Hawaii: The "Other" Eight Islands

Las Vegas is considered the ninth Hawaiian island, because of its large Hawaiian population and its involvement in Hawaiian culture. This note is about our trip to the most important of the other eight islands, Oahu, for which we had no knowledge but many expectations based on our life-long devotion to some TV dramas: Hawaiian Eye (1959, by the way, the first year of Hawaii's statehood), Hawaii 5-0 (1968) and Magnum P.I. (1980). Our goals for this trip were to take a beach break from winter while soaking up some exotic Hawaiian culture and to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial site. We also figured it was high time we reconciled the many preconceptions we developed over the years with the reality of the place.

We chose a hotel on the beach in Waikiki (the word means "spouting water"), which is a major neighborhood in Honolulu (a word that means "calm port"), on the island of Oahu (which means "gathering place"). Although Hawaii consists of eight islands, 70 percent of Hawaii's 1.5 million residents live on Oahu (25 percent of the entire state's population resides in Honolulu, which we learned is also the hometown of Peter Hernandez, who we recognize as Bruno Mars). One of the eight islands is totally uninhabited.

Tourism, hospitality, government (especially U.S. military), real estate and construction are the primary drivers of Hawaii's economy, which is quite easy to understand after learning the modern history of the area and seeing all the hotels, high-rise condominiums and retail mall space. Everyone knows that the cost of living is very high in Hawaii, but those prices are obscene in the areas, such as Waikiki, that cater to tourists. Prices fell dramatically as we moved away from purely tourist venues.

Not surprisingly, Hawaii's population is dominated by Asians, especially Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos, but it was surprising that only 10 percent were native Hawaiian and that more Hawaiians live outside the state ( for example, Las Vegas has the largest concentration of Hawaiians in the U.S.). Some European influence is still evident today in various cuisine and we were surprised to learn that the ukulele, only associated with Hawaiian music, was introduced to these islands by Portugal more than one hundred years ago.

The surf and turf conditions were exactly what we expected and fabulous; weather a bit warmer than usual in the 80s and no rain. Ocean temperatures were in the high 70s, the surf was very calm and a sandbar allowed bathers to wade out nearly a quarter mile. However, the image instilled in us of an isolated expansive pristine beach didn't materialize; rather this was a very small, urban, congested beach in the midst of a bustling city with huge high rise hotels and condos towering over us.

Exotic seashells or sea creatures and birds were nowhere to be found. (Even in the city, pigeons were the only birds we saw, and mostly moving freely in and out of restaurants, not something we east coasters are accustomed to seeing.) Maui is probably the place to find the beaches we had imagined were everywhere in Hawaii.

We also didn't imagine that Waikiki would be a seemingly limitless chain of luxury shopping malls that extend in all directions like those on the Las Vegas strip, including the Royal Hawaiian Center and the International Market Place. Even most hotels had retail catering to shopping rather than the immediate needs of hotel occupants, like food kiosks and decent restaurants. Foreign tourists must be the target shoppers for those products because mainland Americans have easy and cheaper access to such products back in the states. All that high-end retail space eliminated any possibility of picking up a local vibe anywhere throughout Waikiki.

Wherever we travel we like to indulge in local cuisine, and supposed that an undeveloped land mass like Hawaii would boast a rich variety of fruits and vegetables and many tasty new dishes. It doesn't. We had great pineapple but it wasn't as ubiquitous as we imagined, and there really were no other fruits worth mentioning. Further, surrounded by thousands of miles of ocean we also expected to be introduced to a variety of fish and many new recipes. We were disappointed. Honolulu is apparently one of the most important U.S. fishing hubs and is 72 percent of Hawaii's commercial fishing industry, but don't ask what they do with all that fish because it doesn't appear to be sold locally.

The food quality everywhere was mediocre at best, so it didn't really surprise us to learn that spam in nearly 23 varieties features prominently in the Hawaiian diet, and that a dish called "Loco Moco" consisting of a hamburger on a bed of fried rice smothered with onions and brown gravy is a staple of the Hawaiin diet. We were skeptical of our own harsh assessment of Hawaii's cuisine until our Pearl Harbor tour director, a native of Hawaii, confirmed our evaluation when he recommended a fish place frequented by locals that he claimed was Waikiki's best and it turned out to be a total bust, serving tough, fishy fish. Our conclusion: Hawaiians eat an unhealthy diet limited in variety, and do not generally include the use of fruits and vegetables.

There are a few bright spots; apparently, some of Hawaii's spicy fish dishes such as poke are very good and it's Kona coffee and banana bread were outstanding. And if you're wondering about over-priced King's Hawaiian bread, know that although it originated here more than 60 years ago, it's been made for decades in California, and we didn't see any evidence that folks in Hawaii actually eat the stuf.

It took us a couple of days to realize that the main sources of prepared food consumed by tourists weren't restaurants but rather food courts and hybrid stores combining groceries, packaged food and extensive deli items. ABC stores, which are ubiquitous in Waikiki (practically every 200 yards), seem to feed most of this neighborhood and are particularly noteworthy. Our experience is that the fresh daily packaged food is generally better than restaurant food.

Midway through our week we took Hawaii's most popular historical tour of Pearl Harbor, which included a visit to the Arizona memorial, the actual grave site of more than 1000 sailors (out of the nearly 1200) who died on the USS Arizona battleship that blew up the day Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, and the battleship Missouri memorial, the vessel that served as the venue that, among other events, hosted the surrender ceremony that ended the war with Japan in 1945. We learned on the tour that the "surprise" attack had been anticipated by many in our Government, but we also learned that the day of the attack there was a radar warning of a potential attack had been carelessly dismissed as a false alarm! We will never know how a proper response to that warning might have changed the extent of the devastation that day but we can be sure that many lives would have been saved. I wonder if that's what FDR really referred to when he said that day "would live in infamy"! This tour was quite a sobering experience and no visit to Hawaii is complete without a visit to Pearl Harbor.

In addition to the obvious advantages of travel, such as a refreshing change of environment and an opportunity to learn new things, it also provides a reality check on the evolving state of the leisure and travel industry. We've noted in previous posts that trends in those industries have for some time shown an overall decline in customer service and this trip shows that trend continuing.

We were fortunate this time to have one non-stop flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu so our travel ordeal was merely 10 hours between airports (7 hr flight plus 3 hr waiting at the airport). However 10 hours is a very long time to have very limited access to food and drink, including the airport and flight. Thank heaven our airline offered us a small sandwich (no choice) and soft drink. Only very light snacks were available for purchase on the flight, and the airport barely had some kiosks offering junk food. Is that really the best they can do?

Upon hotel arrival there was no information available in our room indicating hotel amenities including restaurants within or outside our hotel and it took a couple of days to sort through the possibilities to find eateries offering decent food at a less than an exorbitant price. Eventually we found a few places in close proximity to each other on side streets. Based on our Las Vegas and Hawaiian experience it would seem that tourist purveyors are conforming to a mushroom business strategy: keep consumers in the dark, engage them in a one shot transaction and not worry about repeat business (much the way restaurants on the Las Vegas strip do). Even our Pearl Harbor tour, which was worthwhile despite a marketing deception, offers an example: it was sold to us as a 7 hour guided tour but ended up a 4 hour tour with a 3 hour free-for-all waste of time. All of this happens because nothing is available in writing.

Our sense is that there is a constant tension between vendors and customers, with vendors giving "deals" with one hand and attempting to short change customers with the other. There's very little "leisure" involved in "travel" these days and it's likely to get worse with time.

Our trip to Hawaii had been a long time coming and we feel fortunate to have finally made it. Some of our preconceptions and childhood dreams were dashed, others confirmed. We imagine that Maui might uphold some of the preconceived images of what we thought Hawaii is and our next Hawaiian trip will delve into that island.