People often ask me how and why do you travel alone. Are you nuts? My usual reply to them is, “when you are traveling alone you never know whom will you meet and greet”. And on this trip a similar thing happened. I was having brunch at one of the local coffee shops “Wailana Coffee House” and there was an Australian couple sitting next to me. As I was sitting alone they invited me to join them and after chatting for a while I learned they were there for their Hawaiian wedding (which is in every Top Ten list of things to do in Hawaii). One thing led to another and they even invited me for dinner later in the evening.
After the brunch I was strolling around the city and it appeared that Waikiki is filled with ABC stores (convenient stores). One can find an ABC store about every 100 meters and yes I am not exaggerating. After a while the sun was getting to me and I took refuge in “Ala Moana” mall to save myself from sunstroke. I know one is not supposed to be in a mall especially in Hawaii but I couldn’t help it. It is the major shopping center in the state consists of all the major designer brands from Waikiki and more.
By the evening I was at the Queen’s Surf beach to enjoy the sunset. Hawaii is filled with tourists 24*7 and this beach was no different. There were so many people (locals & tourists) indulging in some activity or other. People were doing photo shoots, sunset yoga, balance on a wire (apparently a new beach activity, at least for me), and surfing, paddle boarding, snorkeling et cetera.The balancing act was really fascinating, especially when the wire was tied for more than 50 feet and the couple of people were practicing their balancing as a form of exercise. At the beach, one gets the real essence of Hawaii’s laid-back attitude. There is something magical about Hawaii’s sunsets. It was really picture-perfect with all the boats, people and the color of the golden hour.
For dinner, I again joined the Australian couple at “Alan Wong”, one of the most quintessential restaurants in Honolulu. Both tourists & locals praise it and reservation is a must. The ambiance was banal but the food supposed to be really good. My experience went sour when clams had sand in every other bite and it felt if I was eating grits. It was really annoying. One neat thing they do is if you are celebrating something special, they give you souvenir menus. It is addressed to you and signed by the restaurant staff. In short it’s a must try. Well enough for now let’s move to day 3.