[journal a la travel] day 1 in hawaii

as promised
blogging from hawaii
it's been a long day
4 hours longer than it seems
due to the time difference
was up at 5am this morning
off the to the airport
and it's almost 9pm locally
which makes it close to 2am edmonton time
luckily
i slept a bit on the plane
as fate would have it
my plane from seattle to honolulu was delayed
there was a problem with the light sensor on the door
and that turned into a switch problem
and that turned into a longer delay
which meant
i got to hawaii about 1/2 an hour behind schedule
the universe was being nice though
and my luggage came out so fast
it wasn't even funny :P
anyways,
off i went
to beg a rental upgrade
as i have this monster suitcase this time
along with my dive bag (54lbs)
and they were nice enough to give me one
even without a coupon :)
off i went to the client site
with no map
(couldn't find my honolulu map
before i left home
but not sure that would have helped anyways
as i was going to kapolei straight away)
anyways
got lost
turned an exit too soon
but somehow
found myself in the vicinity anyways
and then it was like one of those situations
where you just KNOW you're SO close
and yet you can't seem to find it
asked directions 3 times
and the third time was the charm
but i was 1/2 an hour late
then i thought
i forgot my belt in edmonton
(AGAIN!?!)
and decided to just go in wearing my "plane" clothes
north face cargo pants
and nike dryfit shirt
at least i wore shoes tho
:P
that went fairly smoothly
as did the ride back to the hotel
every where i heard
it was bad to leave stuff in your car
especially rental cars
and on the inside of my trunk
was a big bright orange sticker warning
crazy eh?!
so here i am starting to get paranoid
and i took EVERYTHING up to my room
(needed to sort stuff out anyways)
anyways
found out one of my clients wanted to meet later tomorrow
instead of the morning,
meeting after lunch
so on the spur of the moment
decided to see
if i could get a dive in :P
go figure :) hehehe
that's me... dive crazy :P
anyways,
the place i originally called up
is on the hickam airforce base
and while
anyone can rent tanks
not everyone can get onto the base
so they suggested another place
(that was also closer to where i was staying)
consequently,
with about 1/2 an hour before store clothes
and me,
not really haven eaten since way too long
made the choice
to go get a scuba tank
and figure out the food thing later
got my priorities right!
*wink*
so i found the shop
(still no map,
but with some photocopies from the front desk
and with the crappy advertisement map budget gave me
figured out where i need to go)
and at the shop
was told even more stories
about how stuff gets stolen and all
totally crazy or what?!
now i'm in super paranoid mode
the owner of the shop
even gave me his cell number
just in case i get stranded
or my car gets stolen
question is
where the heck am i going to keep my stuff
when i go diving
if not in my car?!
the world is a crazy place
and especially hawaii
apparently violent crime is huge here
damn eh?
ok,
so i get back to my hotel
the ala moana hotel
carry my tank through the lobby of the hotel
up to my room
and go off in search of food afterwards
the girl at the front desk
gave me lots of suggestions
but the one that really caught my attention
was the jackie chan restaurant
(at the ala moana shopping mall beside the hotel)
and heck
off i went
(there's also a bubba gump shrimp thingy...
which is definitely on my list of things to try)
so i went there
after making a brief stop at macy's
to find some perfume prices for a friend
and then went to the restaurant
i gotta say
the restaurant really rocks :)
the food was good
and all the waiters look like
they could be extras in a jackie movie
heck
watching the way they work
i figured
this must be some clandestine school of martial arts
kung fu students by day
and waiters by nite :P
crazy!
anyways,
that aside
the decor was cool
and lots of screens with jackie chan movies playing
(they were playing rush hour, the first one)
the food was a type of fusion food
i had crab wontons - deep fried with a crab filling
ahi sashimi
which was SUPER cool
there were 2 flowers of sashimi
consisting of about 6 thinly sliced petals of tuna
the tuna was unbelievably fresh
and they looked so much like a rose
i spent a while looking at them
trying to figure out how they did it
it was also deceptive
in that it looked like very little sashimi
but it was so artfully "flowered"
that there was 12 thin slices in there
i'm amazed :)
they also had deep fried garlic chips with that
and pickled ginger julienne with some neat lettuce stuff
in a ponsu sauce
oh yeah, and a button of wasabi :)
beyond nice :)
i was served by a waiter who reminded me a bit of
my cousin in law felix in san jose
except this guy
was wearing kung fu serving clothes
cool :)
for a main course,
i had a miso-glazed salmon fillet over a bed of kimchee fried rice
with baby bokchoy on the side
i asked for the salmon to be as rare as possible
and it was seared perfectly on the outside
and tenderly raw on the inside
-exactly how i envisioned it
and exactly how i wanted it
incredible
there was a bit of a delay at the very start
thought they might have forgotten about me for a sec
(us solo eaters are so easy to miss :P)
but the waiter acknowledged it
and apologized
and the atmosphere was so cool
that i didn't mind
ordered a strawberry pina coloda
(not quite what they called it)
non-alcoholic of course
and it came in a glass
which they let me have a new one of
when i left
very nice touch :)
(call it a gimmick if you want
but darn it
i got my jackie chan honolulu plastic glass!)
ok,
my salmon thingy got a bit lost too
and the waiter came and apologized for that too
saying that he thought my order might have been
given to someone else
and that was after he'd try to time it
so that it would come after my appetizers
nice guy
and i didn't mind
like i said
watching this crew of waiters move around
was neat
and the food was exactly how i want it :)
anyways,
i'm back at the hotel now
and you know,
hawaii is expensive
and i mean EXPENSIVE!
supper was 47 bucks usd
and it was good
but still
that's a fair chunk of change
also,
every little thing costs extra
the safe in my room
parking in the hotel
oh yeah,
did i mention
i'm emailing from the puters in the lobby?
and i have to pay for this too, by the minute or something
it all adds up
and i've only been here a day :P

anyways
i plan to get up super early
to go dive tomorrow
and so
i should end this here
i'll try to blog as access allows it
(no access IN my room which sucks
but i haven't taken any photos yet anyways
so i've nothing to upload in that department anyways)
ok,
that's all for now
kirb out.