Hawaii,
Tuesday, 2013-1-29
It is very cold this
morning in Calgary, and the weatherman says that with the wind chill factor the
temperature is -36C. It seems a good time to leave the city. Fong drove us to
the airport. I let her took back the heavy parka to reduce my luggage. Ching
insisted on taking her three layers of jacket and sweater with her.
We carried two
backpacks, one small notebook computer bag and one hand bag. When I wanted to
load the computer bag in the overhead compartment, a young steward said that I
should place the small bag under the seat. I ignored him, and he said it again.
He had stepped on my weak spot, and I stared at him and said if there was
anything wrong if I wanted to put it in the overhead compartment. He said that
the airplane was full, and it would be better to put the computer under the
seat. The bag was only one inch thick, and he was apparently just want to
exercise his authority. I simply ignored him. In the past, I had an experienced
of leaving the computer bag under the seat and forgot about it when I
disembarked. Fortunately, it found its way to the Lost and Found in the
airport. I later found out that this was a new policy of Air Canada of asking
the passenger to put the second carry-on bag under the seat. I think that they
should have enforced the size of the carry-on luggage as some of them were
really huge.
When the stewardess made the announcement, she said that
the staff on board spoke English, French
and German. It was the first time that I heard that German was mention on-board of Air Canada flight. It proved that there was a large and influential German
community in Calgary.
It became cloudy as we flew over the Rocky, and it did
not improve until we landed in Vancouver.
We went through the US security check when we went to
take the connecting flight from Vancouver to Honolulu. I know that US had
established its own security and custom office in many major Canadian airports.
I didn't think that It had the same arrangement in other nations in Europe and others. I
wondered if US would allow Canada or other nations to set up something similar
in US airports. The only justification that I could think of was US desire for
having a more stringent control over its border after the attack on September
11. And it probably was a compromise to stop the US from taking a more severe
action like demanding a visa for all border crossings for Canadian.
In general, I have the dislike of the staff in the
security check in the airport, and took a none cooperative attitude toward
them. After my computer bag went through the x-ray, the clerk signaled to his
colleague that they should check it. They asked me to pull out the computer
from the bag, and asked me to open the lid of the computer. Another clerk took
the bag through the x-ray the second time. I had the feeling that one should
not touch anything on the bench unless it was asked by the security staff.
Otherwise, they would feel that we were interfering with their job. My computer
was the only thing lying on the middle of the long bench, another clerk came
and told me that I should have move the computer to the end of the bench to
speed up the process. I didn't speak a word and just watch him what he would
do. He took my computer and moved it.
The International flight terminal for Air Canada was very
spacious but had not much activity. I was disappointed that I didn't get a
window seat. The airplane was an old Boeing 767, it only had monitors hanging
on the ceiling. Our seat was on the last row, and next to us were two empty
seats next to the window. I asked the stewardess if I could move there, but she
said that the seats were reserved for the crews according to the union
contract. Later I saw some of them taking turn in eating their lunch there.I
preferred that they reserved a less favorable seats but not the window seat.
The ocean was covered under heavy cloud most of the time,
and It remained so until we landed in Honolulu. We only had a few glimpse of
the island from the plane when we landed.
In the airplane, a Chinese woman of over 50 came to talk
to Ching. She was from Edmonton and she came with her husband. She told Ching
that the 5-days tour that they took was the most practical and economical one.
The 7-days tour that we took included the visit to the Hawaii and the Maui
islands, and the air fare to these two islands added more than $550 to the cost
of the tour. We were met by a driver of the tour company at the airport. The driver was keen in introducing additional
tours or excursions that we could add to our itinerary. He probably would
collect some commission from the sale.
I learned on the Internet that Marriott offer discount to
senior. When we registered at the Marriott Resort in Waikiki, the staff at the
front desk confirmed that they offer $60 discount a night for the senior if we
made the booking ourselves. But the travel agent had not passed this benefit to
us. The room was large and comfortable and it had two double beds. The brochure
from the travel company indicated that 4 travelers could occupy one room at no
extra cost. It would be very economical if we traveled in 4 persons.
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| ABC stores |
After checking-in we went down strolling on the major
street Kalakaua Ave next to the beach. We saw many young Japanese tourists. The major
point that caught my eye was the many ABC stores. It sale souvenirs, things
that tourist would need, candy, drinks and other junk food. It also had
sandwiches and other snack foods. There was at least one ABC stores in all
buildings in Waikiki, and some could have several. We later learned that they
were 52 stores in Waikiki and they were own by Japanese. They had monopolized
the business. We bought some foods from this store and ate them in the hotel
for our dinner.
Hawaii,
Wednesday 2013-1-30
Waikiki was bounded by Ala Wai Canal on the west and
north, Kapahulu Ave on the east, and the rest was beaches. The beaches ran from
southeast to northwest. Starting from the Waikiki Aquarium on the east, there
was Queen’s Surf Beach where the Queen used to play. Next was the Kuhio Beach
which was close to our hotel and could be seen from our balcony. A 100 m long groin had been constructed from the shore at the termination of Kapahulu Ave to
the water, and this groin was connected to a straight wave breaker northward for
about 330 m, and the wave breaker was terminated on the shore near Ulunu Ave.
This structure enclosed the water and beach to form a lagoon. Another groin was constructed near the termination of Ohua Ave and divided the lagoon into
two sections. We could see this part of the beach from our balcony. There were
several cuts in the sea wall to allow small boats to enter the lagoon. Waikiki was originally a wetland with some fish ponds and taro fields. It then became the vacation retreat for the royal family of Hawaiian king. Foreign visitors started to come in 1830, and in 1920, the Ala Wai Canal was constructed to drench the wetland, and turned Waikiki to what it is today.
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We slept well, and when we were up, we found that our room
had a balcony. Looking west through the gap of two high rise towers, we saw the
lagoon near the termination of Ohua Ave. And further north we saw the more
towers along the shore of Waikiki. With the help of a zoom lens, we could see
very clearly the beach in front of the famous pink Royal Hawaiian hotel which was built in 1927, and a few groins
further north of the hotel. Our hotel was on the eastern edge of Waikiki, and
therefore, looking across the street from the balcony, we saw most of the
buildings in Waikiki. They were like bamboo shoots pointing straight to the
sky. Looking east through a gap between two towers, we saw the mountain, the
housing on its flank and the golf course on its foot, and a small section of
the canal.
We walk north on the beach at 8:3. The beach was in good shape thanked to the recent beach maintenance project in replenishing new sands to the beach. There were not yet
many people on the beach but there were many already in the water waiting for
the next wave on their surf board. There were more people on the beach as we
walked north of the lagoon. Many of them were receiving their lesson on surfing.
I thought that a surfer would lie down on the boards and use their hands to paddle
to deeper water or seeking a better wave, but here for the first time, I saw them
standing on the boards, and use an oar to paddle. At a distant, they seemed
standing on the water.
There was a groin west of Royal Hawaiian, and the beach
on the other side (west) of the groin had completely disappeared except some
pockets probably maintained by constant replenish of the sands. The stretch of
the shore was protected by sea wall. The waves were pounding on it as we walked
along. There was another groin at the eastern edge of Fort DeRussy Beach. This
groin had collected the sands from the shore further east and formed a nice
beach on its east side. However, the groin didn't cause any erosion on the
beach on its other side. Actually the beach became wider as we walked further
west to where the beach terminated at Duke Kahanamoku Lagoon. This is probably due to the same beach maintenance project. In the Fort DeRussy Park,
we saw about 60 people standing around a huge tree holding hands in hands doing
some exercises. In China, this was quite common but we seldom saw this in this
part of the world. Some patches of the lawn in this park looked very nice.
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There were many surfers practicing their skill in the
lagoon. Further west was the outlet of Ala Wai Canal, and a marina. There were many big trucks parking on the road
in the marina property next to the lagoon. They look like the utility trucks
used for making movie. Many people were standing at a distant looking. Ching
wanted to take a photo of the crowd, but one man standing in front of the crowd
said that no photograph was allowed. I saw no proper sign of it, and saw no
reason on how he got the authority to make that demand. We walked away, and
then I took the same photo using my powerful zoom lens. The beach here was called
Kahanamoku Beach, and in my opinion, it
was the best beach in Waikiki. However, there were not many people taking
advantages of it.
We walked back at
10:00 and there seemed to be more people on the beach. Actually there were a
lot more people on the beach than in the water. There were many stalls offering
surfing lesson. The waves were only a foot or two, and the water was free of
vegetation and made the beach looks clean. But I prefer the beach in Borocay in
Philippine and the beach in Lombok. We stopped at a stall on the beach front at
the eastern edge of Fort DeRussy, and bought a portion of fried beef with rice
and served with lettuce salad as our breakfast and lunch on the beach. It
tastes good. We passed in front of the Royal Hawaiian, and saw that they had put up a temporary fence in front of their low wall claiming more than 10 m wide corridor to be elusively for their guests. I didn't know how could they did it.
.
Waianae Mountain Range ran in parallel with Ko’olau and spanned
the northern part of the west coast. Its length was only about half of Ko’olau.
It was high at its northern part and became lower at its southern part. Like
Ko’olau, it was also the remnant of a much larger ancient shield volcano. The
broad valley between these two mountain ranges had the shape of a saddle.
We returned to the hotel at noon, and had some rest. At
13:30, the tour guide, who was also the driver, came to pick us up to visit the
Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie at the north end of O'ahu Island. The guide
was taking his girl friend to go with us. I asked him to give me the seat next
to the driver so that I could take photos along the way. We drove west along
Ala Wai Blvd and crossed the canal at Mccully Street. We entered Lunalilo Fwy (HW
#H1) going west, and then turned to Likelike Hwy (HW #63) going north. This
highway ran along one of the many valleys on the western flank of Ko’olau. Soon
we saw the high and rugged ridge of Ko’olau blocking the road in front of us.
When we came closer, we found a tunnel going through the mountain.
As soon as we came out of the tunnel, we immediately saw
the high, steep and rugged cliff of Ko’ola. Its top was hidden under a heavy
mist. We passed HW #H3, and turned north into Kahekili Hwy (HW#83). For about 5
km, we passed the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park where a famous Chinese
general Zhang Xueliang 张学良 and his mistress 赵四小姐
were buried. Zhang was the young general who detained Jiang Kaise将介石
when he inspected the troop in Xian. He demanded that Jiang declared war against the invading Japanese forces. This changed the Chinese modern history.
The cemetery also had a Japanese Shinto shrine, and I wondered if it
commemorated the invading Japanese soldiers who died during the attack of the Pearl Harbor.
We saw the ocean at Kahaluu, and for the first time we
saw the small inhibited Mokolii Island also known as the Chinaman’s Hat Island
because of its shape. Here the road merged into Kamehameha Hwy and we continued
going north. The threat of the precipitous cliff of Ko’olau was always in front
or on the left of our side.
We stopped at Tropical Farms west of Moli’i Pond to
sample macadamia nuts which had been coated in many different flavor. There
were many large trees in the compound. And we also cracked open the fresh nut
and ate it. It tasted not much different from the roasted one. Hawaii was the
only state in US that grew coffee, and they also sale the Hawaiian coffee in
the store.
We continued travelling north. The road ran close to the
shore, and it was not much higher than the sea level. The beaches were narrow
in this area. The waves broke at far distance from the shore indicating that
the bottom of the ocean near the shore could be rocky or full of corrals. The
shoulder of the road on the beach side was much wider than the width of a car
to facilitate people to stop enjoying the beach. We saw many fishermen fishing
on the road side. The house with the beach frontage was protected by sea walls.
And we also saw houses on stilts probably against flooding from tsunami. It had caused a serious damage in properties in 1952 in Kaika Bay in the north shore of the island, in 1957 in Laie Point not far from the Center that we were visiting, and in 2011 in Haleiwa and Keehi Lagoon. We passed a large Punalu’u
Beach, but liked other smaller beaches we had seen along the road, we didn't see any people on the beach.
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The Polynesia Cultural Center was just a theme park for
tourists. It had the villages of Samoa,
Aotearoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti and Tongo. It was built on the land belong to Brigham
Young University Hawaii. Its campus was next to the center. The majority of the
employees in the center were the students in the university. There was a performance of drum beatings and conch blowing in Tonga village. The most interesting demonstration was in Samoa village where
there was a demo of making fire by rubbing hibiscus woods, and a quick peeling
of the coconut husk using a wooden stick with a sharp end. In Indonesia, we stuck
an iron bar in a ground and used its sharp chisel end to do the peeling. He then cracked open the coconut using a rock smaller than his fist, and started shredding the nut using a shredder by rubbing the inner meat of the nut against the sharp teeth of the tool which was similar to that we used in Indonesia. The
man who performed it was short and stocky and was very humorous. He said that
he was a professor in the university. Toward the end of the performance, a man
quickly climbed up a tall coconut tree like a monkey. And when he reached its
top, he freed both his hands, and made the gesture of jumping to the next tree.
We ended it by taking a boat tour in the man-made canal through the villages.
In the village, we saw the Noni tree (Morinda
citrifolia). This was a very common tree in Indonesia, and its mature fruits
fell and littered the ground. We used to its pungent order when we accidentally
stepped on it. The tour guides all strongly recommended to us its healthy
value, and advised us to buy some pills from its extraction in healthy food
store. They claimed that Hawaiian were immune of high cholesterol, high blood
pressure and high blood sugar because they had a regular intake of this fruit
or its product.
At 18:30, we had buffet dinner consisted of some hot
plates, salad, deserts and fruits. The foods were not fancy but were OK And at
19:30, we went to a big arena to watch some local dancing. The driver had told
us several times in the car that if we watched till the show was finished at
21:30, we ran the risk of getting back to our hotel after midnight because of
the heavy traffic on the two lanes small highway. Therefore, he advised us that
it would be better if we left after the intermission at 20:30. And that was
what we did as many of us in the group have to get up early tomorrow morning to
catch other tour. If I had the choice, I would rather skip this tour and show
and did something different altogether. And therefore, to me it was a rather
disappointing day.
Ching was having a good time as she met several
interesting Chinese women travelling with their university daughters who spoke
English..From them we learned that the Chinese now were well traveled, and
some of them did it on their own rather than buying a touring package in China.
And they traveled with their children because they spoke English, and had
learned the trick of do it yourself travel to save money.
The hotel provided free Internet access only in the
lobby, and we had to pay an extra $14 a day to have access in the room. It was
a rip off.
More photos could be viewed in the lku99999 Picasa photo albums in Google.
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