I think I pretty much covered most of what we did in a previous post (snorkeled with humongous turtles and spinner dolphins, watched a baby gray whale learn to breathe underwater, drove to the North Shore and took in some killer (literally) waves, ate good food, hiked Diamond Head, drove slowly along the coast on a two-lane highway afraid for my life, etc.)
But what really stuck with me about my trip was the poverty, genocide, and destruction of a place that is often portrayed as paradise. Trying to find a Hawaiian was like trying to find a purple elephant. They've been wiped out, to put it bluntly. Polynesians are a mere 11% of Oahu's population. Who's representing the rest of Hawaii? Whites and Asians at 50 and 40%, give or take. It's truly sad. If you live on Oahu either you're super rich or you're super poor. There appears to be no in between. Dilapidated buildings and houses run all throughout the city until you pass Waikiki (which looks like Santa Monica, California, overrun with malls, super high-end stores, and restaurants) and head towards Diamond Head. There you will see nothing but Asians and whites. That's it. The homes in Diamond Head are magnificent. The homes in the rest of Oahu are dumps with laundry strung along the porch of 9 out of 10 houses.
But what really stuck with me about my trip was the poverty, genocide, and destruction of a place that is often portrayed as paradise. Trying to find a Hawaiian was like trying to find a purple elephant. They've been wiped out, to put it bluntly. Polynesians are a mere 11% of Oahu's population. Who's representing the rest of Hawaii? Whites and Asians at 50 and 40%, give or take. It's truly sad. If you live on Oahu either you're super rich or you're super poor. There appears to be no in between. Dilapidated buildings and houses run all throughout the city until you pass Waikiki (which looks like Santa Monica, California, overrun with malls, super high-end stores, and restaurants) and head towards Diamond Head. There you will see nothing but Asians and whites. That's it. The homes in Diamond Head are magnificent. The homes in the rest of Oahu are dumps with laundry strung along the porch of 9 out of 10 houses.
It's taken me a while to get over the fact that Hawaii is not some unspoiled paradise. I don't know why I was so naive, nursing this fantasy of hula dancers and a land unaffected by the rest of the world, just rich in polynesian culture and pride. We found lots of pride (one guy had all Hawaiian islands tattooed on his lower back and there were many monster trucks w/ "Kamehaha" and "Respect the Culture!" stickers in the windows) but the culture was not at all what I expected.
On our second day in Oahu we went to the Bernice Bishop Museum. Bernice Bishop was the last legal heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty, which ruled the Kingdom of Hawaii between 1810 and 1872, before Liliuokalani (not a Kamehameha heir but she took the thrown after her brother died, and he took it when Bernice refused to. It's a long story. Google it if you're at all interested) was overthrown by Stanford Dole (yes, the pineapple tycoon) et al., and Hawaii became a part of the US. But that's another long story. Anyway, on Bernice's deathbed she asked her husband to devote a portion of her very wealthy estate to building a school and preserving Hawaiian culture. He did and thus we have the wonderful Bishop Museum. We spent roughly 3 hours perusing that place and learning about the history of Hawaii and its peeps. I took at least 3 dozen pictures in there.
On our fourth and final day in Oahu, we made our way over to the Aloha Flea Market and finally saw lots of "purple elephants" :) and not just a smattering like we saw before. They looked just like the ones here in Cali, lol. Nothing too special. But it was good to see them, nonetheless.
(museum, me at the museum, "purple elephants")
On our fourth and final day in Oahu, we made our way over to the Aloha Flea Market and finally saw lots of "purple elephants" :) and not just a smattering like we saw before. They looked just like the ones here in Cali, lol. Nothing too special. But it was good to see them, nonetheless.
(museum, me at the museum, "purple elephants")
As our plane made its descent into California and we got a birds eye view of "home", I was overcome (as I often am whenever I fly and then return home) with how much I love this place and can't imagine making any other place my home. Spending so much time at my desk at work or holed up in my humble abode made me forget how much more I have to do and discover (and RE-discover) while I'm still on this earth. I get stuck in a pattern of "same place, same thing" ...and with New Years coming up too? I couldn't have picked a better time to travel, as this trip has surely lit a fire under my ass and caused me to anxiously want to "seize my DAYS" before my time is up, lol. I stayed out until 11pm last night and it was a Tuesday!! lol Carpe Diem! ;)
Now I can take "Visit Hawaii," "drink something out of a coconut," and "wear a red bikini in Hawaii" off my list of things to do before I die. And the red bikini was done totally unconciously! When I returned to my hotel room and realized that I'd chosen to wear the red one over the four others that I'd brought, I just laughed. It must've been meant to be.
*I am so mad that I wrote this entire post out and it was good n' thoughtful, in my opinion, and then when I clicked "publish" 95% of it had disappeared. So I had to rewrite it from memory :(
Now I can take "Visit Hawaii," "drink something out of a coconut," and "wear a red bikini in Hawaii" off my list of things to do before I die. And the red bikini was done totally unconciously! When I returned to my hotel room and realized that I'd chosen to wear the red one over the four others that I'd brought, I just laughed. It must've been meant to be.
*I am so mad that I wrote this entire post out and it was good n' thoughtful, in my opinion, and then when I clicked "publish" 95% of it had disappeared. So I had to rewrite it from memory :(
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