Paradise by a hostel light

No, this post is not about hostel sex (you filthy animals!). Got you to click tho, huh? 😆

As an extrovertable introvert I am able to engage and navigate the social currents of the hostel environment. However, I also exhaust myself in the process and eventually cower a bit from the crowd. I both enjoy and dislike those dynamics. I still get to meet mostly nice people and that’s still interesting and fun in spite of the conflicting dichotomy.

Hawaii waters are delightful y’all. Wish I were a better surfer so that some of these breaks wouldn’t be so scary to me. But I’d rather not get mauled by volcanic rocks on my first week here. There are more adequate places for me to wipe out later.

I bounce around town hunting for a more adequate work spot. Hostel is not going to cut it. I must translocate.

Dear Kona Starbucks (and several other facilities too), I get that it is pretty warm out there and you want to provide your customers with a cool repose from the heat. But none of us is carrying around a jacket to wear indoors when its 80+ outside. Even your employees are wearing long sleeves and turtle necks. Calibrate!

Found a new coffee spot under construction/renovation with a cute lanai facing the ocean, nice breeze, good coffee, very few people, and respectable wifi signal. Power outlets are scarce and sunglasses are kinda needed at times as it is very bright outside. Noise cancelling headphones also come useful to reduce the enveloping background volume of crashing waves. Yet I think I’ll probably be coming coming here all week. It’s just too nice with bonus front-row seat sunsets (well, that’s kinda everywhere around here really). I did find a backup coffee shop albeit fully indoors with no views, but it does remain open until a later hour.

When everything around you is familiar, it is not hard to focus on task since not much will require diverting your brain’s attention. When you have recently arrived in Hawaii, however, intense turquoise waters at the corner of your eye with thunderous waves crashing constantly in the background releasing the unmistakable iodine sea smell while the warm caress of the sun wraps your skin later blanketing everything in gold during sunsets, it becomes noticeably harder to converge the flow of focus juice. I predict this will be an ongoing struggle. I shall adapt! This is the way.

There is a pretty nice lighted sand volleyball court right in the middle of town. I’m tempted to play but also too shy to approach the seemingly locally organized group of players. No one wants the random tourist party crasher specially when there are many people waiting to play on a single court. Maybe I’ll build my courage later and ask to play one of these days.

Bed bugs on the third night. I got chewed up. Fuuuuuck! Washed clothes. Sprayed alcohol on gear. Switched rooms. Time to look elsewhere to stay. Seems I’m gonna have to cough up more serious money for lodging now. Nomad note: Hawaii in early January is a bad bad (financial) destination idea. This is NOT the way. Lucky to find decent AirBnb up in Waikoloa Village for my second week on the big island.

Digging the bright green geckos that are found all over town. Their colors and proportionally big black eyes makes them seem cheerful and cute. Altho we do not share the taste for insects, they do like sweet stuff just like me. Maybe the gecko is my spirit animal.

Got to hang out multiple times with my homie who’s taken me to a variety of locations I would probably not find by myself. Surf, coffee, hike, food, beach, etc. 🤙

Click! My 21-day-travel-brain law strikes again. To be honest, it kicked in one day early. But still pretty impressive that for the 4th time it has manifested at just about the same time. My made up law states that your brain (mine at least) switches from a cognitive/emotional state of transient travel to a new one of presently here. Forgive my unpolished explanation, but don’t feel like writing a thesis about it here. Just wanted to share the curious phenomena which is quite noticeable and fascinating to me. Note: just googled “21 days travel brain” and came up with the following first result. Maybe there is actually some science to back up my self-perceived law from a four sample size of a single test subject!