67. On voyage to Hawaii

United States of America is  a much  larger country than India, the area  of USA being  more than 5 times that of India. USA is encircled  by Pacific Ocean in the West, Atlantic Ocean on the East , Canada on the  North and Mexico and South America in the South. In the  South  East  like  Florida ,  climatic conditions are similar to what we  have  in Kerala , but most of the Northern states are extremely cold  for more than 8 months in a year. Alaska on the  North extreme  is close to the Arctic region  on South pole.  Many states are  completely covered in snow for more than three months in a year. USA has 50 states and Hawaiian Islands form the 50^th state in USA.USA  being  between  two of the  oceans , the distance between two major cities  New York on the East and California  on the West is nearly 4000 KMS . Alaska, the  Northern most state in USA was originally with Russia. In 1867, Alaska was bought from Russia for seven million dollars which was a reasonable prize  at that time. However, the discovery of large deposits of oil between Swanson River and Cook island has  made Alaska  a financially  critical  state in USA. Oil is carried  in long pipelines  to other parts  of the country, very few  roads are available as these will be covered by snow   for  most of the months in a year. Most of the  transport is by air.

Hawaii islands   were given the status of a state in 1959. Honolulu is the  capital of Hawaii. Pine apple and sugar  are major  exports from Hawaii. Even though the biggest among the islands is Hawaii, more people live in the island Oahu. Honolulu is in this island. The  major islands  are Hawaii (the Big Island), Maui, Oahu. Kauai. Molokai, Lanai, Niihau and Kahoolawe.

Travelling to Hawaii  from India is via Singapore and Japan which is the shortest  route. From Chennai, it takes 4 hours to reach Singapore  crossing the  Indian ocean, then another 5 ½ hours  to Norite air port in Japan along the Pacific coast and another 6 ½  hours  on the Pacific to  Honolulu. Since we will be crossing the international date line,  it is possible to reach Hawaii on the same day as we start  from India. This is an advantage in travelling through the East  to USA.

Before  I started  on my journey , I had written an email to one of our old students  in Japan (Sankar Mananmpaatamana) telling that I  am passing through  Japan. He  was a student with  very strong interest in our  classical arts , especially in Kathakali ,  Bharathanatyam etc. He replied that he will try to come and meet me even  though he will have to drive for three  hours, just  to talk to me for a few minutes since  I have a few hours in transit. I had  a comfortable  flight  from Chennai to Singapore   by Air India  and  by North East  Airways( Later absorbed  by Delta  Airways)  from Singapore to Norite. But I could not reach the  waiting room   at the  airport to meet my dear student. The  problem was  the  language.  I was  trying to tell the security  personal  in my English that  I want to see  my student inside the airport but he could not understand. I did  not know a single  word  in Japanese. I tried  my best to convince  him to permit me to go out  for ten minutes but  of  no avail.  I was really  sorry   that if my dear  friend has taken the effort to drive all the way   to reach the airport and wait for me in the airport  lounge  to meet  this teacher  who has taken a few clauses for him.  Since this was  my first trip abroad I had not known  that a visa is required  to go outside the airport. Unfortunately,  I did not have even Sankar’s phone  number with me. The standard of English language   among the  people in the Far East  is very poor. Even if they try to speak in English, due to the  freak accent, it will be difficult  for us to understand. I silently begged  to  student  friend to   forgive me if he had  come all the way  to the airport.

My flight  to Honolulu   starts  only after 5 hours. Fortunately,  flight timings and gate  numbers have been displayed in English  also. I thought  I will take a coffee and snacks. But I was  not sure about the cost. First, I got some black coffee  paying ten American dollars and I got a few  coins as change. Japanese coin Yen exchange rate  with USD was something like ten  thousand or so. I did not buy any snacks seeing the  price of the coffee. Even though I was  hungry, I did  not want  get my pocket burnt and sat quietly  thinking about the food that will be served in the flight. Even that  I was  not very confident  to eat. We cannot get the type  of non-veg food  in the flight  in these areas. Most of the passengers are served   meat or sea food for dinner  or lunch. As per the advice from a  senior colleague who has travelled widely, I had asked for  Asian vegetarian meals , otherwise  I may have to eat  snake fry or half boiled fish  on flight.

Finally, it was  time to board the flight to Honolulu. Identifying the  boarding gate by seeing the display board, I reached the correct gate and boarded the flight. This flight will take almost 6 hours  to reach Honolulu, my next destination. Due to the  time difference ,it was not possible  to sleep. There was a  tv screen   in front of each  seat and I started  playing chess on the screen first. Then I started seeing an English movie titled  Mrs.Doubtfire. The story   was about an Englishman who divorced  his wife  and staying alone. As he still  loved his wife and children and wanted  to  live with them, disguised as  a maid servant he applies  for a job in their  house and  comes back to live with them. It is a hilarious comedy where the actor Robert Williams  gives a splendid show. It seems the  story line  of the Tamil movie   Awayar Shanmughi   by Kamal Hasan is more or less  taken from this movie. Still not able to sleep, I started looking out. But what I could see was only clouds  and the  blue colour of the  majestic Pacific Ocean below, nothing else .

Anyway, somehow half awake and half sleeping I reached  Honolulu airport. Now another  problem, it is America where  nothing is free. For getting a trolley   for  taking the luggage, a dollar coin has to be inserted  in the  slot , then only the  trolley will be released. I had no coins with me as the bank gives only dollar notes. Somehow, I managed to  pull the  luggage  out to the taxi stand  and took a taxi to the  East  West University campus and reached  the Faculty  house. Since  my DD had already reached them  there was  no problem  in getting  accommodation. The lady at the counter  checked my passport and gave me  a plastic card for entering the faculty house  from outside and into the apartment I was allotted. By swiping the  card, I could enter  my apartment  which  had all the facilities  like a  bed room, small  kitchen with a microwave oven and kettle for boiling water. A  coin box food kiosk is available  in front of the reception  in which many things to eat could be obtained by inserting  required  money into the slot. Dosa  and Idli   were not be available obviously, but  chips and  fried rice were available. If these   frozen items are  kept in the   microwave for two minutes, we could get  very tasty   fried rice for lunch or sandwich for breakfast. Coffee or cool drinks were available too.

The  hotel where  the conference  is being held is at   a distance  of about  10 miles  or so. But frequent buses are available. A two-dollar  ticket is to be taken and in between and I had to transfer  to another bus. The transfer ticket will be issued by the driver  himself as there  are no conductors cleaners in the bus.  In short  for spending 150 dollars for hotel accommodation, I could live with just 29 dollars  per day including the  apartment rent and bus fare up and down. As soon as possible, I met my Bengali friends who helped  me in getting the accommodation gave  them a can of rasgollas and Kerala painting made of hay on black cloth  background which I had carried with me. I thanked them profusely  for the  kind help offered to me.