Known popularly as the Garden Island, it lives up to its name, lush green on all sides with the bluest of waters.. a treat to the eyes.. I had an ocean view room booked for myself.. One must indulge in luxuries sometimes..and it was worth it... there is something ethereal about having the vastness of the ocean in your backyard that makes you feel on the top of the world.
Now I am a backpack kinda person.. so I hadn't really rented a car.. besides its a small island , 25 miles in diameter and 90 miles in perimeter.. who needs a car.. lets walk.. I told myself when I got into the hotel room. I was more than happy to see that there was a shopping center right behind the hotel, bracing the beach and the coconut palms.. No bliss exceedth the shopping spree for thee O woman I told myself and set out to explore... my happiness lasted exactly for 10 minutes... it does not take long for one to realize that everything is over rated and expensive in there.. I wondered why... I could get the same stuff for dirt cheap in China Town of San Francisco... why would I wanna come so far to buy things made in China/Korea/Fiji? Hmm.. I frowned and carried on.. it was still too sunny on the beach, I needed to spend a few hours before nestling between the rocks on the beach..Shop after shop had few things that were interesting, and none that were inexpensive.. all that roaming around made me quite hungry.. and I was almost sure I would never find anything veggie in the island.. its afterall covered on all sides by fish and wild boar in the forests! Who'd want veggies? I had given up on meat long back, as a kid, much to the shock of my parents...
But what shocked me (pleasantly though) was that the all the eat outs had a category called "vegetarian" not vegan as I am mostly confused for in this land of blondes waitresses, and I have to painfully explain each time the difference, but this was really a surprise that there were veggie pizzas, sandwiches, lasagnas .. all you can eat.. and these as I sighed in relief were not expensive!
The Chef at the Aloha Pizza Place (its honestly as small as the chat bandaar's in India are!) was a Philippine Native and told me that Kauai's main profession used to be farming, they have more varieties of hybrid plants than any other place and their traditional dessert is a sweet potato or taro root mashed and spiced with cinnamon! I could not believe it.. I was intrigued.. and so I made myself comfortable on the nearest table to the kitchen and listened to the old man's tales of the Old Hawaiian Island......
