Summer Tour - Hawaii Part 1

 After the ESTA related stress of getting to Hawaii and the heavy duty sightseeing in hot and humid Japan, we took things nice and easy in Hawaii, staying at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (made famous in the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi) and a mainstay of the Waikiki beach front.

Accordingly, we spent most of the week or so we were in Hawaii on Oahu lounging by the pool and trying to catch some surf (sadly the waves were relatively benign while we were there) and generally relaxing. 

Hawaii was a massive contrast to Japan both in terms of food, culture, service levels and cost - tipping was expected for everything usually starting at 18% for even the most basis counter transaction whereas in Japan tipping was not expected and if you did tip is was very well received.

It was also very heavily populated - our hotel was among a number that crowded around Waikiki Beach  - and as one might expect was very popular with tourists from mainland USA.

We did not do much travelling around but we did make the trip to Pearl Harbour which was a relatively short taxi ride out of town. The mood and ambience was very different from down-town Honolulu with the wreck of SS Arizona (completely destroyed during the Pearl Harbour attack by Japan) now a war memorial reached by a short boat ride out to its former berth where it took a direct hit to its munitions store sinking it almost immediately with huge loss of life. 

Part of the superstructure is still visible above the waves and end section contains an enclosed area with board containing the names of all of those who lost their lives. Very sombre.

Whilst it is still used by active warships, other parts of the naval base have been converted into a submarine museum and an aeroplane museum which were very well put together and made for a fascinating  and sobering day of exploration. One of the more interesting facts that we learned was that a number of the warships that were sunk during the attack were subsequently salvaged from the seabed and repaired fit to return to service in the war.

Particularly interesting was the WW2 Submarine that had been opened to the public. Even the Captain’s cabin (pictured) was tiny and I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to be cooped up inside whilst patrolling deep beneath the sea.