As I had been unable to reach the bus company the previous day, I had to get a cab to the airport and the only good news was that as it was early in the morning the roads and airport was not choc a bloc and I managed to sort out myself and check in at the smaller terminal 2, which is where Hawaiian Air fliy from.
I had forgot that Hawaii was another 2 hours behind Las Vegas so what I thought was a 5 hour flight was actually 7, and the difference meant that I wished I had thought to bring some of my own snacks along, as Hawaiian Airlines food was not as much as I would have liked, especially as I dont like extra salty pretzels.
The flight was one long and detailed continuous advert for everything that you can do in Hawaii, which was pretty cool as I had not had anything booked and it gave me a great chance to see exactly what I wanted to do when I touched down.
It also showed the new film Eagle Eye, which I could not take seriously for a second as the whole film was about getting one super computer to make the lead guy say a sentence into the microphone, but it being a super computer it could easily have tricked him into saying the words over the phone and thus negating the need for the film, but then that wouldn't have made them any storyline!?!
Touchdown in Hawaii was great and it was only a little later than I learned that Hawaii was actually the name of the larger island to the East, and that Honolulu, the capital, was on the third or forth largest Island named of O'ahu, which is also where Pearl Harbour can be found.
I thought that I would save a few bucks by taking the shuttle to the hostel, as it was a 30 to 60 minute trip by bus from the airport, but with their usual time keeping and relaxed attitude it was not until after 5pm when I finally reached it, though it was cool to hear again the Polynesian version of "Over the Rainbow" ( as heard on the film 50 first dates ).
Dusk in O'ahu is around 6pm, so I decided that it was best to book up some trips or the next few days and then go for a walk, and although the hostel receptionist was a bit of a wideboy talking the talk, he wasnt able to get me even $5 discount on my trips, despite me booking 4 trips all at once, and so I felt that I could have done a better deal negociating had I gone in myself alone and not bothered with trying to use him at all.
After I booked a trip to tour the Entire Island, Honolulu City Tour & Pearl Harbour, Twilight Catamaran cruise and Polynesian convension centre and dinner / dance, I went for a walk to see what was around and also to grab a bite to eat.
I stopped off at an American Italian place where they had the final of a college football league and I caught it just in time to see most of the final quarter, along with about 10 dedicated fans who whooped and cheered loud enough for 50.
After the meal I took a wander round again and almost reached the beaches, but I was stopped by a couple of fences and unsure as to how far round the would go I reveresed and headed back to the hostel.
OnceI got back in the hostel I noticed that there was a fairly lively and friendly crowd, again of mixed nationalities, all drinking and playing touch soccer in the hostel yard, so I slipped off my trainers and joined in just in time to get invited along to a local bar that was US $5 to get in and then US $1 a drink all night long.
I half chatted, half flirted with the others til I realised I was far too sobre to be on their wave length, so planned on getting to the bar and having a Mai Tai to loosen me up, only for the entrance to be US $10 and the drink to be over US $5 when you add the tax and tip, not what I had planned.
Apparently the hostel receptionist had been given the tip, but it was clearly not accurate and not being a clubbing person, I was certainly not going to pay US $5 a drink all night long just to catch up with the others, so with them all lost in their own drunken conversations I slipped out after just one and made walked back to the hostel, avoiding the gaze of the street women.
I have to say that more than any other place, in Hawaii ( or to be accurate in O'ahu ) there seemed to be lots and lots of young women around, more than there were men ( who maybe were all at the beach ) and more than there were middle aged or pensioners.
The other thing is that here there is a very big Oriental community presence, enough so for them to have their own tour buses, tour companies and fliers on the street newspaper stands all in a mix of Chinese and Japanese languages. I only found out the next day that the heritage of the common Hawaiian is so diluted from the original Polynesian that most people are not even 25% of any one nation and the tour guide's best friend is a mix of ten nationalities and he himself claimed to be a mix between Hawaiian, Japanese, American and Portugese.
I planned on getting a good nights sleep as I had an earlyish wake up call the next day, with my trip leaving at 8:25, but my sleep was ruined by a commotion in my room around 4pm. I have not yet found out exactly what had happened, but in my half asleep state I am fairly certian that the police turned up and questioned a couple of other guests in my room ( who all had stayed out drinking in the club much longer than just the one I had stayed for ), some of the women in the other dorm rooms were a bit hysterical for a bit, there was talk of people being accused of Tresspassing and the guy from my dorm was unable to confirm his identity or even know what his eye colour was.
I could be wrong, as I tried my best to feign sleep - always preferring to avoid police and the legal system if at all possible, but whatever the full story was it was enough to disturb my sleep and make me a little grouchy the following morning.
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