Day 2 of Hawaii - Big Island!

Hmm.. we landed at Big Island groggy, jet lagged, tired and sleepy at the Hilo airport at 9:00 PM on Day 1... And we had a 4 hour drive to look forward to reach our resort.. And just to make sure we did not have the slightest notion of enjoying the drive, we were warned by the scary-yet-helpful-Avis-lady as to how winding/tricky/teachorous/the roads were... And it was imperative we stay awake since we were unfamiliar to the area/roads.. yup, that's why we needed to stay awake!

The giving soul that I am, I engaged Krishna, the driver, in a conversation hoping to keep him awake long enough to reach our destination alive. Apparently the conversation was far from scintillating since I was apparently giggling, snapping, snoring, babbling, echoing the GPS in various accents and sometimes just staring at him.. whatever!

Anyway, we reached the Outrigger Keauhou Resort close to 1 PM and thought we heard some ocean-y sounds. But priority people.. check-in and sleeeeeeeeeeep.

And we woke up to this.. a glorious, sunny day... perfect for the beach! We headed down to the continental breakfast lounge and filled up on the usual veggie suspects.. pancakes, toast etc. But the fresh fruit is something else! I am a fruit-hater  (yes, we exist) but I couldn't stop gorging on the pineapple.

Then, we moved onto a presentation by an "Expedia local expert" who gives us the insider info about the local must-sees. Apparently this presentation happens on most resorts in this area. This is something I would recommend.. they do give you enough gyaan to plan an itinerary. But the emphasis is on signing up on one of their many organized tours.

Anyhoo, our next stop was at the Outrigger beach. Apparently this resort is one of the few on this part of the island which has its own beach. Well... this beach is not of the soft-sandy-clear variety. It is rocky, full of stones and impossible to wade through. But apprently that's what makes it perfect for snorkelling!! There were scores of snorkellers in this really small 30 feet stretch of sand.

Krishna immediately rented some equipment from an extremely drunk and extremely happy man and paddled off to see him some fish. Unable to willingly put my head underwater "to see some fish" I declined and instead chose to gingerly step over rocks, wade in the water and just enjoy the view... Till a turtle emerged on a rock a few feet away from me.. I just stared mesmerized and a little scared. And then, through the super clear waters I saw another turtle and multiple schools of fish. Kish emerged beaming ecstatically from seeing "an entire mini ecosystem underwater". Apparently, I wasn't seeing even 10% of what he's seeing. But I was shivering at this point and we headed back to the resort to embark on our next activity - a culture tour of the resort (C'mon, you know you want to know more...)



This resort resides on a heritage site and so, they have Hawaiian guides from the heritage center offering a 2 hour free culture tour. This includes a leh-making class, offering it with a chant to the Higher Spirit, an explanation of the fish ponds which draws in the first, a first hand experience of the erstwhile Hawaiian Olympics and culminates in the planting of saplings - a gesture to preserve the ecosystem. Interesting, informative and fun when the games were on! :) This resort has a bunch of arts 'n crafts classes on the weekdays - leh making, hula dancing - all free!

Alright, seeing that we skipped lunch, away and onwards to dinner then..  the person at the concierge desk recommended Hilton Waikoloa Village - "It is the adult disneyland of Hawaii... they have indoor gardens filled with exotic plants, birds and animals, dolphin shows, indoor canals with boat tours. I actually made quite a bit of money selling fully grown coconut trees at $1000 apiece to the resort developers... Its not geniune Hawaiian by any means but an entertaining evening for sure. And it has a beach perfect for viewing the sunset".. We were sold!

We were late... Well, I was late! And by the time we were out, the sun was already setting and we were about 30 minutes from the Hilton. But just then, we spied the sign to the Veteran's cemetery/also the landmark to the Kua Bay Beach Park - one of the best beaches ever as per the Expedia guide. We drove in and man, were the sights beautiful... It finally hit us.. we were actually in Hawaii :)



Alright then, off to the Hilton. Ok, first impressions - it is HUGE! They actually have a train inside to transport people through the resort. The resort is extravagant, luxurious and completely artificial. You can get day passes to use the many luxurious pools. You can avail the beach facilities, apparently the beach here is pretty nice, however the parking for the beach fills up really soon. And you can also indulge in shopping, dolphin watching, dine in one of the 7-8 restaurants all within the cosy air conditioned enclaves of the the resort. In other words, you can spend your complete vacation here without setting a foot outside.

Right then.. dinner for us. After consulting with the extremely friendly lady at the concierge we opted for the "kamuela provision company" restaurant. There were no vegetarian options on the menu but we were told that the chef could make some of the options vegetarian on request.

The Verdict:

• Setting is just spectacular, its right by the ocean and its super romantic with all the candlelit tables. Just aaaahhhhhh!


• Food was extremely passable - our pesto was made of sweet potato, too sweet for our palates. Onion rings were greasy and lukewarm. Don't remember the other order.


• Service - I want to say good. But he did forget to make my pesto vegetarian and I realized the mistake only after a couple of bites. But he was extremely apologetic and offered us free dessert which we declined.

All in all, a very pleasant, relaxed dinner to cap off a great day. Can't wait for tomorrow!

** Umm.. if this post sounds girly, its coz Krishna's wife as a guest writer (ahem!) has posted this **

Element fresh - Shanghai

Element fresh (http://www.elementfresh.com) is an expat friendly place in multiple locations in the major centres of Shanghai (Super Brand Mall, Jinqiao, Xujiahui, Nanjing Road etc) which features a set of continental cuisine and also some "asian sets" for the weary traveler. The food quality is great with very friendly service in English and Chines. Their fresh juices and smoothies are fantastic.

They do have a few vegetarian options - my favorite are the "egg plant sandwich" featured below as well as their vietnamese shrimp noodles (without the shrimp & replaced with tofu) with extra crispy fried onions and peanuts - ask for their spicy chinese sauce on the side as well. The eggplant sandwich has melted cheese, which tastes excellent in the fresh tasting bread - only downside is that they don't offer fries (element fresh, right?)



The pumpkin soup there is vegetarian - you can ask for that in the asian set as well; their side salads are sumptuous and not just filled with the random lettuce leaves (I ask for their blue ginger vinaigrette as the dressing). Their pasta is reasonably tasty - nothing to write home about.

All in all, Element fresh is an excellent western comfort food alternative with some veggie options.

Slice Deli - Shanghai

Slice Deli is an upscale expat focused place, one of the two locations of which is near the Biyun road Carrefour store and right next to the expat school playground in Pudong Shanghai. Location & menus are at: http://www.slice-deli.com/locations_en.htm

The sterile ambience is sort of inviting - the food is reasonably tasty and of shanghai price - meaning, this will likely be equivalent to what you'd pay in a nice restaurant in the states or the UK -

While vegetarian fare is limited, the options presented are indeed decent - the 12" pizzas are sumptuous (recommend not trying the pumpkin pizza, despite how exotic as it sounds).



The vegetarian panini sandwich featured below, tastes exactly like it looks - excellent. So, all in all, it works out - they have a little store that sells stuff there as well that you can take back with you.

Customer Service 101 Mr. Mallya - Kingfisher ain't 5 star yet!!

Now then, I am not one to blog every small delay or bad experience with an airline - God knows I have had a handful to write about in the 250K odd miles I have travelled over the last couple years. This one is interesting - with the media blitz that Kingfisher has created, especially after getting to be crowned as 5 star, you expect a certain quality of experience, a better treatment from an empowered set of employees - yet, they fall apart when it comes to delivery.

We booked Kingfisher because they flew out of coimbatore at 8:40 & arrived at 9:40 PM in Bangalore (BLR). I had worked out that would allow me sufficient time to drop my wife at Malleswaram, pick up my luggage & head back to the airport for my trip to Shanghai. Now, I get that airlines are sometimes delayed a bit - in fact, they often are - so, my plan would work even if I had a two hour delay.

On our way to Kerala the day before, I get a call & the person announces that Kingfisher has now changed the time of the flight to 10:30 PM and if I had any issues with it, I could cancel and be reimbursed the full fare - the trouble with this option is, my travel need doesn't change because KF has changed their time. I still need to get back to BLR & need to do so at a reasonable time. I asked the gentleman if he can help re-route/ re-schedule me & he said I need to call the call center and after a couple more questions, I realized that was going to be the standard canned response I was going  to be doled out. and by the way, surprise surprise, the prices on all the other airlines for this route, which isn't very frequented has soared, given this is the day before.

Ok - so, we try to call the call center - keep getting the busy signal until 4 AM when I reached Mr. Pravin Kumar of (probably) the Bangalore call center. He suggested I could either fly at 11 AM the same day or fly their newly rescheduled time of 10:30 PM. On asking to be rescheduled via another airline or route, I received the response that was not an option he had. Upone asking to speak to his manager, the response was none was available and that they would have the same options as well. This is a bit strange - for an airline touting to be the best; even china Eastern Airlines, with its appalling & falling apart planes courteously have rescheduled me on to alternate airlines without even my having to request the change - now China Eastern is bottom of the barrel, when it comes to airline quality. When saying this is a problem and explaining to the agent this was an issue, he neither had the interest/ care, the authority to make a different decision and wasn't inclined to escalate either.

Ok - we show up at the airport. Go to the check-in counter & were advised that the plane was further delayed by another 30 min. Obviously, I am not a happy camper at this stage in the game - I asked to speak to the manager. While I understand Mr C. Vinod, supervisor of Kingfisher's operations in Coimbatore had little choice at the moment, his manner of dealing with the situation can only be characterized as strange & not exemplary of an organization that claims to be customer friendly! He goes on to pontificate that this is normal in airline operations and that this wasn't his problem. The exact words he chose were "this isn't my fault" - which is what infuriates me. At occasions such as these, most customers, including myself want someone who can simply sympathize and accept a mistake on part of the organization and offer some compensation - a taxi fare, perhaps because I am going to have to hurry back & forth in Bangalore. It doesn't matter whether there is a compensation or not - what infuriates me is that none of the three employees thought that this traveler's problem was theirs. Ideally, the organization should have empowered the first two to find an alternate solution that is acceptable to their customer - granted, this comes at a cost.  The benefit would be that of winning a likely loyal customer - in my case, one who travels quite a bit & does appreciate and can discern between the incredibly awesome customer service of Cathay/ Dragon Air and the likes of Air India.

Mr. Vinod, in Coimbatore is the figure head and at the interaction point of the customer and should have been empowered to speak on behalf of the organization and not just himself. If he doesn't feel it is his responsibility to apologize to the customer, whose is it? Unfortunately, Mr. Vinod also refused to let me escalate the issue to his manager - the entire affair lets me rethink choosing KF for these short hauls which are at such risk as they are relatively less traveled & hence likely less profitable.

I do write this as an open letter/ critique of KF's customer service. I expect no response though -

Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple - Vegetarian Restaurant

The Jade Buddha temple is quite popular and is on the Puxi side and most hotels should be able to help you get there. Once you get there, if you walk around inside, it is easy to find the vegetarian restaurant.

We tried several things there (things were much cheaper here at the temple). The place appears a bit dingy and being comfortable with using chop sticks is a definite plus. In trying things, we loved the veggie dumplings soup style - most people at the temple don't speak English and chances are you have to look for this picture in a menu with pictures & point. Rest assured that it is well worth the finding & pointing - one advantage you have in the Buddha temple is that everything there is vegetarian & so, even if you point at something that looks a bit silly, chances are you may not like the taste, but your vegetarian vows are still intact!

Again, if I haven't said it enough, the "veggie dumplings soup style" is served piping hot - so, watch out for the tongue burn, but tastes best and I haven't found a comparable veggie dumpling elsewhere in Shanghai so far. Enjoy & let us know what you think.

 

 

 

 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend