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Back from O’ahu

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The Lyon Arboretum in Honolulu’s Manoa Valley

Martine and I returned from Hawaii late on Tuesday, somewhat the worse for wear. We both had a low-level cold during the entire week of our vacation. In my case, it ratcheted up into a full-blown cold when I woke up yesterday morning.

Still, it didn’t prevent u8s from enjoying ourselves in Hawaii. We went everywhere by bus (except to Lyon Arboretum) since we both still had our HOLO cards for TheBus [sic]. Unlike most tourists, who spend of $1,000 or more for a rental car and hotel parking, our total transport expenses were $40.00 for a one month senior citizen pass for TheBus.

Honolulu is an endlessly fascinating city—which most tourists don’t realize, mainly because their main focus is on Waikiki. Some 83% of all hotel rooms in the Honolulu area are on the two-mile-long peninsula of Waikiki, on the Diamond Head side of the city. Most tourists who don’t have rental cars take expensive and overcrowded shuttles to a handful of tourist sites. Martine and I were on the more comfortable and air-conditioned public buses which most tourists didn’t know how to take.

More’s the pity, because there’s a lot to see downtown, in Chinatown, and on the western (Ewa) side of the city. And I don’t just mean Pearl Harbor.

It’s a pity that most Honolulu tourists end up ghetto-ized in Waikiki, and maybe just taking an exploratory jaunt to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. I guess most vacationers would rather not overthink their pleasures. Me, I overthink everything. For me, the preparation just extends the fun beyond the time I am in the islands.

On To O’ahu

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Tomorrow Martine and I are headed off to Honolulu for a week in the sun. The last few days, both of us have had a low-level flu. I am getting better, but Martine has a real problem with insomnia. Some years ago, she got too used to taking prescription sleeping pills and is dismayed to find that they don’t work as well as they used to. The best thing would have been not to get hooked on them in the first place, but that boat has sailed.

We’ll be staying at the same hotel we stayed at last year. It may not be on he beach, but we would prefer not to hang out at the beach. We prefer the hotels on Kuhio Avenue, one or two blocks makau (inland) from the beachfront properties on Kalakaua Avenue.

Tonight I don’t expect to get much sleep. And because of the time zone difference, tomorrow will be a 27-hour day. I expect both of us will get a good night’s sleep tomorrow.

Look for this blog to resume on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Until then, aloha!

A Royal Palace on American Soil

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Honolulu’s Iolani Palace (Built 1879)

Not far from the Hawaii State Capitol sits the Iolani Palace, home of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawai’i from Kamehameha III in 1879 until the overthrow of the monarchy under Queen Lili’uokalani by a group of American merchants in 1893.

As I prepare to go to Hawaii in a week or so, I am conscious once again that the United States ruthlessly stepped on the rights of the Hawaiian people just so that a cabal of American merchants could have their way. On this trip, I plan to read Queen Lili’uokalani’s autobiography. For eight months, the Queen was imprisoned in one of the second floor bedrooms until she was tried by a military tribunal on some trumped-up charge.

It was like the U.S. and the American Indians all over again. Fortunately, there were no massacres by the cavalry in this instance, though the takeover was no less final—and unjust.

Third Time’s a Charm

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Martine at Kapiolani Park in September 2022

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Martine and I are headed back to Honolulu for another visit. Looking back at last year’s pictures, I noticed that Martine looked genuinely happy in most of them. Returning to L.A., Martine has had a difficult year—especially when she broke her wrist in two places after a fall at home. And recovery has been painfully slow, especially since the cast which she war was too tight and affected her ability to bend her fingers once it was removed.

Although I would probably be happier traipsing off to Latin America, Martine’s happiness matters to me; and I can certainly enjoy myself in Hawaii provided I stay away from most mainland tourists of the luau-frequenting variety.

We will be staying at the same hotel we stayed in last year, the Malia. Last year, it was a hotel in the Outrigger chain; now, it is the Waikiki Malia, apparently no longer part of a chain. It is not exactly on the beach, but that is no matter to us as we are not beach types. We prefer the corner of Kuhio and Lewers because of its convenient access to public transportation.

The big success story of last year’s trip was our discovery of the Honolulu bus system, the best we have seen in any American city. As senior citizens, we picked up a Senior Citizens discount Holo card, which enables us to unlimited rides for the entire month of September for $20.00 US for each of us. Compare that with high car rental fees and hotel parking rates of up to $50-60 US per night.

Amazingly, the Honolulu buses go not only all around the city, but along the Southeast (Hanauma Bay, Hawaii Kai), the Windward Coast (Kailuka, Kaneohe, La’e), the North Shore (Waimea, the Banzai Pipeline), and Central O’ahu (the Dole Pinapple Plantation). Where we would need a car would be the Leeward Coast (Ko Olina) and certain trailheads on mountain trails. If you’re thinking of going to Hawaii on a budget, I firmly recommend the public transportation and a non-luxury-priced hotel, preferably on Kuhio Avenue.

We booked our trip through the Southern California Auto Club, which I also recommend.

Kahuna Lapa’au

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In preparation for an upcoming trip to Hawaii in a couple of weeks, I am reading the work of a distinguished novelist and microbiologist: O. A. Bushnell’s The Gifts of Civilization: Germs and Genocide in Hawai’i. Never before have I read a book about what happens to public health when a 19th century Western power takes over a primitive aboriginal society.

Bushnell claims that the native Kahuna Lapa’au healers were not inferior to American physicians of the period. When you consider that 19th century medicine was into bloodletting, blistering, and the ingestion of mineral poisons. it is not surprising that aboriginal healers were in now wise inferior.

Unfortunately, they were dealing with a whole new range of illnesses introduced by the white man, diseases such as measles, smallpox, malaria, leprosy, and the various venereal diseases. This led to widespread confusion among native healers as to which treatment to use, at a time when neither American nor native Hawaiian medical practice was effective.

In this book and in his novels—The Return of Lono, Ka’a’awa, Molokai, The Stone of Kannon, and The Water of Kane—Bushnell created an impressive body of work on the interface of the two cultures.

Back to O’ahu

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Martine by a Banyan Tree in Kapi’olani Regional Park

This fall, Martine and I are returning to Honolulu. If I had my druthers, I would prefer tracking down obscure Maya ruins in Yucatán, but if I did, I would have to do it alone. And I am getting to an age where that is becoming a bit on the dangerous side for me. Also, as I enjoy traveling with Martine to places that she likes, it adds an extra level of enjoyment for me.

Last year, we concentrated our efforts visiting the Iolani Palace, the Bishop Museum, the Zoo, the Aquarium, and the Foster Botanical Garden. This time, we could visit Queen Emma’s Summer Palace, the Lyons Botanical Garden, the military museum at Fort DeRussy (Martine worked for years as a civilian Army employee), and any number of other places—possibly including another visit to the ethnological riches of the Bishop Museum.

Tomorrow morning, Martine and I will drive down to the Auto Club in Culver City and pick a flight and hotel. I wouldn’t mind staying at the Malia again, even though it is no longer owned by Outrigger Hotels. The area of Waikiki around Kuhio Avenue and Lewers Street may be a few blocks from the beach; but as we are not beach people, we don’t mind. It is right by the bus stop at that intersection which will take us anywhere we want to go.

We still have our HOLO senior ride discount cards for the Honolulu bus system. We just have to add a few dollars of stored value to our cards. That way we can avoid the expense of renting a car and paying big bucks to garage it at our hotel.

Fish Story

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Giant Grouper

With this lovely picture, I come to the end of my Hawaii posts. The same day that Martine and I had our disappointing visit to the zoo (The Problem with Zoos), we walked over to the Waikiki Aquarium, which is competently run by the University of Hawaii. The overall experience was better in every way.

It was another hot and humid day, so we sat down in front of a large tank in which the Giant Grouper swam up to the glass and looked at us balefully. There was a docent sitting near us answering questions. Now, I remember eating (and liking) grouper in Florida, but I had no idea they were so big. Apparently the ones in Florida are not quite the size of our friend here, but they are still pretty ginormous.

I like the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, but the place is always full of toddlers in strollers being pushed by zombie parents who aim at our ankles rather than our brains. It’s obviously a lot better endowed than the Waikiki Aquarium, but size doesn’t always count. Similarly, I much prefer the Santa Barbara Zoo to the enormous Los Angeles Zoo (again, those damned strollers).

The Problem with Zoos

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A Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis)

Martine and I have this problem with zoos, namely: empty cages. It seems that one never knows whether a particular bird or animal is in residence or just hiding behind a rock or tree. The only zoos where this is not so much an issue are the San Diego and Santa Barbara Zoos and The Living Desert in the Coachella Valley.

The Honolulu Zoo is noted for its “exhibit absenteeism”: It seems that some 40% of the cages were unoccupied and without any notices that the animal is sick. I realize that in approximately half the cases, the cage occupant is lying doggo. If I were in a cage, I probably wouldn’t want to be stared at by a bunch of tourists or school children.

On the plus side, I did like the Komodo Dragon—my first. I also liked all the banyan trees, which kind of take my breath away. Below is Martine twirling a plumeria blossom in front of one of the zoo’s stately banyans:

It probably didn’t help that the temperature and humidity were in the 90s (Fahrenheit, that is).

50-Pound Coconuts

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Look Out Below!

On our last full day in Hawaii, Martine and I visited the Foster Botanical Garden, just north of Chinatown in Honolulu. It was hot and humid day, but fortunately there were a lot of shady benches. One of the highlights of the garden was the double coconut tree (genus Lodoicea), a native of the Seychelles. Its coconuts can be as heavy as 99 pounds each (45 kilograms).

Needless to say, Martine and I did not risk going under the tree and violently shaking its branches.

Curiously, while the coconuts are edible, they are of no commercial interest.

My favorite part of the gardens was the greenhouse with its collection of orchids. It was so warm and humid that the greenhouse door was left open.

Orchids at Foster Botanical Garden

Martine and I liked the garden so much that we resolved to visit several of the other botanical gardens in the Honolulu area or on whatever islands we visit.

’Elepaio Press

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Word Art at the Hawaii State Museum of Art

When we were in Honolulu, Martine and I paid a visit to the Hawaii State Art Museum across the street from the Iolani Palace. I was amused by art created by two Hawaiian brothers of Japanese ancestry—Richard Hamasaki and Mark Hamasaki—going under the collective name ’Elepaio Press.

Here are several more of their works:

It’s Not Nice to Play “52 Pickup” with the Alphabet