Saturday, July 23, 2011

Hawaii - Honolulu

During my trip to Hawaii, I stayed at a luxury room of Shereton Waikiki with oceanfront view (the room was shared by three of cause or it would be too expensive). Through the balcony is a nice view of beach with the diamond head at the background.
Balcony view...


The bus is specially designed for tourist with its sites facing sides for sighting, and there is no window to allow the tourist enjoying the Hawaii sea breeze.

At the hotel lobby is a large statue of turtles... perhaps turtles are their symbolic animal because there are turtles swimming near the beach every late evening looking for foods. I've never seen turtles so often before.

There are also a sand made statue...
And some souvenir shops.

At the hotel's beach, there is a cafe (or pub) that we can enjoy drinks and light meals...

and enjoying sunset view. I should have been here with my lovely wife, not with colleagues :(

This (below) is the view of hotel from Diamond head.


Trees along the track of Diamond head hike.




From the Diamond head, the horizon no longer looks flat... we can see its curvature.

It has been some times I never see coconut trees. Natsukashiiiii




The views while driving along the cliffs were really spectacular! At one time I saw some seagulls flying near the cliff right beside the car window, so much like the view from the National geographic channel.


During winter, there will be full-pipe wave, but too bad the wave isn't strong during summer.

This is Hanauma bay, heard that Elvis Presley made his movie here. Honestly, I do agree that this is the nicest beach at Honolulu.




At any beach, do watch up for jellyfish. It is poisoning. My colleague got his hand bitten by it. It is really painful (according to him), but not to the extend that he will accept my offer of peeing on his hand, which people says can release the pain.

We also went to the Pearl Harbor.
See! a 'passport station'! This prove the important of Japanese tourist at Hawaii. In case you don't know, when there is a school tour, Japanese students are given a form (they call it passport some time) that they need to collect all the stamp on it from the places they are visiting.



The grave yard of US armies who passed away during the attack of Pearl Harbor.
Japanese (even with the US citizenship) were being held at refugee camp during the war.


Very famous Hawaiian burger, called the KUA'AINA burger. Must try it!

Garlic shrimp. Again, with pineapple, because it is the featuring fruit at Hawaii.


We have round the whole Honolulu island by car, it isn't so big.

'Hitachi trees' beside the road...

The kind of school bus we saw in Hollywood movie...


A compilation of footage and photos here:

Hawaii - Honolulu Night Streat

Hawaii isn't only about beach. Near the hotel where I was staying (Shereton Waikiki) is a lively night street where you can do some shopping or watch street performance.

Along the street, I saw a luxury hotel (photo below) which mainly targeting Japanese tourist. How can I tell? Well, look at the roof, it resemble some ancient Japanese castle.
Here is a fun fact: nearly 60% of Hawaii tourist are Japanese. Just count the people in the following photos and you will be convinced!
Look, nails art ad with Japanese!
A drummer. Believe it or not, His T-shirt is with histogram that synchronized with his drum. Cool!
This guy really can paint...
Magic show...
Street dancing...
You can have your name in a frame or
hand band...

This guy is singing Hawaiian songs...