Honolulu

Since our body clocks are a bit confused, we woke up too early at around 5am, as we probably thought we are still on the mainland. Surprisingly it was actually Ted who was starving first thing this morning, so he suggested getting dressed and walking around to find a restaurant. We were hoping for an IHOP or Denny’s but neither were open yet, so we went to Mac24, which Ted used to go to when he flew to Hawaii, which opened at 6am.

I’m still feeling quite sick, which appears to be sinusitis. We walked around to get a coffee and Ted suggested an Australian shop which was here previously, but it seems to have closed up. One thing we have noticed is the different face of Hawaii - a number of boarded up shops as well as more homelessness. It is sad to see. We ended up going to Honolulu Coffee at Sheraton instead as the view of the water is beautiful.

Since we have an apartment, we caught a bus (now $3!) to Ala Moana for lunch and to do some grocery shopping. Ala Moana is pretty much the same. I went for a personal favourite, Panda Express - I used to love the orange chicken but fortunately there are still some vegetarian options. Ted offered his lunch to a homeless man there who declined, but I thought the gesture was very kind.

In the evening we went to Hula’s in the hope of seeing some familiar faces, but there was no one there we knew. We are still trying to ascertain how much Hawaii has changed since Covid - the tourists are back but you can see some subtle differences. We didn’t stay as long as we would’ve liked, as some creepy and boring English guy kept talking to us and invading personal space! We don’t have any definite plans yet, but for now we’re just enjoying the serenity.Read more