If it wasn’t for the $230 (tax included) air fare and the fact that I had to take days off at work, I would probably have not been to Hawaii, Oahu in specific, because 50% of the people I’ve sought info about Hawaii have told me that Hawaii is not all that for both: diving and weather (something about too much rains). For your curiosity, Asyst (my fulltime income sack) is not doing so well therefore we have 1 week shutdown every quarter whether you’re busy or not, and with my vacation time off on top of that I take about 6-8 weeks off per year, which is perfectly fine with me since I don’t mind traveling. Back to Oahu trip, my number one priority for the trip was to dive before the summer is over and also because last time I dove was about a year ago.
I spent my first half of the trip to explore and hunt the island to make photographs by both driving and hiking. Oahu seems like an expensive island and very developed so if you need to make trip Costco or Safeway, it’s not that hard to find. Driving in Oahu can be costly, some if not most hotels charge you for parking, and they range from $5 to $35 per night. Also don’t rent your car with Alamo, during my visit, they were way under staff. It took about 1 hour to be able to get a shuttle from the airport to their rental facility, and another hour wait for them to clean up the car and have it ready. There are only a few major freeways in Oahu so don’t worry about getting lost. Just to give you an idea of how big the island, the distance from Honolulu/Waikiki to the Polynesian Culture Center is ~38 miles. It seemed very difficult to get the right directions from the Hawaiian.
In term of food, Hawaiian serves rice in almost every dish. Even McDonald has a special breakfast menu: spam, egg and sausage over rice. Laulau is quite popular over the west side of the island, especially along highway 93. Basically Laulau is fatty pork wraps with taro leaves, and you eat it with white rice, and by the way, it’s ok to eat the leaves. Along the 83 between Turtle Bay Resort and Sunset Beach Park, Rumes food stand offers a fresh farming prawns/shrimps. For $11 you can get ½ pound of shrimps or prawns and rice, and of course they have more than one cooking style to choose from. My philosophy is this; doesn’t matter where you at, you can always count on the Vietnamese Pho, China town and American fast food if the native foods turn you down.
It’s a bit quiet on the right side of the island if you draw a vertical line from the airport to north of the island. There are a lot of homeless along the 93. They usually camp along the beach. Snorkeling and surfing can be found around Waimea, Kawela, Kahuku and Hale’iwa. There is almost zero diving shop over this side of the island. Only the Surf and Sea in Hale’iwa offers a diving tour in a cage with white shark. Hiking are around the Pupukea and Wahiawa. Golfing is quite popular in Oahu. There are about 30 golf courses on this island, can you imagine?
The east side of the island has a little more to offer, with a dozen of botanical gardens to choose from (Fong’s plantation & gardens, Byodo-In temple replica, Hai’ku garden, hiking and horse back riding are located in Ka’a’awa, Kaneohe and Kahala (Nu’uanu Pali lookout, Manoa falls, Diamond head trail, Pauoa flats trail, Lanipo trail). The terrain in Oahu is not that rugged and most of the trails are clearly marked. One thing I haven’t mentioned is that raining is unexpected in Hawaii and it lasted for about 15-30 minutes and it wasn’t a big rain either. As the name itself reveals, the Polynesian Cultural Center is good place to learn more about culture, food and lifestyle of the islanders.
Honolulu and Waikiki are the two big cities on this island. Hotels range from $110 to $200+ per night. Hostels are also available for budgeted traveler. I rented a one bed/bath apartment for $75 per night and $5 parking; however don’t expect much in terms of cleanliness and quality. If you like shopping, you’re in the right place. Most stores open ‘til 11pm. Just like any big tourist city, sideshows are all over the place. For those into history, the Pearl Harbor monument is another must see attraction. The program includes a 30 minutes video presentation on big screen and 30 minutes boat ride to the monument. Did I mention all that is free? Parasailing, windsurfing and sailing are other options for the visit.
It was quite windy and chilly in Oahu in September. A 3mm full body wet suit is highly recommended. The cheapest dive shop I was able to find was Island Divers, which locates along the 72 in Hanauma Bay. Their rental pricing is $15 and $100 for 2 dives. The boat ride from inland to most of dive sites is about 20-30 minutes, unlike diving in Koh Samui, Thailand; and the boat is about half the size. Visibility was about 60-80 feet on both days. Diving with booty and strap fins is much better than the slip in type. So if you’re looking for a good pair of fins, I would definitely go for strap type. I actually had great experience with the company I dove with. Their rentals are in good shape and their pricing is fairly good.
My first day of diving was drift dives at Spitting Cave. It is actually easier than it sounds. It’s an effortless dive. The current does most of the work and the boat will come and pick you up. At this particular site, we saw some turtles, eels, trumpet fish, angel fish…etc. Toward the end of the first dive, we saw 3 reef sharks. At first I was a bit nervous but they appeared to be calmer than I thought. Now that I’ve dove with sharks, I have more reasons to check out Shark Water, a documentary movie about sharks. I switched to deep dive, 25m (60ft), on my second day. It definitely takes more time to descend and ascend. It was about the same type of fishes on second day as on the first day. Sea anemone is no where to be found. Corals are rare and they are pretty small if any.
All and all, Hawaii is not as bad or great as I’ve heard. It’s all relative and really depends on what you are looking for. Let’s just enjoy the vacation.
Good Story. I hope I will Travel to Hawaii .