Skip to main content

Aloha Time

Spent the last week on our favorite American island called Oahu.  It is part of the Hawaiian archipelago in the middle of the Pacific some 2,500 miles west of San Francisco.  Honolulu is the largest city and the state capital.

Is where we landed and chilled.  It is a great blend of the natural and artificial along with history and architecture.  As in lots of hiking and grand vistas from mountain to sea if you so desire but also offers a vast variety of eat options (for someone like me) and shopping that requires a pretty coin.  The latter is mostly relegated to the Japanese crowds that arrive in droves with a yen to spend.

Here are some of the highlights of what our week was like -

1.  A hike to the eastern corner of the island where the Diamond sits.  As in Diamond head crater, so named for the  founding father of this island as in a dormant volcano (that glistened with calcite giving it an appearance of diamonds) a mere 800 feet elevation from the parking lot and just shy of a mile to the top.  My daughter and I did it early in the AM to avoid crowds and the rising heat - yes even in winter it can get warm.

Rainbows are a default occurrence with light rain showers breaking up against the sun

Looking east from the summit - you can see the Aqua and Azure and Violets of the ocean

Waikiki and Honolulu city to the west

2.  Another amazing hike that we pulled off this time was to Manoa falls - set amidst lush Jurassic park like jungles the mile long climb to see the 100 ft fall is totally worth it.






3.  Then there were fireworks - twice.  Once on Fri evening just because and then the new years lit it up all over town.  Always a fun time.



4.  Did I mention food?  Of course - this time we got to try Okinawan cuisine at AGU - a chain in Honolulu and Houston TX.  The food is delicious and different.  Minced spicy chicken in a rice bowl along with Seaweed and egg was my favorite.

Another new scene  - Shirokiya food court in Ala Moana shopping center - an Asian inspired array of cheap stalls with $1 Beer - Primo brand - best counter beer ever.


It is the first Hawaiian (pilsner) beer to be brewed in the islands but a very economical buzz to wash down the spicy Korean bbq that I ordered.

Also tried a host of ramen (noodle) places - that almost gives Waikiki a feel of a street in Tokyo.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

Greasy Dra'ch'ma

With all the furor in the media around Greece for the past couple of years I thought it would be good to list all things Greek that people use in common parlance - 1. Some of us are familiar with Greek history as being where the world's largest organized scam was born - called the Olympics. At the time this courier delivered a message by running a large number of miles and that got converted into a spectator sport. Nobody thought about what this implied? Fedex does not use any of the marathon runners instead relying on bio diesel trucks so not sure where we went from courier delivery to extracting money for tickets to watch people balance themselves on a pommel horse - which by the way is quite different from a Trojan Horse - 2. which brings me to the next invention from Greek mythology that finds use today - except used in the computer virus arena. This innocuos program is accepted by a computer since it looks friendly only to unleash undesirable effects leading to loss of s...
2 comments
Read more