirds fly against a golden sunset sky over a dark mountain silhouette.
Multiple bean bag chairs arranged in a modern living room setting.
A snack wrapper held up against a grassy park background with mountains visible in the distance.
A small ice cream cup held up on a wooden boardwalk at the beach.

Big Island

The Big Island leg of the trip started on July 2nd. We had a crew of 15 people at our friend Grace’s Godfather’s company/spiritual retreat. It was a lovely place a bit off the beaten track (like most of the Island). Despite a nasty cold the first few days we were able to explore the property, including a short but steep hike down to an awesome waterfall and natural pool!

Close-up shots of small birds perched on thin branches with blurred green background.
People enjoying a refreshing swim and splash at a scenic waterfall surrounded by lush greenery.
Detailed macro shots of bright green moss growing on forest floor.
Swimmers playing and splashing in a natural pool beneath a waterfall.
Tall eucalyptus trees stand in a lush green forest setting.
People enjoying outdoor activities among tall eucalyptus trees in a park setting.
Group of swimmers enjoying a natural swimming hole beneath a cascading waterfall.
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Our biggest adventure had to be snorkeling with manta rays! Unfortunately 60 minutes before we were supposed to leave and drive across the island for our tour start time, the driver of our car (Ruben) lost his car keys. 15 minutes later he came to the conclusion that he had locked the keys INSIDE the car. Now we have 15 people and only two working cars to get us to the other side of the island. We are too far away from any mechanics to reach us in time (and it’s Friday at 5pm). Panic ensues. Various ideas are suggested such as getting an uber ($300+ round trip), renting another car for one day (my genius idea), or sticking 15 people in the two cars to drive the breadth of the island. One adventurous guest volunteers to spend the 2 hour drive in fetal position in the trunk of a dodge charger while the rest of us figure out If we can pile people on top of each other in the other car. As time is ticking away, Ruben has spent the whole time trying to get the car unlocked remotely going through Ford as well as the Rental company, neither of who feel very motivated in helping us. At this point we’ve exhausted our buffer time and we have to get moving if we’re to have a hope of getting there in time, the group decides to move forward with my genius idea so that while we do have to put 15 people in 2 cars, it is just for 25 minutes to get to Hilo for a 1 day rental car. Our new car group (a 5 person SUV) now has 8 people in it, feeling like a clown car. 15 minutes into the drive as soon as we get to the main road we get a call, Ruben got the car unlocked!!! Disaster averted and after a bit of reconfiguring we all get back into our cars and make it to the manta ray snorkeling on time. Luckily it was such a great experience that it wipes away any stress from the group. I only have photos from 2 years ago when I did the same tour. Just as amazing the second time with 15 foot wide Mantas swimming up to feed just inches away from your face (and sometimes hitting you too) while you float in dark waters.


Close-up underwater view of spotted patterns on marine life.
Underwater view of spotted patterns on a light-colored marine creature.
Illuminated circular patterns underwater creating ethereal light effects.
Dark underwater scene with subtle blue lighting and mysterious shapes.
Graceful manta rays gliding through clear blue ocean waters.
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Relaxing activities between our excursions mainly entailed cooking, settlers of catan (see below pictures), board games, and napping. 


Friends enjoying a lively board game night with drinks and snacks.
Friends gathered around a dimly lit table playing board games and enjoying snacks together.
A group playing board games in a cozy indoor setting with warm lighting.
People engaged in a competitive board game session around a wooden table.
Players focused intently during an evening board game gathering.
Friends sharing laughs and conversation during a casual game night.
Board game pieces scattered across a table as players interact in low lighting.
Multiple people gathered around a table enjoying a social gaming session.

The last night Luba and I were able to get away from the rain of Hilo to find a newly forming black sand beach on the southern side of the island to view the Milky Way in all its glory. The Big island is still the best place I have ever been able to see the Milky Way with my naked eyes. I also tried Hawaiian shaved ice for the first time and realized how good it was, makes me think I was stupid for never trying it the summer I lived on Oahu.

Stunning view of the Milky Way galaxy stretching across a dark night sky.

Oahu


While 3 weeks on Oahu in Waikiki for many is a dream vacation, for me its was more of a rest and recover period. Grad school was tough and while I finished my thesis in mid April, the gap left by it was immediately filled by working full time as a graduation photographer (which has helped fund much of this trip). Once graduation photos died down then I was scrambling to get ready for the trip. So this time in Oahu was my chance to catch a breather.


Catching a break in Oahu was only possible because of my awesome friends! Two of my good friends, Jake and Eliza, that I met in the Summer of 2022 where I interned in Honolulu are now hard working graduate students at the University of Hawai’i Manoa. They were kind enough to let me crash in their apartment for the 3 weeks that I was there. People keep asking me what I did there and the answer is almost nothing! I had already seen a good amount of the island during my summer there and I needed a break from adventure. It was a great chance to just hangout, decompress, go to the University of Hawai’i gym with Jake and enjoy cooking my iconic chicken and rice dishes (+vegetables too sometimes).



I used much of the time to finish preparing for my trip, researching things to do, buying plane tickets, organizing work exchanges (a sneak peek for my trip to Nepal which may be in a few blog posts), and getting some supplies (yay new socks!). On the weekends I would join their friends and fellow grad students: Kazumi, Sophie, and Cami. Those 3 fish/algae/construction nerds dragged me to go scuba diving off the west shore at Makaha caverns. While I did get my open water scuba certification last year in Akumal, it was rather slapdash and I had zero dives since then. My nervousness of my first dive was not helped by the marine biologists fervor for viewing terrifying creatures of the oceans. “I really hope we see some big sharks!” is not a sentence I will ever say yet it was the operating principle for all of them.


Luckily the dive went great despite dropping my weight belt twice, occasionally cranky regulator, and foggy mask. All the more experienced scuba divers were excited to explore and find as much sea life as they could while I was focused on just keeping up with them and not losing anyone! 


In addition to the scuba diving, this group of grad students dragged me to work days doing volunteer work for some local community groups. The first work day was making Lei’s out of Limu or algae (I learned that if you call it seaweed then you’ll get hit by marine biologists). Only problem was that as a mainlander and one particularly not suited to arts and crafts, my Lei was a sorry sight much to the amusement of my new friends. We then wrapped them around rocks and walked into the ocean to place them as native food sources for the ecosystem (or something like that Idk I’m not a marine biologist).


I see now that this fun and relaxing work day was a deception in order to draw me into their trap. Two weekends later I was ordered to report to another work day on the North Shore. Working with the North Shore Community Land trust, we were helping them maintain a marsh and return it to a better state of affairs. For our work day this meant removing hundreds and hundreds of pounds of weeds from the waters as well as doing a little bit of landscaping on land. I foolishly thought if I volunteered to work on land that I would avoid the worst of it. I WAS SO WRONG


To set the stage, the water based volunteers are up to their waist in marsh waters each step sinking them into 6+ inches of mud with hand held scythes to cut the weed embankments root and stem; oh and also the weeds have massive spiders. Dry and decidedly clean on land I felt like a genius. However 30 minutes later I exhausted my land duties which means I was then made the "land to water weed Liaison".


What this means is the water volunteers are cutting/ripping out large clumps of weeds then dragging them to shore while they are saturated with mud and water. I would guess the average clump weight 25-40 pounds. Understandably they wouldn’t climb up the bank to get these heavy and unwieldy foul smelling clumps of mud and weeds onto the shore. Well this is where I was put into the supply chain, to haul the muddy weeds out of the water onto the bank either with my hands or a rake, then load them into carts to dump them in a nearby brush pile.


I’ll let the pictures of me at the end do it justice, 2.5 hours later I think I was more muddy than many of the people IN the water.

Person standing in a grassy field with farm buildings and mountains in the background.

Overall it was a great experience and brought me back to my old Scout days, nothing like getting your hands dirty! It was also awesome to see the visual impact we had on the marsh with all the weeds removed. The tasty meal served afterwards was also nice!

People gather in a rustic covered shelter with dirt floor and metal roof in a rural setting.



Overall the 3 weeks were just a great opportunity to relax, watch house of the dragon, and hang out with good friends. I’m sure I’ll stop by here on the way back.


Well I’m typing the end of this while somewhere over the pacific flying in to Tokyo as the real traveling begins. I’m a little nervous but also really excited. Oh and during my time in Japan I have to revise my scientific paper for publication (just got the reviews comments back). Finger crossed they like the revisions and I get published! We’ll see how things go. If you made it to the end of this blog thanks for reading my rambling prose, now that I’ll be traveling solo I think I’ll be putting more effort into maintaining the blog because I’ll be doing more stuff. So long!