oahu 0902-02
september 09, 2002
i call hawaii my second home because i go there more than any other place in the world. given a choice, i would drop this overhyped tinsel town in a heartbeat and relocate. but everything takes planning and i've always been a patient girl.
not really.
for some odd reason, i kept on waking up at 5am during this trip. it didn't matter if i crashed at 11pm, 1am or 3am...i just woke up automatically. perhaps i ought to consider stop going to bed with a full bladder. since i didn't want to wake up the other occupants in my room, i just got up, and kicked back on the lanai to watch the sunrise. on the first morning, dawn was already breaking, so that's the kind of photos (see above) i got from my range of view. i guess the positive side of waking up early is taking photos you normally wouldn't take during REM-mode and i also got to fit in some early early morning walks to diamond head and back. of course by 7am, i was beat.
we indulged quite a bit on this trip in terms of local grinds. for our first evening meal there on sunday night, i chose the parc cafe in the waikiki parc hotel (sister hotel of the halekulani) for their seafood and prime rib buffet. at $26.95 per person, it was you could say a steal considering they had all you can eat good stuff such as: raw oysters, prime rib, poke, sashimi, shrimp cocktail, tons of delicious salads, and a cooking station that dished up a veggie/pasta/seafood plate cooked to your liking.
<serene table settings>
<view of the buffet area and the cooking station at the far end>
i opted for the blackened ahi tuna in a thai curry sauce with veggies (see below) that i chose myself on the side. the chef tossed everything together while giving you an option from a number of sauces you may choose from. i'm not sure what the other folks in my party got but all i know was that my thai curry sauce with extra spicyness was divine. the parc cafe is quiet and subdued and the clientele is predominantly japanese. all in all, a positive dining experience to start off the trip. on other evenings, they offer a hawaiian buffet, prime rib buffet and sometimes they have speciality buffets as well. just check in with them for the latest.
waikiki parc hotel
parc cafe
2233 helumoa road
honolulu, hawaii 96815-1962
808.921.7272
a very very cool thing about staying at the sheraton waikiki is that from the 14th floor looking down into the aqua colored ocean, you can actually see honus (sea turtles) swimming around...coming up for air and then submerging again. a couple of times when i was swimming out kinda far, i felt something brush up against my leg. of course my first thought was a shark (!) and then i thought jellyfish (!) but now that i think about it...it may have been a honu! :D
swimming in the ocean takes some getting used to though, especially if you're very much acclimated to a chorinated swimming pool like me. at first, it's way too salty and then everything burns your eyes. then you feel this salty crystalized layer stuck onto your skin but then pretty soon, you kinda crave it. in fact, nothing seems more natural to me than swimming in my natural element.
my crazy entourage hit up the abc stores for innertubes and inflatable mattresses. and now i know why all them abc stores make so much goddamn money....it's because you inflate these damn things once and then you get a hole in it and then have to buy another one again! but perhaps the funniest thing is to see people blow these things up with their mouth. whenever i see guys doing that for their girlfriends, i can't seem to help but think they must give good oral sex.
i should tell you that i took about 336 photos during this trip. over 100 of them, i'm in it. and then about another 50 are shots of the beach + diamond head from the lanai (such as the one above) and 50 more are food photos. the rest have various people in it. and then that leaves only about 10 decent photos left to share with you all. :p you'll see what i mean as i continue my travel posting.
[from jaycine and daydreamy: i tried out those chinese fortune sticks (there are 2 links there) and here are the two answers for the same question i asked:]
A position in life you have long desired will soon be yours.
The best of luck is on your side this year. You may be restless, but don’t flaunt your whims or you may end up in need. With several schemes on the go, one will prove profitable.
not too bad. :)
