Maui Trip - Day 2 (Submarine Tour, Big Beach)

October 26th, 2007

We had booked for two activities for today. A submarine tour in the morning and a snorkeling trip in the noon. However, I got a call from Pride of Maui informing that they've canceled the snorkeling trip for maintenance of the ship. I had to move the snorkeling trip to Oct 27th, noon.

We went to Lahaina at 8.30 am to board the submarine. There was a small ship that took us from the shore to the submarine. It was a 15 mins ride from the shore to the submarine. We boarded the submarine. There was a narrow staircase to get into the submarine from the top. About 40 people can be on board in the submarine. The submarine dived 107 feet deep under the water level. They took us to two coral reefs and showed us a submerged ship. The underwater visibility was obscure due to the lack of sun light. During the tour, we saw a congregation of underwater life.


Submarine tour was a nice experience, but I am not sure if it is worth the $$$s. The tour lasted for about 45 minutes. The submarine came back to the water level and was docked. By that time, the next batch of people were there in the ship to board the submarine. Infants weren't allowed in the submarine. Hence, my wife & I have to go in the submarine on two different trips.

I boarded the ship and got the little one from my wife. My kid and I came back to the shore. We waited under the Banyan tree (the Banyan Tree was close to the boarding point) for about one and a half hour. My wife came back from the tour at about 12 pm. We had our lunch - my wife got up early in the morning to prepare lunch for us (In fact, she gets up early in the morning every day to prepare lunch for us).

We then headed towards Ahihi Kinau Preserve. We lost our way and landed in Big Beach (Makena Beach). We spent about an hour in Big Beach. The sea water was very clear and in green color. We enjoyed our time drenching feet in the sea. Mitra didn't like to stand in the sea water. She was scared to see the waves. We drove back to go to the Maui Tropical Plantation tour. We couldn't find it and hence we thought we would see the Dragon peak. We couldn't find the Dragon peak as well. So, we returned back to our room. The afternoon session was full of disappointments, except for our visit to Makena beach which was not there in our original plan.

We came back to the hotel room at around 5 pm. We took Mitra to the beach. She was scared to enter the sea. We then went to the pool. Mitra resisted to enter the pool. She was scared on seeing the water in the pool. I swam there for a while. We let Mitra to first immerse her feet into the water and she tapped the water for a while. After doing that for a few minutes, she got excited. She came to swim with me. I held her to swim in the water for sometime. We went back and forth from one end of the pool to the other. She enjoyed it much.

We came back to room, had our dinner and went to bed. Unfortunately, the wireless access in the room was not working. I was disappointed. I complained to the hotel management. But no action from them. My wife was happy that I stayed away from the laptop and spent more time with her and Mitra.

Maui Trip - Day 1 (Banyan Tree, Jodo Mission, Luau)

October 25th 2007

Our hotel check-in time was only 3 pm. So, we decided to see some places before going to the hotel. We went straight from the Kahului airport to the Banyan tree in Lahaina. The drive from the airport to Lahaina was very scenic. There was sea on one side of the road and mountains on the other side. My wife had to take rest during the drive because she had some air sickness. It took us about 40 minutes to reach Lahaina from Kahului. Finding a parking space closer to the Banyan tree was quite challenging. So, I had to leave my rental car on a paid parking. It looks like this Banyan tree was brought from India when it was 6 feet in height. Now, it is about 60 feet in height. We spent about an hour there. Mitra (my little one) enjoyed playing there.

We then went to the Lahaina Jodo Mission. There was a temple and a huge statue of Buddha in that place. It was very close to the sea shore in Lahaina. There is a burial ground right opposite to the Jodo Mission. In Hawaii, you can see burial grounds everywhere in spite of the shooting real estate cost :) The Jodo Mission temple was closed on that day. So, we couldn't get into the temple. There were hardly any people except for us.

As per our original plan, we were supposed to go to Dragon peak. However, we were so tired. So, we decided to do some grocery shopping and go to hotel. We shopped in the Safeway store in Lahaina Cannery Mall complex and reached Resortquest Kaanapali Villas at about 4 pm. We were given a room in the ground floor in the Banyan complex. We were surprised to see that the room is like a home. It had a fully furnished kitchen, a sofa set, a king size bed, TV, DVD player, few DVDs, a double door refrigerator, microwave oven etc., All the appliances are very new. The room had a tile flooring and my little one enjoyed to walk on that. My wife liked the room very much.

We prepared noodles and had our dinner in the room.
We rushed to attend the Luau in Royal Lahaina. We reached Royal Lahaina at 6.30 pm. The Luau was scheduled to start at 7 pm. We were surprised to see that there were about 1000 people having their dinner there. We were the only family who were there just to see the show. Everyone else had booked for dinner+show. The show started on time. We were quite excited to see the traditional Hula dance. The fire knife dance was astounding. The show went for about one and a half hours. There were a few showers during the show. They gave us ponchos. But, the showers were just benign and we didn't use them.

We reached hotel at about 9 pm and retired for the day.

Maui Trip - San Francisco to Kahului Airport

October 25th 2007

We were looking forward for this day and the day finally arrived. We got up early in the morning and got ready. The little one got obfuscated wondering what these folks are doing so early in the morning. She cried when we woke her up. But, she realized that we are getting ready to go somewhere. Then, she became fanatic. We left our home in Milpitas by around 6.30 am in the morning.

We drove our car to Burlingame Parking Lot. I was disappointed to
see that it is a open parking lot facing the street and there was no one around to assist. Anza Parking was right opposite to Burlingame Parking Lot and I was so tempted to park there. At first I faltered, then, decided to take a risk. I parked my car in one of the free lots and went to the bus stop to wait for the shuttle. The shuttle arrived in a few minutes and took all the waiting passengers to the airport. It took about 10 - 15 minutes to reach the San Francisco Airport.

I checked-in the luggage and went to the queue for the security check. They asked me to get a boarding pass for the kido. I had to go back and get a boarding pass for the little one. We boarded the flight at around 8.45 am. The flight started on time and reached Maui's Kahului airport at around 11 am. The flying time is 5 hours. There is a time zone difference between Maui and San Francisco. San Francisco is ahead by 3 hours.

We had to wait for about 30 minutes to collect our luggages. We were so hungry and had our lunch right after coming out of the airport. There are shuttles that take you from the airport to the car rental offices. We boarded the shuttle to Avis. We were given a Chevvy Impala.

Imagine how it would be load and unload a set of 6 luggages (including the stroller and car seat) 5 times in a day. I had to load everything in my car when leaving our home. I unloaded them in the Burlingame parking lot and loaded them in the parking shuttle. Unloaded everything from the shuttle after reaching the SFO airport. Collected all the baggages in Kahului airport and loaded them again into the Avis shuttle to car rental office. Unloaded all of them in the car rental office and loaded them again into Chevvy Impala. I had to unload them again after reaching the resort.

Hawaii (Maui) Trip - Preparations

This is my first trip to Hawaii. I knew that there are many islands in Hawaii. But I didn't know about their specifics. A few of my friends had been to Oahu. They said "Oahu is very commercialized and so don't go there !".

I started to Google to find out some website describing the Hawaiian Islands. After some research, I decided to go to Maui. I compared the deals from Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity. I accidentally ran into this website called United Vacations from United Airlines. It had a cheaper deal. I booked for my stay, flight and car through this website. The whole package was for about $1600. At last, I finalized the travel dates. The stay was in Resortquest Kaanapali Villas.

A visit to Hawaii wouldn't be complete without doing any activities. So, I booked for para sailing, snorkeling, submarine tour through Maui's Best Activities. The price was very competitive. The customer service was excellent from these folks. A representative named Fernanda was helping me and I was amazed by the suggestions and alternatives proposed by her. My trip to Maui wouldn't have been smooth without Fernanda taking care of all the arrangements for activities. All the activities for me and my wife came to about $360. Maui's Best signed me up for a 2 hours seminar from Wyndham Resorts. In return, I got a concession of 50% for all the activities. So, I paid just $180 for all the activities.

I booked for Luau through Hawaii Web. This site is a little expensive for other activities. However, they were the only one offering Luau for just $37 per person. I booked for Royal Lahaina Luau through this website.

Trip Advisor gave me useful hints and suggestions to plan for the trip. In fact, all the places that I visited in Maui were based on the input that I got from this website. I contrived the activities for each day of my 5 days trip. I took print outs of all the maps and directions from Google Maps. I also took driving directions to the nearest Safeway, Walgreens - just in case I need them.

My flights were from SFO airport - which is 45 minutes drive from my home. Normally, I take Supershuttle for my trips to SFO. They charge ~$50 for two people. This time, I decided to leave my car in the long term parking. I got parking discount coupons from Long Term Parking. They carry coupons for many long term parking lots. I decided to leave my car in Burlingame Airport Parking. I paid just $36 to leave the car in the long term parking for 5 days.

My wife took care of all the packing for the trip. I helped her in buying a few items from Walmart and the local grocery store. I bought a couple of swim shorts for me. We went to at least 3 different shops to get swim suite for my little one. I was surprised to know that it is a seasonal commodity and may not be available during winter. Kaanapali Villas Resorts had a kitchen. So, we took some groceries and utensils with us. We didn't know that the kitchen is fully furnished (I didn't call to check with them in advance). Otherwise, we wouldn't have carried all the dishes.

The journey started - Bought NTGR stocks

I bought 32 Netgear (NASDAQ:NTGR) stocks on 10/22/2007 for $30.2 each. Ameritrade charged my $10 for the transaction. So, I would consider the cost of each stock to be $30.51.

I want to keep track of the following information for every new stock that I buy:

1) Why am I buying this stock (Research that I did, factors that convinced me to buy that stock, why didn't I buy the stocks of a different company in the same market/domain?)

- Earnings per share (EPS) was 1.18
- The company's 52 week's high was about $41 and 52 week's low was about $21
- The stock reached around $26 in July 07 due to poor Q2 results.
- The company gave a good Q3 outlook
- The company is venturing into Storage area solutions, coming up with innovative products like Skype phone, digital entertainer HD (for homes). The company was named in Deloitte Technology fast 50 program.
- TheStreet.com has given a buy rating with a target price of $41.
- The company's performance is good since it went IPO.

2) When will I sell the stock?

I am planning to sell the stocks when the value reaches $40 or above.

I'll think about selling this stock if it continues to go down and goes below $20.

3) What am I going to do with the money that I get out of this stock?

I am going to donate 20% of the profit and save the remaining amount. I'll probably buy an iPhone (when I save a lot or when Jobs announces another price cut :))

I joined the world of volatility

In late 2006, I was fanatic about trading stocks in the market. Thanks to my financing fundamentals from the MBA degree. I got very motivated and opened a free trading account with Ameritrade in early 2007. At that time, I had more interest & less money to invest. So, I had to fetter my thoughts. However, I decided to continuously monitor and keep track of the economy and the market.

I personally felt that I've gained more skills & knowledge by keeping track of the market than by reading books. Though I cannot claim to be dexterous at trading stocks, I now have a decent understanding of the dynamics of the market.

In October 2007, I read Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad Poor Dad" - a great eye opener. This book exhilarated my passion to invest in stocks. I decided to start trading stocks to improve my financial ingenuity.

I was looking at companies from different industries, reading analysts reports, reading press releases, analyzing the quarterly reports etc., I first thought of investing in eBay - thinking that eBay would announce good Q3 results & due to the holiday season they'll do well in Q4 also. The results from eBay was a bummer. They've to write-off some money to meet the obligations of the Skype deal. The stock didn't do well. I felt fortunate that I didn't invest in eBay :)

After a couple of days, I transferred $1K from my bank account and bought 32 Netgear (NTGR) stocks on 10/22/2007.

I have created this blog to keep track of the things that I learn during the process of developing my financial intelligence. Hopefully, this blog will be useful for others also (Too early to say this with just one posting!). I am hoping to update this during every trade that I make.

Sharpen the Saw

When we were small, we were told "Study hard upto your 12th standard. Once you get into your college, you can start to relax". We completed 12th. But then, folks said "Study well for another 3 or 4 years. Once you complete your college and go to work, you can start to relax". But, here you are. You completed your studies and got into a job. Now, your manager gives you a bundle of project/product documentation to read. You are also asked to attend a set of training sessions. You have to continue to read about new technologies/tools for every new product/project that you start to work on. In IT industry, the need to continuously update your knowledge doesn't end. What happens to a wood cutter who continues to chop trees without sharpening the saw. Either the saw will break or the wood cutter will get tired soon. He'll soon reach a point where he cannot cut any more trees. The same thing will happen to you if you are not constantly updating your knowledge/skills. Technology evolves rapidly ... like a supersonic jet that vanishes in the blink of an eye. You need to keep pace with it. Otherwise, you'll get outdated.

You can also continue to update your knowledge by taking part-time courses. Many companies provide distant education programs by affiliating with colleges and universities. That is one good way of replenishing your skills.

Use every opportunity you get to learn something new. Don't ever forget to "Sharpen the saw".