(no subject)
Waikiki has got to be the worst place to go if you are trying to escape from the city to a tropical paradise. I can never understand why people travel half-way around the world to stay in a major city with all the same exact shops, restaurants, and people as where they left.
The beaches of Waikiki are manufactured of mostly imported sands from the neighboring islands. Before overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the shores of the Pacific Ocean reached almost to the doors of 'Iolani Palace; now it's a 10, 15 block-walk to the beach, over land-filled shoal, dead reef, and Molokai'i sand. The town is pockmarked with ABC Stores, a store that carries everything from sushi fastfood to soda and beer, aloha shirts to mac nut candies, cigarrettes, condoms, make-up and postcards. These stores are filled with tourists from the only countries that are represented in Hawaii, the US, Japan and Scandanavia, all shopping for the same overpriced, plastic, Made in the Philippines crap that is available at all the other stores that have no purpose except to help reinforce the image of Hawaii they built in the first place.
The only hotels in Waikiki that have a view of the ocean are those that are practically in it and from the waterline the prices of the rooms slowly drop to the low hundreds. Guests in all the hotels pay to be within walking distance of the ocean, which most of them are. This is easy because it seems as if the entire tourist area of Waikiki (which is really just Honolulu, according the the US Postal Service) is stuffed into about 5 city blocks. In reality, the main hotel strip is about 15 blocks long, extending about 4 blocks up from the water. Beyond the main drag, there are plenty more hotels of varying quality and cost scattered throughout Honolulu, but most of these do not approach the grandeur and extravagance of the hotels in the center of the strip, those with the best views. The hotels with the best pools, the best spa, the most channels, the whirpool tub and the fluffiest towels. The classiest doorman, the most exquisite room service, complimentary PS2, steam rooms, aqua aerobics, poolside bar, and in-room massage.
In short, the hotel with the most excuses to stay in the hotel. Waikiki is depressing.
The rest of Oahu, however, is magnificent. I'm not sure if the history of Hawaii and the stories I was told of the Hawaiian people did anything to color my view of the rest of the island. Tragedy often ruins a mood, darkens an image, but in the case of Hawaii, the travesty of the overthrow seemed only to enhance its beauty. Coming through a pass in the Koolau Range on the Likelike Hwy, Kaneohe lay before us, the ocean in the distance, dramatic jewel-green mountains rising on either side of us. Kamahanahokulani told of us her childhood, walking home from school in the winter, she would count the newly formed waterfalls cascading down through the rocks. One day, in the fifteen-minute walk, she counted seventeen. She said when she was young, there were no condominiums on this side of the island, it was all agriculture from the base of the mountains to the ocean, with a small town clustered around the harbor. Now Kaneohe has developed at a healthy rate, the housing not yet to the foot of the mountains; some areas still empty, freshly tilled earth ready for the next pineapple planting. However, many of the buildings near the highway are low-income public housing, a testament to the effect development on the rest of the island has had on the native population. As on the mainland, the native people of the land exerpience poverty, substance abuse, and lack of education and healthcare at much higher rates than the rest of the population. At one point it was illegal to speak Hawaiian in public schools, and an English name was required to register to vote. The imperialistic Americans were very successful in their attempt to eliminate the Hawaiian population. Before the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778 there were estimated to be over half a million pure Hawaiians; in 1890, the last year the Hawaiian Kingdom conducted a census, that number had dropped to 40,500, and one hundred years after that the native population was estimated to be less than 8,000.
But as I said, this only seems to make the island more vibrant, for when you drive along stretches of yet-unruined beaches, you realize how fortunate it is that the developers have yet to market the North Shore the the tourists and the resorts. Then Kamahanahokulani tells me that the pineapple field in to the left has remained unplanted for nearly 3 months, as the city and developers fight the residents, environmentalist and farmers for the right to build parking lots, strip malls and condos. "Imagine it! Single family homes, townhouses and condos, all with pool access and a gated wall and only a 5 minute drive the world-famous North Shore surf areas!" Of course they don't mention that after that five minute drive, it's a 20 minute walk past and around the other gated community on the beach, that blocks access for over a half-mile to the best surf spots. Hawaii law prohibits private ownership of the beach, but they never said anything about making you work for it.
Elsewhere on the island, these public beaches have become shantytowns of tents, beat-up cars and barbeque pits. Forced off their land by rising costs and powerful developers, hundreds if not thousands of native Hawaiians are been forced on to the streets (and the beaches, as it were) unable to live on their own land anymore. Some of these beaches were the sites of violent protests, as police removed the squatters from the more desirable of beaches; they were scaring off tourists. These people used to work on the pineapple farm now being turned into the gated community they cannot afford. Unable to bring themselves to work in the hotels that are the root of all evil on this island, they find themselves on the streets, questioning the spirit of hospitality their ancestors greeted all foreigners with. If only they had known.
The beaches of Waikiki are manufactured of mostly imported sands from the neighboring islands. Before overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, the shores of the Pacific Ocean reached almost to the doors of 'Iolani Palace; now it's a 10, 15 block-walk to the beach, over land-filled shoal, dead reef, and Molokai'i sand. The town is pockmarked with ABC Stores, a store that carries everything from sushi fastfood to soda and beer, aloha shirts to mac nut candies, cigarrettes, condoms, make-up and postcards. These stores are filled with tourists from the only countries that are represented in Hawaii, the US, Japan and Scandanavia, all shopping for the same overpriced, plastic, Made in the Philippines crap that is available at all the other stores that have no purpose except to help reinforce the image of Hawaii they built in the first place.
The only hotels in Waikiki that have a view of the ocean are those that are practically in it and from the waterline the prices of the rooms slowly drop to the low hundreds. Guests in all the hotels pay to be within walking distance of the ocean, which most of them are. This is easy because it seems as if the entire tourist area of Waikiki (which is really just Honolulu, according the the US Postal Service) is stuffed into about 5 city blocks. In reality, the main hotel strip is about 15 blocks long, extending about 4 blocks up from the water. Beyond the main drag, there are plenty more hotels of varying quality and cost scattered throughout Honolulu, but most of these do not approach the grandeur and extravagance of the hotels in the center of the strip, those with the best views. The hotels with the best pools, the best spa, the most channels, the whirpool tub and the fluffiest towels. The classiest doorman, the most exquisite room service, complimentary PS2, steam rooms, aqua aerobics, poolside bar, and in-room massage.
In short, the hotel with the most excuses to stay in the hotel. Waikiki is depressing.
The rest of Oahu, however, is magnificent. I'm not sure if the history of Hawaii and the stories I was told of the Hawaiian people did anything to color my view of the rest of the island. Tragedy often ruins a mood, darkens an image, but in the case of Hawaii, the travesty of the overthrow seemed only to enhance its beauty. Coming through a pass in the Koolau Range on the Likelike Hwy, Kaneohe lay before us, the ocean in the distance, dramatic jewel-green mountains rising on either side of us. Kamahanahokulani told of us her childhood, walking home from school in the winter, she would count the newly formed waterfalls cascading down through the rocks. One day, in the fifteen-minute walk, she counted seventeen. She said when she was young, there were no condominiums on this side of the island, it was all agriculture from the base of the mountains to the ocean, with a small town clustered around the harbor. Now Kaneohe has developed at a healthy rate, the housing not yet to the foot of the mountains; some areas still empty, freshly tilled earth ready for the next pineapple planting. However, many of the buildings near the highway are low-income public housing, a testament to the effect development on the rest of the island has had on the native population. As on the mainland, the native people of the land exerpience poverty, substance abuse, and lack of education and healthcare at much higher rates than the rest of the population. At one point it was illegal to speak Hawaiian in public schools, and an English name was required to register to vote. The imperialistic Americans were very successful in their attempt to eliminate the Hawaiian population. Before the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778 there were estimated to be over half a million pure Hawaiians; in 1890, the last year the Hawaiian Kingdom conducted a census, that number had dropped to 40,500, and one hundred years after that the native population was estimated to be less than 8,000.
But as I said, this only seems to make the island more vibrant, for when you drive along stretches of yet-unruined beaches, you realize how fortunate it is that the developers have yet to market the North Shore the the tourists and the resorts. Then Kamahanahokulani tells me that the pineapple field in to the left has remained unplanted for nearly 3 months, as the city and developers fight the residents, environmentalist and farmers for the right to build parking lots, strip malls and condos. "Imagine it! Single family homes, townhouses and condos, all with pool access and a gated wall and only a 5 minute drive the world-famous North Shore surf areas!" Of course they don't mention that after that five minute drive, it's a 20 minute walk past and around the other gated community on the beach, that blocks access for over a half-mile to the best surf spots. Hawaii law prohibits private ownership of the beach, but they never said anything about making you work for it.
Elsewhere on the island, these public beaches have become shantytowns of tents, beat-up cars and barbeque pits. Forced off their land by rising costs and powerful developers, hundreds if not thousands of native Hawaiians are been forced on to the streets (and the beaches, as it were) unable to live on their own land anymore. Some of these beaches were the sites of violent protests, as police removed the squatters from the more desirable of beaches; they were scaring off tourists. These people used to work on the pineapple farm now being turned into the gated community they cannot afford. Unable to bring themselves to work in the hotels that are the root of all evil on this island, they find themselves on the streets, questioning the spirit of hospitality their ancestors greeted all foreigners with. If only they had known.