Buyers remorse?

See that shirt up there? It's one of the many vintage shirts that I got over at Hawaii courtesy of 88Tees (great shop btw). Now, I've come home and I can see that I've gotten myself into a little a dilemma - ALL, yes ALL of the shirts that I bought over there mentions "Hawaii" in some form or another. Okay at the time of purchase I was thinking to myself, wouldn't it be great to buy a shirt that has something about Hawaii on it? It would make a great souvenir. Now I come home and when I put on I look like a walking advertisement for the bloody place and I should probably be paid by their Board of Tourism.

Real situation - I meet my friends one day with my Honolulu T-Shirt on, all have a bit of a chuckle with them saying "oh, looks like you bought the shirt over there, looks cool". Second day, I've got a shirt that simply just says "Hawaii" on the front (and it's not the one on that photo LOL) my friends laugh "geez another Hawaii shirt, good one". Day three, I've put on the shirt in the photo, meet my friends who look at my shirt and say " OKAY, for fucks sake you went to Hawaii!!". Shutdown, I was. Worst part of it all, there's still about three or four shirts they haven't seen yet. Yes, it says 'Hawaii' on nearly all of them. Sigh.

And no Ron, that does not mean you can have the shirt. LOL

Day Eight: where'd Saturday go?

Satdy morn, and it was time to finally leave our little beautiful island. Our bags are packed and we head off down to the lobby to wait for our taxis. Instead of having a limo like last time, this time we had two taragos and obviously we had to split the group into two. I ended up riding with Ate Rina and Tita Au. All the way to the airport, the music playing was absolutely, 100% Hawaiian as Hawaiian can get - think the theme song to Hawaii Five-O. If I were to sing it, it would sound kinda like this -

"tanga tanga tanga tanga doom doom tak tak doom dom tak tak..."

Okay, it probably doesn't work when you read it but if you've got the Hawaii Five-O theme song then you've got it spot on already. Anyway, it was way cool.

So we get to the airport and of course, security was tough. I always hate going through security gates and scanners because I always feel like I've done something wrong. So I'm always usually extremely nervous, I mean I watch border security for fucks sakes, I know what they do, and I seem to know the little gizmos they use and how good they actually are. All the while, I'm thinking whether or not the anti-diarrhoea medicine I had would trigger off some drug scare or something. Oh yeah, one word of warning - Pepto Bismol (this upset stomach medicine thingy) is good like, it works and stuff but it makes your shit EXTREMELY dark. It's scary.

Anyway, we board the plane bound for Sydney. One part of me didn't want to go and another part of me was wanting to go home. I actually ended up missing my family and my friends back home and at the same time, I knew I would probably end up missing Hawaii.

On the way home, I had a bit of a nap although it was a bit hard especially with the loud man behind us. I ended up finally watching the Prison Break episodes that I had stored on my PSP, seriously that show is awesome. Question - how can Wentworth Miller see at all? I'd imagine it would be hard to see anything while squinting as hard as he does.

Despite us not experiencing nightfall during the flight, we managed to touchdown into Sydney a complete day and a half after our departure in Honolulu, even when the flight was only 9 hours long. Confused? Well I was too, and I kinda felt cheated that I lost one whole day in my life.

So yeah I miss Hawaii, I miss not having a care in the world for that period of time. I miss the humidity, I miss the sunsets over the ocean. I miss a lot. But at the same time, I'm now home. Although Lucy and probably Ron most likely wouldn't agree with me here - but Sydney is my home. My heart is here, and I really love this place and I can't imagine not growing old here. Sure, I'd love to live in another place for a year or so but I would love to settle down here in Sydney. I love it's beauty and at the same time, I love it's faults. Sydney is by no means a perfect city, but what place is? Best part of it all - it's not in America.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi! Oi! Oi!

Day Seven: the final Kal Bi

Last full day in Hawaii saw us going off to the nearest Wal-Mart to find some little things here and there to take home. I went to get a whole heap of chocolates to take home and pretty much most of us did the same. Ron on the other hand had something else in mind, he wanted to buy a bike so that he could take it home and go biking all across the M7 or something like that. Anyway, he had his heart so set on that one bike and I have to say that it was one hell of a sexy bike. It was cheap there too, $US109 which is about $A140 and Ron was telling me the same bike would cost up to or around the $A500 mark.

Ron rang up Qantas early that morning to see what the procedure for taking bikes on the plane were. According to him, all that was required was that the bike be boxed up and be put through as part of the allocated luggage. Lucy, being the questioner she is decided to ring up Qantas just to make sure and fair enough, apparently if a bike was to be part of the luggage even if still under the allocated weight limit, it would be treated as if the carriage was overweight and therefore a fee would have been charged. Now this fee would have amounted to about $A200 which would bring the amount closer to the Australian price for that specific bike. So in the end, they decided to bypass the bike which broke Rons heart - he was shattered. But in the end, all was good, coz he ended up getting kick arse shirts over at 88Tees (I wanted that orange one, Ron LOL).

We then decided to go to Waikiki beach to do some final swimming and for me a final chance to get a nice tan. Ron and Lucy went off and swam while I just stayed on the sand, on the ground listening to some Eskimo Joe while I fried.

This was also the final chance to do some serious camera whoring, the sunset provided a perfect backdrop for it all. I have to say, it was probably one of the first times I'd EVER seen the sun set on the water and it was incredibly beautiful, almost poetic.

There's this shot that I took of Ron and Lucy by the sunset, with Ron kissing Lucys forehead. It's probably one of my favourite shots I've ever taken, it looks like a poster or a cover for some Hawaiian tourist magazine or something. Again, into my portfolio, that one...

We had our final supper, I had my Japanese chicken and Ron and Lucy had their kal bi (Korean BBQ thingy). Ron bought some major grog, a bottle of beer as big as my torso (LOL) and a corona each and ended up getting almost drunk ( I think I was, I don't remember) on our balcony, wishing we were to stay there for much longer and dreading going back to responsibility.

Wasted as I was, I had an awesome sleep.

Day Six (night): Seriously, I'm full...

Thinking about it, Thursday was probably our biggest day hence the two postings for the one day.

Now, after the amazing experience at Hanauma we went back and had dinner at the local Chillis restaurant. Now here's the thing I found so weird in America - there's like a billion or so fat and obese people over there, is it perhaps because the serving sizes of all their dishes insanely huge? McDonalds, Burger King - or pretty much every place we went to, all the servings are MASSIVE. Their 'Normal' sized meal are our Large, they don't have a small meal and their large meals, oh man, it would be enough for a whole family to eat. Their cups are huuuuuge, it can double up as an aquarium or something.

Anyway, the dish I had was massive and I ended up not eating the whole thing which is way weird for me. Usually, I'm the only person who completes the whole dish, even licking extra sauce off the plate. But no, got way too full half way. It was apparent Ron got full too, I escorted him to the bathroom because I needed to pee. He warned me when we were there that he was about to 'excrete'. I heard his poo drop. Sounded like he got his moneys worth, sounded like a big one. LOL

Afterwards Ate Rina, Ron, Lucy and myself made our way to the local bar 'Big Kahuna' on Kuhio. We bought a lot of grog, including this thing that was actually served in a fish bowl. Got me rather tipsy, but I didn't get drunk. We all got pics with the waitresses there and they all had massive tits.

Not sleepy enough, we walked around Waikiki at night and just had a bit of a chat. Ate Rina and I went our own way to let Ron and Lucy have a bit of "them" time, which they probably did deserve. We ended up talking about the world, news, things, you know.

Oh yeah, LOL we caught all these couples having a full on root (sex) on the beach, like out on the open beach, for all the world to see. Not just dry humping, but full-on pelvic thrusting without clothes on type. Amazing! I would NEVER have mustered the courage to do anything like that. It was extremely weird, yet I couldn't take my eyes off them. I felt like, incredibly privelidged to have seen it. If they happen to have kids because of that specific root, if I ever meet those subsequent kids I could tell them that I was there while they were being made. Cool.

Oh, of course we camera whored for the rest of the night.

Day Six (day): Please don't feed me...

Thursday had us waking up a bit later than usual, it was a well deserved rest since we never did have a chance to have a break until then. But once we were all up, we all decided to go down to Hanauma Bay for some snorkelling action. So we got ready, went down to the nearest ABC store and bought some food and a snorkel set. I demanded a yellow one for some reason, don't know why. We then made our way to the closest bus stop and waited for what was about an hour before our bus came.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much. All the while, I was just thinking - yup beach, seen 'em all. Upon arrival and looking out the ledge to see the bay I was gobsmacked, the bay was a testament that God did exist and made this part of the world so special. It was incredibly beautiful, coconut trees lined the edge of the beach, white sand met the jade green-blue water and was so clear that you can easily see the coral from metres above. I also saw a mongoose, it was brown (LOL).

To get into the bay you need to pay $US5 and watch a compulsory video that explains the guidelines while at the beach. First, of course do not touch or tread on the wildlife (coral, fish, fat people etc.). Second, do not feed the wildlife. They went so far as to use the "Under the Sea" song in the Little Mermaid movie to put that message across, of course reworded. It was way stupid, and probably infringed copyright rules but it got stuck in my head anyway. To be honest, I forgot what the other rules were, I think it was like, don't eat the seals or something (???).

Anyways, we hired some flippers and I hired a floating vest since I was a non-swimmer and off we went. It was awesome, corals and fish everywhere, it was like watching 'Finding Nemo' but in real life and so the fish didn't talk. The water was rather shallow, deepest only went up to my chest but it made for great snorkelling. I didn't go out as far as Ron and Lucy did, but was extremely pleased with what I saw. It was, for me definitely the highlight of the trip.

Day Five: Ala-Mo-Ana - oh yeah I know them.

Day five starts off with us saying farewell to Lucy's cousins - back to Lala Land they went. It was great having them around, but alas they had to leave due to commitments back at home. To cheer ourselves up, we headed of to Ala Moana Shopping Centre for a little bit of retail therapy.

Ala Moana is apparently Hawaii's largest shopping centre? Or was it just Oahu? I don't really remember, but yeah it was kinda big. It was outdoor-indoorsy, reminded me of Warringah Mall back here in Sydney. But yeah, there were SOME bargains to be had, but for the most part it was pretty expensive. Didn't buy much, only small presents for my family and for myself. As usual, camera whoring happened whilst at the shopping centre, but it wasn't majorly extreme.

The day ended with us just walking around Waikiki at night, watching street performers as well as further shopping over at the International Marketplace. We bought some grog afterwards and drank it over at Lucys Aunts room, had a late night just having a little chinwag with Ate Rina. We also made friends with these people from another building a few hundred metres away. Oh, and I also found out that they stopped serving grog at 11:50pm at night and that ABC stores close a couple of minutes after 11pm. Not very convenient for those wanting a bit of a late night grog fix.

Day Four: Going on the Dole

Day four sees us trekking to the Dole Plantation - as the name suggests it was a plantation and perhaps the people that picked them were working for the Dole (LOL sorry). From what we saw it was basically just all pineapples. A whole shitload of them. I reckon all the workers there ate the pineapples all day, and if you were to just accidentally eat one of the workers, I bet they would taste like pineapples (???). We didn't stay there for long, once you've seen one pineapple you've seen them all. They had this maze there though in a shape of a large pineapple, apparently it's the world's largest maze which is cool. I bet you the prize for getting to the end would be a pineapple. We had lunch, drank pineapple juice and I did a crap in the toilets before we left for the north shore.

Now Lucy's cousins told us that there was an awesome beach up at the north shore of Oahu, so fair enough we all end up driving up there. We had two loaded seven seater SUVs full of pineapple loaded individuals. I should note that Ron ended up driving the Jeep on the way back home which was very brave of him. Anyway, we made ourselves there and fair enough, it was a great beach with lots of locals away from the tourists that plague Waikiki which was a good change. But was the beach deep or what? I didn't bother swimming, it went too deep way too quickly and being the non-swimmer I was, I opted to lie down and tan instead. Further camera whoring followed and we up and left back to Hilton Village for more swimming. The beach infront of the hotel was awesome; shallow, warm complete with little fishies swimming around your feet. The night ended with even more camera whoring and at this point we probably reached our 10 000th shot.

Aotearoa!!!! part two

Day Three: Aotearoa!!!!

Day three saw us trekking up to the northern part of Oahu to the Polynesian Cultural Centre. Kinda like a 'moving museum' showcasing Polynesian culture from Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, Marquesas, Tonga and Aotearoa - otherwise known as New Zealand.

Our tour guide was this freshy Singaporean chick named Christina - so we were guaranteed an authentic polynesian experience (LOL). She was incredibly annoying at first, but after a while you get used to her. I mean, she knew her stuff but I was kinda peeved not getting a real polynesian person who called us 'Cuz' or the group 'Family'. There was a tour guide chick there that looked like Paulini from Australian Idol - come to think of it, they all did. LOL.

Christina, along with pretty much everyone else who worked there were all students at the Mormon University next door. All proceeds (Or I guess most of it) went towards the university and perhaps the students tuition. Good idea. Entry for us was $US125 per person, so it is quite a substantial contribution. For that price I also EXPECT a happy ending. HAHAHAHA

Anyway, by the end of the day I learnt a hell of a lot and ended up getting a new found respect for Polynesian culture. I also found that a lot of Polynesians knew how to speak Tagalog - the musician over at Hawaii treated us to a tagalog song and the incredibly funny Fire Dancer from Samoa knew his Tagalog as well. Actually, that's one of the most awesome things about Hawaii, in that it's such a melting pot of cool cultures. While it is Polynesian at heart, they have learnt to embrace other influences into its culture - from Filipino, Japanese, Korean and "Paniolo" (Spanish/Latin).

Getting off track but yeah, Polynesian Cultural Centre is way cool. The Luau was awesome, the food was great (esp the purple bread rolls), people were friendly, I "nosed kissed" this obese lady who just ate Garlic ("Hello!") and the Night show was entertaining and we learnt a lot. Best of all, we all got Lei'd.

Awesome.

Day Two: Around the World in 50 minutes

Day two had us up and early to meet Lucy's cousins who flew in over from Los Angeles to join us for a couple of days. They're a rowdy bunch, as Californians as Californians can get. You can tell that they can get anything they want, they sport Chanel sunglasses, Louis Vuitton bags, platinum Amexs, everything you can probably think of Californian girls, they've got 'em LOL.

Anyway, we meet them having breakfast at a Japanese restaurant which they then tell us that they booked an relaxation spa session which included a massage as part of the deal. We thought, yeah why not and booked ourselves a session. I was a little hesitant, especially because of the $US125 price tag. For that price, I EXPECT a happy ending. But after some little persuasion from Ron I thought, why not? It IS a holiday after all. A booking was subsequently made, but due to the tight schedule the only masseuse available for Ron and myself were males. I thought, what the hell, I'd prolly end up getting a massive hard on if a hot chick was massaging me anyway, now THAT would have been embarrassing. LOL

Before any of that happened though, we had enough time to kill so we ended up visiting Pearl Harbour for a couple of hours. It was sorta interesting, but I'm not really into warfare. The place was packed with people 'Running for USA' or something like that - kinda like a little commemorative service for the 9/11 attacks. Yeah so we went in a sub, got served by a rude black lady. Went on a ship, it was pretty big. It was pretty cool nevertheless.

On to the day spa. It was the first one I'd ever been to in my entire life and I was ready to get pampered. Changed into my bathrobe, and jumped in a steam room, dry sauna and a spa bath. Heaven. I felt rich. FFS I payed $125 for this. Then came the massage.

Was greeted by a short blond dude and he ended up doing the massage. Okay, the massage was called "Around the World" because it combines massage techniques from different places around the world - from Swedish, shiatsu or whatever, I really couldn't tell them apart anyway. But man, did it feel awesome. I ended up sleeping a bit and even dreamed of some random chick I knew LOL. 50 minutes rolled by quick, but oh man it was $125 well spent.