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I’ve been back for a while, but I’m just now getting around to posting these photos from my last day in Hawaii. I had a great trip, and I think I learned a bit about the place and myself. I’m looking forward to my next opportunity to head out there, whenever that may be.
Here’s a photo of my room at the Waikiki Sand Villa hotel:
I read a lot of reviews before selecting this one. I really had very few requirements…it needed to be close to the location of the conference, it needed to be inexpensive, and it needed to have free, in-room, high-speed internet access. The reviews were mostly positive but several of them said that the place needed to be remodeled, etc. I stayed there for almost a week and I can say that I would recommend it completely to almost anyone.
I had a great time there. The staff was friendly and helpful, the rooms were nice and always tended to. I put a “do not disturb” sign up most of the time because I didn’t need a lot of stuff and didn’t care if it was a mess, and I even had one of the maids stop me in the hall and ask if there was anything she could provide, extra towels, clean glasses, etc. even if I didn’t need her to clean the room. Sure, it could probably use a paint job and some new fixtures here and there, but for a little over $60/night just a couple of blocks from the beach, it was an amazing deal! Do those repair/remodel upgrades that the reviews were complaining about and I would no longer be able to afford to stay here…I like the Waikiki Sand Villa just the way it is 
On my last day, I was just wandering around, looking at things that I hadn’t seen before, and one of the places I ended up finding was Bob’s Ukulele:
I just went in because it seemed like an interesting place from the outside and the ukuleles were beautiful and unlike the cheap, mass produced ones I’d seen all around in the gift shops. Inside, I met Wai and we talked for about an hour about Hawaii and Texas and everything in between:
He was a really great guy, willing to explain anything about Hawaii from food to vacationers to recycling to ukuleles and it was all fantastic to discuss. I have about the least amount of musical ability of anyone, but I’m actually interested in owning a ukulele after talking to Wai, not because he was trying to sell me one but because he wasn’t trying to sell me one. He was talking to me about Hawaii and it made me want to own one. That’s a good salesman. Unfortunately, they were quite expensive, so I didn’t get to take one home, but I’ll probably be back to chat with him again in the future, whether I buy a ukulele or not.
For lunch, I was either going to go back to Fatty’s Chinese Kitchen or to this new place that I found out about…Samurai Takoyaki! I’d been wanting to try takoyaki, Japanese fried balls of dough with steamed bits of octopus in the middle, since I heard about them years ago. So I made the decision and went to Samurai Takoyaki:
Here’s what I received with my combo order of fried udon, onion takoyaki and a coke:
I have to say…I was not impressed. It was not at all what I was expecting. From all of the things I’ve seen and heard, I thought it would be a bit crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with the tako (octopus) in the center…what I got was fairly mushy dough with an extremely chewy hunk of tako. Should have stuck with Fatty’s, but at least I tried it. I’ll definitely try it again when in Japan because this just wasn’t what I was expecting.
And finally, this was my ABC Store:
ABC Stores are EVERYWHERE in Waikiki. There’s one on just about every major corner. People joke about how prominent Starbucks locations are, but it’s amazing how many ABC Stores there are in Waikiki. If you pass one up, you will find one again a block later.
These stores are like a combo mini-mart/gift shop and if you have a good one, the people working there will be able to help you with any questions you have about getting around the island. The people at this location were FANTASTIC! I got my bus pass here, they helped me get to Manoa Falls, to Hanauma Bay, and anywhere else I needed to go. It was about a block from Waikiki Sand Villa and just across the street from a major bus stop. It was everything I needed and very helpful.
I have many more photos and I’ll possibly post more in the future as I dig through them, but for now, that’s the end of my trip to Hawaii. I’m already looking forward to returning. I had a wonderful time and I think it was important to have this experience by myself, but it definitely would have been nice to be able to share it with Becky.
For lunch today I went to Hank’s Haute Dogs because I heard that their Sunday special is a kobe beef dog and duck fat fries. That pretty much sounded too good to be true…unfortunately, when I got there, I found out that they only have those at the main location and I was at the Waikiki (smaller/express) location.
So I asked for recommendations instead. The guy working at Hank’s Haute Dogs recommended either the Chicago Style dog or the Portuguese Style Chicken Sausage w/mango mustard and pineapple relish. I went with option 2, fries and a Coke. Very good stuff!
I wasn’t quite brave enough to try the butter poached lobster dog…
I headed down to the International Marketplace again for a couple of last minute items. It’s kind of a crazy place. There was one item that kind of wanted…price started at $15, but they could go down to $13 or 2 for $25. I started to walk away and they pulled me back and offered it for $12. I offered $10 and they couldn’t do it, so I walked…and they pulled me back and sold it to me at that price. I really don’t like shopping like that, but apparently that’s how it’s done.
There’s some weird stuff at the Int’l Mkt. I stopped to take a photo of this shark in a bottle and the lady ran over and said I shouldn’t take a pic, I should take it home. I asked how much (no way was I buying it) and she said only $25. I said thanks, but that’s too much…as I was walking away it went down to $20…$15…$10. Weird. What am I going to do with a $10 shark in a bottle?
For dinner, I wasn’t terribly hungry, so I ended up back at Gyoza no Ohsho:
I really wanted to try their gyoza and I’m glad I did…EXCELLENT! And for like $4 it was a bargain!
My day to present at the Hawaii International Conference went ok. Here’s the room I presented in:
That’s about how empty I expected it to be since I was presenting at 9:40am on Saturday in Waikiki, but I actually had three people show up to hear what I had to say! That’s seriously a decent turn out according to what I saw at other sessions I attended. Everything went fairly well, my attendees asked good questions and we all had a good time.
I think I need one of these for the house:
I went to the Rainbow Drive-In for lunch based on some stuff I had read online:
Ordered the beef cutlet plate lunch:
Fantastic! One of the best meals I’ve had here so far.
Waiola Bakery & Shave Ice was just a block or so away, so I had to check it out:
I’m not a big snowcone fan…the crunchy ice and the way the syrup just slides to the bottom leaving you with plain ice to eat and a puddle of syrup is not fun for me. But I’d heard good things about shave ice in general and Waiola’s specifically. I ordered lilikoi (passion fruit) syrup and condensed milk topping:
Just amazing! The shave ice has the consistency of fine, soft, powdery snow. No crunchy ice crystals, just smooth, cold goodness. And the syrup holds tight to it. The condensed milk was a great topper. Here’s a cross-section part way through my devouring of it:
Duke Kahanamoku Statue, Waikiki:
Obama in Hawaii bobble head:
Saw some crazy street breakdancers too:
More HIC conference this morning, but sitting in a room listening to presentations about media research is not very photo worthy, so I’ll skip ahead again. After leaving the conference, I went to Manoa Falls. It was a heck of a hike…I was expecting it to be a good hike, but it was even more than I thought it would be. Beautiful scenery all around though…just amazing. I have lots of photos from the hike up and back down, but I still have work to do to prepare for tomorrow, so I won’t post too many.
Here is Manoa Falls…not much rain recently, so it’s just a trickle:
And me:
While at the top, one girl overheated and passed out briefly. She was laying down with her friends around her when I got there and they had called down to the bottom. After I had sat at the top for a little while to enjoy the view and relax and was just about to head back down, all sorts of craziness started happening:
The crazy wind from the helicopter busted half a tree ONTO a person (he wasn’t hurt I don’t think), and a rescue man repelled in to help the girl:
I saw them at the bottom when I got down and I think she was ok…just overheated it sounded like. Crazy experience though.
Beautiful trees:
The bus from Manoa Falls transfers at Ala Manoa Center…there’s a festival going on this weekend and I just happened to walk in right when this famous taiko drummer from Japan was starting to play. He was INCREDIBLE! I started taking photos just straight on from the front, but then realized that I might be able to get up on the second floor walkway. By the time I got up there, he was on the HUGE drum…amazing stuff!
While I was there, I decided to stop for more Genki Sushi:
Busy busy…more photos, less words. Went to the first day of the HIC conference, then to University of Hawaii-Manoa for some meetings. Stopped by the East-West Center first:
The chicken katsu at UH wasn’t too bad:
Crawford Hall…the home of the School of Communications at UH:
After my meetings, I decided to walk to Leonard’s Bakery for malasadas (doughnut-like thingys). My GPS said it was about half a mile…not too bad…so I thought. Unfortunately, it KEPT saying half a mile for about half an hour. I finally got there after about an hour long walk through a not so great part of Honolulu:
A couple of blocks down was Genki Sushi, so I stopped in for a quick snack:
I found out one of their secrets for making sushi quickly…there’s a machine which stamps out blocks of rice…weird:
For dinner, I went to Gyoza no Ohsho:
I had garlic ramen…very nice:
Today was one of the few actual free days that I’ll have while here in Hawaii, so I tried to take advantage of it. I woke up at about 6:45am and it’s now 11:30pm and I’ve pretty much been going non-stop. I feel like I’m about to fall over, but I think I managed to knock out any jet lag I might have had. I’m pretty well adjusted to Hawaii time now, but re-adjusting to Texas time is going to be HORRIBLE. I’m going to post a bunch of pics with a few words and then go to bed. Tomorrow is the first day of the conference and I’m meeting one of the University of Hawaii professors in the afternoon. Another busy day, but probably less pictures.
I started by heading out to Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve. Click the link and read about it.
That’s me:
Those dark spots are not seaweed or anything like that…it’s all coral in near crystal clear water:
I bought a cheap underwater camera and went snorkeling with the fishes. First time I’ve been snorkeling (I think)…it was a little bit weird at first, and I had a few freak out moments, but it was worth it for the amazing experience. Here are some of the better photos…of course, with the camera, none are all that great:
On my last trip over one of the coral reefs, I had two crazy encounters…I was face to face with a nasty looking eel or sea snake that did not look happy to see me. I got the heck out of there quickly…no picture! Then just a few minutes later I ran into this pufferfish/blowfish looking guy with lots of spikes. I took a picture and then moved along to not have him poke me:
Here’s proof that I didn’t just steal someone’s pictures:
A shot of the Bay and I think that’s Diamond Koko Head in the distance as seen from the water:
Lunch at Wailana Coffee House…Moco Loco!
Yes, McDonald’s serves egg, rice, and Spam meals for breakfast!
I arrived in Honolulu just in time to see them constructing a new rainbow!
Had to hit up a comic book shop while here:
President Obama ate here…I was still full from the Loco Moco or I might have tried it.
Dinner was L&L Hawaiian Barbecue:
Spam musubi, saimin noodles, and a root beer:
The saimin noodles were ok but a little bland. The Spam musubi was quite good though. The large amount of rice was enough to cut the typical saltiness of the Spam and the sauce was a little sweet. Very good. Here’s a second pic just for awesomeness!
Ran into a couple of places today that I’ll have to hit before I leave, but I can’t talk about them just yet…
Sleep now…
Four hours sleep and an airplane chicken wrap were not holding me upright after I landed in Honolulu. I wanted nothing more than to sleep and then find a place to eat. I tried to sleep for about an hour, but could not. I tossed and turned, but managed to relax a bit after the long flight. I finally decided to just get up and try to get a decent night’s sleep tonight instead.
I do have a decent view from my lanai (patio/balcony):
So I headed out to check out one of the places on my list. First up, because it was closest and I did not feel like walking too far, was Fatty’s Chinese Kitchen:
Here are the Chef’s choices on the walls:
Stock and noodle pots were constantly simmering:
I’m not sure if this man was the owner, the head chef or what exactly, but he was contstantly cooking like mad:
The decor was awesome! These decals above my seat at the bar looked like they’d been there for decades:
I ordered the chicken curry over rice. I debated over 3 or 4 different things. The curry wasn’t the greatest but it was ok. I’ve heard really great things about Fatty’s though, but never heard anything about the curry, so I’ll probably end up over there again before I leave unless I run out of time.
Some of the dishes coming out looked spectacular! The duck noodle soup and the spicy pork chop over rice especially looked delicious.
Not sure yet what tomorrow will bring…should be interesting.
This past semester was crazy busy, but it’s over. I passed my comprehensive exams, so yay me. This means that once all of the paperwork and official red tape is cleared, I will be a PhD candidate and just have to write my dissertation (and all that entails) before I am done with the program. It has been a long journey and it’s not over, but I can actually see the finish line somewhere far in the distance.
Unfortunately, all of the reading and writing and studying means that I have completely neglected this blog for months. Oh well. Too bad. Sorry about that. It was worth the sacrifice to have an actual feeling of accomplishment. Hopefully this summer I’ll be able to post a little more regularly. And that brings me to the next few days of potential activity here.
I submitted a paper to the Hawaii International Conference a few months back and it was accepted. I leave tomorrow for Honolulu/Waikiki by way of Chicago(?) at waaay too early in the morning. I’ll be there for almost a week, staying at the Waikiki Sand Villa hotel. I have to present my paper one morning and I want to watch a few other presentations while at the conference, but I have a few other things planned away from the conference as well.
And of course you are likely to see a bunch of food pics also. I’m not really one to eat at a place I can have back here in Texas while I’m visiting somewhere new, so I’ve already compiled a list of establishments I want to try while I’m on the island. I hope I can hit them all, and I’ve left some room to explore and find some others naturally, or go back for a second trip if some of them are just that good.
I also have a couple of important meetings set up and one or two sights that I would like to see as well. We’ll see how much I’m actually able to get to during my short time there, but I’m looking forward to it. Check back for updates. I’m a little under the weather right now, so hopefully I’ll get over this quickly…I have a lot of hiking to do in the next few days!
Tonight, we went to the WEC: Brown vs Garcia show in Corpus Christi. Unfortunately, in the main event, Leonard Garcia did not win. But the show overall was a lot of fun. Our seats were good (first row of the balcony, so no one in front of us!), and no more than the usual crowd nonsense. Got to meet a few of the big name WEC guys before/during the show. Jens Pulver was filling in on color commentary for Frank Mir who is training for his UFC Heavyweight Title match. I met him before the show started…got my pic taken with him and he signed an autograph for me:
(And apparently FightLinker.com found my photo and used it for one of their posts.)
The craziest thing of the night was one brutal knockout. It was the Damacio Page vs. Marcos Galvao fight during the undercard. Page KO’d his opponent at just 18 seconds into the first round:
The ref immediately jumped in to separate them, but with just 2 punches, Page had done some serious damage:
The medical team had to be brought in and Galvao had to be stretchered out. I’ve never seen anything like that happen in a mma match.
By the time they got him out of the cage, he seemed like he was doing better. Hopefully he’s ok, but it’s always risky in fights.
Between matches, Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres would go to different areas of the stadium and sign autographs and take photos with fans. I decided to take a chance at one point and head down to see if I could get some autographs…it worked out pretty well.
Urijah Faber:
Miguel Torres (Even though you’d never be able to guess that’s what that says):
And the Jens Pulver autograph that I got before the show started:
Lots of fun…just wish Garcia hadn’t gotten caught by a nasty punch about a minute into the first round of the main event. That match was a bit of a letdown, but there’s not much you can do when you get blasted like that. He tried and it looked like he might be able to make a fight out of it, but it just took too much out of him. Oh well, hopefully he’ll get another shot.
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