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Hawaii
Hawaii
Bec2004-09-17 12:22:27
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Waikiki
On Oahu, tourists and backpackers alike gravitate to Waikiki where the biggest hotels are concentrated, including the famous Ilikai (featured in the TV series "Hawaii Five O"), where I spent a weekend in March 1974 on the way back from a business trip to Japan.
Arriving from snow white Montreal on January 1st 2002, the juxtaposition of this geometrically perfect artificial Christmas tree next to natural palm trees in front of the royal Hawaiian shopping center on Kalakaua avenue, appeared incongruous enough to be worth a photo.
Here is another view of Kalakaua Avenue in downtown Waikiki. Only the name is Hawaiian, as for the rest, it could be anywhere in the US where palm trees also grow.
The same remark applies to Waikiki Beach. There are no more pure Polynesians left in the Hawaiian Islands. Roughly 25 percent of the population can be called Caucasian, 20 percent Japanese, 15 percent Filipino, 10 percent Chinese,10 percent African-American leaving only 20 percent mixed blood Hawaiian.
This row of high rise vacation hotels could be in Miami Beach, in Acapulco, in Rio de Janeiro, in Argentina's Mar de Plata, in Australia's Surfer's Paradise or in a number of other sea & sun resort towns.
Except for language and accent, these beach resort towns are strikingly similar. I think they try to copy each other.
I stayed at the Hawaiian Hostel on Seaside Avenue right in the center of Waikiki for only 15 $US in a 6 bed dorm.
It was a friendly place with a kitchen where we could cook and a dining area where we could sit and chat like this. Most of the other backpackers were young Americans. I was surprised to see that the subject of 9/11 was carefully avoided as if it had not happened. Later, two of them confided in me privately that they avoided talking about America's New War or about the Middle East because they were afraid of being ostracised
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See photographs from:
United States Gallery
