Day 2 - Hawaii

Sears store at Ala Moana, Honolulu - it's closing down and quality items were selling at 60% each - bargains galore!

Ballroom dancing at the Ala Wai Palladium, Honolulu - friendly people and a huge floor.

The Palladium building in Waikiki, Honolulu - it is owned by the Golf Club

The beer in Hawaii is water-downed "weasel pi##". Beer pullers at the Holiday Inn Beachcomber bar. Neil had the "red-one".

Interestingly, this is a memorial and actual items used by LTCOL Kilgore who was the fictional CO in Apocalypse Now. He was the character who ordered a napalm run to rid the VC so he could surf the incoming tide along the Vietnam River. It was the scene where he cried out "Son, nothin' like the smell of napalm early in the morning". 

Well, we slept-in this morning after calculating that it was 32 hours between sleeps from Penrith to Honolulu - there was a few hours of interrupted sleeps in between on the flight that should be considered. It is really beautiful weather here in Hawaii, a cool 26 deg C, blue skies over the ocean and partially clouded skies over the mountains. We made it to the Ala Moana shopping mall and discovered that the Sears store is closing. In view of this all items have been reduced by 60%. Neil bought high quality trousers for $15AUD each, Anne managed to buy tops at about the same price. After lunch we made it to the Ala Wai Golf Club Palladium building for some ballroom dancing. The floor is huge and it was partitioned off to another same sized floor. We could imagined it to be almost a soccer field size floor when the partition was open. It was great for us to practice our sequences amongst the locals. We may go again tomorrow night after our tour of Molokai Island. People are friendly - and the cost? The organisers didn't want any money, however, we gave them $10USD for a donation - it was well worth the money spent. For dinner we had a meal at our favourite restaurant - the Cheesecake Factory and hence took a long walk. As we noticed last year and it is the same now the majority of tourists are Japanese. They are really noticeable with their stupid hats (a style worn by Michael Jackson) and their unfriendly ways to Westerners. They have their own special buses, their own restaurants and the majority of items for sale are expressed in US dollars and Yen. Tomorrow we have an early start and a 30 minute plane flight to Molokai Island. This was a leper island in the 18th century and apparently has the highest sea cliffs in the world. Cheers go out to all - until tomorrow bye for now.