PART TWO - HONOLULULULU AND WAIKIKIKIKIKI BEACH
Where are we? And why are all the words so long and complicated? And why does everyone keep saying Aloha! to us? You quickly learn to say that every time [its the standard greeting, and actually means more than just ‘Hello’]. You also learn to say ‘Mahalo’, which is ‘thank you’. Otherwise everyone uses English, except for the thousands of Japanese tourists who, presumably, have their own inscrutable Oriental way of dealing with such matters
Ah, it seems to be about 1400 local time, which would be 0400 in UK I think. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, 10 hours time difference which I will not worry about. We check in at Reception, as one does, and are given our key cards for our
Ocean View room on the 28th floor of the 36-floor Oceanarium tower. Why are we staying here? Well, call us dirty if you must, but we are smokers and this is one of the few establishments that has smoking rooms
I guess I would rate it as 3* … nice enough, clean and well maintained, but not exactly glossy marble and gold-plated taps. Suits us nicely: we are not DYKWIAs ... yet
There are few nice touches, like the collapsible water pouches issued at checkin - and there are chilled water dispensers installed on the ground floor to fill them from.
The hotel has a restaurant with a wall of huge aquarium. Not very inspiring, TBH, as it’s mainly buffet meals and we never ate there. Breakfast was $24.95, Dinner $45.95 - $47.95, and as neither of us are big eaters it would have been a waste of money - and there are dozens of other places to eat anyway. it also has a very small Bar area, which we ignored as well!
Anyway, off to our lofty perch in room 2864 …
Tiny bathroom - I can stand in the middle and touch all 4 walls! However, a neat little balcony (lanai) with a view of the ocean and the extinct volcano crater of Diamond Head. Large comfy bed [very comfy, actually] and excellent pillows. It’s time for a shower, unpack, change into warm weather clothing and get out and explore the ‘hood. Temperature is about 75ºF and cloudy, with a very strong wind blowing and heavy rain forecast for tonight. As we are completely out of rhythm, we are going to seek out an in-room snack for this evening and try to be ‘normal’ tomorrow.
At which point we discover the wonder of ABC Stores. ABC is a chain of small ‘corner shops’ selling sandwiches, wraps, suntan lotion, wine/beer/sodas/milk, souvenirs, medications and a pile of other useful [and less useful] items. Most hotels have an ABC on the 1st floor [lapsing into US terminology] and there’s one every couple of hundred yards - apparently some 40 outlets in Waikiki! Eventually we discovered that they also sell one of our favourite everyday NZ Sauv Blancs, so we were sorted with a bottle of that from the chiller cabinet and a couple of tasty fresh wraps … after which it was bedtime at 1930.
We slept soundly through the overnight storm, which uprooted trees and brought down power lines all over the Hawaiian Islands, and awoke at 0630 to greet the sunrise.
So - this is Waikiki Beach. Hmmm, not quite what one expected. A fairly narrow strip of sand, backing on to the 3-lane one-way busy main street that is Kalakaua Avenue (which I shall refer to as the High Street, as its easier to type/spell). I will let a few subsequent pictures show you the area, which is full of VERY high-end shops and assorted hotels.
THINGS TO DO, AND PLACES TO GO.
For brevity I’ll just list a few including: Pearl Harbor, The Zoo and the shopping centers at Ala Moana and the Royal Hawaiian.
Pearl Harbor. We booked the “Stars and Stripes” tour with Roberts on-line from UK - a slightly scary $196 for the two of us, but affording fast processing and transportation. Pickup from the hotel at 0610! We had mixed feelings about it. The main Memorial site lacked any dignity, due to the large numbers of tourists. The Museum was a bit sparse. The sunken USS Arizona memorial was … OK. The tour of the battleship USS Missouri was fine, took about an hour to complete. All a bit ponderous, to be honest, and only 2-3 hours of real content … we finally got back to base at 1520, 9 hours after we left!
The Zoo. A nice little Zoo, and only a few hundred yards for the hotel. Quite interesting construction, and a decent range of species.
Ala Moana Apparently the biggest ‘outdoor’ Mall in the US, or the World, or the Universe. Stacked with high-end stores: no thanks, I have no need to spend stupid money on a clothe just because it has a designer label
Royal Hawaiian Center. Nice place, but again all high-end stuff. I can only assume the Japanese tourists lap it up.
“The High Street”. Yet more high end, although punctuated by ABC stores every other corner
There is a large collection of stalls selling tourist stuff in Duke’s Lane.
Army Museum Quite nice, actually. Built in part of the defences of Hawaii built by the Americans in the 19th century when they took over the Islands. Loads of informative displays inside - worth an hour or so.
Eating places abound. Let Google and TripAdvisor be your friends! We particularly liked
LuLu's (see pics below) for good food, atmosphere, location and sensible prices - with a useful ABC on the 1st floor
(see pics below, we went there twice)
Getting about was easy and free … we walked! However, to get to Ala Moana we took the Pink Line trolley … $2 a ride, complete with running commentary. Go to the
Waikiki Trolley website for details, including their route map.
That should suffice for now … this is supposed to be about flying, not ‘my holiday’
I will just finish this Section with some general scenery by day and night!
The "Twin Towers" of the Pacific Beach.
... with Ocean View!
Diamond Head
The Massive Marriott - yes, both Towers!
Marriott by night
