[travel journal] day 3, 4 in hawaii

still in oahu
this is pretty much my last day here
didn't blog yesterday
because had a mini-crisis
(well not really a crisis at all
but sounds way more important that way)
when my credit card was declined
the day started off well enough
eating a free continental breakfast
at the hotel
(they had miso soup! cool)
and then went off to work
driving through rush hour
and had a fairly productive day
and a very full day
went for lunch with my client
and had some fresh ahi sashimi
(my GOD it was good!)
as well as poke (pronounced pO-kay)
which was marinated ahi sashimi
with seaweed, nuts, chilis and a few other things
very nice :)
those were the appetizers
and much better than the main meal
anyways,
i've decided
walking around hawaii
with clothes that i can wear
during edmonton's summer
is just way too darn hot
went looking for an "aloha shirt"
(yeah, that's what they're called)
and again
the only ones i really liked
were way too expensive
and tho i did see some cheap ones
there's a very good reason why they are cheap :P
hehehehe
anyways,
after work,
i went to pick up a couple scuba tanks
and ended up getting 3
after hearing that today's weather was going to be really nice
and when i went to pay for them
my credit card was declined
now,
by unforeseen accident
(not thinking far enough ahead this morning)
i only had my work visa with me
and so i wouldn't have been able to pay for them
except
that i'd rented a tank there before
and they still had my personal cc on file
(thank god... cuz rush hour in honolulu SUCKS)
anyways, got my 3 tanks
hoofed 2 of them up on my first trip
while wearing my nice work clothes
i must have looked pretty funny walking thru the lobby
:P
hehehee
anyways
all this paranoia
about having stuff stolen
and so i ended up with 3 tanks in my room
and spent the rest of the night
calling visa
ok,
that's not true
i went to the pineapple room
a restaurant in macy's
at the recommendation of jean at the front desk of the hotel
and MAN was it good!!!
i had poi
a hawaii thing
that is like thick taro soup
and with lomi tomato (marinated tomatos)
and kalui pig (roast pig... hope i spelled that right :P)
and i guess
while ordering
a couple at the next table overheard me
asking what poi was
and we ended up chatting for a bit
really nice people
locals on the island
and the first people to really talk to me here
(for no real reason at all)
guess i'm just not that social of a person
anyways
it made the food taste that much better
even if i wasn't really 100% concentrated on the food
ordered ahi-pepper steak
it was SUPER!
how can i describe it?
i asked for it to be raw in the centre
and tho some parts were,
most were lightly cooked
which was ok
because it was still tasty, tender and flavourful :)
had a local tapioca concoction for dessert
(called puolosomethingorother)
fresh fruits mixed into it with coconut milk
ok,
so got back to my hotel after supper
to finish off the visa thing
the problem was basically
that my boss forgot to pay off the work visa
due to rl distractions
(i quote, "the idiot screwed up again"...
talking about a nameless problem in their - bosses - lives)
anyways,
finally thought we figured out how to do this
so i went to sleep super early
(like 8pm or so)
and then woke up at 9pm for no reason at all
and with a desire to call visa again
and then realized
that we'd missed a step in the money transfer
and i still wouldn't be able to use my cc
which sucked
anyways
i woke up 4am this morning
(to go diving)
and consequently
also called my boss
and asked him to straighten things out
and after i got back to the hotel today
it was
so that was good
now...
diving
went to shark's cove
met a guy called kevin
who is a roommate of the owner of the dive store
(bill is the owner)
yesterday
and he was taking out a bunch of people to dive
i actually left honolulu before 5am
and got to shark's cove at 5:45am
parked outside the foodland
and waited till 6am for them to open
so i could go buy some food for tween dives
anyways,
that done,
i went to go do my first dive
no one was there
and it was like the entire cove was my own
met the steve guy again
he was sitting at the same bench
he didn't remember me at all
and i wonder if he's on alot of drugs or something
anyways
i was super paranoid
that some of the homeless people there
would steal my car
(like maybe even steve...
when he asked me how long i'd be down in the water for)
and so when he asked if i'd be down for an hour
i answered
"maybe....
maybe less depending on how much i breathe..."
just to keep him guessing and off balance
anyways
i went into the water
with the full expectation of not seeing my car
when i got back
and then i promptly forgot about all that
and went diving
the water was murkier than thursday
but i still could see a good 50feet
went straight for the lava tubes this time
and just checked out the geological formations
didn't see any turtles that dive
but had fun
swimming through different tubes and arches
really really cool
at about the 70 minute mark
i REALLY had to go pee
which sucked
because i had about another 30 minutes at that depth
and for a while
i figured i'd try to go for 100 minutes
just for the heck of
but i REALLY had to go pee
(repeating myself you think?
nope, i had to go THAT bad...
and no,
i won't pee in my own wetsuit
do you realize how gross that is...
besides it's my own suit... not a rental *grin*)
so i ended up getting out around the 76 minute mark
and steve was still there
when i got back
as was my car
this time
he remembered my name
(which means he wasn't that baked)
had some food
(sushi from the grocery store)
and met kevin and his friends
went off for a second dive about the same time they did
by the time i'd exited after my first dive
the parking lot was almost full
i'd passed 2 divers on my way in
(in MY water :P hehehee)
and by the time i started my second dive
there were so many divers in the water
it was like west ed on a weekend or something
serious.
the vis wasn't as good the second dive
and i went off to the left this time
(first dive i went off to the right where the tubes were)
in search of some elusive cathedral arches
that kevin had described to me
i don't think i found them
tho i did see 2 turtles
one near the start of my dive
the other near the end
my intention was to go along the reef edge
parallel to the highway
and see how far i could make it
(and look for that cathedral
just for the heck of it)
i found 2 walls
that had been cleaned of some kind of clam like thing
fairly deep too
and whoever was harvesting
didn't spare any survivors
very sad
i ended up overshooting the entrance to shark cove on my way back
and i was really cruising
and running light on air
(nothing dangerous
but i like having a 1000psi in my tank
when i surface
just for safety sakes
and most of the time
in such shallow depths 30feet to 50 feet
i can last a good 70 minutes easily with room to spare
like i did on my first dive)
anyways
i ended up two jetties down
and with the surge and a light current against me
man
i swim too fast for my own good sometimes
i wasn't paying that much attention on the way out
and missed a few critical depth marks
anyways
i made it back
under 70 minutes
and with about 750 psi
and that was ok
except i was REALLY swimming hard
and that took it's toll
chilled topside for about an hour and a half
before i went on my third dive
and when i went down
the water was even more crowded
and even murkier than before
i decided i'd do a mental map
and retrace dive 2
just to see where i could have missed the entrance
anyways
i really paid attention this time
and still had fun
found the 2 walls of death
(where the poachers had cleaned out those clam things)
mentally marked their locations
and continued on wards
by the way
in dive 2,
found a bunch of live ones
somewhere else
and ok, i'll be honest
i harvested one
and ate it underwater
just to see what it was like
it was "ok"
nothing like the scallops we get back home
and i don't know if they were just eating the abductor muscle
or what
anyways
the water here
is MUCH saltier than the west coast of canada
and it reminds me of the water in taiwan
tasted a lil of it
when i was eating that clam thingy
hehehehe
on the way back from this dive
went to the lava tubes on purpose this time
and STILL went just a bit too far
so i'm pretty sure there was an almost unseen current
yeah that must have been it
and off i went
swimming back
under the water
with air to spare
but not enough to brag about
tho i still broke an hour underwater
and this with hard labour
oh well
i was getting tired
from swimming so much anyways
and then i drove home
on the way
stopping at the dole plantation
to get some coconut syrup for a friend
and i wanted to get some ice cream
(was told it was REALLY good there)
but they only took cash for the ice cream
(the buggers)
and all i had was my personal visa
because i kept what i was carrying to mininum
so i could stuff it in a ziploc bag
and put it in my bc
ok,
so no ice cream for kirb
and off i went to return the tanks
and i'm getting to know the streets well enough now
that i don't have to look at a map
to get to the places i want to go
which is kind of cool :)
the drive was pleasant
way nicer than during the weekday
with all the traffic jams
and i got to the dive shop smoothly
mike was there again
and i chatted with him for a bit
after i returned the tanks
he had "the knife" in his display case!!
and when i asked if it was for sale
he said it was his own
and it wasn't for sale
ahhh, too bad :(
but still cool to see them around :)
anyone who wants to know what "the knife" is,
email me and i'll tell you
otherwise i'll digress too much
returned to the hotel
cleaned gear and called visa
and everything was in order
so i went off to genki sushi
to eat some sushi
(just this massive sushi craving)
and it was nice
the sushi goes around on a belt
and you can also order some stuff freshly made
the prices were way reasonable
and i had like 13 orders of sushi
(2 pieces per order)
which is a heck of a lot of rice
and satisfied my sushi urge
which only left
the pineapple ice cream thing
and so i went down to the makai food court
and found myself a pineapple ice cream
and for the rest of my life
i will wonder
if the dole plantation ice cream
was really that much better or not?
what a sad situation
*wink*
anyways, i returned to the hotel afterwards
and here i am now
catching up on blogs
and blathering away
i may not be able to find internet access consistently
and so i warn you all
there may be a break in ko-blogs
*relief*
hehehhee
ok, i'm off to sleep or something
it's been a long day
and i know it's insanely early
but heck
i'm now officially
taking a mini-holiday :)
kirb out.