Journey Mapping With Naveen

The person I interviewed was my husband Naveen. Naveen is known as the planning expert amongst his friend - just because he does not only love travelling, but is also amazing at planning trips. First thing that came to his mind, when I asked him about a trip he planned was Hawaii. He and his friends had always wanted to make this dream vacation which never seems to happen. But when I decided to join my MBA program, I wanted a nice break from the real world, before getting into the stressful life. So his primary influencer was me. :)

He said he started the initial planning process three months in advance. The first step was to book the flight tickets, since that always turned out to be the most expensive part of a trip. He said this was one of the most challenging part of planning, mainly because there were ten people in total who were supposed to go, of which two dropped out last minute, due to budget constraints. To make things worse, two of the travelers were from California, and the rest from Dallas, which was where Naveen lived. After great trouble of coordinating the process, he decided to book the tickets with his two friends in Dallas – Dimple and Daya and then sent the itinerary to his other two friends from California – Vidya and Mathan. Based on the itinerary, Vidya and Mathan booked their tickets. Naveen was super excited at this point, but little did he know, the rest was going to be super challenging.

He divided the tasks among the group members. He took charge of the accommodation and deciding on the activities. He used several travel websites such as 101 things to do as his source of information. In addition to this, he also spoke to a number of friends who had travelled to Hawaii before and narrowed down the spots to visit.  

The activities he deiced on were

-       Watch sunrise at Haleakala

-       Road to Hana

-       8 mile hike along the Napali Coast

-       13 mile ocean kayaking along the Napali Coast

-       Hike to see the crater in big island.

He said vidya was not happy, since all the activities were strenuous and wanted something easy. Therefore he added in a ‘dinner cruise’ in Maui.

He said he was immensely happy when all 8 people agreed on the spots and was relieved things were going his way. But then he had no idea how complicated things were going to get.

According to his plan the kayak tour was to be followed the day after the long hike.  The kayak tour was the part I was very keen on doing. Unfortunately Naveen was unable to get entry passes for 6 people for the kayaking tour. His friends said we should do everything as a group, and therefore not go ahead with the kayak tour. Unfortunately for Naveen it was a hard situation, since he had to decide if he should fulfill his wife’s wish or just listen to his friends. He said he was very confused, and was frustrated with planning such a long vacation. After great thought he decided to mail his friends about this kayak tour, and fortunately vidya and mathan dropped out, since it was too much of a workout for them.

-With travel guides after the long ocean kayak tour

So Naveen said he booked the four tickets, and was glad he did this;

‘I still find it surprising that after all the planning; only you and I ended up doing the open ocean kayak tour.’

Finally he said, this was the most challenging trip he had ever planned, but it was also the most pleasing one. Till date, the seven people with him thank him for putting together such and amazing trip together!!!