Lost a day

Played one last round of golf before leaving Waikoloa and the big island. Got paired up with 3 senior gentlemen that were delightful to play with. Fairly respectable golfers and all-out nice gents. When finished, one of them said he enjoyed playing with me and gave me his card for me to contact him to play if I find myself in the area again. Awwww guys!

Here is all you need to know about Waikiki. It is an overblown shopping mall with a nice beach next to it. It is also jam packed with people. Me no likey. Coming from the big island, I am suffocating here. Cannot wait to get out.

Staying at a hostel again as everything is outrageously expensive. Couple the 10.25% tourist tax plus the 4% sales tax and you pay well over what the listed hotel rates. If that’s not enough, most hotels will also smack you in the face with a mandatory “resort fee” usually around 20% of the per-night rate that just blows everything out of the water. How bad are bed bugs really, huh?

The hostel is meh. No place to sit and work and the WiFi is total trash. Let me describe the pillow: imagine a thick pillow sham and… thats it. Mattress is wicked soft and not in a good way. At least the metal bunks are not super creaky. Get the wins where I can.

So I go out hunting for suitable working spots. Nothing. Too crowded. Poor WiFi all around. Extremely scarce power outlets. WTF?! I did score some delicious pastries and coffee. Japanese are by far the dominant presence in the crowds here. So many people. Why are there lines out of every food establishment? How am I gonna get any work done? Typing words just for the hell of it. This blog post is weak…

There appears to be a little more Couchsurfing activity in Honolulu. Still not that many appealing hosts available, but a few more folks logging into hangouts. Met a couple CSers for a short stroll around the strip the first night and had lunch with another friendly and talkative one who happens to live in Melbourne. Maybe will run into her again when/if I travel there.

The only redeeming features of Waikiki are the nice weather (you’re still in Hawaii after all) and the nice beach. But my little oasis was a nice Thai restaurant called Noi recommended by a friend. It’s no Brown Sugar Cafe, let’s not get blasphemous, but it is pretty good. They also got one of the better WiFi signals I’ve found around and a couple accessible power outlets. Placed on a third floor it has the added bonus of not being awash with street-flowing humans. So I made friends with the manager who let me work from there. It must be noted that all the staff was very nice as well. If you ever find yourself out here, do come check this restaurant. No, they didn’t offer me an endorsement deal. Should have.

Back in April I met someone while in Denver who had plans to move to Hawaii to start a new life. She is here now and I am happy to had been able to catch up with her. She radiates a bright inner light that is hard to describe. We spent the afternoon free-diving/snorkeling at Electrics beach over Oahu’s west side with her boyfriend and a couple of their friends. We got to see some standard varieties of fish, a turtle, and a couple of sharks. Pretty neat for an impromptu swim! I even got an airport ride early next morning. Thank so much Nico & Strat! See you guys again next time. 🤙

The flight to Sydney was pretty smooth, and while it was very long, I was able to manage it adequately combining in-flight movies, downloaded Netflix shows, Kindle reading, crossword puzzles, and some meditative sleepless shut eye. Customs was surprisingly super quick and I had a full family welcome committee at the airport. I did lose a full day in a time-travel hop across most dramatic time-zone threshold, but I’m in Australia y’all! Woot!

20+ years later I get to catch up and stay with an old college friend like if I had seen him just last week. Good friendships are worth more than gold. He’s got a gorgeous house north of Sydney and I am being welcomed here with arms so open they’re gonna fall off. Albeit being far from the city, I am extremely comfortable here. Public transportation is nearby anyways, so city escapades are soon to follow. I find kangaroo-crossing street signs amusing now that I’m staring at one in person.

How can we sleep when our earth is burning? See what I did there? Who recalls Midnight Oil? But seriously, it is hard to digest the abject disaster of the fires in Australia. The scale of it all is mind numbing. It is so massive our brains don’t know how to truly process/absorb it. An emotional paralysis of sorts due to the unmanageable scope. Now baseball and golf-ball sized hail have battered some areas and destroyed buildings and cars. But at least there has also been some recent rains that have brought some life back to many scorched areas. We are still not out of it however. Have you seen the crazy massive dust storms? But I am hoping things continually improve.