DeJaVu-Hawaii Style
From 2007 World Tour in Oahu, United States on Sep 13 '07
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The flight over the pacific was spotted with turbulance making it a rough-ish trip. I found it almost impossible to sleep given we did not have the Qantas Skybeds I was anticipating in business class. We had a fairly smooth trasition through arrivals (given we couldn't find my luggage as the bright pink identifying strap on my bag went missing). We got through immigration and customs quickly then waited for our hotel transfer. Of course we were the last hotel visited by the shuttle, but this gave us a good first look at downtown Waikiki.
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On arrival I think we both just wanted to have a little nap to refresh, but of course our room wasn't ready given it was only midday. We did have access to a "hospitality room", which gave us access to showers to freshen up. We then picked up the hire car from Hertz which was conveniently located in the hotel lobby. I think we were automatically upgraded, which normally would be great, but given I ordered a smaller Corolla and we ended up with a Ford Taurus, making it that much harder to navigate the streets of the uS with a large car. We decided to move the car to a Hotel car space and just walk around the local area.
ABC - All Blocks Covered...
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I was starting to get hunger pangs so we scoped out the local cafes and restaurants. We came across Wolfgang Pucks Express, which seemed to offer fresh salads, pizza, pasta and sandwiches. We has eaten at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant before in LA and decided that it would probably be safe to eat here (meaning not too greasy and bad for us!!). We ordered a Chinous Salad (Shin-wah) which was Asian greens with chicken, crispy fried won-tons with honey-mustard dressing, as well as a pepperoni pizza. It was a short wait while they cooked it fresh and it didn't last long. I was once again not surprised but more amazed at the size of the extras you could buy - cookies and slices of cake three times the size of what you would normally buy at home.
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After satisfying our hunger we walked part of the Waikiki strip, looking at the view and the people. Joe thought it looks just like Cairns. I commented on how many people don't wear hats here. Standard dress is short and thongs which makes us feel right at home. It feels like about 30 degrees and humid. We note there is a chain store here called ABC - which the bell-boy later says stands for "All-Blocks-Covered". It sells souveniers, food and alcholhol - about the size of a standard 7-11 - but you do find one on every block - somtimes one at each end of a block!! Joe bought his obligatory hawaiian shirt, and I got a few trinkets to take home. By this time I was nearly asleep on my feet so we decided to head back to the hotel (about 4pm).
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After a mix-up with the room key which saw us with a repeat visit to reception, we both collapsed for a power-nap, which ended up being a full-sleep taking us both through to the following morning. We are now raring to go!!
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