"Going to the Movies" a Hawaii (State of) Travel Page by ray_d

I was first attracted to the Hawaii as a mere child.
For four pennies, of the British kind, the local Movie house provided the only escape for a 12-year-old boy.
In this minute island in Europe this kid watched the "Talkie", as movies were known then.

I remember seeing this triller set in Hawaii.
The story line escapes me.
I remember how amazing this place was.
The beautiful sea; the open-top cars; the magnificent surf;
And of course the Bikini clad beautiful women and palm trees.
Even in black & White you could see the healthy tan on that exposed skin.

Once I moved to Australia I kept returning to Europe, occasionally visiting a close Pacific Island.
Then, this year, I had the chance to visit Hawaii.

Most people would know the Islands from The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
For others, it was the death of Captain Cook in Kealakekua Bay.
Art apreciators would remember Gauguin and his Hawaiian muse.
What ever the calling, answering it will take you to a place of unbounded beauty.
A place that might just find a place in your heart.

The new security measures delay breathing the Hawaiian air until you have your picture digitally taken and index fingers scanned (a pet hate).
The Hawaiian Lady Customs Officer (or is it Officeress :o) was a sweetie.
Her Digital camera became unstuck from its flexible mount.
With a big grin and very little formality we chatted for the minute minutes it took to have it temporally Duct-taped.
Once it was all over the view confronting me encompassed a huge clear sky held up by jungled mountains surrounded by a brilliant sea.

But the fun is just starting.
No car is required for your stay in Honolulu.
Busses and Trolleys are everywhere and $US 2 takes you anywhere.

Walking in the warmth of the island is like promenading.
The noise, the shops, the tourists, the trinkets, the Hawker markets the Memorials.
There is plenty to occupy the interested.

But most of all it is the people.
The people of this remote land created by fire.
Right at the center of the Pacific rim of fire, the Hawaiian Volcanoes dominate the landscape.
Others who migrated there have paid by their premature death the price for their family to live on this heavenly island.

So busy was the time there that I did not have the time to honor the fallen in the USS Arizona.
She died caught up in the devastation wrought on Pearl Harbor by the opening blows of the Pacific war.
Still lying in the spot it claims by right of burial, It stands as a grim reminder of the folly of War.

Nor did I have time to inspect USS Missouri.
She closes the circle by being the place where Japan signed for peace in 1945, thus ending WWII.
A ship built out of necessity but one that has served its people right up to another war much less clear in intentions.

But that is Hawaii.
It distracts you with naturural beauty, intregueing culture and frendly warmth.

I ramble but nothing is as fantastic as I make it sound.
However, each salient moment will pleasure me till the end of my days.
Ask me what memories I carry and they will be many.
All tiny and insignificant but more important than the falling of the Berlin wall in their significance to me.

Perhaps the 2-meter Hawaiian Host in the extension of the Bishops Museum on Kalia Road.
Professing to be a spiritual healer, and moonlighting as one, I felt an instant repot.
The love of his culture was evident to me as was my interest in it for him.
I asked about a greeting written at the entrance of the Museum.

This magnificent man stands proud and, in the echoing hall, surrounded by his culture and artifacts, in full voice, he sings out the greeting.
A greeting full of strength and colorful tones.
Tones that varied and stalled then flowed while gentle movement of arms and head followed the words and pushed and cajoled them forward in assistance.
Magnificent! a ritual to ask permission to enter a house by calling out your name, credentials and reason for being.

A society living within a modern world.
A society with traditions not unlike any around the Pacific but unique in its own way.
One that is proud and comfortable standing apart from modernity.

Perhaps another is Chinatown.
A favorite haunt, Chinatown, anywhere, is my favorite haunt.
Less than pristine but infinately gay and colorful and tasty and strange and comfortable and confused and just trilling every time I fall across one.
This Chinatown is a real China-town, if you know my meaning :o)

Or Grandma Hanzawa.
An Asian lady bent in age but not in spirit.
A woman reaching lower than my shoulder but a personality taller than Mount Kilauea.
She watches over her family of hundreds.
A mixture of marriages between cultures so varied and yet so stable to make your Heart leap with joy.
I am happy to have made her laugh.

Or perhaps the newest Island, also known as The Big Island, or Hawaii, watching lava flow into a boiling sea.
Sitting on black tarry solidified Lava from previous fiery flows.
The surface sculptured in solidified rivulets of braided fire.
Waves that, no more that a few years ago, were molten, red rock.
A river of destruction that has settled into nooks and crevices for the hatching of a new generation of Sea birds.

Then, to walk in pitch darkness brilliantly lit up by stars.
The sea reflecting Pegasus holding hands with Andromeda, overlooked by Pieces and nudged by Aries, dusted by the Milky way and Ciphered by the Pleiades.

I love the Pleiades, they hint something to me, I wish I knew what or why.
Not seen in total until peripheral vision deciphers their number.
I want to know more about them.
I feel the need to understand.
Why? I have no idea? I just need to.

Go out of your Hotel, share the country, walk away and just be at one with the desolation. It is worth it.

Oh and shaved Ice.... :o)