Oahu, Hawaii - 5 day trip

Some trips are just meant to be fabulous...right from the very start..and i knew it was going to be fabulous when we were landing in Honolulu. The deep blue sea on both sides of the runway. Now where do you get to see airports like that? And our trip was just beginning!

Months of planning and weeks of waiting for May :) We'd got a great package from priceline.com...a great 4-star hotel, flight tickets and a rental car. So we got our rental car and headed for Hotel Hawaii Prince on Waikiki beach. Fantastic place to stay. The Hawaii Prince has about 88 rooms and each one of them has a wonderful view of the Marina and i loved that :) So once we were in the hotel, we were so overcome by fatigue (we woke up at 3 AM that day for the flight) that we had a good 3 hours of sleep. That evening, we decided to go out for a walk and get some dinner and we chanced upon Ala Moana Beach Park, which was just around the corner. Didn't think it would be such a beautiful place. It is a 76 acre park, just excellent for walking and for picnics. we had a long leisurely walk around. We were at the beach just in time for sunset..it was bliss. The beautiful sunset, holding hands with my sweetheart and walking barefoot on the beach...sigh :)
The Prince hotel is also quite close to the Ala Moana shopping centre. Lots of great stores and a nice food court. We ended up eating there almost everyday :) and oh yeah, super place for shopping!

Day 1

The next morning we went on a guided tour of the Pearl Harbour and a city tour of Honolulu. Pearl Harbour was awesome. It was sad to see the remains of USS Arizona under water. We visited the USS Arizona memorial. Every visitor is given a flower to pay homage to all those who lie buried under the remains of the battleship. SOme soldiers who survived the attack, wished to be buried with their comrades at Pearl Harbour after they died. The magnanimity of the attack and its effects awes you and saddens you at the same time. Pearl Harbour is a must-see.

The city tour was fun with Roberts Hawaii. Our tour guide Wes, was a great guy with the right amount of humour and interesting facts. Everyone calls everyone 'cousins' in Hawaii. Like Cousin John or cousin jane..Since we all have the same uncle...Uncle Sam! Hahahaha! Also, there are no bilboards or hoardings in Hawaii, which is great. But come to think of it, there isnt much to see apart from the statue of King Kamehameha I, the Iolani palace (which was closed the day we went :() and Queen Emma's summer palace. So yeah, we were back to the hotel by 3 PM. We hit waikiki beach in the evening. Waikiki beach is so colourful and lively!! We did some boogie-boarding and it was a lot of fun! Didn't want to come out of the water!

Day 2

We had originally planned to go for a canoe ride in the morning, but just couldn't wake up. So we decided to HANG LOOSE...Hey we're in Hawaii after all!! Went to IHOP for a relaxed breakfast of pancakes and belgian waffles..yummm. Just decided to walk around after that. Shopped a bit. If you're a shopaholic, you must go to the International Market place. This is an open-air market built around a 100 year old banyan tree. Another tip for shoppers, although we didn't get to go there :( try and make it to Aloha Stadium for the flea market on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. I've heard its awesome!

Well anyway, that evening, we'd planned a catamaran ride. It was superb. A catamaran sail with food and drink with a covered seating area, sunbathing nets and if you're lucky, you get to see dolphins, flying fish and sea turtles. We caught a few sea turtles and the most beautiful sunset! The fiery orange sun going down against the inky-blue waters. It was so beautiful that we stopped taking pictures. No camera can do justice to such beauty! We met a Canadian couple who'd done the sail 5 times in 3 days. I see why. I would definitely do this again!

Day 3

We had booked the whole day for the POlynesian Cultural Centre. The 42 acre POlynesian cultural centre is one of the best places we visited on this trip. The idea behind this centre is to showcase the traditions and customs of the 7 islands of French Polynesia. We learnt a bit of Samoan culture, where the men do all the cooking and the housework to keep the women happy...hahaha...no wonder Samoa is called the happiest island. We learnt Tongan drumbeats, poi-ball dance of New Zealand, carvings of Easter island, hula dancing and much more. Don't miss the yummy ice-cream and fruit they serve for $5. The best part of this experience was the Horizons Night Show. Don't miss this for anything in the world. This show features around 100 performers doing their traditional dances, hula dancers, fire eaters and the works. Its like a huge musical almost opera-like. I would compare it to the Broadway or Vegas shows. Pure awesome-ness and i'm glad we bought a ticket for the front row. Totally worth it. This place takes the entire day so make sure you plan around it and most important, wear comfortable shoes. There's a lot of walking around to do, but you'll be glad you did.


Day 4

I will never forget this day in my life! I experienced ultimate fear and ultimate thrill, at once! We went on a shark adventure tour. It was pretty crazy of us to do this, when we don't even know how to swim, but i'm soo glad we did it. North Shore Shark Tours, the tour guys were really knowledgeable and supportive. We went in for the 8 AM tour since the waters are less choppy in the mornings. We first went 3 miles into the ocean and they put us into a cage. They usually put in 3-4 people at one time so people can swim around in the cage to get a better view of sharks. Getting inside the cage, i was frightened to see all those fins around. I hung on to the cage and slowly was a little more comfortable. I wore my snorkel mask and took my first look underwater and BEHOLD! There they were!! The mighty sharks...lots of them...like a pack...we saw galapagos sharks..nearly 13 feet long and jaws so huge they could just swallow a person whole! and just inches away from us...but the tour guys had said that sharks rarely attack people and that made us comfortable.It was just beautiful to see sharks emerging from the deep blue towards the cage. We could stay in water as long as we wanted and we got lots of pictures with our underwater camera. As an added bonus, we got to see lots of dolphins while we were on our way back to the harbour.

And what better way to spend the rest of the day than to go to a spa! After all that excitement, what we needed was a relaxing massage. We went to the Yamano Day Spa in the hotel. It was bliss! Talk about a perfect day :)


Day 5

Our last day in beautiful Hawaii :( We woke up real early and set out to hike up the Diamond Head crater. Sailors mistook the calcite crystals on this inactive volcano to be diamonds and hence the name. The hike was a bit exhausting for me but my husband was pretty comfortable :) but the view from atop was breathtaking! My suggestion - go early in the morning..it starts getting really hot later in the day. ON the way back, we stopped at Leonard's and got the famous local snack - Malasadas for breakfast. i have only one word for Malasadas - Divine! A malasada is a kind of fried bread stuffed with different yummy fillings. We had one with Mango custard and one with coconut cream..Pure bliss...Do not forget your malasadas when you are in Oahu!

We then checked out, had lunch, shopped for gifts at Hilo Hattie - nice store and ABC store. The thing about ABC stores is that they're everywhere. But all of them work! You get almost everything at an ABC store. OK so we shopped, had lunch and set out to Kailua beach. We couldnt spend much time at Kailua but i must say...it was just as beautiful as Waikiki minus the crowds.

We then headed to the Byodo-In Japanese temple. This is another must-see. It's nestled behind the Punchbowl cemetery and it's wonderfully serene. The idol of the Buddha is nearly 18 feet tall. There are wild peacocks walking around and the whole place is extremely beautiful against a backdrop of mountains.

I still miss Hawaii. I miss the clear blue sea, the kind, smiling people. I had the post-Hawaii blues for a while :) That's what Hawaii does to you! Can't wait to make another trip...to a different island.