26th April, 2007 - Put on the grass skirt, Aloha
The next day was once again a day of travelling as I made my way to my last stop over destination Hawaii. The flight left in the early afternoon, so there was plenty of time for me to have a breakfast and still walk around the city for a while before the shuttle bus was scheduled to pick me up for the drive to the airport.
Given the time difference, we arrived about 2 hours after we had left SF. Now I was back in the tropics. And whilst the weather over all was extremely benevolent with me over the entire trip, it is always nice to come to the Hawaiian climate with it's wonderful balmy evenings on the patio of the hotel overlooking Waikiki beach.
Caught yet another shuttle bus to go to my favourite Waikiki hotel, the Sheraton on the beach. It's well and truly a luxury hotel with all the trappings. However, thanks to my enterprising travel agent Barry I usually get a fairly cheap room in the 'manor wing' which is the least desirable location in the hotel with views of plenty of other hotels further back from the beach and no or only very little view of the beach. But who cares. I guess since living in Green Point Palace I can do without that for a few days.
For my 3 days in Hawaii I have decided to leave work aside and the trusted laptop hardly sees the light of day. As usual during my visits on the Island, I go and rent a little tinny jeep and drive around the Island. Usually I then return in the late afternoon, in time for a drink or two by the beach at my hotel bar. Sometimes I might go out for a bit of dinner but most of the meals are actually thanks to one of the many ABC shops where I get plenty of fruitsalad, some sandwiches and every now and then a bit of sushi.
I know, there are good restaurants around the place, but they also tend to be fairly expensive. The only exception I make is ordering a tiny little pizza in a cardboard box at my hotel bar. It's really a good pizza and can be had at about 6 to 7 Dollar. Bruce, one of the waiters at the pool bar recognises me from previous visits and makes a point of welcoming me back. I guess it's the pipebag which helps in the recognition business.
Apropos pipebag. Late last year Hawaii went almost completely smoke free. In other words smoking is not allowed in any bar, restaurant, hotel etc. Irrespective of whether seating is outside or inside. You are basically allowed to smoke on the street or in your own home, the rest is off limits.
I must admit that I invented an exception to that rule in that I declared my balcony at my hotel room to be a smoking area. Bruce, who I remembered as a great admirer of my pipe collection, advised me to sit at a particular table immediately adjacent to the beach walk which he then declared exterritorial bar area where I was allowed to have a puff on my pipe. Admittedly on the edge of legality
On Friday I picked up my little jeep and began my tour of the island. There are lots of places where I use to go again and again, just simply because they are beautiful and enjoyable each time. But there are also a few places which I do visit less frequently or have never been to before.
This time I decided to explore Diamond head a little bit more and drive onto/into an extinct crater of a volcano which is not very far from Waikiki. What strikes me always anew on this island are the differences in landscape and vegetation. Leave the tropical lush green vegetation of Waikiki behind, go for half an hour by car and you end up in a volcanic region with fairly dry and bushy vegetation and lots of rocks and cliffs. And drive another half hour and all of a sudden you are back into a tropical highland with banana trees, palms and large fruitbread trees (at least that's what I call them)
Given the often steep and high cliffs above the sea, some of the areas around the island are also very popular with paragliders and parachuters who hurl themselves from high rocky plateaus towards the ocean and then glide or sail as little colourful dots in the sky.
And a visit to Hawaii would not be complete for me without a visit to Waimea Falls. One of my most favourite spots on the Island of Oahu. I have described this heavenly piece of nature many times before. But it does not stop to fascinate me with its beauty and serenity. Walking up those trails through the bush and marvelling at flowering trees and plants, all by yourself and with nature offering you its beauty in such abundance and so generously is really one of the great joys in life for which I am really grateful.
Sometimes I take to a highway and let my nose decide where to go. The occasional inspiration comes from street signs and place names which mean little when I encounter them but which at this very moment seem to intrigue me and make me decide to leave the highway and see what's that all about. That's how I got to Barbers Point. It's a beach not far from Pearl Harbour but on the industrial side of things. And it's a contrast.
On the one hand you have this typical Hawaiian tropical beach with one lonely palm on the beach and in the background, not very far off, you have a huge metal scrap heap where most of the rusted metal from Hawaii ends up. It brings back the truth that whilst this island is a holiday island, it is also an island with a lot of locals who live here permanently and thus produce waste and obviously also a lot of scrap metal.
Obviously there is no tourist in sight and the only people on the beach are probably some workers from one of the near by industrial places. Hence it is a very quiet and lonely beach but not really much different to famous Waikiki beach, just that the background is slightly different. It's a touch of reality in paradise which I don't mind at all.
A comment from my mother comes to my mind. Many years back when we were having a holiday in Davos in winter, Mum commented, that a blue sky all day could really sometimes be a bit boring and she would welcome the occasional cloud in the sky.
A paradise needs clouds of reality. Maybe that's why I find the religious definitions of heaven so un-inspiring.
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