During our North American trip, we took a chunk out to visit Hawaii, the surfer's dreamland! The summer isn't high season but there were still lots of people and we could only imagine the touristy bits being even more overwhelming in the winter!
Welcome to Honolulu!
We rented an apartment in downtown Honolulu, and here is the amazing view from the 30th floor! This is what greeted us upon waking up the first day there!
Interesting fact: the state fish, which is the reef triggerfish, AKA humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, has a distinctively long name, but is not the longest Hawaiian fish name which exists! (The fish here aren't the state fish but still cool hanging out at the port.)
We followed the arrow in search of it....
...and came upon this local having a nap...he seems happy...? ;)
Maybe these locals are looking for happiness too?
Lounging under a palm, enjoying the sun and shade and reading a nice book....this must be it! :)
Hahaha, I like it! Looks like it even has a keep-warm function, just like ours! :D
When you think of Hawaii, you gotta think of rainbows! Why??
Because all of the sudden (okay sometimes not so sudden--usually it happened after 5pm), a shower hits and you are drenched in hard-hitting (but warm) rain....
...and then the sky clears up and you are all dry within 2 mins, due to the excessive temperatures. Pineapple mist, some call it! :) Whatever it is, it's nice and refreshing after being sweaty and sticky all day!
Who could miss a touristy show of Hawaiian music and hula? :) At the Royal Hawaiian Centre, they have performances every night for all to enjoy--I even got to participate in a short hula dancing lesson!! :)
Waikiki at night....hotels and apartment rentals as far as the eye can see...
Being a cop in Waikiki doesn't seem so bad, with a nice station like this!
The KING of surfing, Duke Kahanamoku!
Ruben's dream comes true---surfing in Hawaiian waters!
Too many swimmers, surfers and canoers in the water make it impossible to do anything.... These outriggers weren't for a tour around, but a 15min tourist activity where they paddle out and then come zipping back in on the waves. You pay to catch 3 waves or something and that's it!! You spend more time trying to avoid running over the hoards of people in the water than catching the waves!
The Aloha Tower, right beside the port, is a marketplace with shops and restaurants.
Hang ten! :)
I don't think I've ever seen a fish that blue for sale!
Chinatown with its old buildings has become a cool place to go for nightlife--the hip bars are in the area and so are the ethnic food joints.
Iolani Palace, home of the Hawaiian monarchy is now a public museum
Kamehameha, the first Hawaiian king, stands outside the building now used for the Hawaiian Supreme Courts
Inside the Hawaiian State Capitol building
The courtyard of the building is very bright and spacious
My new favourite tree of all time, the banyan! (Unless my research has led me astray...origin India, says Wikipedia)
They are so cool in that they sprout more roots which grown downwards and then become indistinguishable from the "original" trunk! I like their 'character'.... ;)
A few days during the trip, we escaped the madness of Waikiki and rented a car to explore the island. Of course on our way up north we stopped at the Dole factory. We only checked out the grounds rather than pay for the touristy train ride or self-guided tour, but we saw enough cool pineapples anyhow! Who knew there were reddish ones?
And little tiny guys that stand up so straight!
And Spanish ukelele-playing pineapples too?
Dancing again!
The main town of the north shore, Haleiwa
The famous bridge in town, with a lovely sunset
Many surf shops up in Haleiwa
There may not be much surf in the summer, but when the winter swells hit, watch out!!
All this beautiful space up north and everyone wants to squeeze their towel into a tiny spot in Waikiki--why??
Outdoor art
The north is famous for its shrimp farms, especially in a town called Kahuku. Since everyone was talking about these shrimp trucks on the sides of the roads, we had to stop and try! Mmmmm....hot cooked shrimp with rice, yum! We tried the traditional battered ones and also lemon and garlic--always served with clarified butter which we didn't take a fancy to at all, but the shrimp themselves were delicious!!
It doesn't look like it but it's a shrimp farm...
And another shrimp truck, though not as famous as Giovanni's, the one we tried (above)
Starting to see a recurring theme?
Long strolls on deserted stretches of sand....
A rainbow! :)
I just thought this turned out super cool! :)
The legendary Waimea bay, where annual surf championships take place when all the pros come and tackle the 10m+ waves!
Today there was a tribute to a local who had passed away, so the people gathered with their boards and lit a lantern and released it up into the sky....
We went to a local market at Aloha Stadium, and it was full of stalls and stalls of touristy souvenirs. However, we stumbled upon one (relatively) authentic one--this guy Soane is from a family of many generations of carvers. They are originally from Maui but moved over to Oahu because there's more business. We watched him work for a while and man did he work up a sweat! They had surfboards, walking sticks, tikis and other sculptures for sale--all hand-carved! Even his 10 year old sister is learning the family craft! :)
Instead of going to an expensive tourist-trap luau with lots of jazz, I found a local one advertised in the newspaper, for normal residents. So we decided, hey, why not. Off we went to a local church and we joined in the celebrations--100 year anniversary of this church. Heck we weren't members but they welcomed us happily! Here are some of the ladies serving the luau meal. The one on the far right was telling us she had been to Spain before--Barcelona of course. :)
We found a place to sit on the cafeteria benches they had put inside and dug in to the unusual eats....
With the help of the internet, here I go trying to explain these foods and hopefully the correct names (feel free to set me straight if I'm mistaken!!)~
Clockwise from top left:
Sort of like a salsa but a bit salty--had bits of salmon in it, we were told (couldn't taste it) called Lomi Lomi Salmon; Poke, which is basically a mix of seafood or fish sashimi--in our case there were some kinds of shellfish but I didn't catch the names...sort of like cockels or something of that texture...; I think it's taro leaves cooked with coconut milk--name unknown; Kalua Pork (the typical roasted pig from luaus, but cooked and pulled); Chicken Long Rice--though it's not rice, but rather rice noodles and shredded chicken
In the bowl at the centre is Poi, made from cooked and ground taro. It is rather thick and goopy and a bit bland for our liking....at first I thought it was dessert but turns out you eat it with the other stuff to cut the saltiness of the salmon, for example....
Overall, we weren't too impressed by Hawaiian cuisine from this sampling, though an internet search shows you a grand variety. There is a lot of Asian influence and you can find many yummy eats in Hawaii, but we weren't convinced by these ones!
The dessert was more for our tastes, though chocolate cake isn't too exotic, and neither is a slice of pineapple, but man it was sweet!!!!!! Our favourite Hawaiian fruit though we did love the papaya too--tropical fruit and yogurt for breakfast every morning, yum! Also on the dessert plate is coconut pudding, haupia, which is a bit different than the Chinese version, and a slice of taro, the purple root that gives rise to Poi (see above).
The atmosphere was very good and the night started off with "traditional" entertainment...a woman singing old-fashioned karaoke songs....or at least that's what it seemed like to me. :) It was funny, though I wouldn't consider it traditional, but hey, I'm just a tourist!
Later came the hula school performing all sorts of dances to live music. The school had 3 generations of students dancing, and they had many dress changes!
The young girls doing their number.
All of the ladies dance the final number. The girl in the middle was the emcee and musician as well.
The Hawaii theatre lit up at night
One morning we got up and took the bus to see the Pearl Harbour memorials. Here we arrive in boat to the USS Arizona memorial.
The restored battleship Missouri is seen in its original position
Within the Arizona memorial is a list of those who died on the day Pearl Harbour was attacked
You can still see parts of the sunken battleship
We even noticed traces of oil in the water, but weren't sure if that was from the original battleship.....
Back over at the Pearl Harbour visitor's centre there were more things to see, such as this Japanese kaiten. This torpedo was designed to hold a person inside to control its trajectory. In theory there is an escape door on top for the pilot to get out, but no one who piloted one of these made it out alive....
The Ala Wai canal, which marks the northern border of Waikiki
Crazy Waikiki
Body boarders riding the waves
Sunset in Waikiki
A very popular restaurant in Waikiki--we ventured into the long line but it didn't take long, and we were glad we went in! The fresh made udons with various soups and toppings were delicious!!!
You can choose tempura or other bits of onigiri (rice balls wrapped with seaweed and with different fillings) to go with your udons!
Several guys making udons, serving soup, adding toppings etc..
Another rainbow! :)
Pipeline, another mythical surf spot
On the side of the road there are always stands selling pineapple chunks, coconut bits, drinks etc. We stopped here and bought a coconut snack from a little girl and her grandma--they looked mighty bored.....
Who do we call for more information?
The Laie Hawaii mormon temple
The grounds are amazingly beautiful, with fountains and perfectly manicured gardens
The Brigham Young University belongs to the church!
The view from Diamond Head, the famous crater just east of Waikiki
Waikiki as seen from Diamond Head
The southeast coast
It's too nice to be in the gym, so let's bring the gym outside!
Look, mountains--there are more than just beaches in Hawaii!
The Punchbowl Crater--home to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The busy downtown streets below seem so far from the silence of the crater
East coast beach--I forgot which one...maybe Kailua?
Cool tree shadows! :)
Outrigger clubs are everywhere!
Yay!
Halona Beach cove... a tiny beach that you have to climb down to reach...and not an easy climb at that! We stopped to look at the Halona Blowhole (a space in the rock where the water from the sea comes shooting up like a whale's blowhole) but the force wasn't very impressive that day.....maybe in the winter it'd be more spectacular!
I just couldn't resist putting these in, though there are a lot! A selection of the beautiful colours and styles of Hawaiian plant life! Of course there are many many more.....the streets look so much brighter and happier with the multicoloured plants!
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