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Published: September 3rd 2010
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The hostel in Honolulu
The top floor of this hotel was the hostel in Waikiki. No One Wants to be that Traveller But...
After departing Sydney at 6PM on the 26th I landed in Honolulu at 7:45AM on the 26th. I know that's just what happens but I still thought it was crazy.
The flight was ok - I tried not to think to much about the prospect of being denied entry to the USA or about my bag not being there. I saw "The Losers" (not the worst film) and got some sleep.
I approached customs preparing for the worst. If JetStar wanted to see a visa waiver, seventy six different airline tickets and my underwear, then surely US customs officials were going to get the surgical gloves on and dig deeper?
Instead, I got my passport stamped, my photo taken and my fingerprints scanned (which was a far less hilarious moment than I anticipated) and sent through. Not so much as a casual, "where you off to next?" I was too relieved to even be pissed off at JetStar.
Until I got to baggage and, as anticipated, my bag had not made the flight.
I spoke to the baggage official (there was a line, apparently bags aren't that high of a priority for JetStar)
A Bud and a Miller's
My first American beers. then headed through and jumped on the shuttle bus.
I was taken to my hostel, "The Waikiki Backpacker's Penthouse", which was the entire top floor of a 6 floor building. It was clean enough, had a pool and was only a few blocks away from Waikiki beach.
I was totally buggered but knew that I had to battle through the day to get on top of jet lag. So I went down to the street to have a walk around and try and get my bearings.
An itemised list of what's in my backpack:
- Pair of black leather shoes
- Clothes for the wedding - a white shirt and grey trousers
- Two packets of blu-tac
- A travel towel
- Book - "The Kite Runner"
- A pen and travel diary
- Thumb drive
- Some US cash and my passport
On top of this, I was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, Dunlops and carrying a large black coat (it had been chilly in Sydney). I dropped off the coat off at the hostel but the rest of it was coming with me - I wasn't risking losing any of it before the wedding.
My first port of call was to pick up a pair of boardies. The shopping in Waikiki is world renowned (read expensive) so I hit the local markets and got a pair of sweet floral tourist boardies for $15. I got changed and then went looking for a feed.
I got a Philly Cheese Steak which is exactly what it sounds like - cheese and steak. It was big, looked gross but tasted ok. I sat on the canal eating it, and was certain that someone was having a laugh at my expense because it seemed to be raining on me but it was clear skies overhead. I later learned that it was raining in the mountains miles away but the wind carries the rain over the city, so at any time you can get a light shower without any cloud warning. In 30+ heat, it's actually quite pleasant.
I dropped in to an internet cafe, had an email from JetStar saying my bags were on the way and dropped a line to my Mum and the Northern English waitress from Newtown cafe (I may or may not have been a snivelling little girl saying how much I hated Hawaii and just wanted to be home with her in that particular email).
I wandered down to Waikiki in the afternoon and had a little wade through the water. But with one pair of boardies, one pair of jeans and one pair of undies (I'd been wearing them for a good 36 hours and they had another 24 to go) I wasn't game to get any of my clothes wet. I also wasn't keen to have to pay money to sit under an umbrella, so I spent the afternoon under a tree reading my book and dozing.
For the evening I had a feed at a local food court. Then I figured that I'd been in the states for far too long without beer, so I went to the local ABC store (they're on every block but don't sell David Attenborough DVDs) and picked up a Bud and a Miller's. I drank them on the canal, listened to some Pavement on my iPod and had a brief yarn with some locals i.e. a couple of bums who asked me for a smoke then gave me the Hawaiian-finger-thumb-surf's-up sign when I told them I was fresh out.
I went back to the hostel, watched a little America's Funniest Home Videos (I though Bob Saget presented that show) and was in bed by 8:30.
Honolulu - I wasn't impressed. It was just a bunch of high rise buildings on a beach. The water was a beautiful blue, I'll give them that, but I grew up ten minutes from Bar Beach - you gotta do better than that to impress me. The whole place just reminded me of the Gold Coast and I've never been a fan of the Gold Coast...
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