Whilst waiting on breakfast I struck up conversation with a fellow native to these islands. He encouraged me to see the other islands, because he felt like this island is too much city and doesn't have the same aloha anymore. He seemed particularly fond of Kauai.
After breakfast, I sat and waited on my phone to charge up (I had not charged it the night before, despite dozing off in the lounge next to the electrical outlets.) It took forever, probably because I insisted on listening to music the entire time I was charging it. Typical Zack.
When I finally did head out, I grabbed my boots and announced that I was going to hike the Koko Crater Railway Trail. Never happened. Google Maps showed me a bus route earlier in the day, then later said there were no bus routes, so I decided on Hanauma Bay instead. (Funny enough, I think you can walk to the railway trail from there, but it was too late to do so, by the time I was done at the bay. Barely caught the last bus back.)
Right before I left, I ran down to Burger King and got two sandwiches on their 2 for $9 deal. While I was sitting on a bench eating them, I was approached by a local pot dealer who wanted to know if I was in the market for some top shelf weed. He was from Pennsylvania. (Small world, and why doesn't it surprise me?)
The bus ride out to the bay would it have been uneventful if it hadn't been for the fact that I ended up seated next to a bunch of little girls, gossiping about school and boys. Dear God, this is why the human species has to have an end.
Anyway, my visit to Hanauma Bay was awesome. I had stopped there briefly the year before during a bus tour. I really had wanted to make it back and see the bay in more detail. The year before, I just got off the bus and was able to look down into the bay.
There's a park area by the bus stop and a flock of wild chickens, I had seen them last year as well. This year, I got the brilliant idea to crow at the roosters, which started them all crowing. I'm clearly the alpha male and it's hilarious.
In order to go down to the beach, you have to enter through the visitor center, pay $7.50 and watch a safety video about not harming the environment or getting drowned in the bay's strong currents.
Once we were done with that, people either walked down or took the shuttle provided. I'm on a budget, I walked. Somewhere on the way down or when I reached the bottom, I apparently lost my water canteen and I'm pretty peeved about that.
Anyway, I walked along the beach. Took some pictures. A couple videos too. It was beautiful! I didn't see any more wildlife until I was leaving, and they weren't sea creatures (I was hoping to see turtles), they were some sort of weasel things, just running around in the grass. A colony of feral cats live there too apparently, they were quite fat and didn't seem to mind the weasel things.
This is when I realized my canteen was missing, so I began looking for it. Couldn't find it anywhere all the way back up. When I realized I wasn't going to find it, and the last bus was pulling up, I ran and managed to make it to the bus. (The doors may or may not have closed on me as I was jumping on board. lol )
I had to take my pictures of the sunset on the bus that evening, so they didn't turn out as well, but it was a beautiful sunset.
Arrived back in Waikiki Beach. It wasn't completely dark yet, so I hung around the beach for a minute. Then I went and got something else to eat at Burger King. What? I was hungry! 30 chicken nuggets sounded like, and indeed, was a good idea.
After that, I went back to the hostel and chilled in the lounge, working on my writing for the blog and for the Detective Fraser Hume mysteries I've been yammering about writing for ages.
Eventually, it came time for people to quiet down, per the city ordinances. The staff comes through and shuts out the lights in the lounge area and asks everyone to quiet down. I'm minding my own business listening to my inordinately loud music in my ear phones, and writing intently. A second staff member comes through and asks me and a couple other people who are being quiet to leave the lounge in hopes that the rest of the crowd will take it seriously and head back to their rooms for the night. He says we can come back later if we want because we are literally not causing any problems at all. I agree and actually decide to take my writing down by the ocean for a minute.
I spoke to that staff member a couple more times that night, and he said that he was really thankful for my help, apparently, the whole crowd took it seriously and dissipated shortly after I left. I did return to the lounge after having sat by the ocean for an hour or so. Was up really late that night, but I got a lot of writing done and caught up on the recent episodes of "Last Man Standing" and "The Gifted."
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