Live from North America

Petri

Senior Insider
Trip reporting live from various parts of USA and North America.

Departed Helsinki on schedule for arrival to cold London Heathrow, the longest lasting construction site in the world. Fast tracking through security didn't quite work, as long queue as the normal ones and the security check at LHR is one of the worst in Europe.

Had bit of a Airbus A380 spotting moment as there were two Qantas A380's parked next to each other at T3. From the lounge saw both Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines A380's take off. I've been in a big fan of 747 looks but the sheer size of A380 just makes it the king of airports. Couldn't help wondering what would be the best time of day at Dubai airport to see as many as possible of Emirates' 31 A380's, now with the new terminal especially designed for it.

Uneventful 11 hour flight in a relatively full 747-400 to San Francisco. Two glasses of champagne before takeoff, they did try to offer more twice -- not quite Cathay Pacific performance (we drank almost a bottle before takeoff) but well done.
Nice approach to SFO with Golden Gate views but unfortunately we didn't have window seats. SFO immigration and customs were relatively smooth, not much queues but rather slow. It would be nice if they'd welcome one to the country.

A great movie tip from the flight: French movie The Intouchables, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1675434/
One of the best movies I've seen for ages, a good combination of comedy and drama.

Now trying to make tipping a second nature, already overtipped once :) Where do people get all the $1 notes?

We haven't been to the US since 2008 (a week trip to NYC to cover all the 7 continents in a year).
 
The 12 hour time difference jetlag isn't that much fun..

$1 notes are usually change from larger notes

Ok, I guess I'm not spending cash enough then :)

DMLewin said:
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Maui. It may be my favorite place outside Chicago.




We'll see.. a non-frozen sea, sun and warm weather are a good start! Seawater is surprisingly cold, might be a while before I get in. My type of water is either pretty cold but followed by a sauna, or warm like fresh cow's milk.
 
What pat of the island are you staying on?

Napili right now, moving to Waikea on tuesday and things like trip to Hana and Haleakala national park on the itinerary. It's been quite windy but otherwise perfect weather.
 
You mean Wailea? That is a bit more calm than the other side of the island. There are a few good sushi places in Kihei which is immediately north. Wailea has some amazing snorkeling. Right off the Four Seasons we've seen a lot of sea turtles. Big sharks like the area too though so be alert. One day, just drive south from Wailea until the road ends. You end up at La Perousse Bay. The drive is maybe 1/2 hour. Along the way is Big Beach (Makena).
 
Also, count us with the people who were not wowed by sunrise at Haleakala. However, the view of the crater made it it all worth it. The nearly complete lack of vegetation is somehow very moving. It is something to be experienced.
 
Wailea, yes, sorry for the typo. Thanks for the recommendations, I noticed that Big beach on the map the other day and was thinking if it's something to check out. We'll be going to Haleakala just for the hike as well, not the sunrise. Although right now the jetlag makes waking up early very easy :)
 
Big Beach is similar to Saline, but with a more American dress code. Same general idea though. A beautiful beach with no businesses along it. And the fish tacos from Jawz Taco (a truck parked outside) are really good. The waves at the beach can be tough. Be careful.

I know what you mean about jet lag. If you are up early just because you have not adjusted to the time, make sure to enjoy the ocean front path in Wailea. Last time we were there I was out around 5:30 a.m. It really is beautiful at the hour. I wouldn't recommend swimming at that hour though because the big sharks (tigers and sometime whites) really do come in and are feeding at that hour. Let them have the area until about 8:00 or so.
 
Booked a flight, accommodation and car yesterday and today we've moved on from Maui to another island north, Kaua'i. We've also tried various types of accommodation, on Maui first small beach hotel to a condo, followed by a grand resort here on Kaua'i (to start with). Not so surprisingly condos are more our type, we don't need the services and prefer the "self-do" atmosphere, I guess the closes to B&B's well find here on HI.

We didn't like the convertible Ford Mustang on Maui that much (bad pedals and rear suspension) and chose a convertible Chrysler 200 instead -- what a difference. We'll try the Camaro at some point, too. I wonder what's the equivalent to "driver's car" in the US? We don't want to rent a BMW (or Audi or Merc) but something that's not available (or common) in Europe. A bit like it's hard to imagine not renting a Fiat 500 or Alfa Romeo in Italy.

I'll wrap up Maui in a few days and our "first week in the US" experience. Not that we haven't known the quirks before but this time we'll think like we are in a new country :)

But first my new favourite airplane, the A380 next to a BA's 777-300ER, your average transport over the ocean. One can't argue it has a certain presence on an airport, can one..

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I won't bore you with only beaches :)
 
En route.. as maybe mentioned earlier, we had booked just HEL-LHR-SFO-LHR-HEL flights. For the first stop in Hawaii, I booked a separate ticket from Oakland to Kahului. The overnight stay at Holiday Inn airport hotel was pretty uneventful -- just to recharge after a long flight (~14 hours in the aluminium tube).

OAK airport was our first experience with the modern TSA airport security (arrival to SFO was pretty straightforward, slow as hell but..). Luckily not much of a queue but the feared belt off - shoes off routine. Luckily the TSA lady at the front was pretty cheerful and greeted with a friendly good morning.

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How american is that.. iPad.. a coffee in a plastic mug.. a cap.. pre-order inflight meal (for a 5+ hour flight!).. no, that's not me :)

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A glimpse of Golden Gate en route to the Pacific. Bay Bridge looked much cooler through the fog but the camera wasn't ready at the time.

We flew to Maui with Hawaiian Airlines. The german signs on the plane were a bit funny, though. An old pre-Air Berlin plane from Germany.
 
Maui

First stop on our tour was Maui, one of the better known islands in Hawaii. Very little expectations what to see although I did have some trouble finding a decent accommodation; many were fully booked, didn't fancy paying too much, and I just couldn't see the parity between the property and prices. My wild guess is that people often travel there as a package and most people don't pay the normal prices.

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The sunsets are simply beautiful. And the ocean is at least as beautiful.

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We did plan to do some SUP and other stuff but sorry guys, the water is cold! We didn't even go swimming.

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As recommended, the highlight was the Haleakala National Park with a short hike to the crater itself. Quite a stunning, out-of-this-world place it is.

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We also did the Road to Haka, which was nice but I guess there hasn't been much rain as the waterfalls were pretty small. Nice but I'd rank the volcano the best sight on the island. Perhaps this sight is such a highly regarded as one can do with the car :)

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There was a stand with amazing ice cream from coconut milk. I wish coconut milk ice cream was more widely available. My stomach doesn't seem to like the local milk used for cappucinos/lattes, I guess it's some non-fat stuff as the foam is pretty bad, too. I have the same problem at home so it's mostly about processed milk, the more natural, more fat milk is fine. I guess I'll google the best coffee house on Big Island to get a nice memory of hawaiian coffee :)

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The amount of ice cream in the supermarkets is also, well, stunning. We get just a dozen or so B&J flavours back at home so there's plenty to try -- not sure we'll do all of them, though..

Talking about food, this country seems to drive from sugar and carbs. One must make some effort to avoid all the extra energy from simple foods.

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And being proper tourists, we did the whale watching as well -- although they seem to be such a common task from the coastline in general. We had originally booked a photo safari at sunset, with a professional photographer and just half a dozen passengers. Unfortunately the e-mail confirmation listed a wrong marina and they didn't bother to wait 5 minutes for us the get to the right place. Luckily the did refund the trip and offered an ordinary trip at discount but as always, pretty lame with too many people.

With previous travels we've learnt to look for the special tours and trips that typically offer more value for the money, less crowds and better experience in general.


Not very many foreign tourists, in fact at the restaurant in Hana we saw more foreigners than elsewhere combined. The island must have had it's peak somewhere in the 80's I guess, gracefully aged grand old lady or something. That's how our first accommodation looked, in good shape but way overpriced IMHO. Our second home was a 2-br condo, cheaper and exactly what we'd want.

We enjoyed our stay but I don't think this island was anywhere near our favourite islands list. Reminded a bit of the holiday resorts places in Spain, Greece or Italy -- but with a lot heftier price tag attached.
 
I've figured really easy way to convert dollars to euros, and be a model tipper; 1 USD is about 0.77 EUR right now. Add the tip, 1.20 USD is almost 1 EUR. If something costs 42$, it will be about 42€ at the end.
 
Hope you are having a good time, Petri.....yes, avoid the American sugar and carb diet! Ha, and good luck with that in the west; where coffee is king! And Starbucks on every corner USA.
Do you look at Trip advisor and Lonely Planet for reference ? Maybe good things of interest and info there.
Enjoy San Fran....although I imagine its pretty chilly now.
 
In Hawaii, search for 100% Kona coffee. Should be expensive but very good.

You will see a lot of fakes -- coffee called Kona but then having only 10% Kona. Go for the real thing.

Other than Jamaican Blue Mountain, it is the best coffee anywhere.
 
I planned to leave the Kona experience to the Big Island, where we are moving tomorrow to.

My favourite type of coffee is a macchiato/flat white type, made with decent espresso and real, fat milk micro foam. So far we've noticed that double shot cappuccino gets closest but usually there are two problems; the espresso is too hot (aka burned), which I believe comes from the need to carry the coffee around in the mug for longer period, and milk foam is below standard (good foam requires both good, fatty milk and skills).

We visit the Kauai coffee plantation and they seemed to have the ingredients right; the coffee tasted fine and the milk was 2% skimmed (not that I exactly know what that is but it sounded better than soy milk), but they failed the temperature and foam. Today at Starbucks the guy did excellent foam but that's about it, had to throw half the cup away.. Anyway, so far the best coffee at Kauai's Poipu natural food market store.

The problem with highly ranked beans is that to get best out of them, one has to prepare the coffee well, too. It's too easy to spoil good beans and good baristas make great coffee from "normal" beans, too.
 
We stayed st the Mauna Lani on the big island years ago. A beautiful property with an Oceanside golf course built on lava. Actually a lot of the island is built on lava. It had a old time vibe to it and the King Ranch was still in operation.
 
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