DAY 1 - A very very long 18th of November

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely nervous before embarking on this journey. Leaving at the coach station in the middle of the night after a small last-minute packing disaster and saying goodbye to the most important person in my life left me puffy-eyed and sick with anticipation as the coach drove along the silent streets towards Heathrow Airport. I had arranged with Sarah to meet her there at 6:30, but due to the heavy traffic around the airport she and her stepdad didn’t actually make it until about two hours later. Troubles with her phone signal made it impossible for her to inform me of that state of affairs so I sat around getting increasingly worried for a while. To distract myself and to physically stop my eyelids from closing I decided to very quickly sketch the faces of other stressed and sleep-deprived travellers rushing about at this hour of the morning while hoping everytime I glanced up from my sketchbook to see Sarah’s face among them.

None of them was her.

She did of course arrive soon after and the journey could begin. Not much needs to be said about the flight to LA, we slept, talked, laughed a lot, watched the first fifteen minutes of a bunch of movies, laid around in the aisle for a while when our legs were getting too cramped and discussed again and again what possibly could await us. Stopping in LA for a few hours allowed us to communicate with our families, already many hours ahead of us, and enjoy some very overpriced chicken wraps.

I love planes as much as anyone else but 27 hours travelling time is pushing it.

The plane to Hilo was a lot smaller and even more cramped, which luckily didn’t bother me too much since I fell asleep pretty much immediately and woke up only shortly before landing, much unlike Sarah who did not have a good time. Hilo airport was small and rustic with a refreshing complete lack of airport security and passport controls, and after collecting our baggage we quickly found our host Jai Dev, a friendly but extremely American man with a shaved head and bright yellow T-shirt. Driving back to their farm through the humid air we had a chance to ask him about our host family a bit more and their attitudes and ways of living, and after the anticipated immediate mentions of spiritual energy on the island and chakra points I’m sure this will be an interesting time at the very least.

Upon arrival at the dark farm we met the dogs and were shown our room, Jai Dev excusing himself shortly after to go sleep in the cow barn. After a brief battle over who would get the bed and who would have to sleep on the lumpy couch we quickly fell asleep, surrounded by the monotonous symphony of the jungle.

Drawn in the moonlight when I woke up at 3am and went outside
(the very excited dog who'd been sleeping on the porch not being very helpful)