On the lighter side-Travel-Maui-Hawaii-7

The first thing I did after getting off the bus was to the restroom. I was amazed to see that they had working flush at that level. Then we went to the spot where we can see the sun rise. It was literally freezing up there standing with wind blowing. We stood near the visitor center hoping to shield ourselves from the blowing wind. The dormant volcano was just below us with the clouds literally in front of us and it was really cool to see from above how the world looks. After about an hour or so the visitor center opened and some of the folks huddled in there to escape the freezing weather despite wearing sweaters and blankets. The visitor center had some souvenirs to sell plus they had a working internet for the shop owner. Our guide pointed us towards the Big Island (our next trip) where we stood. The sun rose slowly showing us the orange color and the new date was announced This was pretty surreal. After the sunrise, we boarded our bus again to go to the top of the summit which was 10,023 feet. Our guide told us that Mount Haleakala was in fact taller than Mount Everest since the mountains are measured from the base of the ocean from where they rise. Again the oxygen was 37 percent less than what it should be when you are at the sea level but I again did not felt much difference. After that we again boarded our bus and headed downhill since it was now morning I could see the ocean and Maui (although I chose not to) but on our way back we stopped at a breakfast place and then were dropped at our hotel. Since we had woken up way earlier and were so sleepy we went to sleep so that we can go out dinner in the evening.