panda eyes!!

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cant bloody believe it, first full day here and i fall asleep on the beach with my sun bins on and now have stupid panda eyes, not a great start. anyway arrived in honolulu yesterday absolutely shattered following early morning flight from calgary to denver (things to do in denver when you're dead=nothing, things to do in denver when you're alive=nothing! although i did buy a watch which was the only point of interest) and then here. you cant help loving hawaii as soon as you get off the plane, tropical air, awesome sunshiiiine, and even the bus journey through the shittier part of honolulu was alright. im staying at the waikiki beachside hostel and although its actually a block (yes a whole block!) from the beach its a pretty sweet setup, not just as im sharing a dorm with 3 girls. anyway after getting settled in i went for a little wander about town and couldnt believe how many hot chicks there are, sorry i really dont mean to sound sexist but after living in fernie for 4 months you kind of get used to not seeing any women, sure all the nonstop guys will back me up on this, apart from hot karl who always manages to find the ladies. what i couldnt find was a bar, everywhere is restaurants which i kind of felt like a hobo going into as everyone was dressed up and im there in shorts and thongs. eventually found somewhere not too posh looking where i could sit and have a well deserved beer. this was served by a gorgeous girl called kelli who is also travelling round central america in the next couple of months (will our paths cross again, guess we'll have to wait and see, i hope so, dang she was fine). anyway enough of my ramblings about the ladies. following the aforementioned panda eyes, beach, glasses problem i decided to to take an afternoon tour round the island however, as ive now got my travelling head on i opted to do it on the cheap. rather than paying the standard $30 for an organised tour i took the $4 public bus which pretty much goes to all the same places. the math('s, sorry stu!) geniuses among you will note that this is a $26 saving which may not seem like much but wait til i get to belize, 5 star all the way baby!! unfortuantely what i didnt count on was it taking 4 and a half hours and as i set off at about half 3 it was dark when i got back and i had no idea where to get off the bus, still alls good and i made it back to the hostel in one piece. sweet. i also saw some pretty cool things on the way, a:the north shore looks frickin' awesome and im determined to take some surf lessons then head up there b:they have the famous 'mr lube' shops here c:they have signs made by 'wanco' and d:dudes are laid back here, saw this one guy in a suit obviously heading back from work on a skateboard, how cool is that. after a tasty dinner of banana cake and papaya (part of my new healthy diet!) i sat in the lounge watching segal shoot some arab guys and got talking to ashley from south carolina who probably has a more boring job than my old one at n.u (sorry to you guys who still work there) by her own admission, aparently she does something with people tax returns. anyway we've arranged to go for dinner and drinks tomorrow (which is now today) so will have to update you all on what happens in my next exciting installment. anyho, back to todays action. there really wasnt much of it to be honest. work up at about 7, tried to learn some more spanish, it wasnt happening. went back to sleep for a bit then hit the beach at around 9, minus the glasses, to try and get rid of the panda eyes (you'll all be glad to here it was pretty successful) lounged about until around 12 and came back to check the footy updates, not alot happening, see chelsea beat the 'pool 1-0 in what was another breathtaking game between them. feeling abit active (i know, shocker!) i then decided to climb the diamond head peak which overlooks waikiki and has some pretty sweet views apparently. so with small bottle of water in hand i went to try and find the #58 bus which takes you to the bottom of the mountain. this was not as easy as it sounds, i saw them driving round town, but could i find a stop, could i f*ck! i eventually got to speak to a bus driver who told me the stop was just down the road but after waiting 20 minutes the bus hadnt come, my feet were aching, i had sunburn (really should have waited in the shade) and id drunk all my water. im ashamed to say i gave up, not the true spirit of travelling but what can i say. anyway that pretty much brings you up to date. looked for a tattooist's as apparently they're everywhere (probably right next to all the stops for the #58 bus!) but couldnt find one, quite fancy getting a hula girl (tattoo, or the real thing im not fussy). right, going to post this now but rest assured will add some more entries on a regular basis but there's not too much you can say about sitting on tropical beaches, sipping drinks with fruit in with all the beautiful people. enjoy work tomorrow guys (sorry couldnt resist, love you all)

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