Getting around – Waikiki

Getting around – Waikiki


Now we are getting really serious!

Waikiki central means Kalakaua Avenue. It’s the main road going through Waikiki past Waikiki beach. Parallel to it is Kuhio Avenue which is less glamorous but it’s here were you find the car rental place, the dry cleaner and laundry place (just a few meters up from the car rental) and many other shops.

They make you not forget who invented surfing

Here is the very nice day/night market where all these towels come from.

In fact I used to buy one of those each time I visited the island. Most of them are still in my possession, (see above) Some ended up in my house in Kampala where my boys enjoy the ‘exoticism’ of having a Hawaii towel to dry them after a shower. And yes, I have bought almost all of them at the local night market. Here you can get all the nig nag you can dream of.

There is (one of many) ABC shops (I guess the Hawaiian equivalent to Tescos) where I tend to buy my stuff for my breakfast and my wine for the evening)

Both my hotels, the Sheraton as well as the Aqua have one of those in immediate proximity.

There is the grand old Lady, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel with its pink façade.

And not very far from it, also on the beach side of things is my favourite bar/restaurant. Once it was called the Blue Diamond. Now it goes by the name of the Dukes

There is a nice story from way back, and I guess it is the reason why I kept going to the place. During my first visit I went there – it was still called the Blue Diamond then. Set at my table and started smoking a pipe. In those days smoking was still allowed in restaurants. Soon the waitress came and told me, I could not smoke a pipe, but only cigarettes. I was stubborn. The Manager came with the same message. I told him, let’s do a quick market research survey. We go to the four to five tables around me and ask the patrons there, whether they prefer me smoking about 1 pipe during the evening or 10 to 15 cigarettes. The result on all tables was uniform and 100% in one direction. WE PREFER PIPE!


That convinced the manager and from this day on, and for many years to come, I was known as Mr pipe and allowed to smoke a pipe in the place. Mind you, these days you can’t smoke anywhere inside, let alone restaurants. Only in the public areas.

That produced another smoke related story a few years ago. Sitting OUTSIDE near the pool and along the beach in the garden of the Sheraton, Bruce, my favourite waiter in this place for some years, informed me – as soon as I came in – that smoking was not anymore allowed. But he found a solution to it. He asked me to take my seat at a table which was directly positioned next to the rail which separates the restaurant from the footpath along the beach. Now he pushed the table a bit under the rail and said.

If you hold your pipe outside, on the beach side of the rail, you can have it there and I won’t worry if you, every now and then, take a puff inside the garden. That’s what I call customer service. Well after all I was a regular visitor over 20 years and Bruce and I went back some time, in a friendly waiter-customer kind of way.

A little bit outside the main drag is the unavoidable Fisherman’s Wharf, worthwhile a visit and nice beach walks to be had outside the immediate tourist centrum.

And yes, you can hire a surfboard, or two, or three if you are so inclined!

On the way to Honolulu is the shoppers paradise, the Ala Moana Centre. As far as shopping centres go, quite a good place worth visiting.

And they have brought nature into the shopping mall

Here is also my favourite place for t-shirts, the Footlocker store. Here I can usually pick up 5 t-shirts for about 10 or 15 Dollar. All plain, in all colours of the rainbow. I think I now own about 25 of them.