Day 6-7 - Honolulu (Whine)

Sunday 23 July 2004, 19:30 Hawaii time (GMT-10)

(Edited 29/7/04, to take a bit of the 'sting' out of it)

Can someone please get me out of this island paradise?

I feel really bad saying this in a way, but I promised at the start that this would be an honest summary of how I feel about my holiday as well as just a summary of what I did, and to say I am enjoying myself would be wrong. This is a bit of a rant and rave, because I can't honestly see now why everyone rants and raves about Hawaii and the beach at Waikiki. Maybe I'm just trying to set the record straight, or just building a bridge and getting over it by writing about it so I can get on and enjoy the rest of my holiday. If I sound too whiney, don't worry, I'll be over it in a day or two :)

Eating and drinking
The 7-11 is the best place to eat in Waikiki. You can get fresh sushi (when they have it), cheap spring water and other goodies. Fresh food is hard to get elsewhere and is usually imported from the mainland, so is not fresh at all.

Restaurants - apart from the breakfast I have had each morning (which is still fried), most food here is expensive. Even Subway costs more here than back in Australia. They don't have Cadbury's chocolate, and the US alternative, Hersheys, just doesn't cut it - it honestly tastes like the cooking chocolate back home. Fast food is in. Deep fried is in. Fresh is out.

Sometimes I am forced to realise how lucky we have it.

Climate
Coming here in the middle of summer was not my brightest idea. It has been consistently hot and consistently humid. My health is suffering for it, as I've lost so much fluid and even drinking lots of water hasn't helped much. Also, in this sort of weather, your head goes a little bit, and I've lost my mobile phone twice (found it again both times) and my Oahu map (sadly didn't find it). The mozzies are having a field day with my legs - I've now got about 25 bites in different places - although I think they are biting at night in my hotel room.

People and Language
People here are Hawaiian - only the tourists are American. Quite a few Hawaiians don't speak very good English, yet work in jobs where they're basically expected to. This isn't their fault, but it still annoys me when I can't communicate with the person I'm trying to buy from. As for the Americans, they can't understand me either. I have to speak with an American accent sometimes in order to be understood. And that's not to mention all the language differences between US English and Australian/most of rest of world English that causes problems. (Note this is not a critique of Americans generally, more the middle-aged package tourist types who come to Hawaii dressed in wild shirts).

Also, in Hawaii, despite the above, it's very clear you're in a bit of America. The food is middle-class American, the language is American, the people possess very little understanding of any kind of world outside America (and, often, only their part of America), and I needn't labour the point as others have extensively. I get the feeling that some older Americans, most likely there on package tours their travel agent arranged for them, look down on me because I am Australian and get around in my own clothes and in my own way. With service people, I've had to put on an American accent at times as they don't understand me - even though Canadians, who have a similar accent, understand me clearly. I also have to speak in Fahrenheit and miles, which gets annoying after converting about 4 different things.