Advertisement
18/04/09 = A trip to Pearl Harbour and the Kings Village
Had a great sleep and didn’t wake up until 9am alarm = brilliant. Really needed a good sleep. Already decided to visit Pearl Harbour today, so got up, had cereal and went to catch bus to memorial. Had a long wait, but at least no bus lady and knew what to d when got on. Bus journeys in Ohau = a flat rate of $2 no matter where you go. Got on with correct change but not at all prepared for length of journey. Was a pretty big distance, but took double amount of time with all stopping. Couldn’t help but doze off. Good job that did wake up in time… 90mins later. Didn’t even know if were in right place then because was called Arizona Memorial, rather than Pearl Harbour as expected, but got off anyway.
Stepped off into boiling heat to find couldn’t even take bags into memorial, only cameras. Had to pay £3 each just to store bags = an absolute rip off, then trudge back to Memorial entrance. Pearl Harbour didn’t look at all like I had imagined. Had imagined a normal
looking harbour that could walk around freely and look at monuments/read about history. Was actually v.segmented, with memorials all barricaded off in different sections and most of them out to sea. Of the 4 sites could visit, one of them was free = Arizona Memorial. No guesses as to which one we visited. They only gave away a certain amount of free tickets per day, but we were early enough and lucky enough to get some. We had tickets for the 12:30 showing, which started with a 20min video run down of history then a trip out to visit the sunken ship.
All filed into an auditorium and watched the 20min video explaining the events that led to the Pearl Harbour attack and the subsequent American involvement in the war. The video did just that, and focussed solely on Pearl Harbour, rather than the war generally. Understood it a little better, then got on a boat to take us out to the Arizona shipwreck and memorial. Was quite a sad ride. Could see either old shipwrecks or memorials marking wreckages poking out from different places dotted around water. Lots of ships got sunk that day on Dec 7th
1941, but Arizona was one of worst hit. It tipped almost immediately, giving people v.little time to escape. Consequently, 1177 people got dragged down and died with wreck, making it a tomb for the bodies still trapped with it. Memorial for Arizona is v.impressive. A huge, clean, crisp, white structure suspended on top of the real shipwreck below.
Boat pulled up to memorial and before entering, we were asked to refrain from conversations or laughter inside. They didn’t need to ask really, wasn’t the kind of place I wanted to laugh in…didn’t even feel right taking photos. Walked through an entrance of flags into a room with huge open window block and giant holes in the floor to look down at the wreck below. Could see huge chunks of the rusty metal frame, but was had to imagine it had once been a huge and impressive ship. Would have all been v.doom and gloom had it not been for Debs’ flip flop breaking. Couldn’t help a little laugh as she had to tie the flip flop to her foot using a bobble and then walk round like a stalk; we’ve all been there.
At the far
end of the room there was the wall with over 1000 names; all the people who died on that ship that day. V.sad, especially in comparison with the v.tiny wall listing the lucky people who had survived. When had finished looking around, got back on the boat to mainland. Had a little look at the museum there, then went to have a nosey at the Bowfin submarine…only from the outside though. Ended our trip with food - the usual ending I guess - = a hotdog and crisps. A v.strange combo I thought, but obviously quite normal in America. Collected bags then and off for bus. Lucky that one was waiting and dashed to catch it. No seats left and ended up standing for whole hour and a half - definitely didn’t sleep on this journey. Was late afternoon by time got back, had a sandwich snack and then headed back out at 5:45 to watch the changing of the guards at Kings Village.
The Kings Village was a cute little place. Was a courtyard of ordinary shops built in an old village style. Really nice and the changing of the guard was pretty impressive. Still not exactly
sure why it was called the Kings Village, but then entrance was marked with Burger King and Elvis Presley outside the Hard Rock café, so maybe it was something to do with one of them? A big crowd formed for the changing of the guards, which actually wasn’t a change over, because there was nobody there to start with, it was more of a guard display. 4 of them came out with a mini march, did a v.impressive change over of weaponry and then brought down the Hawaiian flag. Surprised and pleased to see that Hawaiian flag = a mixture of American flag and ours…The old Great Britain flag gets everywhere! They finished by doing a really good show in the courtyard. A brilliant exchange of rifles and all in perfect time with each other.
Impressed by this, then wondered off to beach to watch the sunset. Still not bored of them yet. Hundreds of people down there watching it, but was a v.impressive sunset. Thought the skyscrapers and huge hotels would obscure it and make it ugly, but even they looked pretty in the fading light. Watched as the sun sunk, and then went to wlk around
the busy streets of Waikiki. Waikiki is a crazy place at night. All the huge buildings lit up, flashing skyscrapers and hotels, thousands of people walking up and down and street entertainers on every corner. This is really not a place for travelling, this is a place for holidaying. Passed the usual silver statue men, plus one really cool guy dressed head to toe in newspaper, comedians, singers, musicians, just about every talent you can imagine was scattered on those streets. Bars and restaurants lined the whole strip; Waikiki is a cool place at night...but not when you don’t have much money.
Passed a huge mall and heard lots of music and commentary inside. Went in to find a dance competition underway; something we could watch for free. The audience were the judges, so we joined in too. Was really good All the dancers were pretty good, but one dressed like Ugly Betty and doing moves to match was really funny. Nearly al voted for her, but for some reason she didn’t win. Must have been a fix!
Wondered back to hostel after that. Did an hour on internet (unbelievably behind on blog) then went to
bed some time before 10pm. Really excited for sleep and a good lay in again.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.333s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 34; qc: 164; dbt: 0.2172s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.6mb
Kayly Yu
non-member comment
You are a great tour guide. I felt like I was there in Pearl Harbor with you.