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Tomorrowland Trekkers
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Tomorrowland Trekkers
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Something that puzzled me once we arrived on Oahu was the mystery of how there could be an island full of cats of which I had not heard. Much to my superb happiness there were cats almost everywhere we went. Our resort had wild cats roaming all about the beautiful grounds, but they were much too skittish to let me near them. One morning I opened my door and found a cat dining on our doorstep room service leftovers. Another day we came back and found 3 cats sitting around our front door, which I took to be a good omen, like our cats from home were sending us love through the meow connection. Another cat would bird watch from our sunporch. Sadly though, none of the cats would let me pet them until the final day when I left my door open and a cute little grey and white tabby sauntered in and just started roaming and sniffing the room. He let me pet him. I was happy. We dined at a busy food truck that sold sea food with a big shark sign out front and a fat old grey cat with a lopsided beat up ear sprawled himself on the ground basking in the sun, virtually ignoring the throngs of people walking around him. He kinda reminded me of Heathcliff. My next big cat sighting was at Malaekahana state recreation area. We drove in just as the sun was setting because I was chasing a rainbow photo opportunity. As we drove into the park a line of cats sat in the drive blocking our path. The bright beams of the jeep stared into their eyes and they stared back unflinchingly. The jeep pressed forward and they continued to play a game of chicken, letting us know it was their territory. Kinda felt like a scene from Sleepwalkers. We pressed on an they finally sauntered away. As we entered the park , more glinting eyes flashed at us. They were everywhere. There must have been over a hundred. By and large they appeared pretty healthy. The light was too dark to get any pictures so we came back a few days later in the daylight and found the pack again. Again, most the cats were pretty skittish but one approached me. Sadly, he appeared to have an upper respiratory infection, marked by nasally snot bubbles, I ended up feeding a group of chickens and roosters my leftover seeds from feeding roosters in Kauai and fed the cats some bread pudding I bought from a roadside seller. The bread pudding was covered in coconut milk and was pretty darn amazing, but I was willing to part with it for the sake of the kitties. Throughout my stay I had been wondering how the fowl and feline lived together. I witnessed the roosters chasing away the cats from the bread pudding and stealing it and pecking their behinds. Some of the cats had bald patches on their butts. That solved that mystery. I think there is joke in here somewhere about alternative words for cats and roosters AKA parts of the anatomy...but I will let you fill in the blanks.
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While driving down Kamehameha highway 83 around Hawaii we spotted an abandoned house. It was in disrepair covered with trees and through beams of lights and space between the leaves you could see bright graffiti adorning the walls with an unmistakable "ALOHA and stonework engraving of "1916" attached to the front of the building. Stepping into the house there were piles of trash, car seats, buckets, a pallet, and an abandoned mattress on the ground. The house was made of concrete, but had no glass in the windows, only shells of large squares leaving room for large trees to weave in and out and up through the missing room in a jungle-like fashion. One tree grew through corner of the interior and joined with the walls reminiscent of Angkor Wat/Ta Prahm in Siem Reap, Cambodia; Like a modern urban-jungle version of the "Tomb Raider Temple." Stepping behind the house and looking beyond the barbed wire, we spotted an abandoned car fully covered in matching graffiti. Each room and corner of the house featured its own unique version of street artwork. Research on the history of the building at 51830 Kamehameha highway links to a property owned by Crawford's Convalescent home. However, it seems that another larger adjacent abandoned building used to be a reform school for deviant and wayward boys known as Waia'lae Boy's Industrial School that burned down in 2002. The building I photographed appeared to have been established in 1916 by the markings on the building, and according to a ghosttown website, it was formerly a band room, jail, and Poi factory. Hawaii is known for its beauty and among the highest cost of living in the US, which is contrasted by its extraordinary high poverty and homelessness rates. The colorful dilapidation of this ghost house amidst the contrasting beauty of the north shore seemed like a metaphor for the juxtaposition that exists in Hawaii, while having an allure of its own. http://ghosttowns.com/states/hi/waialee.html www.TomorrowlandTrekkers.com Planning our trip to Hawaii I got lots of feedback that 1) Hawaii was expensive and hard to do on a budget 2) 1 week is not long enough and 3) Island hopping or day-trips are great, are really only feasible on longer trips and you should avoid them on shorter trips because you waste too much time at the airport. Hawaii is more pricey than the mainland, but there are plenty of ways of enjoy Hawaii on a budget. The best things to do in Hawaii were free. Even some of the best food places were one's more popular with locals and had a unique flavor of their own. Sadly, one week is not long enough to see all the wonderful things Hawaii and all its islands have to offer; if I were to do it over again, I would have taken 2 weeks. But, there are plenty of ways to capitalize on a short trip and make the best of your time. For starters, we left really early at 6 am and flew back on the last flight at 11pm. By foregoing sleep, we got to see the sunrise, not care about the hours we missed at the airport, since everything was closed at those hours, and maximize our daylight hours. Here were my faves: Wailua FallsThe view of this waterfall from the scenic overlook is breathtaking. Worth the drive to check it out. There was a fenceline and large wall with signs of dangerous cliffs. But that did not stop a few brave and arguably stupid souls from bypassing the fence and adventuring down the steep rooted cliffs at a 130 degree incline, complete with ropes to shimmy your way down through the mud, army-style. The falls are stunning. Tree TunnelThis is one of nature and man's most magnificent combined creations. It is a long tunnel of trees off Highway 50 forming an arching canopy of greenery. So fun to cruise with the top down! Poi Pu BeachThis beach was rumored to be great for snorkeling with frequent turtle and dolphin sightings. We did not see turtles or dolphins, but we did see 4 endangered monk seals sleeping on the beach- a rare sighting since there are only 1400 left in existence. Also, the snorkeling here was great. the water is shallow by the reefs, but there are lots of interesting creatures in the water. Make sure to wear your water shoes and maybe gloves because spiny sea urchins and sharp coral are everywhere (I speak from experience thanks to shallow waters and a heavy wave). Glass Beach & McBryde Cemetery at Ele'eleThis is a small beach covered in pebbles of sanded glass left from a nearby glass factory. It is a little difficult to find. You will want to look for Port Allen and Eleele road that goes down past some chocolate, t-shirt, and travel shops, then ends at some factories. Just to the left of the factories you will find glass beach. After you get done checking out glass beach, look further to the left and you will find an old Asian Cemetery made on red-dirt. The tombs look ancient and are filled with sugar plantation workers. Explore Waimea CanyonLots of people advised taking the helicopter ride through the canyon. If you don't have an extra $250, drive through the canyon instead. The roads are fabulous, winding, with outlets of waterfalls in red dirt and scenic outlook spots of the canyon. You may even find a local giving a free talk about ancient indigenous customs used in the valley. If you follow the road as far as it will go to the Napali coast there is a state park with a lodge restaurant and gift shop. A unique aspect here is all the chickens and roosters, and they sell bags of feed, so you have the opportunity to feed the Kauai wild chickens. Anini BeachThis was a recommendation about where the locals go. It was hidden away through residential areas along a narrow road. There was obviously several camping areas around here too. Worth checking out the views. By the end of the day, we circled the island and spent $120 each for the flight, $42 on gas+ fees, $6 for Kauai tourism app, $2 for chicken feed, $60 on food, and our rental car was only $15 for the upgrade (we used my credit card reward points for a free rental)= Total $305 or $152.50 each for a Kauai day trip from Oahu. Aloha, and Happy Travels ~Tomorrowland Trekkers ~M Yesterday, Meg and I checked out the beach at Waimea which was beautiful. We each took a turn at cliff diving off the huge rock formation. We were amused by how many people (including me) climbed all the way up there and then sat down for 5-10 min to build up courage. Megan called us "thinkers." When we arrived, there was an elderly withered sun beaten homeless woman feeding about 30 wild chickens in a break in the vegetation by the car. When we came back, all but one ...of the chickens were gone, the remaining one appeared to be something like a gamefowl rooster that a man caught, tied a pink rope around it's leg and the other side to a stick in the ground while he was still hanging out chatting with folks. We were debating if the bird was going to be a breeder, dinner, or a fighting cock. Any way you slice it, his future looked pretty bleak. There are lots of things going on here for which I have no frame of reference... We "missed" our red eye flight which the airline sees as our fault because we arrived late for us but still 35 min before the flight and didn't know that the agricultural checkpoint closes at 11 and so does the airline check in area. I was not pleased, and we are being charged a $125 fee for rescheduling per ticket. But those curt unapologetic women didn't erase the fact that, since we checked out of the timeshare the night before we had paid to stay, the very kind front desk man let us just have our room back for the night. We were just barely able to hit last call for rental cars to get one for one more day. The guy gave us a mustang for the price of a regular full size car because Meg is an Aquarius, which she's not. I almost told him to keep it in his pants...
The lack of diversity in St. Louis beyond Black and White compared with Hawaii was quite striking. Other than Meg's height being a complication, I can always spot her anywhere if we get separated in Missouri but I was having a hell of a time in Hawaii, since every local and most tourists were Asian, Samoan, Latino etc. Me, some of the surfers, a few of the beach tent dwellers, and the Australians on holiday were about it in the Caucasian camp, so I kept losing her all the time, especially while snorkeling when everyone wearing the same color suit looked like Meg from the top of their head and shoulders...Glad she didn't drown and I didn't grab any stranger's ass. |
AuthorsChris, lover of food and back alley experiences. Archives
July 2020
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