Travel shots galleries
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Travel shots galleries |
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| Atlanta, USA, July 2001 | Hawaii, USA, Dec 2001 | Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dec 2001 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dec 2001 |
| California, USA, July 2004 | Arizona, USA, August 2004 | Nevada, USA, August 2004 |
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Traveler's journals |
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| Yellowstone and Wyoming - July 2005 | California - Arizona - Nevada, USA, July-August 2004 | Western USA 2005 |
| Hawaii, USA, Nov-Dec 2001 | Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dec 2001 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dec 2001 |
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Hawaii, USA, Nov-Dec 2001 |
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| Waikiki | Pearl Harbor | Atlantis sub | Kualoa Ranch | Makani Kai Helicopter | Big Island |
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Oahu is known as "the gathering place". It holds the capital Honolulu with over 700.000 inhabitants and a very busy international airport, the first point of contact for arriving tourists. Shuttle from the airport to the Waikiki area starts from 7 USD and can take more then an hour. Usually it’s a packed bus that delivers customers door to door, crossing Waikiki area several times on the way. Good for budget travelers – and if you are on a budget it’s a must. This expense is only a modest introduction of what is yet to come. More comfortable taxi will drain you for USD 25+ and took some 20 minutes off-peak. Coming to Waikiki I (admit) was eluding myself to get away from it all. I’ve conceived in time the true meaning of "the gathering place". Everybody flocks there, since it has all one needs – affordable accommodation, lots of places to eat (average dinner starts at 20 USD per person !), high street shopping, lots of nightly entertainment and of course – worlds famous beach a few strolls away. The place is littered with ABC shops – kind of a general-store shops stoking everything a visitor may need – from quick snack to souvenirs and baggage accessories. These shops are often small and really recurrent on every corner. A cheap survival option combines snacks and fresh fruit (not all that cheap I’m afraid) with the in-room fridge. Accommodation is mostly sought in the highly touristic Waikiki area. Hotels, lots of them in all price ranges, give the value for money. There are exceptions – by booking few weeks in advance over the internet one can benefit from good deals at moderate rates. My example – pleasant Ohana Waikiki Tower, rated 3.5 stars cost me USD 69 + tax per night and that included central air-conditioned room with TV, electronic safe and a fridge. For time and place a very good deal. Don’t associate an isolated remote tropical oasis with the word Waikiki. The area is totally built up with skyscraper hotels and I had a feeling of again being in Atlanta, GA or similar high-rise US city. As a general note, by staying south of Kalakaua Av. the seashore is at most a few hundred feet away. |
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| The Waikiki beach is about a mile
long stretch of loose sand, from 10 to 30 yards wide. Not at all a big
place for all hotel guests of Waikiki hotels. Surprisingly the beach was
never really crowded! That’s mostly due to people using Waikiki as a hub
and lots of them take up numerous guided or unguided daily trips around
the Oahu island or a (several) day trips to neighbouring island. More
about that later.
Winter time in Hawaii sees modest climate, plenty of trade winds and usually overcast weather. Be weary - if your main purpose is getting that perfect Hawaiian golden tan, you may be disappointed. Luckily high winds are strong, literally blowing heavy weather fronts away. Most of south facing shores are sheltered with high mountains (extinct volcano mountains) and usually escape the worst rain. Thus experiencing a tropical thunderstorm in Waikiki on 26/11/01 was unique, since it happens only on every few years. Winter is surfing time in Hawaii, especially at it's north facing shores. Waves easily exceed 10 feet, prompting "surf’s up!". The spectacular surfing "as seen on TV" through water tunnels (Banzaii Pipeline) takes the breath away from surfers and (more so) spectators. There are several opportunities for beginners to learn the must in Hawaii – surfing. Handful of these are along Waikiki beach. For others see the Tourist information channel on your hotel TV. Before going there I strongly recommend spending some time on the
internet getting acquainted with all the activities there are on offer.
And these are plentiful! The first striking feature one experiences is the
abundance of information. By searching for fun activities I came across
several directories listing everything – from short trips to Pearl
Harbor to day trip to the Big Island and everything you can imagine
(almost) in between. Surprisingly not, these agencies mostly offer
services from the same provider, and serve as middle-man in booking the
activities. Some charge no provision. Others even give internet booking
discount. Myself have booked a myriad of activities for an action packed
fun week with the Book it Hawaii, about a week before departure. I must
say their web site is very efficient and daily reminders of next day
activities were appreciated (though not necessary). |
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ACTIVITIES |
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| I have no intention of describing nor had I have opportunities to experience every activity on offer. In the following paragraphs I would like to share some memories and give some advice on do’s and don'ts for some activities from the viewpoint of young active person on a moderate budget. | |||||
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| To start of with, a visit to Pearl Harbor is a must. There you can see the Arizona memorial, built on top the sunken battleship USS Arizon during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The trip starts at the visitor center, where each visitor is given a ticket number. These tickets are free (the whole experience is free – a rarity) and state the tour number. Tours depart every half an hour. Yes, I said correctly – the tours – the ship is sunk off a small island (Ford island) facing the visitors center, and civilians get there only on a visitor's boat. Before that visitors are shown a 20 min documentary film about the attack on that faithful day – 7 Dec 1941 (much similar to Pearl Harbor the movie of course). As you get of the boat and step into the memorial, the experience is impressive! More so as the ship is still leaking small drops of oil, referred to as teardrops of 1000+ entombed sailors. These oil patches are clearly visible and give a distinct smell to the site. Entire trip takes about two hours. | |||||
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| Next to Arizona visitors center is
the USS Bowfin Submarine – a WWII style submarine, fully opened for public.
There is the entrance fee for that, but where else can you see and
walk-through! a WWII submarine? Well worth those 8 USD, including
pre-recorded guide. Another un-missable sight is the battleship USS Missouri,
anchored next to the (sunk) USS Arizona. USS Missouri, nearly a hundred
years old and frequently upgraded ship was finally retired from service in
early nineties and is nowadays partially opened to visitors. The ship is
most famous for serving the peace treaty signing ceremony ending the
Second WW. I recommend a guided tour for 18 USD, which
takes about an hour and takes you along the entire three football fields
long ship and up and down its decks. The highlights is the tactical
weapons room, which is off-limits for self guided tours. And is one of few
well equipped rooms with military equipment of early eighties (for launching
Patriot, Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles fitted during the last upgrade).
After the tour you are free to explore the ship on your own, take plenty
of photos, video films, even have a barbeque (seriously – they offer
even that for closed groups at an appropriate price and prior
arrangements). Or just have a snack bellow deck in the officers kitchen.
The lower decks of the ship (engine, weapons room) are still of limits,
though. For coming back to Waikiki there are options of a public transport (The bus) or catch a (recommended) shuttle for a few dollars, that take you right back to your hotel. |
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| Let’s stay at the sea but move underwater on board the Atlantis submarine. Now don’t be disappointed in expecting a full military "Sea Wolf class" submarine. This is a custom built civilian sightseeing sub, some 15 m long and with huge 70cm in diameter and inch thick windows, sufficient to withstand pressure at 120 feet under water. The captain takes you around some artificial reefs, such as sunken ships and shot down WWII Japanese aircraft. Every dive is different, but do expect lots of exotic fish, blue sharks and even a sea turtle (nearer surface). Never know. The whole trip starts at Hilton pier on board a boat, which takes you out onto the sea where the sub awaits. Allow some 4 hours for this activity. When booking this event I’ve noticed options of Atlantis submarine for something like 90 USD and a Discovery submarine for nearly half that. I've booked cheaper Discovery, yet was put on the same sub (Atlantis) together with everybody else. Bear this in mind! | |||||
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| A good place to meet the nature
and have fun has to be Kualoa ranch. These guys offer a variety of
activities, and they make sure you are having fun. I recommend a deluxe
activity tour, which gives you four activities you can choose from the poll
of about 10 or so. I’ve chosen scuba dive (as deluxe activity),
horseback ride, gun range and ATV Dune buggies. For a novice to scuba
diving such as myself, these guys sure did made those 20 min under water a
time to remember. As a bonus you can keep all the seashells you find and
pick from the sea bottom. To make the experience more memorable, after
every activity a photographer awaits for the action snapshot (see the
Gallery). I should point out here that scuba and snorkel take place at the
same time and at the same spot of ocean. I recommend choosing either of
the two, to give yourself more time for other activities elsewhere.
I must admit the horseback ride was a slow and boring one. Horses are very timid and irrespective of your commands wont put a foot out of the route they follow four times per day, seven days a week, 300 days per year ….
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For a non-US citizen with weapons not freely available back home, coming to US gave me the chance to relive some wild wild west style gun shooting. Unfortunately not in a showdown duel style, but in much more an innocent and very safe target shooting. A standard choice these guys offer is 30 shots from 22mm pistol and rifle. Due to safety (even more so after 9/11) the guns are on very short leads, forcing you to really bend down and break your back when shooting with pistol. Anyway if you are in luck to be in a small group, be nice to the guides, and they will throw-in some extra shots on other weaponry – Colt 45, Uzi and on occasions the M-16 ! The unmissable event has to be the ATV Dune buggy ride. This one-hour "follow the leader" takes you around the mountain and along the most famous valley in Hawaii - the Crouching Lion (Ka'a'awa) Valley, where all Jurassic Park sequels and Godzilla movies were shot! And for added excitement go for a helicopter ride that will retrace the opening scene of Jurassic Park! The buggy’s are fast, safe (just watch you center of gravity in fast sharp turns) and I certainly had one of the best hours of my stay in Hawaii. And the leader takes you off-road, up and down a very steep slope, crossing a brook, and of course the tour points out all famous movie sites, with snap-shot stops on demand. I should say there is a movie set tour offered as one of the activities, which takes you to the same places, but in a van! So go for buggy’s!!!, you wont regret it. |
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| It may seem expensive to fork out
nearly 180 USD for a helicopter ride around Oahu, but it is worth it. I’ve
flown with Makani Kai helicopters in an A-star (sightseeing) helicopter, equipped
with 5 video cameras (the tape of the tour can be purchased for 20 USD).
The pilot was very knowledgeable and she told us a lot about the place we
saw – and we saw most of the Oahu’s shoreline starting with Honolulu,
Waikiki, over the Diamond Head crater, the blow hole, beach where
Magnum P.I. (staring Tom Selleck) was filmed,
Sandy beach, along the Crouching Lion valley described above, over the Sacret falls
towards the famous Sunset Beach and the Banzaii Pipeline beach on the
North shore. On the way back we flew over the famous labyrinth shaped as
pineapple placed amidst hundreds of acres of pineapple fields. We retraced the first wave
of Japanese attack while flying from the North shore over to the Honolulu
area. We had to be careful not to hang around Pearl harbor (most of
it is active military zone) for too long, to avoid the Black cobras on our
tail. Non-the less these pilots are good at tilting the chopper to give
you that perfect snap-shot view of Arizona and Missouri from 200 feet up.
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And this kinda brings fun packed four days on Oahu to a close. The rest of the time I recommend enjoying sights and sounds of Waikiki beach, if you are unfortunate enough to be stuck there. Hey, its not that bad. It definitely is a lot safer then some other places, like Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro. After a fun packed day like that a good dinner tastes better than ever. There are lots and lots of places to eat, offering all sorts of cuisine – native, American, east Asian. Be warned though that places tend to be expensive for dinners (realistically starting at 20 USD per person). A good bargain is all-you-can-eat place for fixed price of around 10 USD. Thanks to Perry’s smorgy restaurant (on Lewers street) for providing abundance of food with delicious 4 menu meals during those days!
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No visit to Hawaii is complete without visiting the active volcano, that is still gasping out molten lava for the past decades over on the Big island. You’ll find lots of one day guided tours to the Big Island. My experience with them advices caution. I was looking at two tours: The Big Island tour and the Volcano tour, both offered by the same company. Of course I was hopeful to meet the earth’s blood "face to face". That part of the trip turned out as a big disappointment, since (to my knowledge) tour company don’t take visitors where the (dangerous) excitement takes place. That’s called liability in US legal terms. If you want to see The event, go on your own! To make matter worse, it’s really easy. Big island is a hospitable and friendly place, without the Honolulu (or even Oahu) style crowdines. Its one of the places to meet the nature as pure as one possibly can in western world in 21st century. There are several towns along the main road for snack stopovers or the accommodation for the night. I think a good deal are "fly and drive" tours offered by several companies. That basically takes out the hassle of arranging air ticket and car booking on your own. Just call the company, say how many people want to go and when, followed with a credit card details and you are all sorted. |
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| The place is really picturesque and has some unique natural and man-made places from native Hawaiian history well worth visiting. Do visit the Place of Refuge (Pu'uhonua o Honaunau), the Punalu'u Blacksand Beach (don’t touch the turtles!) on the way towards the Hawaii Volcano national park. There is a Kilauea Visitor Center next to (nearly) extinct, but still smoking Halema'uma'u crater within the older Kilauea crater. Ask there for current volcano condition (the active volcano is several miles towards south-east in the East rift zone). Before departing for it, take a Crater rim drive, which also takes you around the Kilauea crater, past the most recent lava flows in 1982 all the way to the very edge of the Halema'uma'u crater. The place is spectacular! The moon style rocks and patches of black lava all around, it's just out of this world! Apparently NASA trained their astronauts there for the Moon missions. Pick one up - these ash rocks are unbelievably lightweight! Lots of HOT water vapor and sulfur is still rising from the soil, making the smell of the place very unique! (add the heat from the air and the sun and that's how hell must be like! J ). To my disappointment I can’t share with you lot the excitement of watching the red strips of molten lava flowing into the ocean and creating the steam explosions. As I said above, we were staying well clear of that. Perhaps my Big island sightseeing tour was a wrong one. Perhaps the Volcano tour would be more prosperous. Yet the US liability system wont take you anywhere near a potentially harmful situation (even after signing myriad of papers of willingly accepting the risks). Hey if you want excitement – take a Sugar loaf hike in Rio the Janeiro in Brazil. Walking on the edge of 200 m cliff, climbing the ledge of a steep rock overlooking some 150 m abyss with NO safety ropes or any other bullshit pumps you with adrenalin for days to come. More about that later in my Rio thoughts. Anyway in my trip, we saw a lot through the window of the van and walked just as much as an average 65 year old can in a day (that was the average age of 14 people in my van – for me a clear indication I was on the wrong tour!!). | |||||
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As a final thought on the Big island – the Kona International airport is UNIQUE! - a Pica hut style wooden huts built in traditional way, hosting the usual airport facilities: check-in desks, waiting lounges and departure gates. Fits really well in the time and place.
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CONCLUSION |
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| If you are still with me after some
five pages I must congratulate you on the patience. And I shan’t bore
you any longer. Hawaii are unique place to visit. It’s a common retreat
for US west cost residents. You may be lucky to bump into some from the
east cost (Hi Sheril from New Jersey – Diamond Head hike). For the rest of
us (in particular Europeans) the island are (geographically and colloquially)
on the other end of the world. That means a LOT of flying to get there.
From Glasgow, UK it took me some 20 air time hours plus half that on the
ground (waiting) time. Don’t forget credit cards or a hefty stock of
travelers cheques, or you’ll be washing dishes in the restaurants to
pay-off that dinner you had the night before (this is an OLD cliché, I apologize,
but it send the message across).
If you do decide to go or if you have a business to attend there (like myself) you definitely wont regret it or forget the charms of Hawaii for a long time. As a final tip – people say Molokai is the most beautiful island of the entire Hawaiian chain, and there is as close to the Robinson Crusoe style adventure holidays one can get to, if desires so. Go for it!!!
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Aloha and Komo mai! |
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(Hello and Welcome)! |
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| Web editor: Bostjan Last update: January 2002 |
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