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World Travelling with Mark And Lilly
Aloha from Hawaii!
sorry for the delay but we could not afford a long time on internet to download the picts!
Ok we have survived our month in Us even if we had to shorten our trip in Hawaii, oahu for a week instead of two as we could not afford to visit the island the way we ought to and it was frustrating not to have the freedom to do what we wanted to and really take advantage of hawaii. Do not get me wrong we tried to do the best as we could and managed to see quite a lot!! no much time to relax!!
we changed our plans and decided to spend a week in sydney instead as a transit to our next destination otherwise we would have been back by september to England due to the decresaing budget. Hawaii was really expensive and I was dying for some good food and the freedom to be able to go dancing or do yoga ( I am getting really unhealthy and unfit), so my body is in need of sport and yoga...
Let me tell you about our bad start in Waikiki! It only got better thankfully!
We arrived on monday in Honolulu airport to find out that American airlines had lost mark's backpack and did not seem concerned about that ( it happens on nearly every flight with them). After that bad beginning, we entered a shuttle bus and were told a few minutes after it drove off that the price for our surfboard was the price for 2 passengers, plus our tickets, so 4 bus tickets to reach waikiki, we had to leave and walk back to the airport from which we grabbed a taxi! arrived in our dorm backpacker to realise that men and women are in separate room, not always practical when you share toothpaste and toiletries with your boyfriend!
It could only got worse and in the evening we ate in MC donalds ( I had not eaten there since I was 17) but we could not find any cheap places to eat. By the end of the week in Hawaii we managed to find much nicer places to eat, you just need to know them. Mark backpack arrived in the night to our relief!!!
The next morning, we went to the North shore to waimea bay backpacker which faces a beach. we were luckily greeted by a big swell offering great clean and heavy 6 to 8 foot waves!! rent a bicycle and cycled to Pipeline (not working) and surfed the next break called ehukai.
In the evening, there was a party at our backpacker and they sold burger (again!) it was the occasion to meet people from all over the world, the 2 nicer guys being Alex, a funny chap from england and crasy John from Canada.
The wednesday we surfed ehukai again, a solid 6 foot . In the afternoon, we cycled to the famous waimea bay, which was as flat as a pancake. a good place for swimming, one very dangerous wave in winter. we went in the evening to haleiwa, the main town on the North shore.
Thursday, Alex and the army boys drove us surfing to Chuns reef,a big bay next to Haleiwa. although it did not look that big, when we paddled at the back we were surprised by the size of the waves and also by how crowded it was: incredible to see so many surfers in the week!!! everyone seems to drop their job when the waves are peeling! in the afternoon, we checked sunset beach and then tried to snorkel in waimea bay, but the water was too dark, so the boys had a great time instead bodysurfing in the crashing shorebreak. delicious meal in a thai restaurant in the evening. Friday we surfed late afternoon in ehukai and relaxed, the waves were much smaller. it is the only pictures we have of us surfing as Mark was cold and left the water earlier.
Saturday morning, we went back to waikiki with crasy John and visited the site of pearl harbor navy base where the missouri naval ship was bombed with others by the japanese in 1941. we went on the memorial by ferry and saw the museum. it was quite good but the exhibition failed to mention the US retaliation of the Hiroshima bomb!!! With John, we found a great buffet all you can eat restaurant in waikiki. we stuffed our face ( on s'est rempli le bide) with soup, second course, salad, bread. ice cream, brownie and tea!!!!!! We also took a few brownies home for the next breakfast ( that is how sad we were in hawaii) (taking food home in serviette). We had the vhance to see a hula dance show, very toursity and a bit disappointing, anybody could have done it as long as u were flowers and move your hips kind of thing.... the singer even translated the hawaiian lyrics into english after a tape!!! but it was funny. the most funny part was when John and I danced on stage at the end!!! Good memories john!!!
We finished the night with a typical hawaiian cocktail Mai tai! yummy!
Saturday we rent a car and went to the magestic Hanauma bay whith the best snorkelling on the island. Good reef in a turquoise bay surrounded by mountains. Before entering the beach, it was compulsery to watch a 20 minutes safety video about the beach!!!! NO I AM NOT KIDDING: the video taught how to behave on a beach, how to cope with fish, how to deal with the reef, how to use flippers and warned that snorkelling is a difficult, dangerous and exhausting sport!!!! how funny and condesending!!! we could not believe our ears and laughed quite a few times!! seulement aux Etats Unis!!!! that s***ty video was worth to enter the beach. I even swam with a green sea turtle and saw many colourful fish, but the coral was dead due to idiots who walk on the reef or sit on it!!! (see the video may be useful for some of them)..... we then drove to the coast and to crasy neck breaking shortebreak in sandy beach, a suicidal bodyboarders and bodysurfers paradise!!! we then head towards kailua beach, a large bay surrounded by islands full of kitesurfers with pristine sand and nice valleys. watching them motivated us to learn to kitesurf next year, anybody keen to teach us to earn a bit of money??? please !!!
After a nice green thai curry( Mark's favourite) we found out that the only hostel on the east coast was closed , so drove back to waikiki. Sunday we drove around most of the island, saw a beautiful replica of a japanese temple to honour japanese immigrants, set amid huge green mountains, it was truly beautiful and serene. we checked the North shore but the swell had dropped. Instead we went to the diamond head volcanoe crater and walked to the summit to have 360 degrees views of the island. in the afternoon, we had to do the touristy thing and rent a longboard to play in waikiki wave, very hard work as it was small. a last cocktail before flying tuesday morning to Australia, sydney, for a lot of fun.
Aloha!!! Aure et Mark
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