Tour of Honolulu

Selina took me on fabulous tour of Honolulu through the main neighborhoods this afternoon. I called it the scenic route. I've only been on the highways and that view ain't that great. It was also an entertaining way to see the landmarks in Honolulu and a better ground zero understanding on the local community here. But best of all, I enjoyed my first girls's day out since I got to Hawaii.

The first thing I learned was that Honolulu as a city is a hodge-podge of different interest points rather than one main downtown area acting as the shopping/financial/government district dissipating out to the perimeter. Downtown is basically the business and government district. That's also where Chinatown is. There's nothing much else there besides vagabonds loitering the streets. There's no real shopping streets here.

Chinatown with the traditional chinese characters everywhere

Love this round entrance to the Lung Do Society

One of the main grocery shopping strips in Chinatown

Kaimuki on the northeast side of town was a cool discovery. It feels like an old forgotten area with an old town feel which is going through a hip and younger facelift with cute little cafés, eateries and Tamura's - a wine and liquor store which housed a lot of exotic international wines and snacks. 

The Ala Moana part of town is known for its non-descript Korean Bars or what Selina calls 'Buy-me-drinky' bars where the women are usually from Asia. She explained the difference between the Korean bars and Massage parlors which are the places with the often unadvertised option to have more than drinks with the girls. 

Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki

I discovered the wonderful world of Marukai near the Ward Center area, well known for their eateries and shopping. Marukai is a Japanese Supermarket with the freshest looking fishes, Bento takeaway plates and all the condiments you can think of as well as a section of the cutest Japanese household products. It was like walking into Mitsuwa on the mainland except all the Japanese patrons I passed spoke English. 

The Ward Center area where Marukai is located

The Nimitz area which is basically a seaside industrial and dockland area hugging the south side of town. There's an area called The Fishing Village - Honolulu's somewhat unrealized dream of their version of Seattle's Pike's Place Market or San Fancisco's Fisherman Wharf. However I've heard restaurants serving fresh seafood for reasonable prices like Nico's Pier 38 and Uncle's Fish Market and Grill are worth visiting. I got a glimpse of the tent community which is a social issue here. It's an eyesore for the city but at the same time a catch 22 dilemma. These are homeless people who are usually into drugs or have mental problems. Many don't want to get into rehab programs because it's easier to keep going to the food shelters near Chinatown everyday for free food and pitch tents for free than to change. 

The irony of these tents pitched by the homeless right beside the sign that says, "Keep out. Government Property"

South King Street, Queen Street and South Beretania Street are my favorites. It's the road with all the old colonial buildings which houses the Courthouses and Government buildings. I'd like to come back to visit the Iolani Palace, a historical relic of a time when Hawaiian royalties ruled this land.

Iolani Palace on South King Street

Supreme Court Justice and other government departments on Queen Street

Salt Lake neighborhood

On the way home, we passed by Salt Lake which is the more ghetto looking neighborhood with bad schools whilst Moanalua - just the next neighborhood over looks a world of a difference with their perfectly manicured yards, wide streets and highrise condos. Made me think of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.

Moanalua neighborhood