Kona Lows

It’s been almost a year since the last post. I simultaneously can’t believe it’s been that long and can’t believe it’s only been that long.  The last year has been so jam packed with craziness that it’s hard to figure out where to start…

After our Thailand trip, we all had come down with something that we think Todd or Gordy picked up at the tail end of our trip. It felt like a flu that lingered for about a week. We made it through that sick bug, but swore that it would be awhile until we did any long distance traveling again. The holidays were nice and mellow and the first few months of the year started off pretty uneventful.  

Then, we had 3 back-to-back Kona low storms in March that devastated us.  

When the first storm came, Jim and Maryellen had just arrived at our house for a visit. We were all cozied up in the house waiting for the storm to pass playing a puzzle and watching tv when our neighbor came running up our stairs out of breathe in a panic. He couldn’t believe that we were just sitting there when “everything was flooding”.  We got up, looked out the window, and only then did we see the massive brown pond that his backyard had turned into. He said that our front drainage easement wasn’t flowing and letting the water out of his property and he needed us to do something about it so that his house did’t flood. So I grabbed shovels and Todd grabbed Ruby (our red mini excavator) and we headed out to the front. We spent the next hour or so digging and finally, we got the easement flowing. 

However, there was so much water flowing through that we thought it best for Jim and Maryellen to evacuate with many of the neighbors. So, we said sad muddy goodbyes and promised we’d see the again soon.

At some point after that, the water at the back of our neighbors property had risen so quickly that it started flowing onto ours, so we were getting flooded from both directions. That was it for me. I packed bags for me and Gordy and we went to my mom’s house for the night while Todd stayed to keep an eye on things (ready to paddle out at Silvas if things got too crazy).

Gordy and I came home the next day and couldn’t drive onto our property because the water level was so high.  

Apparently the water that ran down the mountains was too much for the canals so it found new paths to flow - directly at our neighborhood. Most of the land and orchards had flooded, but thankfully, no water made it into our house or any of the ohana units.  So it seemed that we were lucky and had avoided any damage while so many of our neighbors had not been so lucky.

Our house is just north of the house with the red roof.

We couldn’t believe our luck and had just finished celebrating when the second storm hit a week later.  

We went to bed on the night of March 19 a little worried, but having no idea what was about to unfold. At about 12:30am, I woke up to chickens screaming (I don’t know any other way to describe the noise). I jumped out of bed and ran out our sliding door onto the lanai into the rain and looked down below me just in time to watch our mama hen and her 11 babies being washed out from under the lanai by a wave of brown water. They were all screaming and there was nothing I could do to save them.  I woke Todd up and we went to the front of the house to find out that everything was covered in water and the water was continuing to rise and rush through our property. 

I called all our tenants and told them to evacuate their units and to come to our house since our house is 4 feet off the ground. We spent the next 5 hours with everyone processing things a little differently (some people cried, others vomited, sometimes there was laughing), but all hoping that the rain would stop and the morning light would come.

Some friends of our tenants paddled boards to our house to rescue them and their pets, so around 5:30am, it was just us. The water level was so high at that point, that we didn’t think our car or truck would make it out and we’d heard that the roads in all directions were closed due to flooding. So, we got our wet suits out and ready to put on, Todd set up a ladder on the lanai in case we needed to get on the roof, and we cozied up on a mat on the floor to wait till morning.

When morning came, the rain slowed, the water levels had stabilized and were no longer moving so fast, so we thought things might mellow down. We were wrong. Around 8am we got an emergency notification on our phones that the Wahiawa dam “had failed” and that we should evacuate to higher ground immediately. So, we decided to get in the truck. We waded through disgusting brown filth up to our thighs with backpacks over our heads to our truck and were able to get in without any water getting into the doors. As we drove out the driveway, we hit a low spot and felt the truck wheels leave the ground. It was only seconds that we were actually floating before making contact again on the road, but it felt like a really long time. 

We did make it out and after one failed attempt to get out on a closed road, we successfully left Waialua and headed up to our friend’s house in pupukea (thanks Alex, Lauren and Lando!). The dam apparently hadn’t failed (the messaging was wrong), which was maddening, but also great not to have another thing to worry about.

We went home the next day to find our entire property still filled with water and only accessible by wading in on foot. The house that we live in didn’t have any water inside it, but all of our ohana units did. What we now know to be water contaminated by agricultural chemicals and sewage had flooded up to 18” in some units. Everyone’s furniture and personal items had been ruined and the units themselves had to be completely gutted, treated for mold, sanitized, etc.

While this story is sad, and we still really haven’t fully recovered from it, the bright side is what happened next. In the days and weeks that followed, neighbors, friends, and random volunteers with kind hearts showed up on our door. Everyone wanted to lend a hand with cleaning, demo, and some people brought food so we didn’t have to cook, or left water and snacks in our farm stand. It was absolutely incredible to see the number of people who showed up for not just us, but the whole flooded community.  Some of our friends even made a gofundme page for us and it raised over $10,000 - which helped cover our mortgage while our tenants weren't able to pay rent, paid for a pod to help them store what hadn't been ruined, and paid initial construction costs until we could get our insurance figured out.  I still can barely write this without getting a little emotional thinking about all that people did for us during that time. We will forever be thankful to each and every person.

The damage was pretty extensive for us, but we were nowhere near the worst. We have friends who lost their homes and spent the last 6 months in hotels. We have friends who didn’t live in a flood zone, so they didn’t have flood insurance and now have no way to try to get financial assistance to help with repairs.

Things I’ll never forget about that time:

-The dumps were so overloaded from all the waste that people were dumping that they stopped accepting loads. So, our community responded to that by everyone dumping in one spot at a traffic circle.  The heap of rubbish was as tall as a 2-story building.

-People from all over the world were coming to our house to help. One day we met people from Makaha who had brought a bunch of trucks to help with dump loads, and another day it was people from Switzerland on holiday who didn’t feel right enjoying a holiday without pitching in. The love was incredible.

-The smell. The moment we drove down Olohio Street, the smell seemed to accost your nostrils.  It was a mix of rotten fish and sewage that I never got used to.

-No one came to save us like you see in the movies. Gordy kept asking “where are the helicopters” because it seemed like a good time for a helicopter to come fly over us and rescue us. The only rescue operations were being conducted by community members with construction equipment and paddle boards. No national guard, fire trucks, police, anything. They failed our community.

-Gordy had his first ever sleepover at a friend Lando’s house.

-Bleach doesn’t kill mold.

-The first 24-48 hours are critical for reducing mold.  Walls needed to be opened up immediately and high-powered fans needed to blow everything out.

-Sewage and agricultural chemicals can do odd things to skin (rashes, blisters and bumps, etc.), so boots and gloves are a good idea when being outside for a few weeks until future rains can flush it out.

7 months later and we are still not back to pre-Kona lows but we are close. We have finished demoing, mold-treating, and renovating all but one ohana unit. We have cleared out all of our storage sheds and container. Todd cleaned up our bikes and we finally washed our cars (which still thankfully run). And we’ve even made some progress on the renovations on our own house that we had started pre-flood.

The big question for us is, what next? We bought this property thinking that it would be the last place we bought. We could grow old here and Gordy could start his own family here someday. I don’t know that we see that anymore. No one can say for sure why we flooded the way we did… some think it’s because the canals in Waialua haven’t been maintained both by land owners and the city. Some people think it’s because so much land in the area has been converted to farm lands and the water wasn’t able to absorb as easily into the farm soil. Some people say we had a rain bomb drop an unprecedented amount of rain on the mountains. Others say global warming caused it. Regardless of which reason, or reasons, are correct, we don’t know that we want to stay here (not 100% that we know where “here” is) anymore. We also don’t have an answer about where to go instead. However, I’m ok with that. As long as we are together and safe, I think we could be happy almost anywhere. So, for now, we are going to keep finishing the renovations, keep making improvements on the property that will make our lives easier, and live more day to day.

Thank you to all the people who came to our rescue in our time of need. So many people, we don’t even know everyone’s names. But, we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. I don’t know what we’d have done without your help, advice, food deliveries, donations, hard work, hugs, love and support.

goodbye Thailand

For our last few days in Thailand, we've done our best to soak up as much of Chiang Mai as possible.  We've gone back and eaten at our favorite places a second time, done some shopping at the Sunday walking market, visited the old city and checked out what's left of the old city wall, Todd fulfilled his promise of eating a scorpion, swam each day at our favorite pool (with a hot tub and cold plunge), went on an early morning adventure to some hot springs (drove 30 minutes up into the mountains in 55 degree weather and nearly froze our fingers and noses off), and ate ourselves into comas at our delicious hotel buffet.

With our trip coming to an end, we are a mixture of happy and sad about it.  We've had so much fun, eaten fantastic food, done zero dishes, swam laps in pools almost every day, had lots of great massages, and explored this wonderful city and culture together.  However, we are pretty excited to sleep in our own beds, to smell the clean (relatively exhaust-free) Hawaii air, see Nana, and say hi to our chickens.

Gordy has said that this is one of his all-time favorite places, and Todd and I both agree.  Till next time Thailand...

so much to be thankful for

Even though Thanksgiving is not much of a holiday in Thailand, our little family of 3 celebrated in our own way - 

First, we enjoyed another morning of a delicious all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hotel.  Gordy may turn into a watermelon / croissant soon due to the number of each that he's been consuming.

Next, we went to our favorite pool to swim laps.  Todd swam 100s, I swam 75s, and Gordy alternated 50s and 75s.  We swan 15 of them and Gordy smashed me on all of his 75s - smashed, not just kinda beat.  After our set, we made good use of the hot tub and cold plunge.  

We followed up the pool with some delicious Thai food in the old city and a stop at a secondhand English book shop.

We decided to really torture ourselves with a gym/weights session in hotel gym and then a short stint in the sauna.

Finally, we walked to a pop-up night market in the back parking lot of the Big C (supermarket) and picked out lots of mysto-foods to try.  We ended up with quite a feast that we enjoyed in our hotel room and then fell asleep with full bellies.

We are all thankful for so much this year - each other, our friends and loved ones, the fact that we are able to go on such a cool trip... we are very lucky.

elephants, elephants and more elephants!

We spent the last two days at an elephant sanctuary called the Elephant Nature Park, which is a place that rescues injured and captive elephants and relocates them to their park.  The park has over 250 acres of land and over 100 elephants!  It costs around 1 million Thai Baht to purchase an elephant on top of the costs of running the sanctuary and food for the elephants (each elephant consumes 10% of their body weight each day), so they provide hands-off tours of the park and overnight stays to make money.  The intent is to allow people to observe the elephants in the most humane and non-zoo atmosphere, and to allow the elephants to live the rest of their lives in a safe space.

Since most of the elephants have been rescued, many of them have injuries (broken legs or hips, feet damaged by land mines, missing tails, large and visible tumors, etc.).  A lot of them are quite old and some of their eyes are life-less from years of torture.  However, there's a new generation of elephants that have been born in the park and these little tykes seem to be full of energy, have no memories of chains and torture, and are quite playful.

We spent our 2-days doing walking tours with a very chatty guide named Pealie (pronounced pee-lee), making an elephant cake out of sticky rice bananas and watermelons, and learning quite a lot about the elephants and their stories.  However, our most special elephant encounter didn't happen during any tours... while on one of our many "break times", we walked down to a little dirt path that was right next to a fence and up walked three elephants.  One of the the elephants tried to take Todd home with her (Todd was not feeling accommodating and so he had to pry her trunk off his hand quite a few times), another was a young rascally one that wanted to play but was put in her place a few times by the grown ones, and the 3rd was a sweet lady named Sanur.  She stayed with us for more than 30 minutes smelling our hands, eating berries that Gordy found for her on the ground, and just checking us out.  Sometimes, we'd all just stand there staring at each other and it was like she was reading our hearts and seeing into our souls.  Those 30-minutes were super special and I don't think we'll forget the experience.

After our time at the sanctuary was complete, we moved onto our last hotel stay - the Khum Phaya Resort.  We haven't even been here for a day, but we are all very happy with our choice.  It may be the nicest resort we've ever stayed at!  Our room has a king bed and a twin bed for Gordy, a jacuzzi bath with jets in our bathroom, a lanai with a step into the hotel pool and a delicious buffet breakfast with fresh fruit, an omelette stand, and tons of other choices.

final days in Nimman

The area that we've been staying in is called Nimman, which is on the north west side of the city outside the old city walls.  The good things about the area: 

- Lots of good / fresh food with tons of vegetarian / vegan options

- Tons of massage parlors with good prices

- Everything is walkable

- Many people speak at least some English

- Good access to 25m and 50m pools

The not so great things about the area include:

- The air almost always smells of car/truck/scooter exhaust

- The international airport is nearby, so loud aircraft flybys are frequent

- There's not a lot of nature to be accessed on foot

- Tons of low-hanging electric wires are strung up everywhere

All of the above being said, we've been thoroughly enjoying our stay in Nimman.  The first 2 days we walked everywhere averaging 12,000 steps per day.  Yesterday, we booked a 2-day scooter rental and have been venturing a bit further and walking a bit less.

We've been achieving our goal of 1 massage per day, have consumed a lot of different types of Thai and Burmese food (including pad thai and green papaya salad), have gotten in pool workouts every day and have visited 2 different night markets.

Today, we decided to head out for an adventure before breakfast to the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.  This is one of the most important temples in Chiang Mai and was built in the 19th Buddhist century.  Legend has it that a monk found one of the Buddha's shoulder bones.  Part of this bone was placed on the back of a white elephant and sent into the jungle.  The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep to the top, trumpeted 3 times, and then died.  This was interpreted as an omen and the temple was constructed in this place.

To get there, we drove west on our motorbike past the university and then rode back and forth on switchbacks up the mountain to the top.  It took us about 30 minutes total and because it was so early in the morning, the air was quite cold.  But we made it before the tour buses, so we had the place to ourselves for a solid 20 minutes.

After we parked our bike in the parking area, we started up the 306 serpent-lined steps to the temple.  

The temple was beautiful with so much detail on all the buildings and some really great views of the city of Chiang Mai.

Today is our last day in the Nimman area.  So, we are going to celebrate by checking out the Sunday walking street market (in the old city), playing in our hotel pool, and another massage!  

Tomorrow we'll have our last hotel buffet breakfast (we are all still loving it) and then we'll get picked up in a van and transported to the Elephant Nature Park - a sanctuary for rescued elephants.  We have all been really looking forward to this part of the trip and Todd and I can't wait to see Gordy's face when he sees an elephant in real life!

successful 1st day

After our breakfast and hotel pool session, we ventured out into town on foot with a few destinations in mind - a scooter rental shop and second-hand shop / cafe.  We were successful on both fronts with some good scooter options to consider, a nice lunch of fried mushroom balls and a smoothie bowl, and a kids chapter book that only cost 20THB (60cents US).  

Along the way, we also found a few super markets to check out where we got some juice and snacks for our room, a vegan restaurant where we tried some vegan nuggets and a jackfruit curry, and a pharmacy for some nail clippers to trim a tiny monster's talons.  We also found a 25m pool that was only an 8 minute walk from our hotel where Todd and I got a decent swim in.

The real highlight of day, however, was the massage that followed our swim.  We found a small and quiet hole-in-the-wall spa where the manager called in backup to accommodate the 3 of us.  Since this was Gordy's first professional massage, we decided to error on the side of caution and went for a 30 minute back, neck and shoulder massage while Todd splurged for the 60 minute oil option.  Gordy and I were setup side-by-side in a small room on tables where we could face each other.  For most of the massage, his eyes were closed and he had a small smile stretched across his face.  His masseuse was fantastic and was mostly gentle while giving a small amount of solid pressure which Gordy later describe as "she went after it!".  We kept all of our clothes on and the massage mostly consisted of pressure and stretching - we were thrilled.  

At the end of the massage, we were given cups of hot tea and a few small cookies (Gordy got extra cookies because his masseuse loved him) to enjoy while we waited for Todd and the endorphins coursed through our bodies.  Gordy proclaimed that it was the best massage of his life and he's already asking to do 60 minutes next time and wants the full body option.

We finished off the night with another venture into town for a vegetarian Thai dinner that included butterfly pea noodle pad thai, tempe red curry, and crispy banana flower salad.  

Then, we showered and were all asleep by 7:30pm.  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are planning / hoping for somewhat of a repeat today!

we've arrived in Chiang Mai

After 16.5hrs of in-air time, and a hectic hour-short transfer in Incheon S. Korea, we've finally made it to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  And while the flights were long, they were some of the most comfortable that we've ever experienced thanks to Korean Air's in-flight meals, modifiable window tint, slightly more spacious seat area with a little more legroom than US airlines, free entertainment, and Gordy's favorite perk - disposable slippers.

Todd and I didn't manage to get much sleep on either flight, but Gordy was out cold nearly from take-off to landing on our second flight.  So, he was up bright and early this morning (4:45am) ready for breakfast and some pool time.  And, the breakfast did not disappoint!  We prepaid for the hotel breakfast buffet because of the great reviews that we read online and it turned out to be the best breakfast buffet we've ever had.  The highlights included freshly fried local eggs, a salad bar, fresh fruit (watermelon, papaya, and bananas), waffles with honey-maple syrup and curry-fried rice.

After breakfast, Gordy played in the (cold) pool until his lips turned purple and his body had the shakes.

We haven't figured out what's next on the agenda, but it will likely include a walking adventure to find a motorbike rental, a pool to swim laps, and a massage!