Category: Honolulu

Went up the east coast after going up the Pali Highway and finding the Pail Lookout again during the day. The wind up there was going close to 30 mph, but it was awesome. After about an hour of driving up amazing coasts, we pass the Polynesian Cultural Center and go on to Romy Shrimp Shack. They have a shrimp farm out in back; we share an $11 plate of shimp (1 lb.) and they go out in the truck and catch them live. Nothing frozen, so they are incredibly firm and fresh.

Will write in more detail about the Polynesian Cultural Center, but the pics are to the right. We’re trying to check out today, have one more fun day and go back tonight at 10 PM.

Breakfast: we went to Zippy’s, a local 24 hour diner chain which serves typical Hawaiian food, such as plate lunches, chili, and saimin, which is basically soup noodles. P- had the fried chicken and chili platter, while I had the Zip-min, which is basically a huge bowl of wonton mein soup with other goodies. Not bad, and 24 hours to boot!

Dessert: Shave ice at the other branch of Waiola Shave Ice, the Waiola Bakery. I had the li hing mui and pineapple, P- had the rainbow, which is strawberry, banana, and blue vanilla. Good as always. Second course of the famed Leonard’s masaladas, Portugese fried yeast donuts. Absolutely light, a thousand times better than Krispy Kreme

Along the eastern coast: drove past Diamond Head, passing Harauma Bay and the “Dragon’s Nostrils” blowhole, up 15 miles of curvy coasts with perfectly blue water. You’ll just have to see the pictures, but it was awesome.

South Pacific: at the end of the tour up the coast, we saw the closing performance of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” at a local community college. South Pacific is one of the most important musicals of the R&H canon because of its moral of racial equality and the appearance of Asian Pacific Islanders, which were groundbreaking in Broadway musicals for 1949. Fifty five years later, it was amazing to see that production actually in the South Pacific (ok, one of the most northern of the South Pacific), and to actually have all of those connections to this island, and have a very diverse cast. The production was well done, although over the course of its run, several members of the cast and crew were absent because of deaths in the family and other issues – a stage manager and a choral director took the roles of Stew Pot and Billis, and did a good job, and the previous night the director actually conducted instead of his son, who was the musical director. Good show.

Mad rush up and down the Pali Highway, mostly in 3rd gear because it was extremely rolling. Caught the last bit of light at the Pali Lookout, having a panoramic view of the eastern side of the island. Again, see the pictures, words do no justice.

Dropped back home exhausted, and then randomly tuning into the West Wing debate. The debators did an excellent job.

Saturday: Went to Shangra-La, the Doris Duke estate. We got out of the hotel like 5 minutes before the tour was supposed to leave, and that was downtown. We missed the video, but barely got to the bus just before it was getting ready to leave. We then rode to the other side of Diamond Head in a secluded harbor, something like the southern part of Hong Kong island, if you’re familiar with that. It looks so unassuming from the outside, but once you are inside, you discover an incredible collection of Islamic art covering the walls, the floors, and even the ceilings, all painstakingly collected and restored. The dining room is like a big tent pavillion in the Middle East. Outside, there is a large salt-water swimming pool, and an enclosed beach and boat jetty. Much of the intricate work was done by Doris Duke herself. If you are here, you must go and see this. Apparently, even the locals try hard to get into this place, which is limited to about 300 visitors a day.

Ward Warehouse: we had a monsterous “plate lunch”, which was the traditional lunch of the plantation workers. The defining things are two scoops (usually an ice cream scooper) of rice, one scoop macaroni salad, and your choice of a meat, which we chose fried mahimahi and stewed chicken (a cross between teriyaki and filipino adobo). We wolfed that down. Most of the other things at the mall are your typical stuff, but the real good stuff is at the Ward Fresh Market, which includes Lin’s Market, headquarters for “cracked seed”, aka Chinese mui, like salted plum, cuttlefish. We picked some marlin fish lemon/salt jerky, which was amazing. Also the Hawaiian salt was half the price of the ABC store.

Outrigger Catamaran: we dashed back to the hotel to get to the Outrigger Reef hotel, the sister hotel of the one we are staying in, for a sunset cruise in the harbor. This wasn’t just a boat, it was a racing sail cat, so it was one, very fast, and two, it was all outdoors, so we got some spray, but that was cool. The open bar was cool, too. We got to see all of the beach, went around Diamond Head, and P- saw the famed “green flash” at the moment of sunset. Super romantic, always an amazing ride, and less than half the cost of the canned tours”.

Hawaiian Music Night: We went to the Convention Center for a slackkey guitar concert by Makena. This wasn’t the watered down tourist stuff, but a one man performance intended for the locals,and the spirit showed. Slack key style basically means playing multiple parts on the same guitar, usually a bass line and a “falsetto” high part. This virtuoso can do this with both hands, meaning he can get four part harmony going at the same time. He also accompanied a slam poet, and brought on his guitar teacher for a few duets. His work is his own attempt to preserve Hawaiian culture; there is that same dicotomy that is featured in asian american studies, where how two distinct cultures can meld and coexist which not having one overwhelm the other.

More local stuff tomorrow. Check out the flikr photo stream on the left side.