{balki Blog}
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We started driving to Hilo (east side of the Big Island) so we could visit all the scenic points en route and also get to the Hilo airport in time for our grand helicopter tour. As we were warned, it started raining heavily as soon as we hit Hilo and the rain did not stop until we reached the west side of the island (around 9pm that night)

We briefly stopped at the Parker Ranch Center again and then we stopped at a couple of beautiful waterfalls (Akaka & Kahuna) before getting to downtown Hilo; the waterfalls themselves were not so great but the surrounding rainforests were pretty amazing. But, I think the mere 400-feet falls are no match to the mighty Multnomah Falls! When we reached Hilo, we still dared to walk around the downtown despite heavy rain and considerably colder weather. There is nothing worthwhile there though.

Unfortunately our helicopter tour was canceled so we spent an hour or so in the Lyman Museum; nothing exciting there either, the natural and cultural history of Hawai`i in its exhibit halls and its 1839 historic missionary home.

Maanasa was quite disappointed about the helicopter tour cancellation so we drove to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park and reached there around 5:30pm, right around the visitor center closing time - luckily the Chain of Craters (the road that leads to the lava spotting location) was open throughout the day so we drove the 18 miles to reach the end of the road around 6:30pm. The sight of lava flowing out of the volcano was simply amazing and the lava meeting the ocean was even more spectacular - definitely the most amazing sight in my life. The lava tubes formed due to the rapid flow of lava were also pretty fun.

Activities: Lava viewing, waterfalls

Drink of the day: None

Word of the day: Kahakai (beach)

Tip(s) of the day:

1. If planning to do an air-trip (helicopter or airplane; plenty of choices & providers in Big Island) make sure you reserve for the first available day - the cancellation rates are very high for these trips (35 to 40%) so there is a good chance your trip will be canceled.
2. 
3. Skip a trip to Hilo - there is nothing exciting on that side except for the rain, a few waterfalls and tropical rainforest setting. If you have to, just drive thru Hilo to get to the mountains; you can experience all that you need during that drive.
4. Definitely hike in the Volcano Park to get to the lava spotting area; we were able to see the lava coming out of the Volcano and meeting the ocean. If there is one thing that is worth all the hype we make about the various tourist spots in this country, I would say this trip would be it!
5. As tempting as it is to not carry a torchlight when you go to the above spot, please carry one with you (1 per person highly recommended); I have to say the hike was the most adventurous thing I did in a long time; the rain did not help at all. The young molten lava is very slippery and there are a lot of deep crater formations that could’ve easily swallowed me down. Thank goodness I made it out alive!

Technorati : active Volcano
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I mentioned in my Hawaii Trip Day 1: PDX -> Honolulu -> Big Island post about how I could not resist the trap called “Timeshare Presentation”. I have a feeling that I am addicted to timeshares (much to the chagrin of my beloved wife) just like how I am obsessed with coupons, rebates, discounts, offers, thanksgiving sales, “free stuff ” etc. For the folks who haven’t experienced timeshare presentations yet, I’ll explain quickly: Simply put, the condo sellers are buying 1.5 to 2.0 hours of your undivided attention so they can do their best job of selling a “shared condo”. The bribe/gift generally is a discount on one or more local attractions and sometimes cash upfront. Maanasa and I had a pretty awful experience when we agreed to one of these timeshare presentations in Las Vegas. We decided never to do them again in our lives. The deal in Hawaii seemed to be fairer (and more lucrative) so we signed up on the first day but they did not have any openings for a presentation until the 4th day of our stay. Anyways, we had a pretty nice experience at this one. I kept sending feelers to the sales guy that we were not the least bit interested and 30 minutes into the presentation I told that straight to his face! He gave up after 50 minutes. Can you believe it? We were out of a timeshare presentation under 60 minutes!!

We went straight to the activities center to see if they had any helicopter tours available for the day but unfortunately they were all booked out for the day. So, we decided to deliver on the promise we made to ourselves to spend a day at the Waikoloa Beach and what a great time we had! We spent the rest of the day at that beach strolling, relaxing and finally watching the inevitable glorious Hawaiian sunset.

Activities: Timeshare presentation, practice retirement (by doing nothing at the Waikoloa beach)

Word of the day: Mauna (mountain)

Drink of the day: none

Tip(s) of the day:
1. Definitely plan to spend a whole day at Waikoloa beach (especially if you want to get a head start on practicing retirement!)
2. Give timeshare presentations a shot (I am talking about Hawaii only here); it was definitely worth our while there. Probably because of some Hawaii law, they do not obligate and push their 20K products down your throat at all. We probably saved at least 300$ in various activities with their discount. Try Shell Vacation Club (ubiquitous on the Big Island) - they seem to provide great customer service. There is a good chance that they have a location near your hotel.

Technorati : Waikoloa, timeshare
Del.icio.us : Waikoloa, timeshare

Maanasa and I were both excited for the snorkeling cruise that we booked the previous day. We reached Kailua Pier way ahead of our scheduled departure. The people at Body Glove were really professional and they have a pretty impressive vessel. On our way to the Pawai Bay, the dolphins chased and teased us as usual (don’t they have anything better to do? Every time we go into the ocean, the dolphins / porpoises seem to chase the boats)

Anyways, when we jumped into the ocean with our snorkel gear, I totally embarrassed Maanasa in front of 100s strangers with my substandard swimming skills; I had a unique problem - no matter how hard I swam I did not move an inch! Finally, one of the deck hands had to rescue me out of the water when I was tired of the incessant swimming and going nowhere. However, it was a fun experience and I am always happy to embarrass my wife (karaoke, snake-dancing, hula, drunken revelry, cheesy/inappropriate jokes, and bad swimming are some of the techniques I use to embarrass her). I was not impressed by the corals and the fish, though. When I went snorkeling in Miami I distinctly remember the corals and the fishes to be much more colorful and plentiful.

After we rested for a while in the afternoon, we took a cab to the luau at the Royal Kona Resort. We got to experience the whole luau process first hand - free drinks all-night, Torch lighting Ceremony, Imu Ceremony, Luau Dinner Buffet (nothing edible for the vegetarians), and Drums of Polynesia show including the spell binding Samoan fire knife dance. By the end of the show, both of us were completely drunk, and I am pretty sure we made some silly jokes that were a hit with the elderly couples sitting around us. Maanasa was gracious (??) enough to take my picture with the Hula girls at the end of the show.

Activities: Snorkeling & Luau

Drink of the day: Margarita (although we consumed several barrels of Sour Rum, Sour Whiskey, Mai Tai and other alcoholic beverages as part of the free drinks binge)

• 1 1/2 oz. Tequila
• 3/4 oz. Triple Sec (or Cointreau)
• Splash of Sour mix
• Dash of Fresh lime juice

Shake with ice & serve in a salt rimmed glass on the rocks or strain to serve up Add more liquid and blend with ice for a frozen variation Garnish with a lime wedge.

Word(s) of the day: Kanaka (Men), Wahine (Women) [inspired by the numerous signs on the toilets]

Tip of the day:
Do go to a Luau when you are in Hawaii; it is a great experience (even if you don’t eat the food, you can make up for the entry fee with the free drinks!) The hula girls were awesome and they put on a pretty good show.

Del.icio.us : BodyGlove, Luau, Snorkeling

We woke up early to the soothing sounds of the ocean and the tide-pools. Got ready and headed toward the northern tip of the island (Hawi). On the way up, we stopped at this wonderful, secluded beach (although surrounded by several resorts and stores) called Waikoloa. We spent a few minutes there, promising ourselves to return before we left the Big Island.

We drove most of the day covering the northwest side of the island, including a great drive down Hwy 250 reaching Parker Ranch in Waimea in the late afternoon. We took some cool pictures of the valley and the ocean along the drive.

On the way to the hotel, we found a Subway restaurant and I could not resist eating my dinner there

As we reached the hotel, the sun was just about to set on the ocean, so we pulled out our camera and took some fantastic pictures. After that we spent most of the evening in the hotel lanai drinking and watching the weekend entertainment. Maanasa was so drunk that she let me go up to the stage and learn to Hula. A few of the first-timers had a quick lesson of Hula and I even managed to impress a couple of 100-year old girls (who were on their 6th drink) with my dance moves!!

Activities: None

Drink of the day: Tropical Itch

• 1oz. Vodka
• 1oz. Light Rum
• 1/2 oz. Orange Curacao or Grand Marnier
• 3 - 4 oz. Passion Fruit Juice

Combine in a shaker with a cup of ice. Pour, with ice into a double old fashion or Collins glass. Top with additional passion fruit juice if needed.

Word of the day: Mahalo (thank you)

Hawaii Tip of the day:
Definitely stay at Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort when you visit the Big Island! The hotel is inexpensive, has a great location (away from the hubbub of downtown Kona but still close enough), good amenities (includes tennis courts, tide pools, swimming pool, oceanfront lanai lounge with a great drinks selection), nightly entertainment and daily buffet (extra charge), friendly customer service, great views of the ocean and out-of-the world sunsets.

Technorati : Parker Ranch, Waikoloa Beach
Del.icio.us : Parker Ranch, Waikoloa Beach

Day 1 of our Hawaii trip was mixed. We got the worst seats on the flight, thanks to our travel agent. However, when we reached the hotel in Big Island around 6pm, we were pretty impressed with our room, the surroundings and the fantastic ocean views.

We had enough time to take a quick walk around the town and get a couple drinks at the hotel lanai. We also watched the feral cats fishing in the tide-pools

We were already falling in love with Hawaii!

Activities: None; signed up for a timeshare presentation (I am incorrigible, I know) - should know by Tuesday if it was worth it.

Drink of the day: Mai Tai

• 1 ounce light rum
• 1/2 ounce triple sec
• 1/4 ounce Rose’s lime juice
• 1 1/2 ounces pineapple juice
• 1 1/2 ounces orange juice
• 1 dash of Grenadine
• 1/2 ounce dark rum

Word of the day: Aloha (Welcome / Goodbye)

Tip of the day:
Be sure what class of flight ticket you are buying. We bought our trip package through an agent, J.C. Travel and thought they would provide priority service. Turns out, we had the exact opposite experience. I generally look up the seating plan on SeatGuru and pick the best seats available on the flight. I am able to do that 90% of the time. However, this time the travel agent did not reserve a seat for us, the airlines refused to do it in advance and ultimately the gate agent assigned the last two seats on the flight!! Obviously, those were the worst seats (18A & 18B) with a closed window and seats that hardly reclined! I was really mad at the agent for not telling that she booked our tickets in the ‘N’ class (which happens to be the least flexible class for Hawaiian Airlines). Anyways, the tip of the day is to make sure you are at least able to choose your seats in advance on a long flight. I learned my lesson the hard-way.

Technorati : Big Island, Outrigger, Tide pool
Del.icio.us : Big Island, Outrigger, Tide pool

Many of you (that means you, Deepu) asked about a more convenient way to receive updates to my blog, rather than having to download, install and configure an RSS Reader and then subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed. I have been looking into a couple of technologies to accomplish that and came across this great tool called FeedBlitz. The technology at FeedBlitz is quite simple — I register my blog URL at their site (all I needed to register was an email address and a password) and they provide me with an HTML template that I can then paste on my blog-site. That template contains a textbox and a submit button (look on the left navigation bar). Users who wish to subscribe to that blog with their email can simply enter the address and click submit which will redirect them to a confirmation page on FeedBlitz’s site. Once the user clicks the special confirm link in the email that he receives from Feedblitz, he is all set. He will receive prompt updates via email, whenever there is a change on my blog. That simple!

I still think setting up an RSSReader and subscribing to your favorite blogs is your best bet to receive updates. Nevertheless, FeedBlitz provides a great and easy option for those who do not want to go through that hassle.

Whichever technology you use, make sure you never miss out on those fantastic, awe-inspiring, motivating, funny, out-of-the-world updates from balkiBlog

Technorati : FeedBlitz, email blog subscription
Del.icio.us : FeedBlitz, email blog subscription

I had a pretty fun-time on my birthday. My collegues signed this damn cool/funny card and left it in my mail-slot. I feel honored that they think of me this way

(Click on the image to see what’s inside)

When we last went to India in September this year, Maanasa bought a whole bunch of mandir related stuff. It took us this long to actually setup the loft as a dedicated mandir room!

Now if we only start praying God regularly, the actual purpose will be served, ha ha!

Technorati : balki, pooja mandir
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I posted a blog a week or so ago about how my blogging experience has been completely revitalized after I started using Zoundry. Now I am slowly getting past the honeymoon stage and am looking forward to the following features to be included in the software. Developers at Zoundry: I know you are just dying to impress me by releasing these features in the next build of Zoundry!

1. Integreated spell-check/grammar-check: I am a relatively good speller but a spell-check is always a good thing to avoid any oops! factor.
2. Ability to modify pages via Zoundry: So, I can only create/update blog-posts but I did find a way to update regular pages on the Wordpress site.
3. Ability to create Zoundry Product links automatically for multiple line items: For example, I have my favorite movies listed on the blog-site and I would like to create product links to all the movies in the list, en masse.
4. A “Now Playing to” feature would be pretty shiny as well: This and several other features are available on BlogJet already. It would be great if Zoundry can incorporate those. Here’s a description of the feature from the BlogJet site:
5. • Now Playing feature detects the name of the artist and the song title for the track being currently played in Windows Media Player, Winamp, or iTunes. It can even insert a link to this song in famous iTunes Music Store, so that readers can buy your favorite music.

Technorati : zoundry wish-list