Didn't get lei'd
Hawaii was surprisingly interesting, a fusion of American convenience and Polynesian charm.

Begrudgingly devoured enormous portions of food (Hawaiin burger - with pineapple, and of course Hawaiin pizza), visited Pineapple plantation and generally did pineapple oriented things. Toured the island on what is relatively the cheapest bus journey (2 dollars for a 4 hour round trip).

Decided to follow in the footsteps of the Japanese and visit Pearl Harbour, slightly less exciting arriving on an orange bus than dive bombing from 10,000 ft, but there simply were no trips offering that experience. Considering the exhibition there is run by Americans it was suprisingly informative, using big words and telling what appeared to be a reasonably balanced story. Interesting description of Hiroshima - "when America unleashed the light of a thousand suns", no remorse, simply light. That said, the country was crawling with Japanese, restaurant menus were written in Japanese and lots of locals clearly spoke the language. Can you imagine the uproar in the UK if thousands of Germans regularly visited our shores, necessitating dual language menus? ... and the German's didn't make us look like idiots who couldn't understand radar.

Decided body surfing would be easier than the stand-up version; how wrong we were. hired some boards & fins, then off to Waikiki beach, a stones throw from our hotel. Paddled out a bit, caught a wave, sliced foot open on coral, paddled out a bit deeper, caught another wave, sliced knee open on yet more coral. Wouldn't be an adventure if I didn't have a lifelong scar, so once the bleeding had stopped and the sharks had stopped circling, back into the waters. Happily more successful, still not convinced it was easier than standing.

Despite the garlands of flowers floating about (Lei) nobody decided to drape one around our necks - hence the phrase "we travelled to Hawaii and couldn't get lei'd".
- posted by Adrian @ 8:32:00 PM