Leaving O'ahu

15Jun06

[Sorry for the delay. Many things afoot... and then I got my journals mixed up on my Palm. Bah. Anyway.]

So, and this would be last Sunday, I got up early and made my way by bus to the Honolulu Aikido dojo for some morning and afternoon at aikido (since I had finally gotten around to getting the gi). When I arrived, however, the dojo wasn't even close to looking open, and I realized I was in the same place I had walked the previous wednesday to gaming. So, I went back to the same coffee bar as was gaming, got a chai, and hung out for an hour (watching a bit of the world cup) before going back to check on the aikido.
Back at the dojo, there had been some kind of weapons practice, but oh well. Got in there and did aikido for an hour. Some of their udansha are pretty good, and I could definitely feel the combination of new mat/dojo stress, no training for two months, and the heat of hawai'i giving me a fairly strenuous workout. The gi worked, but I sweat a lot, and it was no match. I was leaving all kinds of sweaty impressions on the floor. To the floor's credit though, it left quite a lot of filth on my gi. They sweep but scrub less often, apparently.

Hungry at this point (I only ate enough to tide me through aikido due to the usual problem with food in the belly), I found the drug store and supermarket quite useful. Spent way too much money on some very nice salad fixings though (~$25) and some other bits of pleasure (cliff bars and pocky) and remedy (something for the chaffing and blisters from hiking). I decided to walk home as I had the previous time I was in that area, and though the two miles or so was a little bit worse than before with the bags of goods, I managed.

Back at the hostel, the UK folk had been replaced by two ladies from Vancouver, and two guys from the UK. Pattern? Nonetheless, they were very nice and generally slept the afternoon away, likely from jetlag. After my own nappage, I made a salad and forgot about half of what I bought to go in it. When the rest of the gang was up and about, as well as fed, we decided to go out and check out the evening activities.

Since I had the place down already, I served as tour guide and tried to find our way around Waikiki. I unfortunately didn't know where the best bars were, so we eventually, and by eventually I mean a good half-mile walk, got to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had some drinks and snacks and chatted. Decent comeraderie. They were all fairly intelligent and a bit on the geek side. The two ladies were nurses and the other two had recently worked on a video game for the UK's board of transportation.

Afterwrds we made our way to the beach, as one of the ladies was quite interested in getting an evening dip in. We eventually found our way, with only most of us getting our feet wet (I was still in my boots at the time--the gore-tex lining does in fact work by the way--very nice and dry feet). We finally found a decent spot on the beach near the hostel and proceeded to drink at least two or three bottles of wine we procured on the way.

After drinking, smoking, and talking till about 3 am, is was a drunken stagger back to the hostel and eventually sleep.

In the morning, after recovering, sometime around 10 I got up. I hadn't really planned much and mostly just puttered around the place. I was, however, determined to figure out what was going on with my Kauai plans, so finally emailed around enough, spent a lot of time on the internet (along with the photo post), and got a ticket to Kauai. I also booked myself at the hostel through Wednesday (as was my flight that day). The rest of the day I spent some time with yoga and walking around the park side near Diamondhead park. There was also several guys that came into the hostel during the evening who were also from Vancouver and ended up being very popular with the ladies from Vancouver, being local boys 'n' all..
Went out shopping briefly with the ladies. Found myself a rather nice sarong to wear--good manly sarong, black with some stylized flower things. The new Vancouverites were eager to check out the ocean (having just arrived as well), and a midnight swim was had with Laura, the new two guys (whose names escape me) and myself. The remaining of the group however wanted to get a car the next day and get on to touring the island, so went to bed early.

The next morning (this would be Tuesday), the five of us got a car to go explore the rest of the island--though it ended up a bit on the small side. We stopped at lookout to see the very nice windward shore when we came around to it. Eventually stopped at a nice beach in Li___, just outside of K____ beach. Got some waves and too much sun. Somehow I managed not to do all that well a job getting the sunscreen on myself which left some rather interesting burn marks on my back at the time of this writing. But, I'll recover eventually. Enjoyed the beach for a good hour or so. One bunch of girls on the beach spotted a Portugese Man-o-War in the water, which was eventually scooped out and let die on the sand. No general unpleasantness, and it was at best a small one. Very blue. Guy on the beach said they come out after the full moon.
After the beach, had a decent gardenburger at a nice shack up the road called Buzz's Lunch & Dinner. Really most excellent tempura fries as well. After that, a rotation of the bitch seat in the middle of the car, and more driving.

We went around the north shore penninsula near the Polynesian Cultural Center (which was a nice trip the last time I was on the island), and then started looking for some places to have a beach party. Stopped off at the FoodLand just near the Backpacker's Hostel I had stayed a few nights previously. Got some coffe and some snacks, and found a nice bottel of Captain Morgan's Tattoo spiced rum (which essentially tastes like rum and coke, but without so much actual coke to dilute it--rather good on the whole). We looked around some more and finally decided to take in the beach just south of Waimea Bay, which was, I think, called Chun's Reef or Beach.

Nonetheless, it was the rocks in the ocean that was most challenging to our fun.

The beach fun was had with playing in a fairly decent surf generated by a decent wind. Many surfers in the outer breaks, but we were limited, though not by enjoyment, to the beach side without boogie or surf boards--which was fine, except for the afore mentioned rocks that we were battered upon. Sharp buggers they were.
After that, I took a brief break to check my flight information for the next day, and to make sure what Sky's plans were. He was thinking of joining me shortly in Honolulu or Kauai, but wasn't sure about when or how. But, it turns out he got some decent sounding job interviews and needed to stay in town.

Went back the folks and proceeded to make good on the party and finding a fire to start. Many munchies of chips and M&Ms were had, and the drinking began. The rest of the evening was much the party scene; talking, running around, being crazy, etc. There was a bat-head competition (running out to a stick, putting your head on the end of it, and running around it 10 times before running back to base) which ended, poorly for me, in the sand. There was dancing around the fire in primal style for the sprinkles of rain to go away, though apparently we did the opposite. And music was had through some small speakers the ladies brought.

But, as it came time to try and get to sleep, besides the drying off of our things as best we could with the fire (which was mostly made from bits of crates, previous fires, and dead palm branches), the rain would just not let up. Some of the more die-hards that weren't willing to give up quite yet (and had gone to the car) tried to find solace in a less wet spot under a tree (me, Holly and Vinnie), but were not only found by mosquitoes, but also a great deal of more, consistent, cold rain at around 4 am or so. We all eventually retreated to the car and decided to quit our journey and head back home.

I would also like to mention that sand, which seems to be particularly sticky here in Hawaii, was everywhere. Simply amazing. Just... Everywhere...

It was, nonetheless, a fun and rather memorable time. Good mates to meet on the road.
Sleepy, smelly, sandy, moist drive home, which only took about an hour or so. Back at the hostel, showers were eventually had, and the girls, who were still checked in, went to sleep. Some quick goodbyes to the party folks. I did eventually get on to my flight, while getting a little lost on the way to the airport (but with still plenty of time once I got there). Breakfast of champions at Burger King.

And then Kauai. More notes on that soon.