Thursday, October 8, 2009

Not every day is sunny in Waikiki

Yes, sometimes it rains. See the raindrops in the koi pond right below our balcony. Why, it must have rained for five whole minutes on one of the nine days we were there. I got sprinkled drenched I tell you when I guzzled put my gin and tonic down, leaned over and took this shot to prove it does indeed rain in Waikiki.

Soon the clouds disappeared and we were once again on or in the ocean. Or sitting beside the ocean taking photos of other people on or in the ocean. Whatever. There was ocean involved.

(The sign reads "no diving, no jumping, no climbing" but clearly Hawaiians have their own way of doing things.)

Hey look, a fish stealing Doug's spotlight. I don't know what kind of fish this is, but it was very tame and friendly. I think this one would be good panfried with a lemon butter sauce.

Evenings were quiet, with a stroll on the beach, or a drink in the RumFire bar.

See the fire on the right, from the giant torches all around the bar? The hotel bar had live music, and fantastic food and drinks like the Hoku-tini - coconut rum, mango puree and pineapple juice, shaken and served in a chilled martini glass. You had to hold on to it, because the wind was sometimes so strong, it would knock it over or even slosh the drink right out of the glass. That's why I drank mine quickly, so as not to waste a drop.

Tapas were popular at the RumFire, and my favourite was this cubed chicken made with hoisin sauce, and minced onions and celery and served warm. It came in a mound with small, buttery lettuce leaves to use as wraps. Oh, and juicy burgers served with thin fries in paper cones. Actually we had great food everywhere, even the PukaDogs (kind of a Hawaiian hotdog) and shave (not shaved) ice covered in fruit syrup, which is a bit like a slushy but the texture more closely resembles soft, fluffy snow.

The lights of Waikiki beckoned at night, but we just watched from our lanai. That's Hawaiian for balcony (oh look, she's speaking Hawaiian now, yes, mahalo nui loa*) also known as "Balconville" here in Quebec (which is where you spend your summer vacation when you stay at home.)

Tangent alert: The Hawaiian alphabet only contains 12 letters with an unnatural fondness for vowels. I end up sounding out of breath when I try to repeat a street name, for example. Turn left on Kamehameha and head for Kalanianaole just past Kapiolani and Liliuokalani. Whew.

Here are a couple of very useful Hawaiian expressions.

"A'a i ka hula, waiho ka hilahila i ka hale." When you dance, leave your bashfulness at home.

"Pa`a ka waha!" Shut the mouth!


You're welcome. ("He mea iki.")
I stretched out on a deck chair by the pool one night and despite the odd looks by passersby I shot the full moon (why is that woman with the crazy hair pointing her camera at the night sky and twirling it around in circles? She must be Canadian....) I used a delayed shutter just to see what would happen. I was trying to spell a word. Can you guess which one?


*thank you very much

10 comments:

nightsmusic said...

*blinks* You want to fry Doug's friend??? *blinks again*

I don't even want to take a guess at the word the crazy Canadian lady with the camera was trying to spell.

But I love the new pic of you! Much more...you :)

BB said...

Oh Pam!! That was FABULOUS... you should TOTALLY be a travel writer. For the real woman. That made me laugh and UTTERLY wish I was in Hawaii.

And if you think I have finished with the avitar, I should tell you that you are DREAMING. (Have you seen 'The Castle' - an AUssie film which pokes some SERIOUS fun at our 'culture' and uses that line a lot!).

Off to check my caps lock.
BYE
BB

BB said...

PS - that's what happen when you leave a page open for a few hours til you comment. The avitar changes and you have to eat your words!!! I like it. I still love the messy hair one best though!
:-)

Brink said...

Love :)

A Novel Woman said...

Bush Babe, I OWN that movie. We say "yerrr dreaming" ALL THE TIME!! I saw a whole family in the lobby of one hotel who looked exactly like the lot of 'em.

I still can't believe you like the messy hair. All these years, wasting so much time with the #$%^& blowdryer and for what?

Debby said...

Love.

*sigh*

Yeah. The vowel thing was a trip. I worked in a town outside of Aiea.

Pineapple rains are pretty neat...they are like a mist. You can't even call them a rain really.

Interesting note about Hawaii. You know that thunder storms are extremely rare there? Thunder storms are caused by variations in temperature high up in the atmosphere, typically those variations occur over land (the ocean does not typically spawn those divergent temperatures). Because Hawaii is so tiny, there are no variations to speak of.

A Novel Woman said...

Debby, that's exactly what they were like - light mists that felt so good on the skin. And rainbows, always rainbows. There were three all together one afternoon.

Didn't know that about thunderstorms. We have enough of those, and some real humdingers up at the cottage.

BB said...

You OWN the Castle... that's fabulous. One of my favourite Aussie movies - typical daggy sense of humour (taking the P*** out of ourselves - and others at random).

And as for the hair - maybe Canadians like things coiffed (that's french-ish, isn't it?) but we like things a bit more natural down here... you totally look like someone I would be mates with, with that wild hair. Love it!
:-)
BB

A Novel Woman said...

BB, I also own THE DISH with Sam Neill!

And MY BRILLIANT CAREER is one of my favourites too. I've got to get myself Down Under one of these days...

Greg Gutierrez said...

An enjoyable piece. Thanks.
Greg Gutierrez
Zen and the Art of Surfing