It was fun! It was too short, and it's definitely over... My trip to Hawaii was planned last minute in between two jobs. I booked a flight and a hotel, packed a few things and went... One goal: do nothing and escape, a sort of "retreat" in a way. I went alone and I must say that was an experience on its own :) I don't think I had ever traveled alone before and I was a little worried of getting bored.. Well, now I now I can do nothing for extended periods of time without the slight hint of boredom :-)
So what did I do? A lot of nothing by the beach and by the pool, drove around the island in a Jeep in the last three days, met new friends, ate at various restaurants and drank a lot of Mai Tais. They have really good Mai Tais, even at the airport! I barely used my laptop (and only to look up addresses and maps) and disconnected from the work world quite effectively, that was cool. I must say, I love Hawaii!
I stayed at the Waikiki Sand Villa hotel, a cheap but decent hotel two blocks away from Waikiki beach and with a decent pool. The hotel was clean and the staff were very helpful. They also have a nice caesar sald and good french fries which can help after too many mai tais ;) It's very close to the main strips in Waikiki (Kalakaua Ave & Kuhio Ave) where most shops & restaurants & bars are in Waikiki. And in case you get bored and you're a single male, starting at about dusk you'll have lots of sexy hot friends on Kuhio Ave wanting to talk to you and try to get you to "go play" :-)) (I didn't go play -- I had Mai Tais in mind.)
I'm glad I took some time to go around the island as Oahu has lots of beautiful places all around. It is a tropical island after all and the overcrowded Waikiki wouldn't let you see that. I rented a Jeep thinking I'd be happy to go on secret trails were I to find any, but I'm finding out now (dealing with Enterprise Rent-a-Car which is trying to claim I did something to their hood that I never did) that going on sand or off-roading with a Jeep violates the contract and voids any warranty you'd have purchased with them. Good to know! Next time, rent a real convertible ;) Driving around was lots of fun though, and it brought back a lot of memories from when I was there back in 1998 (Clin d'oeil Kristell! :) ) I'll be back, oh yeah, one day, I'll be back.
I've put up all the photos I ended up taking on a Hawaii picasaweb album but as of right now, it's a massive dump with no captions, lots of duplicates and nothing edited. Be warned, lots of stuff.
Until next time... Aloha!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Hawaii wrap-up
The phone that made it all happen
All the photos on this blog (well, except this one and another one) were taken and published with this phone. It's a Sony-Ericsson K790a which has a built-in Blogger integration: take a picture, chose "Blog This!", type in a title and some text and poof! It appears on your blog without having to do anything else. It's just awesome :-) All the photos were taken "live", i.e. they were taken on the spot on published on the spot. Those who followed the blog everyday got some live-taste of Hawaii ;)
The phone was lent to me by Jessica from the Blogger team. Thanks Jessica, it was great!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Can I go back?
A super short live memory of Ala Moana state park beach, right next to waikiki. I want to go back already! :)
Home!
Well almost, just a drive away.. I must say I'm not quite used to being up that early. SFO has such a lovely weather, too ;)
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Ah ha! Mai Tai forever!
Who knew they had good mai Tais in the airport! I'll enjoy them till the last minute ;)
Reasonable lines..
I think I'll make it this time.. Although I have to go back to enterprise to deal with them, they spotted a dent on top of the hood that the previous agent missed so they're blaming me :@ 'someone sat on your hood' she claims. Hmmm.
Last beach
One last beach moment before heading to the airport.. I'm planning on not missing my flight this time ;) Just one last swim!
Hungry kitties
A bunch of abandoned kitties that live in the rain forest and seem really happy when a skinny 80 year old woman shows up once a day with food. A couple of mongoose (sp?) come to steal some food and nip at the cats' hind legs.
Goodbye Honolulu!
Diamondhead crater on the left, Honolulu and Waikiki on the right.. I don't think I want to leave!
Manoa falls
Very pretty. Well inside the rainforest and yet i still have phone connectivity (lucky me i can still blog photos!)
On the way out
I came with one bag, but last minute oh-no-i'm-so-late packing seems to have multiplied things..
Monday, July 30, 2007
...And
Mai Tai! No friends yet but I still have to treat my last night :) This one comes from Duke's Waikiki barefoot bar, right on the water. Cool!
Driving towards the rain
Took me a half hour to prepare jeepy for the tropical rain.. Now i'm ready to go!
Yanagi Sushi
I just realized I didn't list the name of that awesome sushi place last night so here it is, I'm making up for it now :)
| Yanagi Sushi 762 Kapiolani Blvd Honolulu, HI 96813 (808) 597-1525 Get directions Open Mon-Sat 11am-2pm, 5:30pm-2am; Sun 11am-2pm, 5:30pm-10pm |
Home safe
I spent a really cool evening with my new friends (3 brothers and sisters, one wife) although there was some last minute family drama... We might meet up tomorrow might for more fun.. More Mai Tais, whoo hoo!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Sun is setting
I'm on the east coast behind the mountains so i won't get a pretty picture over the Ocean though...
Healthy again
Because i know you guys care a lot about what i'm eating ;) i'm about to embark on a jeepy trip around the island so i need something good in my body.. (If you pay attention to the post dates you'll notice the breakneck pace of my days...)
Emptying out
Stayed there the whole time, turned out to be high energy :) And somehow my tab ended up being $25 for food and a 'few' drinks! Someone else is going to be suprised.. ;)
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Filling up...
11:30, the Ocean is slowly starting to fill up. Music is decent but not quite electro enough.. Let's see how it evolves.
Way early...
Tonight is the Piranha Room at the Ocean Club, one of the big clubs in Honolulu. Piranha Room is a special event that happens on the last Saturday of the month for a few months. The theme tonight is "Adult Playhouse"... Apparently showing up at 8:50pm for food is still ridiculously too early :) Tourist!
Friday, July 27, 2007
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