Our hotel room at Hotel Renew.
First stop- International Market Place for lunch.
We shared a plate of Ahi Poke from Blue Water Shrimp at the International Market Place. Ahi Poke is a Hawaiian style cubed yellowedfin tuna sashimi salad. We really enjoyed it.
Shave ice from Island Freeze for dessert. The shave ice was served in a plastic cup/cone, with 3 favours (raspberry, mango and pineapple) and sweetened condensed milk drizzled over the top.
On our second day at Oahu and it was also Thanksgiving day in America. We took an hour hike up the Diamond Head peak. It was well worth the effort as we were rewarded with some spectacular view of Waikiki and surroundings on the top of the 232m extinct volcano. This was also the place that I got my first sunburn for the year of 2011. Tsk tsk.
Back down at the base of the Diamond Head for more shave ice. Yay!
Back at Waikiki, we shared mini cheeseburgers at the Cheeseburger in Paradise in Waikiki for a very late lunch.
Random photos:
Hawaii postie van.
Some weird (but cool) bird with red mohawk crossing the road.
Lifeguard booth at Waikiki beach.
Royal Hawaiian Hotel sticking out like a sore thumb (in my humble opinion).
We spent our third and fourth day just shopping and chilling out. We had lunch at Hau Tree Lani located in the New Otani Hotel. J had the Loco Moco- corned beef hash, cutlet of ground chuck, pork, and sausage on a bed of rice topped mushroom gravy and egg.
I had the Mahi Burger- fish fillet dipped in egg batter then grilled with sliced kamuela tomatoes, lettuce on white kaiser bun.
Getting my coffee fix at Honolulu Coffee Co.
Later in the evening and being a foodie, we decided to go to the Eat the Streets event at some carpark in South Street. Eat the Streets is an event where food trucks come together in a single location serving tasting portions of their popular dishes. We thought it would be a good opportunity for us to try some of the local cuisines. The event was located way out of Waikiki, and the only way for us to get there without a car is to take a tourist trolley to Ala Monana Center and walked about an hour to South Street. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worst. By the time we arrived at South Street, there was a storm. It was a disaster! We stood in the queue for ages waiting for our turn to order under the cold pouring rain and howling wind. We were getting worried about how to return to the hotel. There was no taxi in the area, it was getting dark and the area is not exactly tourist friendly. There was no other choice but for us to walk back. Amidst the panic, I tried to wave down a pizza car thinking it was a taxi, which it nearly stopped for me. The wind was really starting to pick up at one stage, and we decided to take shelter under an apartment block. We saw a lady entering the apartment building, and we asked if she has the number for the taxi. She invited us into her apartment while she looked up for the number. We were really surprised and touched by how trusting and helpful she was, even when she didn't know us. It warm our heart to know that there are still some kind people in the world. Anyway to cut the story short, she couldn't find the number, we excused ourselves and walked all the way back. What did we end up getting from the Eat the Streets?Ahi fried musubi with fried chicken from the Hawaii's Fried Musubi Food Truck and Guava-smoked BBQ pork pizza from Inferno's Food Truck. Really yum... but worth all the effort? Probably not.
Pearl Harbor
Bullet holes from World War II. Wow!
Hawaiian Pizza. You got to have Hawaiian Pizza at Hawaii! It's like having French Fries at France. ;D
Musubi- grilled spam on top of sushi rice. Apparently, Musubi is a popular Hawaiian snack. We came across this little japanese takeaway shop, Iyasume Musubi, tucked away in the corner which sell Musubi. Can't remember when was the last time I had spam, but wow, spam musubi is SO YUM! We were hooked! We were even thinking about getting the "WE LOVE MUSUBI" t-shirt.
We went for the Paradise Cove's Luau with recommendations from our hotel and guide books. It was a fun evening where we greeted with fresh orchids Lei upon arrival, served Mai Tai for refreshments, had traditional Hawaiian Buffet for dinner before the show starts.
For the ladies! YAY!
Snorkling at Hanauma bay.
We saw the most spectacular rainbow which seems to hover over the misty hills like an aurora. Beautiful!
Malasadas from Leonard's Bakery.
We highly recommend the Ono Hawaiian Food if you hapen to be in Honolulu and want to try traditional hawaiian food. It is located at Kapahulu Ave. We shared a combination plate which consists of Kalua pig, laulua, pipikaula, lomi salmon and haupia served with rice.
J surfing...
J chilling out at Waikiki beach.
Took a photo of Hanauma Bay from our plane to the Big Island.
Statues of Hula girls at Kona Airport.
Fairmount Orchids. A nice resort but not too happy with the service. It was located in the middle of nowhere and getting around was a huge problem for us as we do not have a car. We had to eat at the resort, which was really expensive.
We signed up for a tour that took us up to the Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain on Earth. Our tour guide, Rhett, picked us up from our hotel. We enjoyed the drive to the summit of Manua Kea. The dry barren land and rocks looks somewhat similar to Western Australia outback (e.g. Port Hedland).
We saw an owl hunting.
In case you are wondering what J was doing, he was trying to take a photo of his shadow doing the hawaiian hand loose (Shaka) sign.
The evening light was gorgeous. Great for some artistic photography...
At the summit above the clouds.
On our third day at the Big Island, we took the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter tour. It was expensive (US$450 per person) but we think it's worth it. We got a great view of the Madame Pele's lava and volcanic badlands, Hamakua Coast rainforests, sea cliffs, Kohala Mountains valleys and beautiful waterfalls.
We couldn't believe it when we were told that there is still someone living in the midst of the volcano chaos. There were 9 estates in the area and 8 of the estates have been burned down. Leaving only 1 estate sitting alone with volcano ashes and rocks surrounding it. The man who still live in the estate is nickname Lava Jack or Crazy Jack. He converts the estate to a Bed and Breakfast and apparently business has been good recently due to the volcano activity. We were told that he has to hike about an hour across the volcano ashes and rocks to get to the main road for his essentials. CRAZY!
On our way to and from the airport, we saw the whole stretch of black volcanoes rocks where "graffiti" by white pebbles. The taxi driver joked and called it the Big Island Graffiti. I wish we got enough time to create a graffiti of our own. Oh well, maybe next time...
