Archive for the ‘Aloha Oy’ Category
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
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Flying takes it out of me, more than I like to admit. For the past 12 plus hours, I’ve had a doozy of a headache. I’m drinking a lot of water and applying regular doses of ibuprofen and in the middle of the night last night, I tried some sinus meds – that seemed to take the edge off. It’s the dry, recirculated air and the less than comfortable seats.
Our flight was uneventful, which is all I ask from air travel these days. We left on time, had no trouble making our connecting flights, our bags were there as expected, the rental car company did not badger me with “offers” of overpriced gas or stupid unnecessary fees. Our rig these week is a Dodge Caliber, a heavy feeling car with a low ceiling and lousy visibility. Why, here in the islands where environmentalism is so important and gas so expensive, am I not offered the option to rent a hybrid?
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Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
- Ate seafood outdoors
- Talked with napping sea turtles
- Drank too much Kona coffee
- Got lei’d - twice
- Visited the site of an ancient Hawaiian temple (heiau)
- Learned and forgot how to say “no problem”in Hawaiian
- Heard live music
- Drove to the Hawi overlook to see the Waipio Valley
- Ate lunch Hawaiian Style in Waimea
- Fell in love with and did not buy a 900 dollar ukulele
- Drank a flaming cocktail
- Saw reef sharks
- Got a lung full of sulfur on the volcano
- Talked Hawaiian history with an elder from the Hawaiian Kalama tribe
- Talked organic coffee with a mainlander who bugged out a few years back
- Talked South Point with Vermonters who decided not to “wait until retirement”
- Ate BBQ, paniolo style
- Drank a mango smoothie
- Visited the City of Refuge (everyone needs to go to this place once)
- Talked chocolates with a local at the Kona Farmer’s Market
I’m a little stressed, believe it or not, because I feel like we’re not getting enough in. I haven’t been to a fancy shopping center, I didn’t spend enough time gathering business cards in Kona Village, I can’t figure out how I’m going to get everything else I want to do done in the next two days before we move on to Oahu. I’m also truly frustrated about what I’m missing. Tonight, even though we’re in a lovely rainforest cottage surrounded by palms and exotic flowers, I can’t help think that I’m missing song circle in Huloaloa and that the coffee farmer, who was utterly charming, would be willing to take us for a walk through his fields. Slow travel this is not. Argh.
Excellent advice, courtesy Hawaii road crew.
We’ve not eaten today, so we’re off to get dinner. If I’m not too whupped, I’ll try to post some photos a bit later.
A few pics are posted here.
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Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
I’m up in Sam Rosen’s place. Ben has sent me there, but when I tell Sam this, he doesn’t remember Ben. Finally, he says, “I remember a guy from Seattle, Uncle Ben? Do you mean him?” That’s the one! I say. “You should have just said Uncle Ben!” Sam teaches a 10 day uke making workshop up at his place in Holualoa. He had one proud student finishing up while we were there - he was just lowering the strings a little on his new tenor, a beautiful little instrument. I played almost every uke in Sam’s shop and while we were there, a big, shirtless local dude with lots of tattoos wandered in and out. I was strumming away in the corner and the local dude, brown as coffee, stops and says to me, “Sister, you can play the uke! You must be part Hawaiian!”
I probably don’t need to tell you that it’s lovely here.
And Ben, Sam says hi and to send business card for people visiting from Seattle who are looking for uke teachers.
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Sunday, November 4th, 2007
No passport needed, but all the other stuff? Check.
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Yesterday I sat down and scribbled the most absurd email ever. I had to cancel our reservation for a (free) 3.5 hour back country by 4WD tour of the waterfalls of the Kohala Coast. I felt, as you might imagine, like a complete idiot, even though there’s a perfectly logical reason for the cancellation. It’s this: I don’t have enough time.
I have allowed myself (on the advice of more seasoned writers than I) a little time here and there during our trip to do something I Really Want to Do. It’s convenient that in all cases, the pursuit of, oh let’s use the example of checking out hot guys in grass skirts, fits the agenda for my work. But an event like that - a full luau with food and entertainment - takes up a huge chunk of time that I ought to be using for pacing up and down the resort-centric shopping areas of Kona Village or Lahaina, dammit, while sussing out shopping and restaurants.
I canceled the 4WD tour because as much as I want to go, I have already committed to a half day adventure elsewhere on The Big Island and I need the rest if the time for hauling ass all over the Kohala Coast and maybe trucking it to Waimea on the same damn day. I can’t use it for a leisurely meander through lush tropical valleys. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Damn.
I also canceled another crazy invitation to go shooting - you know, that thing where they launch a clay pigeon and blammo, you knock it out of the air with a rifle shot. (Yeah, right.) The woman from Lana’i was so nice and I figured, hey, when is anyone ever going to talk me in to firing a rifle? What the hell. But as much as I think that would make a great first person essay (Gun-hating lefty mostly veggie democrat joins NRA in surprise twist. “Dude, guns are FUN!” she says, shocking long term friends and family alike!) I came to my senses.
I have one day on Lana’i only. One. I have to see and capture the sense of the island in one day. So it does not make any sense at all for me to indulge myself in something that I would never consider just because I was invited to do so. Nope. I have work to do. Instead of having some kind of crazy out of body experience, once again, it’s back to hauling ass all over the island and making sure the rental car is returned with enough time for us to make the sunset ferry.
Please suspend disbelief for a few seconds while I mention my extreme frustration at the sheer rushing around-ness of this undertaking. There will be no open water catamaran trip on Kauai. There will be no donkey trekking on Moloka’i. There will be no ukulele song circle on the Big Island. There will be no horseback riding, hiking, four wheeling, dinner cruising, inner tube riding, oh, the list of things that will not take place is really quite remarkable. There will be no hanging with the ukulele teacher’s cousin, no chatting over tea with the Honolulu aunties or with friends of friends in Hilo, no shave ice with the imaginary blog pal on Maui. Instead, there will be a lot of dropping in, saying, “Thanks kindly but there’s no time can I take your press kit we have half an hour thank so much okay bye we’re gonna run in and shoot some pics don’t mind us no really okay bye!”
I imagine an early breakfast, a late lunch, and a snack in the hotel at bedtime while charging batteries, emptying flash cards, checking the calendar, and making notes. I imagine a blurry sort of green with the background noise of surf and very tired feet. I imagine being too stimulated to sleep.
People keep saying this to me when I describe my aggravation. “Yeah, but you’ll be in Hawaii!” They are completely correct, of course. That is more than a little consolation. But it also feeds my frustration. There is so much to do, so much to explore, so much that I would do given limitless time and money, and the fact that I am presented with the opportunity and not the time, well, that just makes me want to tear my hair out. Add to that the fact that I love Hawaii, yes, like that, yes, like I do want to marry the whole state. Argh.
I am going to have to go back to write my own book. Now that we’re done with Austria for a while, is there a reason Hawaii couldn’t be our second home? I’m thinking a three month stint might slake my thirst for island life.
Linky thanks to fellow travel/writer blogs
- Sheila, for the blogtipping
- Liz, for the upcoming interview
[tags]travel writing, Hawaii[/tags]
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Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Yesterday I finished watching a perfectly awful movie: Hawaii. This epic drama tells the story of a tightly wound missionary (Max von Sydow) and his bride (Julie Andrews) who are called to the Hawaiian islands to save the souls of the sinful people of Maui. The movie is too long by half, and the characters are completely transparent with one exception, the plus sized Alii Nui (Jocelyn LaGarde). She’s awesome. In spite of the melodrama, the film presents a fairly accurate depiction of Hawaiian history following the arrival of the accursed ‘haole’ (white man).
We all know what happens. The missionaries come, destroy the native culture, sailors, traders, and whalers arrive, bringing disease and exploitation to the bare breasted island maidens, the big hearted bride dies from overwork and consumption, the natives cover up, and Hawaii goes to Elvis and big hotel chains for the rest of time, but not before making the Native Hawaiians all but extinct. Oh, yeah, and there’s that Pearl Harbor incident. The travel propaganda industry moves in and Hawaii becomes ensconced in our collective psyches as Paradise, American Style. Okay, the movie doesn’t drag us into modern times. Von Sydow sees the error of his ways at the end, but wow, does he make a mess of everything getting there.
I have one more movie on deck, a documentary about Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii’s last queen. She was coerced into abdicating her throne and the islands were handed to the jurisdiction of a man by the hardly coincidental pineapple name of Dole. I could follow up with Pearl Harbor, but I can’t stand Ben Affleck - From Here to Eternity is a better choice. And then, the insipid and undeniably appealing Blue Hawaii as desert? Or, Lilo and Stitch, for fun?
That is just under 300 words. And what have you learned about Hawaii today? Not much, I think. Plus, editorialize much, Nerd’s Eye View?
People who like to read my writing, god bless them, are all psyched when they learn I’m writing a book about Hawaii. “Hot damn!” they say, “I can’t wait to get my hands on what you write about that place!” Well, that is certainly flattery beyond what I deserve, but also, sadly, possibly untrue.
What they want is the wacky commentary. The character stories. The obscure details behind the scene. And I can honestly tell you that as badly as I want to write that stuff, there is very little room for it in my assignment. Take, for example, the fact that I have 400 words in which to cover history, culture, geography, and the modern day zeitgeist of the islands. And that the tone of the book is light, fun, appealing, and certainly free from sarcasm and snark. There’s room for enthusiasm and aesthetics, but for attitude?
Don’t get me wrong, I think it will be a good book, useful and fun, with a little off-the-beaten track (as much as it can be) advice, and some fun background stories. But it’s a reference, an introduction, a suggested guidelines sort of book, not a deep exploration of alternative Hawaii. And within those rules, there are some intense restrictions.
This is actually helpful when faced with so many options, so many choices to cover - if it’s not truly wonderful, it’s out. There’s no room for the mediocre. It’s also an excellent writing challenge. Restrictive word counts are not for weaklings. An editor I once worked with told me a famous quote for writers - “I would have written less if I’d had more time.” Writing long rambling paragraphs is easier than whittling them down to the essentials. The good news is that a lot of advice for travel writers says that editors are keen to fill the small spots in their calendar, that writing these tiny 400 word columns is a good way to break in to travel writing. It is good practice to write short, action packed pieces about huge topics.
The other news, good or not, is that oh, yeah, I have a blog! All those stories that you say you want to read (what, you don’t have anything better to do?) are going to end up right here on Nerd’s Eye View. Untrammeled by word counts and editorial guidelines beyond ‘disclose the freebies’, first person accounts of Hawaii are in the very near future.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to turn my attention back to writing 1200 words about Hawaiian food. I’m trying to get the essential character of poi into 300 words.
Related:
[tags]travel writing[/tags]
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