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Tom and Katy!
Annoyingly we stumbled on the mission impossible premiere... honestly we wanted to see the hand prints!Having had a great time in Australia we're now in the USA having experienced two Tuesday 25ths on the way. A first for us, crossing the Pacific and the international date line. We left Australia at 8:30pm on the 25th and arrived in Hawaii at 8:30am, also on the 25th. We went back in time... our twins in England must be one day younger than us... quite a tiring day though as you can imagine!!
We were Aloha'd from the moment we arrived. People actually wear Hawaiian shirts and garlands (leis) here.. Sarah was hooked from word go!!!
This was our first experice of hostelling abroad as the hotels in Asia were just stupidly cheap. Sarah especially was dreading turning up at the hostel. (I was so worried it would be scummy - Sarah) but apart from some very small cockroaches it was really fine!!! We had accidentally on purpose booked into party central at the Waikiki Beach-side hostel. Full of young party people. We felt a bit old to start with though especially as we really, really had to sleep the first night - see above!!!! There were nice people in our room, however Sarah had to deal
Cyber Babe!
Sarah in her golfinh atire at big Kahuna's with being the only girl in a room full of blokes (They were really well behaved though! - Sarah).
On day one we caught a few hours sleep and then went off to the beach for a play in the humongous surf. Waikiki Beach is the main tourist area in Oahu. Unfortunately we hadn't read a newspaper yet and didn't realise the government had just released raw sewage into the sea because it had rained to much and the storm drains were dangerously full... Water tasted alright to me and believe me I tasted enough of it... I was knocked off my feet by the crazy waves! (you'll know I consider myself a bit of a duck in water, but the power of these waves really did astonish me, and at moments I really was eating sand as waves picked me up and dumped me on the beach. Quite embarrassing when another one picks you up before you can react and are left sprawling again! - Stu). We stayed quite near the shore though 'cause the waves in Waikiki are created by the reef about 50 feet out, and about a foot under the water so if you wipe
Barren, featureless wasteland!
Our upgraded wrangler jeep was useful as we traversed lava fields in Hawaii out it's serious pain. In the evening we played 3D, glow in the dark golf at the 'Big Kahuna' centre, strange but cool...
The next day we got up too early and caught a bus to Pearl harbour to see the USS Arizona memorial. (The ship which sank killing 1000 crew, some of them are still inside). It was free to go which is always good for us poor travellers. It was really great though. The memorial itself (you have to wait around 2hrs to get the boat across to the floating memorial which is sited over the sunken ship, which you can just about see through the water) wasn't the best part. We really enjoyed the museum they had put together detailing events of that day. It was really well done.
The next day we went snorkeling at a national marine park called Hanauma bay. We dragged along a Kiwi guys called Tim from our dorm. It is a sheltered cove that was created when a section of wall in an old volcanic crater caved-in and let the sea flow in. It being America with all these 'suing' problems, we had to watch a safety video first
We stopped!
Tempted but no thanks... how could I explain that Sarah fell into an active volcano? with fish singing about not stepping on the coral. Not that anyone took any notice about not stepping on the beautiful coral to our disgust. (I have to say we were very respectful of the national parks but most of the many of the Americans seem to have a total disregard for the rules and protecting their own parks. I particularly enjoyed the kid who threw a rock at the General Sherman, the largest living thing on the planet to hear the sounds, while his parents were busy clambering over the sign and onto the tree to get a better picture - Stu).
Well to tell the truth snorkelling for us so far had been ok but not great even in Thailand but this was to change everything. We swam out past/through the rock/coral wall into the open sea (bit scary as the current here was really strong as the waves crashed!!), which was calm once you got away from the rocks. The water was deep here but we had lots of space because all of the other stayed in the safety of the lagoon. But we were rewareded as after about half an hour we spotted a sea
turtle turtle right beneath us! It swam around barely noticing us, just nibbling coral and swimming right past us, bobbing up to the surface for the odd gulp of air. We felt so privileged! (I found it particularly asmusing when a strong wave flipped it onto it's back - it was fine but showed wild animals can be clumsy too!)
We also managed to fit in a quick flight over to the Big Island (this one is Hawaii Island which is in Hawaii state) for a few days. We were in the air for a total of 40 minutes. On arrival we picked up our hire car (no public transport on this island apart from hitching!!) and were pleased to hear we had got upgraded from our teeny tiny cheap car to a red Wrangler jeep, hurrah!!! Then we got to our hostel and it was a palace (We had booked a private room this time, at the Hilo bay hostel), (I was ecstatic! - Sarah). Our main reason for visiting the Big Island was too see the active volcanoes in the volcanoes national park. (Hawaii is just one big Volcano growing bigger every day). Unfortunately the red lava
Black Sand Beach!
There's a green sand beach too but it involved a ten mile hike... black cool though... wasn't playing ball, so we didn't get to see any of that kind. We did fit in an 8hr, 16.5 mile walk though, which took us over old, black lava flows, into craters and finally to the foot of the VERY active Pau O'O volcano, where smoke and ash were clearly belching out the top. We must be getting fit to have managed that walk. Very hard going!
On our last day on the Big Island we took full advantage of the jeep and explored. We went to an amazing black sand beach (They have a green sand beach too but we didn't see it), to a swimming pool in the rocks that is heated by the volcano and also to the end of the highway which came to an abrupt halt at the place a massive lave flow went over it in 2003 and stopped you from being able to circle the island any more! An amazing few days!
We finished our time in Hawaii back at Waikiki. Our new room was populated by crazy party people, so it was like a nightclub for the next few days.. We managed to fit in a rather over-budget Luau
Hoooooola!
After a few bevies at the Luau...
night before we left.. (Think of that party in Grease - Sarah; What party in Grease? She means feast with Hula dancing fellas - Stu). We spent all our money on going, so had to down lots of cheap (6 dollars for 2 litres) wine before we left. We chose to Germaine's Luau package. We got a free coach to a private beach and on arrival were given Leis and tokens to get three free Blue Hawaiian cocktails. We got merry and ate loads of Hawaiian fare. Got chatting to some Americans (Think we were the only non-American, non-honeymoon/anniversary couple there, hee hee) who were horrified when they found out we were actually staying in a hostel ('They have those in America??') and gave us their free drinks tokens out of pity. We were very merry by the time we got back! The boys in our room took the mickey A LOT the next day.
So Hawaii was great although Waikiki was very touristy and we'd probably want to go to the less touristy places next time.
So then we flew off to Los Angeles. We arrived in LA at about 5pm and went to pick up our
Boyz N the Hood
Real street basketball at Venice Beach. I ran away when they asked, "What you doin fool?!" hire car. We got upgraded again (We reckon they just put the small cars in the brochure for fun!!) and headed off to find our hip hostel (The Orbit on Melrose Ave, West Hollywood no less!!) Stu was not initially sold with LA. He thought it was scummy and a bit unsafe. (It was - Stu). Sarah loved it though, and thought that everything was just like you see on TV. We passed Rodeo Drive, Wilshire, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Blvd etc... So glam!!!! You really can't get about without a car though, everythings really far apart, so we were very happy to have some wheels. (but the roads are ludicrously bad - we almost lost the car down some of the pot holes - Stu) We only had one full day there though and we went on a self guided tour of LA's sights. We started out on Venice, Muscle and Santa Monica beach.. (Imagine 20 miles of huge deep white sand beaches, oozing cool! - Sarah; ahem - and drunks, tramps general wastrels - Stu) Then we drove to Hollywood and photographed the Hollywood sign. After that it was on to Hollywood Boulevard to see the stars
Hollywood
The sign is much better than the area... in the pavement and the Chinese theatre. Only one problem, we managed to get there just as the Mission Impossible 3 premier was happening, we had no idea!. (This was in particular contrast to the woman we found pissing in the doorway as we walked down the boulevard - it really is a seedy, seedy place, with porn shops and all sorts! - Stu).
So we queued up like proper tourists and saw Tom and Katy (her first night out since having Suri) we have the pics to prove it (Sad, but true!).
No rest for the wicked as they say though! They next day we got in the car and started our scenic drive to San Francisco, via Route 1, the coastal highway. We had decided to stagger the 12 hour journey over two days, so we drove 2/3s the first day. We drove though Malibu and lots of gorgeous little towns on the Big Sur coastline. (Our American wildlife experience continued though - We stopped at one place and a family of rock squirrels came out trying to get our food - one even had his front paws on the door sill - cheeky blighter. No
My hero!
sarah with Kermit's star! food for the animals though it's against the law). We stopped off to admire lots of wonderful views along the way. Finally we arrived at the Pffiffer Burns big Sur state park, where we stayed the night. A great campsite with all the mod cons. We managed to buy some logs and spent the next few hours being pyromaniacs and burning far too much wood, fun! We cooked some food as well.
The next morning we decamped and continued our drive to San Francisco, stopping off in Monterrey for a pancake breakfast. We arrived sooner than planned and checked into a great little hostel called the Hi- Fort Mason. Free parking and everything! (Despite being tired I dragged Stu off to a club that night. It was Saturday after all and I haven't been clubbing since December!! - Sarah) We saw Miguel Migs at a lush little club called Mighty. They LOVE house in San Fran and the dance like crazy fools. Met some very cool people! Danced all night and got the night bus home, and tried to get quietly into our bunks - gotta love SF!!! (San Francisco is much much better than LA - what a
The Big Sur.
One of the many spectacular views on the journey from LA to San Fran... contrast. My advice - miss LA totally and go up the coast - Stu).
So what have we been doing in gorgeous San Fran, well... Feeling a bit worse for wear on Sunday we attempted a rather over ambitious 8 mile walk around Golden Gate Park.. This park is HUGE, containing so much stuff including lakes, museums, art galleries and even a herd of Bison. The people watching was a dream. Hippy Hill was like being on another planet. Your could smell wafts of grass (and I don't mean the lawn kind) everywhere and the biggest bunch of hippies and other young people had all dug out their musical instruments (some people had bought full drum kits and strange Indian guitars) and were playing together in a wild, unscripted symphony.. It had to be seen to be believed, but I really think those hippies were on to something though. But they know how to enjoy life! The park (Well all of San Francisco actually) was chock full of crazies though, people talking to themselves and doing generally freaky things.. just adds to the city's uniqueness though.. - it was the same in Australia - Is it the case in
England too and we missed it or is it because we get public transport and do the cheapest things possible? There was actually one in our hostel. He smelled homeless. Stu took pity on him though 'cause he thought he has no friends and decided to play him at chess. (He had no idea what to do and when I expained he argued with me about the rules shouting to people across the room if they knew, and playing more like toys sholdiers knocking over my pieces randomly. Needless to say he won every time but at least he was happy. We dreaded coming across him the whole time we were there though! - Stu).
We also visited Alcatraz, which was great. The audio tour really gives you a feel of what life was like for the prisoners and the staff who worked there. We have of course been on a tram and walked up far too many of San Fran's gigantic hills. We walked up the USA's windiest road and also saw a very steep hill (40 degrees)... maybe we're not really explaining what San Francisco is like very well, but it is just a one off. You
Hippies, muscians and lunatics...
Theres a fine line... I think the one in the purple was orchestrating things... nice vibe though... just have to come here and see it for yourself really... amazing buildings, great views, clean, interesting streets and a great vibe - you wont be disappointed.
A five o'clock start on the last day and we were off to Yosemite National park (the place I'm looking forward to the most - a valley with mile high cliffs!!! - Stu.)
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Tarun
non-member comment
Marvellous
Stu, I like dyour way of elaborating your journey. that was great keep it up . Thanks and regards Tarun New Delhi-India