After our jaunt around the north coast of the island, we stopped for dinner in Lihue at a small hole-in-the-wall place that my parents stumbled upon their first night on the island when they stayed in a hotel nearby. The restaurant is called Barbecue Inn, an institution opened by Masaichi and Hanayo Sasaki in 1940.
The storefront is located on Kress Street, a small alley named after what used to be a popular department store in town.
Specializing in affordable family cuisine, Barbecue Inn serves American and Japanese food and everything – everything, they emphasize – is made from scratch. The interior is clean but definitely a bit of a time warp. Service is very friendly, though.
Tasty homemade bread
Miso soup
Teriyaki beef kabob with tempura. My mother had this and it was tasty, although the sauce was a bit heavy.
Panko crusted mahimahi served with tartar sauce. My father had this and while it was tasty, the breading obscured the fish inside.
My dinner, kalua pork and cabbage. Kalua pork is traditionally cooked in an underground pit but these days refers generally to slow-cooked pork. Really tasty with a smoky smell. The only drawback was that there was a lot of the same (albeit tasty) flavor on the dish. It would have benefitted from a smaller portion and something (maybe Japanese style pickles?) to contrast with the flavor.
The stand-out of the menu was Tawn’s order, mahimahi encrusted in a combination of macadamia nuts, panko crumbs, and sesame seeds, topped with coconut cream and spinach sauce. This was amazing.
The real treat, though, was the macadamia nut cream pie. I’ve made twoattempts at making this pie and have encountered some problems. So you can imagine how excited I was to find it here, perfectly fluffy and flavorful. While they wouldn’t release the recipe, they did answer my question about what thickener they use: a combination of cornstarch and gelatine, which helps explain the chiffon-like texture.
I have to admit, though, that now that I’ve finally encountered that long-lost taste memory again, I feel less need to try and recreate it. In short, the pie was very good but I realize that in my memory, I had built up how wonderful macadamia nut cream pie is, to a level that can never be achieved in real life. Maybe.
After dinner we drove around the corner to see this small local motel my parents had stayed at their first night on the island. It is well-maintained but is definitely straight out of the 50s or 60s!
On our second to last day on Kauai, we drove from Poipu, where we were staying on the south shore, to the north shore of the island. While the entire island is very tropical and green, there is a notable difference between the south and north sides. The north side is the windward side and you can tell that the level of precipitation is much higher. There is one main highway that runs around the island and it took about an hour and a half to go from Poipu to Princeville.
The view from my aunt and uncle’s rental condo in Poipu, looking inland towards the mountains.
Our first major stop was Kilauea, a small plantation town that is home to this lighthouse situated on a dramatic bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. One item on our itinerary that we were not able to fit in was a stop to the Kauai Kunana Dairy, a small family-run goat farm and micro-dairy in Kilauea that makes fine goat cheeses. They offer tours but only on Thursday. A future visit will have to include a stop there.
My parents in front of the lighthouse. I remember visiting here in the 80s as a family.
We continued our drive through Princeville, then stopped at a scenic overlook before descending into Hanalei Valley. This is the view of the taro fields in Hanalei Valley. Such pretty shades of green.
As we descended into the valley, we were able to get closer to the fields themselves. Hanalei is a small beach town of surfer dudes and the hippie vibe has not faded. The reasons for the reference to the town of Hanalei in the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” are easy to understand.
While in Hanalei we stopped at a small shopping center that featured shops selling local crafts and souvenirs. This one had this pretty cat napping amongst the towels. He looked too comfortable to disturb.
We worked our way along the highway, making a few stops here and there, until we came to a point that overlooks Wainiha Beach Park (pictured above) and Wainiha Bay (below). You have to park at a cut-out on the road, being careful to give plenty of room to passing cars. Then there is an easy climb just a few feet down a hillside to the lava rocks, which give a great view and put you just above the reach of the waves.
Looking back at the beach in Wainiha Bay. Tranquil, isn’t it?
Tawn takes a picture as waves crash with Wainiha Beach Park in the background.
We continued all the way to the end of the road at Haena State Park. Since we weren’t planning on doing any hiking on the Kalalau Trail along the Na’Pali Coast (and couldn’t find any parking in any case), we backtracked to Makua (Tunnels) Beach, a wide stretch of sand where we managed to run into my newlywedded cousin and her family.
At Makua Beach, I saw this man lying in the sun, Christ-like in pose, beard, and dress, looking like a sun-chasing hippie that might be fried in more ways than one. Birds pecked around him and I can only assume that the lifeguards were aware of him and knew him to be alive.
Tawn practices writing his name in the sand.
And then sees his identity washed away by the waves.
The noth shore is very beautiful and while none of the four of us (me, Tawn, and my parents) are sun-worshipers, it was hard not to appreciate the beauty of the beaches.
Here’s a video I made that combines clips I shot from the north shore as well as other scenic sights on the island. Not only is the footage beautiful, but the music, a contemporary Hawaiian song titled “Manauleo” by Keali’i Reichel, Uluwehi Guerrero, and Kekuhi Kanahele is well worth a listen.
The morning after Kari and Nathan’s wedding, we piled into our vehicles and drove to the east side of the island in order to kayak on the Wailua River, Kauai’s only navigable river. I’ve never been kayaking before, although I’ve long thought it would be a fun way to explore the water. This relatively easy half-day excursion proved to be every bit as enjoyable as I expected.
After a brief orientation, we were transferred to the launch site by van. We paired up and started paddling upriver, the wind to our back. The paddling itself takes only a minor amount of coordination. The challenge is to ensure your paddling is complementary, if not perfectly matched to, the paddling of your partner. We headed about 45 minutes upstream, approximately two miles. From our perspective on the river, we were in the middle of the wild. Looking at the area on a map afterward, I realized that roads and “civilization” was actually just out of sight beyond the ridge line.
After coming to shore in a small tributary of the larger river, we began a one-mile hike through the jungle. Again, while it looked like we were in the middle of nowhere, of course we were actually on a well-worn path.
Severe jungle… holy houseplants, Batman!
At one point, the path crosses a twist in the river and we have to use a guide rope to get across the water. The water at this point is only knee-high and not running that rapidly. One could easily imagine a scenario, though, where the crossing could be more difficult. On our return, my uncle was filming us and trying to encourage one of us to fake a fall into the water for dramatic purposes.
Our group, all relatives of Kari and Nathan, posing by the river about half-way into our hike.
Our destination, after about a 45-minute hike, was Uluwehi Falls (“Secret Falls”), a 130-foot waterfall that has a very nice pool at its base. We sat on the rocks around the falls and ate our lunch, which we had packed in. Various other groups came and went and there were a few dozen people at the pool most of the time we were there. It is a bit hard to see in the picture above, but see if you can make out the small bowl of flower set next to the rocks, near the bottom of the photo about one-third of the way from the lower right corner.
The Wailua River was/is considered a very sacred river and in this pool next to the falls there is a fresh arrangement of flowers that appears to be some sort of offering.
After lunch our group poses at the base of the falls. Some members of the group went in for a swim, although I didn’t.
The wide, meandering river. We were well ahead of the pack. Of course this wasn’t a competition. Right? The trip back was more challenging because the wind blows off the coast and up the river. When returning, we are paddling into the wind. The guide pointed out that if we stayed to the far left (north) of the river, we were mostly sheltered from the wind and the going would be easier.
Kayaking relatives finally make it back to the launch point. Since my cousin Kelly and I arrived first, I pulled my camera from the dry bag and took pictures of everyone else as they arrived. The newlyweds were the last to make it back.
My cousin Kelly and me, first upriver and first back. The secret? We were the only unmarried couple paddling! Seriously, when we were going through the orientation, the guide warned us about the nickname for kayaks – “divorce boats” – because couples can get into all sorts of disagreements, usually caused by the wounded ego of the stronger paddler (usually the man) in the back. Since Kelly and I aren’t married, there was no ego involved, nothing to prove, so we just focused on paddling. I let her set the pace and tried to match her. Since she’s in the Navy, I figure she should be the expert at something boat-related, right?
Afterward, we stopped in the nearby town of Kapa’a, a neat place that I wish I would have had more time to explore, for some shave ice at Ono Shave Ice. Shave ice – not shaved ice – is this great treat that can also involve ice cream and various toppings in addition to the ice and syrups. We had some very good shave ice while there but I can say that it is a dessert I don’t need to have all the time. Quite sweet.
The main reason we were in Kaua’i was to attend the wedding of my cousin Kari to her fiancee Nathan. They exchanged vows on Sunday in the late afternoon along a beautiful stretch of Shipwreck Beach near Poipu, which is on the south shore of the island. There were about two dozen family members who had made it for the ceremony, probably a few more than Kari and Nathan had originally anticipated. Needless to say, it was a beautiful ceremony.
Tawn comes prepared for the occasion with a nice hat.
My cousin Brad and his wife Silvia. Brad is Kari’s younger brother. The cliff in the background served as a focal point for the ceremony.
Tawn and I pose for a self-portrait.
My uncle Dick and aunt Sandy and their first grandchild Tommy. Dick is the older brother of Kari’s mother.
Orchids are strewn along the beach, marking the path along which the bride walked.
As is probably increasingly the case these days, it seemed everyone (myself included) was trying to get pictures of the ceremony rather than just witnessing it!
We needn’t have worried, though, as the official photographer did a marvelous job and made these photos available on his website. I will say that if you are ever looking for a great wedding photographer, for the Hawaiian islands or elsewhere, I would recommend Gelston Dwight.
The lighting of these photos was really spectacular. They have a “Hollywood-esque” quality to them and capture the couple’s glamor as it looks in everyday life!
This is about half the group – just Kari’s side of the family. From left to right, cousin Bill, his son Tommy, his wife Alex (also my cousin), Tawn, Me, my mother, my cousin Kelly (Kari’s sister), my father, Nathan, Kari, Kari’s mother Pat, father Carl, brother Brad, his wife Silvia, and my uncle Dick and aunt Sandy. Probably more than you needed to know, right?
My cousin Alex designed the invitations, menus, and all the other printed materials. She’s quite a talented designer and you can see more of her work at her website. Fresh local pineapples made the perfect centerpieces. The reception was held at the nearby Plantation Gardens Restaurant.
My contingent – father, mother, husband, and me. That shirt my father is making? My mother made that in 1980 for a trip to Hawai’i the family took. In fact, she used matching fabric to make shirts for both my father and me and mumus for her and my sister. Of the four of us, only my father still fits in his outfit!
Some concoction my cousin Silvia was drinking.
Appetizers – called “pupus”
Kailani farms arugula salad with local mango, papaya, cherry tomatoes, onion, avocado, and a lilikoi cider vinaigrette
Lobster bisque with garlic croutons
Grilled beef tenderloin with gorgonzola mashed potatoes, local green beans, sauteed mushrooms, and merlot reduction sauce.
Fresh local fish with mango and avocado salsa, pan fried green beans and black bean sauce. Can’t remember what type of fish it was.
There was also a seafood lau lau – fish, shrimp, scallops, and vegetables steamed in taro and ti leaves. The picture didn’t turn out, though.
When it came to the cutting of the cake, there was such an explosion of flashes that I ended up with several of these “ultra-exposed” shots.
A picture of the beautifully garnished cake. This was a lilikoi wedding cake (lilikoi = passionfruit), a white vanilla cake brushed with passion fruit syrup and filled with passion fruit butter cream. One of the tastiest wedding cakes I’ve had.
A brief break from writing about the Hawai’i trip. There’s been lots of news about dogs in my life recently. Here on Xanga, Val wrote a poem about her aging Australian Shepherd. Tiara wrote an entry about five of her dogs being poisoned by thieves on Saturday night during an interrupted burglary. And to top it off, Tawn’s father called him Friday morning to tell him that his Maltese, Benji, had died early that morning after three days of illness.
Pets can be a big part of the family and people become very attached to them, of that there is no doubt. I’ve never had pets in my house, save a pet rat that my sister had for a year or two. It is interesting because I get along very well with animals (and children, too!), but have never had a strong desire to have pets of my own. Tawn has had lots of dogs for his entire life and even with Benji’s death there are still seven or eight dogs at his parents’ house.
I wonder if there will be a point in my life where I have a pet of my own. It doesn’t seem that important to me, but maybe I’m missing out on the experience and once I had a pet, I would understand the connection that so many other people experience with their animal companions.
What about you? Are you an animal person or, more precisely, do you have pets?
Looking back, I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point in my life my “what to see” list when traveling started to tip in favor of places to eat rather than sights and attractions to see. While Kaua’i is a beautiful island with stunning beaches, mountains, canyons, and jungles, as I made my list of what I wanted to do, it pretty much read like a list of local types of food I wanted to try. Along the way, I discovered Lonely Planet’s Kaua’i guide, a book that uses 296 pages to detail the island and does a lot of work to present it through a environmental/sustainable/locavore lens. Excellent resource.
Our first afternoon in Poipu Beach we decided to start with the nearby town of Koloa, a five-minute drive from Poipu. With its little town feel that would be right at home in an “old west” movie, our first stop was the highly recommended Koloa Fish Market. Known for good local “grinds”, I was anticipating a chance to sit down and enjoy some great food. We got the great food alright, but since there was no place to sit down we had to take the food back to the condo.
Everything’s on the chalk board inside this tiny market. The friendly staff readily explained things that we later realized were written right in front of our face. (Hey, it happens to the best of us!) With four of us, two of whom are not large eaters, we decided the following would be enough:
This mixed seafood plate has seared ahi tuna encrusted in sesame, boiled shrimp served with dipping sauce, seaweed salad, and poke. Poke (pronounced “poe-kay”, which means “to cut or slice” in Hawaiian) is a common side dish in the islands made from raw fish marinated in soy sauce and other ingredients. We ate a lot of poke and every bit of it was fantastic. Most often, it is made from ahi tuna, the quality of which is amazing. We also had it made with octopus, crab meat, and salmon.
Now, I will say this about seafood in Hawai’i. It is really wonderful and all, but I get really fresh, really inexpensive seafood in Thailand so there was a point where I was thinking that it was all fine and dandy, but not really that exciting. This echoes a problem that Michael shared with us. When he has guests from the mainland, there are a lot of very interesting types of food for them to experience because Hawai’i has a hodgepodge of Asian cultures that make up its heritage and a lot of the Asian food here is better than what the visitors may experience back at home. When he has guests from Asia, though, they are more likely to think something like, “yeah, we’ve got this back at home.”
Of course, that didn’t stop us from trying as many different things as we could!
Another thing we tried is the plate lunch. Well, the styrofoam box lunch. Today’s offering was a mix of laulau (pork steamed in taro leaves and ti leaves), kalua pork (slow roasted, traditionally cooked in a fire pit), rice, lomilomi salmon (minced salted salmon with chopped tomatoes and green onions), and a little serving of poke. Both types of pork were wonderfully tasty. The lomilomi salmon was fine but it was hard to identify that there was any salmon in there. We tried some a bit later in the week that had more noticeable amounts of salmon.
For dessert we shared a piece of the fish market’s homemade sweet potato and haupia pie, a market specialty. Haupia is a coconut milk dessert thickened with arrowroot or corn starch. It is very similar to a Thai dessert and is lightly sweet and salty with a thick, gelatine-like consistency. This version is served with a sweet potato base made from purple sweet potatoes, again something familiar to people in Thailand. It is served on a cracker-crumb crust. It was very nice, not overly sweet but pretty filling.
All in all, our first meal in Kaua’i was a thumbs up. Relatively inexpensive, good food, simply prepared.
Unrelated to the lunch at the Koloa Fish Market was our search for malasadas, the fried dough that came here with Portuguese contract workers, thousands of whom came to Hawai’i in the late 1800s. We were looking for for the one-woman stand known as Kaua’i Malasadas, located in from of the K-Mart at Kukui Grove Shopping Center in Lihue. Unfortunately, she was nowhere to be seen, so we stopped at Kaua’i Bakery & Cinnamons in the same shopping center to try some of the different malasadas.
The options included plain, chocolate cream filled, vanilla cream filled, and filled with both chocolate and vanilla cream. Lightly sprinkled with sugar and not too oily, I was nonetheless underwhelmed with these fried treats. They are donuts without holes, something that I can’t get incredibly worked up about.
After our long journey to reach Kauai, we spent our first day relaxing. Tawn was a little under the weather, so extra napping was called for. We were renting a 2-bedroom condo with my parents in the Poipu Beach area on the south side of the island, and all of my cousins and aunts and uncles were in houses nearby, although at this point we didn’t all know where exactly everyone else was staying.
The beach was literally just around the corner from our condo, maybe a two-minute walk. The nearest area was very rocky but a sandy area (Brennecke Beach) was another minute or two away.
The weather was extremely pleasant with a nice breeze, so I went walking down by the water, first with Tawn and then later with my mother.
A beautiful tree we saw. I stopped by a nursery later in the trip to find out what type of tree it is. It is called a “monkey pod”. Looks like something out of The Lion King.
The sun starts to fall towards the horizon. We saw some beautiful sunsets while on the island. Interestingly, Kauai is twice the size of Singapore, but has about 80,000 residents compared to 5 million on Singapore.
One thing we saw plenty of on the island were these wild chickens. Without any snakes, mongoose, or other natural predators, their population is pretty out of control.
In the next entry, I’ll share a bit about the food we had.
After some 29 hours traveling, we had safely made it to Honolulu and had just one more short hop to our destination: Lihue, Kauai. To get there, we had to take a 20-minute flight about Hawaiian Airlines, which has a codeshare agreement with Continental.
We exited our plane from Guan (pictured) above and walked downstairs where we had to claim our luggage and go through customs. As you can imagine, since Hawaii is a bunch of islands they are particularly concerned about fruits, vegetables, uncooked meat, plants, and anything else entering the state that might harm local agriculture. About forty minutes after landing we found ourselves outside in the fresh (and very pleasant) air, and made our way to the inter-island terminal.
The inter-island terminal is a ten-minute walk from the main terminal and is also connected by these buses called Wiki-wiki busses. In Hawaiian, “wiki” means quick, so “wiki wiki” implies very quick. In place since 1970, the buses really are anything but that. Ostensibly a new moving sidewalk system has been opened but I didn’t see it.
Since our bags were checked through (we placed them on a belt outside customs so they could be connected for us), the walk was leisurely and we proceeded through security. We realized, though, that we still had better than an hour before boarding time, so I walked around the inter-island terminal to get some pictures.
For the longest time, the state of Hawaii had two dominant airlines: Hawaiian and Aloha. In March 2008, Aloha went out of business, at least in part because of predatory practices by Mesa Air Group (who operate many regional affiliates for major US airlines) who decided to open their own island carrier called “go!” Hawaiian continues strong, though, and consistently ranks with the best on-time percentage and fewest mishandled bags of any US carrier. Here is their fleet of Boeing 717s (a modernized version of the 1960s era Douglas DC-9) at Honolulu.
The airport has lots of open air areas, although since I was last there in 1994, they have enclosed and air conditioned the gates. The walkway in the picture above is open air. The garden below in the picture below is viewed from the left edge of this walkway.
One of several beautiful gardens in the airport which passengers can spend time in. What a peaceful place to wait for a flight!
As the sun set, I caught this nice picture with the Hawaiian Airlines maintenance hangar in the background.
Throughout the terminal are wall-sized enlarged photos taken from different eras of Hawaiian Airlines’ history. Talk about a walk through the past!
1960s – Hawaiian received their first Douglas DC-9 aircraft in 1966 and along with them, these funky flight attendant uniforms and hot boots! Go, Nancy Sinatra, go!
In the 1970s, the carrier updated their look both in terms of livery and flight attendant uniforms. I’m curious where they got the California surfer boy? Must have flown in from the OC and been accosted on the ramp by the flight attendants!
This picture, probably from the 1980s, is very pretty, showing off both the beauty of the islands as well as of the airplane.
One reminder of Aloha Airlines is this mural from a route map they had published in the early 1960s, based on the aircraft shown, a Fairchild F-27. Beautiful illustration, isn’t it?
Speaking of nice illustration, the toilet signs are appropriately decorated with aloha shirts for the men and muu-muus for the women.
As night fell and departure time neared, the gate area started to fill up. Among our fellow passengers, a group of elementary school students and their parents, flying to Kauai for a weekend outing. The flight attendants gave them a special shout-out when we landed.
Our aircraft, almost ready to board. Watching their ground crew move, you can understand why they have such a good on-time record. Despite the islands’ laid-back culture, they certainly hustle when there is work to be done.
The interiors are a bit old and dark, but for such a short flight it was fine. Service was friendly, along the lines of Southwest Airlines. For our 20-minute flight, the only “inflight service” was the handing out of containers of POG – passionfruit, orange, guava juice – and then quickly collecting them. Seriously, we took off, leveled at about 5000 feet (versus 35,000 for a normal flight), and then were descending almost as soon as we had leveled off.
Finally, about 32 hours after leaving Bangkok, we landed smoothly on Kauai, retrieved our bags in the open-air bag claim, and waited for my parents to arrive and pick us up. At last, we were there!
I’ve reached the age where I’m willing to spend a little more money so I can be comfortable when I travel, and being able to get a few hours of good sleep in the midst of a 30+ hour journey seemed like a good investment. This was the logic behind paying $60 apiece to rent three hours in day rooms at the Plaza Premium Lounge, a public “arrival lounge” in Hong Kong Airport’s Terminal 2.
Unfortunately, a few things kept the investment from paying dividends. This particular lounge is located below the train station. While it has soundproofing, you can still hear the “whoosh” of the train arriving every twelve minutes. If I had used earplugs, that might not have been a problem, but the coffee I had with my egg tarts earlier in the afternoon, or maybe just the rush of adrenaline brought on by travel, kept me from really relaxing and sleeping.
Nonetheless, I got more rest than I would have just wandering around the city or dozing in an airport chair, so I was thankful for that. The lounge itself was nice and the facilities were in good shape. The staff gave us a bit more than three hours before calling to wake us so the time to shower and change wasn’t held against the three hours we had paid for. Maybe that’s because they weren’t busy that time of day or maybe that’s just how they do it in Hong Kong.
Whatever the case, a little before 8:30 pm we were showered, changed, and checked out. We collected our bags from the locker facility nearby and did some rearranging with the packing. On the Air Asia flight, we had to prepay for our luggage, so managing the weight distribution was critical. At least for their international flights, Continental offers free luggage check-in, so we could move things out of our carry-on and into the luggage for the rest of the trip.
The check-in counters were deserted two hours before departure. United does the check-in and ground handling for Continental, which operates only two flights a day (to Guam and Newark). UA providing this services is a recent development, brought about by the merger of the two airlines. It took a few minutes for the agent to finish our check-in as there was some confusion about the assignment of my frequent flyer number. (Continental and Taiwan’s EVA Air have a reciprocal mileage program agreement and I was using my EVA mileage program number for these flights.) The agents were friendly, though, and resolved the problem in short order.
After the confusion was cleared, our bags tagged, and boarding passes issued, we headed through security and immigration. Unlike many international airports I’ve been to, Hong Kong places security before immigration, which makes more sense to me than at airports like Singapore where you don’t go through security until you are entering the gate. Who’s protecting the immigration officers there?
Uncertain what food would be served aboard our four-hour redeye Continental flight to Guam, we stopped for a bite at the popular local eatery Tsui Wah, a branch of which is located in the airport. I’ve noticed that many airports are moving from having just random restaurants or only fast food chains to having branches of popular local restaurants. San Francisco Airport is a good example of this. There you can eat the food from some of your favorite local restaurants inside the terminal. Good idea, in my estimation. At least you get something more interesting than Burger King and Starbucks, again and again, airport after bloody airport.
I think this photo says it all. We ate at a full branch of Tsui Wah on our two days in Hong Kong while returning, too.
Tawn ordered this dish, which if I recall correctly is a Singapore style curried noodles. I tried a bite and it was tasty and a bit spicy.
I ordered the baked pork chop smothered in tomato sauce and cheese, served over rice. It took about ten minutes for them to prepare but was worth the wait!
Hong Kong International Airport remains one of my favorite airports. While Singapore may offer free internet, some outdoor gardens, etc. I find HKIA a much more modern, user friendly, and well thought-out airport. The interior also is bright and open, making the travel feel just that much more exciting. It reminds me of a classic European train station, done up in a modern version.
Another benefit to HKIA: it is children friendly. There’s this good sized play area near the main food court. It features many segments of play airplanes, allowing children to burn off energy and learn more about aviation before getting on their flights.
The segment about the cabin, left, has all sorts of little details like the stickers on the “overhead bins” showing row numbers. Parents could actually use these as a learning opportunity for their children, pointing out the stickers and practicing how they’ll look for the row numbers once they get on their real airplane. It has all sorts of educational possibilities, not to mention just being fun!
The table in the cabin interior play area is covered with photos taken at the old Hong Kong airport, Kai Tak. The Wikipedia entry for the airport describes it very aptly:
“With numerous skyscrapers and mountains located to the north and its only runway jutting out into Victoria Harbour, landings at the airport were dramatic to experience and technically demanding for pilots. The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 6th most dangerous airport in the world.”
This minute-long video beautifully illustrates just how crazy landings into Kai Tak were. Take a look.
Departure time was 10:30 pm from gate 20, one of the closet gates to immigration. HKIA is a very spread-out airport but unlike the design of Bangkok, there is a convenient train system that will shuttle you to the more distant gates in just a few minutes. In Bangkok, nearly every gate requires a hike, most of which is through a shopping mall of duty free stores.
Boarding started about 20 minutes before departure for our nearly full flight. Unlike many trans-Pacific flights, this one was served by a narrow body aircraft, a Boeing 737-800. During the boarding process all passengers were put through additional security screening, which is normal for flights heading to the US thanks to our overzealous policies. However, unlike most airports where this screening is done before you actually enter the gate, here in Hong Kong they have the screening in the ramp leading to the jetway.
The result? Passengers had to surrender water bottles they had purchased or filled inside the secured area of the airport, without an opportunity to get more water before the flight. This is extremely cruddy, resulting in passengers not being able to bring their own water onto the flight. To top it off, the United customer service agents failed to mention this procedure either at check-in or in the boarding announcements, making it all the more inconvenient and, because it was unexpected, irritating.
On this segment of the flight we had been able to purchase exit row seats (an extra $89 per person) in order to have a little more legroom and get some rest on the overnight flight. Again, our “book the window and aisle” strategy left us with an empty middle seat and some extra room. Note those little “SUV back seat” screens hanging throughout the cabin. More about those in a moment.
View of a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A310 next to us. Beautiful design on the tail. HKIA is a great place to see planes from all over the world, with the exception of Latin America which isn’t well-represented.
The four-hour flight to Guam was uneventful. Cabin lights were on and off – mostly on – for the first two hours as we went through lengthy announcements and then a meal service that, for a red eye, seems should have been delivered immediately after takeoff. The “meal” was half a turkey wrap, some fruit, and some almond cookies. About as much as you would expect for an American airline, I think.
There was no individual inflight entertainment. This plane is equipped with those “SUV back seat” style monitors throughout the cabin so we all watched the recent Harrison Ford movie “Morning Glory”. Well, as much as we could see it on the tiny monitor four rows away. Headsets were distributed for free and we were encouraged to keep them for use on other flights.
I managed to doze a bit on the flight but then it was time for descent into Guam. We touched down some twenty minutes early and taxied to gate 10. As we arrived, I was unsure what to expect, immigration-wise. This was our first point of entry into the US, although Guam is a territory rather than a state. As it turned out, we ended up having to go through immigration, but didn’t have to reclaim our baggage and go through customs.
The process was like this: when you arrive in Guam the terminal has these flexible partitions down the middle of the hallway. You are shunted into the “secure” side if your flight has arrived from an international destination. Then you go into the immigration queue just like at any other international airport. After clearing immigration you end up outside security in the ticketing and check-in lobby, so you re-clear security and head to your gate.
Back at our gate about fifteen minutes after clearing immigration, we spotted our plane for the 7.5-hour flight to Honolulu. As you can see, from a visual branding perspective, the CO-UA merger is also a merger of identities: Continental color scheme with the United name. That being the case, it has been much faster to update the legacy Continental planes than the legacy United ones.
Boarding was already underway when we reached the gate, but the procedure was very strange. Between the gate area and the jetway there was another set of immigration booths, so we had to go through immigration a second time within forty-five minutes, essentially reentering the US. I guess the implication of this second immigration check is that there must be passengers boarding locally in Guam who entered Guam without going through formal immigration procedures. Very odd.
The view from my window seat. The plane we arrived on from Hong Kong is the second plane back. Interestingly, the Guam airport seems to be located on a graded hillside and I noticed that the arrangement of the aircraft parking areas is a bit like terraced rice paddies, albeit not at a very steep grade. Look at the building just above the left side of the jetway. Notice how it “steps up” about a meter? It is hard to see in the picture but the ramp is level at the plane’s parking area but then slopes up to the next parking area. You can see the slope where the yellow cargo pallet carts are parked just beyond the wing of our plane.
Anyhow, our flight pulled back just as the sun was rising, the same time (6:30 am locally) we had departed from Bangkok the day before, although 24 hours had not quite passed thanks to time zone changes.
On our way to runway 6-Right we passed this Continental Boeing 737 in the Star Alliance livery. I wonder if some day all the Star Alliance airlines will merge (once foreign ownership laws change) and simply brand the airline as “Star Alliance”?
Our climb out of Guam on a cloudy Saturday morning.
Our plane, a Boeing 767-400, is a twin-aisle jet with a 2-3-2 arrangement of seats in economy class. Unlike the plane from Hong Kong, this one was equipped with individual seatback monitors with a choice of something like nine channels of movies and TV shows playing on a 2.5-hour loop. If you happen to tune in at a random time, you will find yourself in the middle of a movie and have to wait until the loop restarts.
It is certainly better than squinting to watch the show on a screen half a cabin away, but given the recent advances in inflight entertainment technology (not to mention things like iPods and iPads!) the quality is still pretty low. Interestingly, though, since this flight was technically a domestic flight (although nearly twice as long as our Hong Kong to Guam flight), you had to pay for a headset or else use your own.
The seats did have pillows and blankets provided, something rare for a domestic flight. Seat pitch (the point on your seat to the same point on the seat in front of you) is about 32 inches, typical for economy on many airlines and if you empty out the seatback pocket of magazines and the person in front of you doesn’t recline all the way, it is reasonably comfortable.
Despite being a domestic flight, free meals were served and they weren’t that bad, either. This was a breakfast flight and I had sausage and eggs served over fried rice. You have to appreciate that Continental tries to appeal to the local customers with the fried rice, and it strikes me as a better choice than hash browns.
Tawn opted for the French Toast, which was just about basic as French Toast can get!
About three hours into the flight, flight attendants passed out ice cream bars as a snack. Thanks to the dry ice on which they had been stored, these ice cream sandwiches were as hard as a rock and I had to wait about ten minutes before I could manage to break off a bite without chipping a tooth! One wonders what would happen if they offered a snack of, say, fruit or carrot sticks. Nonetheless, I can only greet an ice cream sandwich with a smile.
About four hours into the flight, we crossed the International Date Line, suddenly gaining back 24 hours of our lives. In fact, this flight was so funky because of the IDL that when I tried to book it on Continental’s website, it wouldn’t let me. I had to go to their ticketing agent in Bangkok to get it done. The reason? We left Hong Kong on Friday evening, arrived Guam Saturday morning, departed Guam Saturday morning, arrived Honolulu Friday afternoon, then connected to a codeshare flight to Lihue on Friday evening. That “back and forth” with the dates confused Continental’s computers, I guess.
About 70 minutes before landing the flight attendants passed out snack trays with turkey sandwiches every bit as dry as the ones I made for our Bangkok to Hong Kong flight! Also included were a Twix bar and cheddar cheese flavored crackers. Not the culinary highlight of the flight.
The skies were beautiful as we approached Honolulu. Sadly, I should have been sitting on the left-hand side of the plane for the best views of the island. However, I did film our takeoff and landing and will share it here if you’d like to view it:
Watching palm trees swaying in the breeze, we pulled into our gate next to an Air Canada jet (bet the crew is glad to be working that route!) and after about 29 hours had finally arrived in Hawai’i. But we still had one more flight to reach our destination… stay tuned!
With exactly twelve hours to kill between landing in Hong Kong and that evening’s departure to Hawaii, we decided to head into the city for some lunch and a little window shopping. Something I love about Hong Kong is how easy and convenient it is to get into (and around) the city from the airport.
Tawn in his travel outfit and clear tote bag, waiting at the Admiralty MTR station as we connect from the Airport Express line to the Island line on our way to Causeway Bay.
Something that amazes me about Hong Kong is the effectiveness of its transit. Granted, this is partially a function of the relative density of the city, but I think a lot of credit goes to the design of the system. With a population of 7 million residents, the MTR (the rail portion of the transit system) carries a daily average of about 4 million riders. The main lines run with eight cars (the maximum) at all times and they seem to usually carry a crowd despite trains arriving every few minutes. I can only hope that one day Bangkok manages to develop a transit infrastructure that is as integrated into residents’ daily use as Hong Kong’s is.
Our destination was Causeway Bay, the heavily built-up shopping district on the northern side of Hong Kong Island. This wonderfully retro pedestrian flyover is built along Yee Wo Street right at Pennington Street. With the Hong Kong trams running down the middle of the street, it is easy to feel caught in a bit of a time warp. Notice the stairs on the opposite side of the picture.
When we passed by an hour later, there was a queue of people, mostly office workers, forming up the stairs. We couldn’t confirm what they were queuing for, but Tawn thought it might be for a restaurant behind the scaffolding. My suspicion is that it isn’t for a restaurant, as that would be a crazy amount of potential customers on a short lunch break. I should have explored because if a place is attracting this much attention, it must be worth knowing about.
The first stop was at the Causeway Bay branch of Taipei’s favorite dumpling house, Din Tai Fung. There are those who say that the branches outside of Taiwan don’t live up to the standards of those inside the country. My experience in Singapore has been positive but I was curious to see how the food compares in Hong Kong.
I’ve written about Din Tai Fung on other occasions so won’t go into a lot of detail other than to say that with the exception of the Xiao Long Bao (upper right) and the spicy shrimp dumplings (lower left), the food was a bit bland. We were actually considering sprinkling salt on everything. Perhaps they’ve stopped using MSG, to the detriment of our taste buds!
After lunch, we went to do a little shopping. Well, window shopping. Reportedly, the rents in this shopping area of Causeway Bay, which feature global retailers such as this Sogo shop from Japan, are among the highest in the world, nearly equal that of New York’s Fifth Avenue and London’s Sloane Street.
Seeing the crowds, I’m reminded of Tokyo’s Shibuya district. This is true even more true at night, when all the lights are on and the streets glow nearly as bright as day.
After some shopping we headed to the Excelsior Hotel for an afternoon treat. On the way there we passed the World Trade Center mall, which has this odd quasi-pedestrian area outside. It is open to traffic as a driveway but there aren’t many cars. Because of that, it feels sort of like a set on some Hollywood (or in this case, Hong Kong) movie studio back lot.
The coffee shop at the Excelsior (which is a part of the Mandarin Oriental group) features Portuguese style egg tarts from Macau’s famous Lord Stow’s Bakery. I found out about this when MIA Xangan Wangium posted some pictures on Facebook from his recent trip to Hong Kong. Good to know both that Jason is still alive (although not posting very frequently here on Xanga – hint, hint) and that there is a convenient source for these tasty egg tarts.
The thing about Portuguese versus the Chinese style egg tarts is that the tops are lightly caramelized so they are a bit like eating creme brulee. Very rich, but with a coffee or tea to cut through the richness, they are a wonderful afternoon treat and well worth a trip into town from the airport.
We did a little more shopping after the tarts. This is at Lee Gardens, another shopping center in Causeway Bay. I took a dozen shots of this scene and this is the only one that turned out. A clerk, who seemed a bit self-conscious about the pictures I was taking, was wearing the same jacket that she was placing on the mannequin. I kept trying to get a good shot of her arranging the jacket on the mannequin but those didn’t turn out. Finally, as she finished she turned and shot me this look, almost like a mannequin come to life.
This is another shot that almost came out but didn’t quite. I was shooting this nursery delivery truck when a bellboy at the hotel walked by pulling a trolley bag. I missed the perfect shot by just a split second and his head is slightly cut off. Nonetheless, I find the composition pleasing.
By about 4 pm we were getting tired, a combination of about four hours’ sleep the night before, a very early departure time, and the wear and tear of travel. Instead of continuing our shopping or meeting up with friends for an early diner, we decided to head back to the airport. We went to the Airport Express station, which has this beautiful check-in lobby, before boarding the train.
On the way to the airport, we were both nearly wiped out. While Tawn will probably not like this picture because it doesn’t show him in as refreshed and smiling a way as he usually presents himself, I think it is a beautifully contemplative portrait, nicely composed, that really captures the sense of both stillness and motion that we were experiencing on our journey.
With a little more than five hours before our flight, we decided to get some rest. Hong Kong Airport features a lounge in the public (pre-security) area of Terminal 2 where you can rent day rooms in three-hour increments. Each room is a tiny, although well-appointed, single bed and bathroom. The rate was a little steep – $60 for 3 hours – but knowing we wouldn’t get much opportunity for decent sleep for the next 20 hours or so, we figured it was worth it.
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