Aloha Part One

Hawai'i.

The very word conjures up an image of an exotic, tropical paradise, where hula skirted girls gyrate gracefully in the warm, wafting winds as the soothing sound of the surf mingles with the tinkle of ice in a Mai Tai and the sun, a red ball against the darkening blue of the ocean, slowly slips below the far off horizon as another day in Paradise comes to an end.

Well, Hawaii can be all of that as we shall see shortly. It is also, as part of the United States of America, geographicially, and in Honolulu, not a whole lot different in places than downtown Los Angeles, or the Californian coast, and this also made an impression on me, my wife and brother and sister-in-law on our recent trip. I think from all the materials I had read, photos I had seen and TV shows about the place (Book him, Dano'), I expected something a bit different, at least culturally, than what I encountered and experienced. Don't get me wrong. I (and I include my travelling companions when I say I) did enjoy visiting Oahu, Maui and the Big Island (Hawaii) and I will relate my experiences and suggestions should you decide to visit the places we did. So read on.

Long Trip

Did I mention Hawaii is far away?  The closest place to Honolulu in Canada, Vancouver (yes, Victoria is closer, but there are no direct flights to Honolulu) is about 6 hours away by air. San Francisco and Los Angeles are about 5 hours and 30 minutes away. Tokyo is a little over 8 hours away and Toronto 12 hours. Sydney (not Nova Scotia) is 12 hours and 40 minutes away. We flew from Ottawa to Newark New Jersey and then direct to Honolulu. Total flying time was 11 hours 45 minutes. Total travel time for us was 18 hours. So the odds are you are not going to go to Hawaii for a weekend. Even a long weekend. We went for 12 days which we found is the minimum amount you should count on to visit 3 islands (there are 8 main islands of Hawaii, but tourists typically visit only 6 of these).

We arrived in Honolulu at 5:30 p.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Standard Time, or 10:30 p.m. EST. After exiting the plane, we headed for luggage retrieval. Which required us to go outside before re-entering the baggage hall. This might be a clever a ploy by the tourist associations in Hawaii because you are immediately struck by how warm it is, even in the dark at 6 p.m. in November. After getting our bags, we grabbed a taxi and headed across the city on the Interstate H-1 (the jokes about an Interstate highway in Hawaii have all been done). This was our first exposure to traffic in Honolulu. It reminded me of LA traffic. 

Our Bed and Breakfst hostess had told us that her place was somewhat difficult to find for taxi drivers. She wasn't kidding. Situated on a private road at the base of  Diamond Head, the cabbie's GPS got us to the street. With no streetlights, we drove slowly down the street looking for the address (very few houses had numbers on them, or if they had, they were not illuminated). At one point we stopped, got out our travelling flashlights and two of the men in the cab started checking out house numbers. I am only going to mention the stereotype of men not following directions just once in this blog. As two of our party ranged up and down the street, I finally found a light to see the piece of paper I had printed with the directions on it to the Bed and Breakfast. At the very bottom of the page was the clear instruction: Proceed to the last house at the dead end – downhill side is xx yy Drive – a blue mailbox. 

So we rounded up our roving party and drove to the end of the street to the last house and as we pulled into the driveway, out came Joanne, our host for the next three days to welcome us. After introductions were made, we settled in to our rooms on the top floor of the house and immediately changed into summer attire. The Diamond Head Bed and Breakfast has a lot going for it; the hospitality, food, location, and amenities were all great.  Indeed, waiting in our minifridges, we found cold water and beer. So, tired though we were from the travel and the time change, we were soon sitting on our balcony, enjoying the lights of Waikiki below and the local beer. But soon the travel caught up with us and by 10 p.m. local time, we were all heading to bed.

The next morning, we woke refreshed to the joyful singing from a multitude of birds. We could relate to how they felt. Warm and sunny always brings out the best in people and apparently birds as well.

Diamond Head

Before heading down for breakfast, we got our first glimpse from our second story rooms of Diamond Head, the extinct volcano cone that is known to Hawaiians as Lēʻahi. British sailors in the 1800s gave it its English name because they mistook calcite crystals in the rock for diamonds. Whichever name is used, it dominates the land above Waikiki. It cannot be seen from the ground at our Bed and Breakfast because of the foliage around the house, but a block or so down the hill, it protrudes above the palms into the blue of the sky.

Surfer Dude

After a very nutritious breakfast, we loaded up our backpacks and cameras and walked about 20 minutes down the hill on Monsarrat Avenue past the Honolulu Zoo to Waikiki Beach. We were lucky in a way, because we approached Waikiki from the south end, arriving first at the border between Sans Souci State Recreational Park to the south and Kuhio Beach Park to the north. Thus we were exposed slowly to Waikiki Beach. A very large Indian banyan tree and a bronze statue of a surfer greeted us as we crossed the main drag, Kalakaua Avenue, to the park and the sea side. Several people were already on the beach soaking up the rays and some were even in the water swimming and it was not yet 9 a.m. But it was already hot and pretty humid.

Leaving the surfer behind, we continued down Kalakaua (or up to be geographically accurate) and headed into the tourist trap known as Waikiki Beach. Kalakaua sports a mulititude of stores catering to tourists. The first store we encountered, called ABC (not

Board walk

the same as the liquor stores of the same name in Florida - although the Hawaiian ABC did have liquor) is a good example of a tourist store with hundreds of Hawaiian souvenirs, 99% of which are made in China, on sale. How do I know this? Our female travelling companions made a beeline for the store. These stores are found everywhere in Hawaii and at least on every corner in Waikiki. While the rest of our party were inside, I stood outside and watched the pedestrian traffic go by. Locals on their way to the beach, beggars on the sidewalk and of course the multitude of fellow tourists made for a busy and eclectic streetscape.

After browsing through the store (yes, I eventually went in), we continued up Kalakaua, stopping a few times for quick shopping expeditions in the many boutiques that line the right hand side of the street to buy new flip flops and to check out sun hats. The other side of Kalakaua, at least at the far end of Waikiki Beach, consists of Kuhio Beach State Park. The park was crowded with swimmers and sunbathers and surfer schools. And in keeping with the surfer theme of our introduction to Hawaii, just before we got to the concrete canyon formed by hotels on both sides of the street, we met up with the granddaddy of all surfers, the man who made it into the sport it is today, Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku, or Duke Kahanamoku for short.

Sir Duke

Of course you can't really meet him; he has been dead for 45 years, but you can see him or at least his likeness. An amazing athelete, Duke (his given name) was a five time Olympic medalist in swimming. He broke the world record for 100 yards (the measurement at the time) in his first competition. He also starred in several movies while living in California. On his tours around the world, and especially in Australia, he demonstrated swimming and surfing, thus spreading the latter as a sport. His statue is covered in leis in memory of the surfing king and what he accomplished for the sport and for Hawaii in his later years as Honolulu Sherrif and official greeter of the city.  Apparently, there is a web camera lined up on Duke and if you stand beside him you can wave to your family and friends elsewhere in the world to greet them and to let them know you wish they were here.

Past Kuhio Beach, Kalakaua heads 'inland' as hotels crowd both sides of the Avenue and the beautiful ocean view disappears. Famous hotels that established Waikiki as a resort, such as the Moana Surf Rider and The Royal Hawaiian (which started the rush to Hawaii as a resort in 1927) jostle for space along Waikiki Beach. Across the road, slightly less opulent and less expensive hotels (no real beach view except for the very top floors) are lined up one after another.  In the ground floors of these hotels, high end stores (think Cartier, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton) peddle their wares (not to us mere middle class mortals) to the rich and famous. Equally high end restaurants proliferate in this area of Waikiki Beach.

Duke's Place

Speaking of restaurants, it was getting towards noon and being very hot, we decided that a cold drink or two and a snack would be just the ticket. So after wandering around for a bit looking for a suitable restaurant or bar, we finally asked one of the Waikiki Information guides where to get a cold beer with a beach view that would not bankrupt us. He suggested Duke's Canoe Club (yes, named after Duke Kahanamoku) in the Outrigger Waikiki Hotel. And a good recommendation it was. We ordered some appetizers to go with our beers and Mai Tais and sat back to watch the people frolic on the beach and the waves roll in. If you go to Waikiki, be sure to go to Duke's for at least a drink.

Diamond Head Revisited

Feeling refreshed, we headed back out and decided to visit the beach. In Hawaii, no one can own the beach. So even the hotels that front the beach have to provide public access. Therefore, walking down Royal Hawaiian Avenue, we cut between The Royal Hawaiian shopping centre and the Wyndham Beach Walk Resort to emerge onto the beach beside the Sheraton Hotel. From here, you get amazing views of Waikiki Beach proper, the Pacific Ocean and Diamond Head in the distance.

Sheraton Seawall

We strolled (trudged since we were in sandals and flip flops) through the soft sand of the beach and then along the very narrow concrete walkway behind (in front of? - depends upon whether the street or the ocean is the front) the Sheraton as the sun beat down on us. Waikiki Beach is constantly fighting a battle with the sea as erosion eats away at the shoreline. Rising sea levels are certainly going to cause more problems in the future.

Home away from Home

We were starting to feel the effects of the long travelling of the previous day and the five hour time change. So after admiring the view along a couple of hundred metres of beach front walking, we thought that a return to our Bed and Breakfast by way of one of the ABC stores (to acquire some beverages) would be in order. And this is what we did. We spent the next hour or two enjoying a cold drink on the delightful lanai-patio of our home away from home before retiring to our rooms for a late afternoon nap. Not able to sleep, I sat on the balcony amid the scented flowers of the trees in the grounds below and listened to birdsong while I read some of the well stocked travel books in my room.

That evening (Hawaiians tend to eat early, many restaurants serving locals are getting ready to close by 8 p.m.), on the recommendation of our hostess, we wandered over to Kapahulu Avenue to Ono Hawaiian Foods for authentic Hawaiian food. Ono is the Hawaiian word for a type of mackeral. Whether or not they had ono on the menu, I don't recall. A tiny hole in the wall, the restaurant can be pretty busy. There were a couple of tables available when we arrived, but it filled up while we were there. Ono's Hawaiian server, after finding out we never had eaten Hawaiian food, suggested we try the LauLau Combination Platter for two. So we did twice as there were four of us. We enjoyed Kalua Pig (the traditional method of cooking in the ground) wrapped in Ti (a lily like plant) leaves, pipi kuala (kind of like beef jerky); lomi salmon (salmon and tomatos in a delicious salad), rice and finally haupia (coconut jello/custard) for desert. It was good although the meat dishes tended to be a bit more salty in Hawaii than the last time we had Polynesian food at a Maori night in New Zealand. We finished our evening with a drink back at our Bed and Breakfast and then called it a night.

The next day, after another scrumptious breakfast, we decided to take one of the many tour

Tourists R Us
(L Chaput, photographer)

buses that circle Waikiki Beach and parts of Honolulu. These 'hop on, hop off' buses are usually a pretty good way of getting to the major 'tourist' sites (the exception being Pearl Harbor as it is too far away) while the narration provides useful information about what you are seeing. Indeed, shortly after boarding and as we passed a non descript apartment building, our bus driver informed us that Barrack Obama had lived in it when he was a boy. (Which provoked Donald Trump to yell from the back of the bus that he wanted to see Obama's birth certificate). 

The walls of our Bed and Breakfast were directed with lots of paintings and watercolours and we could see that they were done by our hostess. She had been pretty prominent in the artist community in Honolulu and was still affiliated with Honolulu Museum of Art.

Museum of Art Courtyard

While discussing her paintings and the local art scene at breakfast, she gave us free passes to the Museum, so that is the first stop we made on our day of discovery. The Art Gallery turned out to be a pleasant and interesting visit. They have an excellent collection of art, from Old Masters to Modern Hawaiian painters. The doyons (volunteeer guides) are very helpful and are happy to provide information about the exhibits and the artists. As well, they had an Ansell Adams (if you are a photographer you know who he was) exhibit which we did not visit as we had run out of time. If you are in Honolulu for a few days, or on a rainy day, the Art Gallery would be worth a few hours of your time.

From the gallery, we got back on the bus and headed to the State House (Capitol Building) and the area around it. It is a fairly modern building, builit in 1969 in a style called Hawaiian International. I thought it looked more like an Art Gallery than a government building which is maybe a good thing. I understand it is more interesting on the inside, but we did not go in. 

Rotunda

People were demonstrating same sex marriage on the street just outside the State House; uncomfortable looking police and security guards stood by watching. We walked through the open concept of the rotunda which to me was the best feature and out the other side towards Iolani Palace. Built in 1882, it was the home of Hawaiian Royalty until the United States government, supporting an opposition group in Hawaii of mostly non Hawaiians, overthrew the Monarchy in 1893. (What is it with the US and monarchs, anyway?). 

Iolani Palace

Queen Liliuokalani, the last monarch, was imprisoned in the Palace in 1895 for trying to reinstate the monarchy. Her statue is located between the Palace and the new State Capitol, appropriate I suppose as a link from the Kingdom of Hawaii to today's government. The Palace was used by the Provisional Government of Hawaii and the Republic of Hawaii until the US annexed the Islands in 1898. It was then used as the Territorial Government Headquarters. It continued as an administrative building, a military building during WWII, the State Building after Statehood and was abandoned in 1969 with the building of the State House next door before being restored in 1978. Apparently, the society that restored it is still searching for the Royal Family's furniture and goods which were dispursed in the 1890s, so if you are hoarding any of it, they want to hear from you.

Kamehameha

Across from the Palace, on the other side of King Street and located in front of the Hawaiian Supreme Court, stands a statue of the man who got the Kingdom of Hawaii started in 1810. King Kamehameha I, a chief from the Big Island (Hawaii), had a dream to unite the Hawaiian Islands. There are many legends about the man, his birth and early years and his later deeds and about how he managed to pull off this feat of unification. So I don't think it will be a problem to start a new one here. I think he did so by forcing each his rivals to say his full Hawaiian name, which is:  Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea. When they obviously could not, he had them killed. Seriously, with his favourite wife who was higher born than he and her family and connections, he eventually conquered all other Chiefs on the other islands. His name (the shortened version) can be found on street names, on schools and other places throughout the Islands we visited. Interestingly, the translation of his name means 'the lonely one' so perhaps he just wanted more company and that is why he united the Islands into a kingdom. In the Hawaiian tradition, his burial place was kept a secret so his name certainly is appropriate today. 

Even phones have leis

We decided to go for lunch about this time, and walked the short distance down King Street to the start of Chinatown.  I thought there would be more restaurants than there were. Pehaps we should have called ahead or had a taxi take us to a place to eat, but we eventually found one called the Golden Palace and went in. It was a huge restaurant and the food was decent. Most of the people there were Chinese and perhaps because of this, service was interesting as we could not be understood by the wait staff except by one young person. Apparently the washrooms, which we were told did not belong to the restaurant (they were in another building) were disgusting. Good thing some of us waited until after the meal to use them. (Luckily, I was losing water another way because of the very warm temperature). 

Look Up

Afterwards, we checked our maps and figured that we could walk to the next 'Hop On' spot for the bus which was the Aloha Tower. Built in 1926 as a lighthouse, it was the tallest structure in Hawaii for 40 years. Gothic in style, this was the first thing hundreds of thousands of immigrants and tourist saw when approaching Honolulu by ship. Surrounded by a Marketplace, it was virtually deserted when we visited. Apparently it is not visited that much anymore and many of the stores have left the Marketplace. The Tower itself is showing signs of decay. The University of Hawaii has bought it and the surrounding area and hopes to redevelop it and build residences and other facilities in the Marketplace.

Two bored security guards were eating their lunches at the base of the tower. We asked if we could go up to the top and after a very cursory examination of our camera bags and purses, we rode the elevator up 10 stories to the observation deck (just above the clock in the photo). Because it is over 60 metres high, it provides excellent views of Honolulu, Pearl Harbor (I have spelled it in Americanese) and surroundings.

View Toward Pearl Harbor

The observation deck at the top affords views from all four sides. The breeze at the top of the Tower was very refreshing and we took our time shooting photos before descending back into the city of concrete below. 

We eventually found the Hop On bus stop (don't ask the few locals and security people  in the area, we got conflicting advice from them) and shortly thereafter, our bus came by. We decided our next stop was going to be the Ward Warehouse, an outdoor shopping market, similar to the Byward Market in Ottawa. The boys wanted to buy Hawaiian shirts and the girls just wanted to shop. On the way to the market, the bus driver pointed out a small marina full of sailboats and to the music of Gilligan's Island, informed us that the opening scene of the show, depicting the Minnow heading out to sea, was filmed here.

We spent about an hour (the time between buses) at the Ward Market and the men managed to accomplish our mission. As it was getting along in the afternoon and the heat was getting to us, when we got on the bus we decided to ride it back to where we started, at the far edge of Waikiki Beach.

Turn Right Here

From here we made our customary stop at the ABC store (to reprovision our liquids supply) and turning right at the large Indian Banyan tree at the foot of Monsarrat Avenue, wandered slowly back up to the Bed and Breakfast. That evening, we went out for an Italian type (Italian-Japanese fusion) dinner not far from the Bed and Breakfast. Then we retired back to the lanai for an interesting discussion with our hostess, her son and our fellow guest from Australia about Hawaiian property laws among other topics.

The next morning, our last on Oahu, and before breakfast, our host's son drove the boys and the Aussie up to the Diamond Head crater. The much younger Australian visitor wanted to hike from the crater to the rim so we went along for the ride and to photograph the sun as it rose on the other side of Diamond Head.

Another Day Starts

The interior crater, which is reached through a short tunnel through the volcano wall, for years was a military base and restricted to the public, but much of it is now open for hikes and other activities. There is nothing spectacular about the interior of the crater itself (other than its size). It was the view just outside the tunnel on the way down, as the sun rose over the Pacific, that was worth the ride up. And made breakfast when we got back to the Bed and Breakfast that much more enjoyable.

Juggling in the Park

Our flight to Maui was not scheduled until 5 p.m., but because of Honolulu traffic, our hostess suggested we needed to leave for the airport around 2 p.m. She made arrangements for a taxi for this time. As we needed to find something to do for the rest of the morning and early afternoon, we decided to go to the beach and just chill for the morning. So after packing up and checking out, we wandered one last time down the hill to the park at the foot of Monsarrat. We found a table under the trees and spent the next couple of hours walking up and down the path along the ocean in Sans Souci State Park and relaxing under the coolness of the park trees. The Honolulu Aquarium and the old derelict War Memorial Natorium (a sheltered former swimming competition area) are located in this park. The Aquarium was busy with school children and tourists. The park was a very pleasant place to spend our last morning in Oahu, people watching and relaxing. In retrospect, I think we all were feeling that three days on Oahu was more than enough, particularly since we did not rent a car to check out the environs beyond Honolulu and Waikiki Beach. 

Say Cheeseburger

As it was getting close to noon and we were all out of snacks and water, we wandered from the park into Waikiki Beach one last time for lunch and then walked back up the hill to collect our luggage and say goodbye to our hostess for an excellent stay. As the taxi fought its way through the traffic to the airport it started to really rain, the  first rain of our Hawaii trip. I guess someone was telling us it was time to leave Oahu and fly off to Maui, our next destination.