Aloha Hawaii...

I'm back from my trip to Hawaii. It was interesting. I did a ton of shopping and came back with my suitcase doubly as full as it was when I departed Melbourne, which means success! I did find the people in the shops to be a little too pushy/annoying, compared to the mainland East Coast of the US. Homeless people were everywhere - Waikiki was literally covered with homeless people on the main street by the beach. My Mum said she had heard once on a Stephen Fry show that apparently the counties on the mainland pay these homeless people an airfare over to Hawaii where it is consistently warm (ie. good for sleeping out at night) so that they get them off their own streets. There was ridiculous traffic at random times of the day. Shopping and meals were more expensive than they are on the mainland - meals in particular were closing the gap quite significantly between Australian and US prices, especially once you add in a 20% tip. It was good to go and do Hawaii properly - back in 2008 I made a stopover on the way back from the East Coast, where I had travelled alone, and a combination of jet lag and loneliness meant that trailed around the Ala Moana Centre for a few hours aimlessly without buying anything (also back then I didn't know what any of the shops were, whereas now, with both online shopping and my living in the US means I know exactly what is in what shops and what I do and don't want to go into) before sleeping for half a day, venturing out onto the main street and buying Subway for dinner, then changing my flight to leave the next morning, three days early. I'm going to do a multi-part photo series on my holiday in Hawaii, starting today, to show the different things I did and my thoughts on them. Enjoy.

Waikiki Beach

Waikiki Beach - the famous view.

Waikiki Beach looking in the other direction.

Hotels lining the beach. The swimming barrier/break lines most of the beach, which is a shame as you don't really get to experience waves like a regular beach. I guess they want to make the lifeguards' jobs easy.

Diamond Head.

International Marketplace signage - this last little bit was all that remained with about 10 stalls at the front of the once much larger marketplace by the main street for the month of January. Come February 1st, the whole thing closed for good.

Koi fish in the pond for the Japanese tourists at the Marketplace - a place to buy mainly pearls and other jewelry for souvenirs.