25-Hour Days

Hilo was a bundle of joy! The amount of things we had accomplished in such little time was incredible. It all started out pretty late with car rental trouble, which led to lots of lying, pretending to be married, having an adopted sister and much more! After failing to get a car, the agency recommended a tour company, she said for 30 dollars they’ll take us everywhere, and she meant EVERYWHERE! So here we are, sitting outside the car rental place and here comes this van, absolutely beat to hell, doors don’t close, seat belts are far from being functional and the guide was quite a character. Her name was Teresa; she was in her mid 50’s or so but had the mind of a college kid! She tried to get us to go skinny-dipping in the Hot Ponds, she has a friend that grows pot; she looked baked out of her mind and was all around a pretty nice person! 

The tour started out with a trip to Safe Way for subs, and snacks, then we went on to see some lava fields, waterfalls, volcanic beaches, and chowed down some legit authentic Hawaiian food. Unfortunately most of the time it was raining but every minute we stepped outside of the van it stopped. Later that night we went back to ship, showered down and went out to experience the Hawaiian “night life”! I’ll tell you first hand that Hilo is not the place to go out at all, super dead, and absolutely no fun…Semester at Sea knew what would have happened if we spent the night in Honolulu. Although 30 or so kids did get their license taken at a local bar which was quite hilarious, it surprises me that of all the places we are going to visit they will have to explain to mommy and daddy why they messed up in the United States!

Phil and I woke up the next morning and went out to the market, did some shopping and came back with some extraordinary souvenirs! I bought a ukulele; a mariachi band will be made on the MV Explorer before the end of the trip! Apparently after walking around downtown Hilo, we decided to go to Richardson beach where everything was going down! Phil and I decided to go check it out, we were roughly 6-7 miles away and the epic walk began! This right here was the highlight of my trip so far, after walking 1-2 miles I just decided it was enough and stuck out my thumb hoping for a ride to the beach. Little did I know the next 15 minutes were going to be the scariest of both of our lives! So two surfer dudes pulled over and offered us a ride, we got up to their passenger window and they just had the most disgusting truck ever. There were also some very vulgar pictures on the dashboard. We were so tired of walking, Phil and I just decided to get in their truck bed and get to the beach. The driver started out offering coconut candy, cocaine, marijuana, and heroine. 

We kindly declined all of the above, Phil almost took some of the coconut candy and I just gave him the death stare and screamed NoooooooooooooooOOO!! So he also kindly declined. So here we are on the back on someone’s truck and we think we are headed to the beach, roughly 2-3 minutes into the ride, the driver takes a detour. Phil and I just glared at each other and pretty much embraced the fact that these two guys were gonna rob us and kill us. We started speeding up to roughly 70-80 mph and both of us are in the back of a pick up truck sitting on tire wells. Had it not been for Phil, I would not be writing this post! Thanks Bro!! It was about 5 minutes and the driver slammed on the brakes like an asshole and Phil and I flew into the rear windshield, he asked us “where you going guys”? We told him yet again we needed to get to the beach. He pulled into a driveway that just so happened to be his house, It looked really sketch, Phil and I just stared at each other knowing that this would be our last moments alive. Why were we going to get robbed and killed in Hawaii? We would have been known as the two screw-ups on the MV Explorer. Dying in America would have been a joke. We jumped out of the truck and booked it right to the beach, barely even said bye! The rest of the day was uneventful, as what we had just lived through could not be matched with anything else in anyway. Hawaii was a tease!

 Land sickness was just starting to settle in and here we are getting back on this BOAT. I refuse to call it a ship when you can’t even walk straight to class or get a cardio work out going to dinner.  It was back to pasta, pork, and potatoes, and a good yelling from Tom Jelke. It was a monologue, not a dialogue. Apparently 30-40 kids had their licenses taken at a local bar. Yes I was there but right as a girl said the words Call and Cops we were outta there! We sailed for Honolulu that evening to refuel, since it wasn’t a scheduled stop we spent 2 days on the ship just staring at Diamond Head. The captain had decided to leave Hawaii a day later due to severe storms in the pacific, after taking a massive detour and 3000 gallons of fuel later we hit the perfect storm. So much fun, from what I heard, there were 30 ft waves and our boat was rocking all over the place. A girl in my psychology class was launched across the room, and yes we still had class. Life onboard was somewhat of a drag being cooped up in a ship, not having the option to see different scenery for days on end was growing on everyone. I along with 600 college students never lived January 21^st 2013. Martin Luther King Day was non-existent; as we crossed the International Date Line a day in my life never happened! 25-hour days became routine as every night we set our clocks back an hour, in theory it sounded amazing! Living an extra hour got old very quick! I have picked up morning yoga as a new hobby.  There’s nothing better than seeing the sunrise, trying to stay balanced and finding inner peace while the boat sways from side to side.  I would write more but I am too tired! Hope everyone is doing well back home!!

Raj Patel