Pearl Harbour?
The pre-booked Pearl Harbour tour informed us that our transfer was on a bus at 8:45am from a hotel just around the corner. And as always we were there before time waiting patiently. At 8:45 a large bus pulled up with Pearl Harbor on it so we climbed aboard and paid $11 for a round trip. Early into the journey we realized that we were in a public bus! Well at least we knew that we were heading to Pearl Harbour we foolishly thought. We could connect with the tour when we got there. Just over an hour later, after driving through every industrial area in Honolulu we arrived at Pearl Harbour. Of course our tour had left by then but great person of the year award goes to Westin who is Pearl Harbour employee who phoned the tour company for us and lent me his phone for at least 25 minutes whilst we sorted the problem. And so now we are rebooked for the 12th when we are back in Waikiki. Fortunately the bus ride home was more direct and we had cheered up and enjoyed the ride through different parts of town. Enough said, let’s move on.
Back at Waikiki we wandered down the beach to Duke’s and had a great burger and beer. And I managed to squeeze in a cocktail. Everyone who has been to Waikiki has told us that we needed to go to this bar which is located right on the beach. In fact I was a little embarrassed that I had sand on my feet, but it is called the barefoot bar so I guess it was okay. The food was great, and if you get a table out front you could easily while away the day there.
Lance made his way back to the hotel and I went for a wander down the eastern end of Waikiki to walk off my lunch. The beach was packed and very entertaining to sit and watch people. I haven’t had a chance to have a dip yet!
Back in our room we decided to have a light meal. Almost next door to our hotel is the Japanese Food Court and at first I was not keen to eat food court food. But on inspection Lance had found that it was almost like a wee village of small restaurants. Our meal at Izakaya Kai was outstanding. Sushimi that was fresh and melt in your mouth, tempura prawns with crisp batter and fleshy inside and lava cooked steak. This arrived raw with a little pottery cooking device that heated up extremely fast. We cooked our steak in seconds and it was superbly tender. All washed down with beer and house wine.
The temperature is just perfect 27 or 28 degrees with not a lot of humidity, well that is by an Aucklanders’s standards where humidity can be very high. With this beautiful climate it seemed a shame to go back to our room, so we set about looking for an outside bar, preferably roof top. Hence we arrived at the Rooftop Sky Bar which is on the 19th floor. The place was packed and all tables were reserved so we stood and admired the view, both inside and outside the building. There were a lot of ‘pretty’ people there but everyone was friendly and we chatted to a few people. A glass of Moët was only two dollars more expensive than a cocktail so I had two (not at once).
We decided on an early night and strolled back to our room, but were lured into the Cuckoo Coconuts Bar by the sound of live music. This was quite a contrast to the previous bar, and I felt like I had dropped into a movie. A country band were playing and a couple had their cowboy hats on. Middle aged women were dancing by themselves and drinks were served in plastic cups. We asked for a table as we thought we might have something to eat and she asked us to wait at the bar. It was lucky that we had eaten earlier because no one bothered to find us for a table. I ordered a cocktail that sounded nice but tasted like mouthwash mixed with coconut cream. So I switched to the house red, which was not too bad but did have a hint of a hangover with every sip.
From our seat at the bar we had a great view of a table with an old man (80 plus) in a fedora hat, a couple of large young men (not in a muscly way) and some young women in what I would say were quite skanky clothes, but then that’s what many young women are wearing these days. Lance asked me what I though was happening at that table and I said that maybe it was a family celebration. HA!!! In capitals because I was sooooo wrong. Lance said that he thought that the girls had been purchased for the night. How naive I am, as the evening played out it became obvious that his scenario was correct. It was sad but fascinating at the same time. I could go on about my thoughts around the men’s egos, in particular grandad who thought he was kingpin, but this is not the forum for that discussion.
We chatted to a nice couple from Canada and toddled off home to hit the sack.
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