It was by chance that we even ended up at Keo’s really. We were scanning through the hotel book for a place to have dinner: not really the way that great restaurants are normally found. But it was getting late, we were starving and so we made a snap decision.

Cabbing 5 minutes down Ala Moana from the Park Shore we jumped out at Keo’s hoping for the best.

The restaurant was very busy on this particular night, but we managed to get a table out by the street with a nice open air feel. The fit out of the place was intricate, with Thai artwork on the walls, and indoor plants scattered throughout. The atmosphere was energetic with tourists of all kinds enjoying loud conversation and Waikiki breezes.

Elysia and I started out with a couple of cocktails, reasonably priced, and not untasty while we waited for our food.

What we were waiting on was a Thai Vegetable Curry and a Satay Mahi Mahi.

I’m not a big seafood person, but I don’t mind a good piece of fish or a nice shrimp dish. Satay’s too can go either way. Some are on the spicier side and lose my enjoyment as my eyes begin to water, and others are not spicy enough and feel more like you’re eating a meal with melted peanut butter on top. I hadn’t eaten Mahi Mahi before but figuring we were on an island, and it seemed like this fish was super popular in the area, decided I had to try it out.

This Satay Mahi Mahi however was from the first bite, instantly inducted into my top 5 meals of all time. That’s any country, any restaurant, anywhere. Ohhh just remembering it now makes me salivate. Is that gross? Sorry.

The Mahi Mahi was battered. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside was the coating. Inside the batter was a thick, fleshy, perfectly moist piece of fish of succulence and joy. The satay was right in that middle area, flavorful, peanutty, and with just a touch of spice that you knew was there with no eye water. All of this served on a bed of Thai rice.

Oh how I enjoyed it. I had so much respect for this meal that I conciously stopped eating, despite the deliciousness, just to avoid overindulging and ruining the ability to preserve this memory forever.

We payed the very modest bill (extremely modest considering the meals awesomeness) and made our way back to our hotel, discussing other top 5 meals we’d had and deciding exactly where in the rankings this one fit. Everyone we’ve talked to since about Waikiki, this meal has gotten a mention, the only frustration being not being able to adequetly describe just how fulfilling this meal was.

If you’re in Waikiki and DON’T go to Keo’s… I feel embarrassed for you.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, Restaurants, Waikiki

You get to a place or you see a sight, or you have an experience that wasn’t at all what you had come for, planned for, or hoped for, and yet while unexpected is completely memorable and delightful in a weird and wonderful way.

Finding ourselves at a Waffle House diner in Houston Texas at 1am in the morning on the way from London to Mexico turned out to be such an experience.

We had a mammoth 48 hour, 4 flight marathon journey from London through the US to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After traveling for about 24 hours and being totally exhausted, Elysia and I arrived at Houston International.

Upon realizing that our bags hadn’t arrived and freaking out that all our posessions were lost forever, we decided to kill the 8 hour stopover by making our way to where ever was still open at midnight and sitting down for a meal then falling asleep at our table for a few hours.

We saw that the local Best Western had a 24 hour restaurant next door so jumped in a cab and set off.

Neither of us have been to the southern USA, and I’ll admit that some unfortunate stereotypes lurked in the dark corners of my mind about Texas. More specifically, we both agreed that the seemingly old Waffle House restaurant we arrived at definitely looked like the kind of place where armed robberies or mass shootings are likely to take place at 1am.

With trepidation we made our way inside.

“How Y’all Doin? Welcome To Waffle House!”

** Abort Negative Stereotype **

The smell of immense fast food grease, the old african american manager behind the counter singing soul music with far too much gusto for 1am in the morning, and the enormous waffles with ice cream passing back and forth across the vintage steel counter tops created a feel that was so pleasingly southern it made us forget momentarily the unfortunate 8 time-kill we faced.

Before long I was served my grease filled bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, whose level of trans fats and cholesterol would have made it too much of a health risk to appear on the menu in certain places. Unfortunately, pleasure is not a nutritional statistic, otherwise this meal would have had the heart foundation seal of approval. Delicious in all it’s greasy goodness, washed down with a tantalizingly sweet chocolate milkshake, the Waffle House didn’t fail to deliver.

We hung around for another hour after eating, just listening to the owner discussing his favorite soul tunes andstopping to bust into song at random intervals, one waitress talking with a local business owner in Spanish, and diners of various demographics sauntering in and out enjoying early breakfasts and waffle stacks well into the early morning.

The whole time, Elysia and I couldn’t get the smiles off our faces. We finally left, content and reminded of that underrated phenomenon of travel: Unexpected Moments Of Awesome.

If you’re visiting LA for the first time as a tourist, you need to know that it’s one hell of a big place! The city of angels is spread out over an enormous area of land, connected by highway after freeway after motorway, that just happens to be packed with traffic at most hours of the day.

Almost regardless of where you stay you have to get used to the fact that if you only have a short amount of time to see the city, you’re going to have to factor some serious cab fair-age into the budget.

Here’s an example:

We stayed in Downtown LA, figuring that might be the most central spot from which to head out to the different places of interest. Turns out we were either wrong, or there just weren’t any places more central in the city. To get from downtown out to Venice Beach: $60 Cab fare and there wasn’t even much traffic. Coming back… more traffic… $70. Seeing Venice Beach = $130. Another example: Heading from Downtown out to the Hollywood strip. This one was less, just $25 to get there, then an extra $10 to hop over to Rodeo Drive when we were done.

After realizing the situation, we thought we’d test the public transport on the way back, catching the bus from Beverly Hills to 8th street downtown. Cost $2 or something in total and wasn’t so bad, it just tripled the amount of time for the voyage, putting it at over an hour.

The alternative is, if you’re there to see the touristy things, pay for a tour bus to take you round for a day seeing as many of them as you can (might cost you $100 but be well worth it), and on the following days, pay for the cab trips out to only the (smaller number of) ones you wanted to see again most, OR the ones you didn’t see on the tour

Bottom line is, it’s worth researching well before you head to LA, especially if it’s for a week or less. My advice would be to pick the spots you most want to see, and try to find a hotel that’s close to as many of them as possible. Chances are you won’t get one close to everything you want to see, but if you get close to even a couple of them, you’ll keep more money in your pocket for the activities themselves, for meals, for fun and games of what ever kind you’re into!

It’d been on my to do list for so long…

I’d had one attempt – a helicopter tour through the Grand Canyon – foiled due to bad weather; another attempt over a volcano in New Zealand’s Rotorua dissipated due to only being able to book an 8 minute flight… And so the list goes.

So when the day finally came (our third day on Oahu) I was more than ready for some surprises of a positive kind.

We started the day making our way from Waikiki Beach to the North Shore of Oahu. We’d decided to fly with Paradise Helicopter Tours, and after a slightly unorthodox journey, we made it to Turtle Bay Resort, the take off point for the morning’s voyage.

As we belted up, cheeks smushed inwards by our ear muffs and looking very chipmonk-esque, we began our ascent into the clear blue skies of Hawaii’s third largest island.

First thing that surprised me… and I say so at the risk of sounding dumber than I look… Choppers move considerably faster than they appear to. When you see them from the ground, you imagine them floating, kind of cruising through the air with no real haste… or maybe that’s just my association from seeing too many traffic chopper news reports. We lifted off and immediately shot through the air over an entire golf course in what seemed to be seconds. The lower to the ground you are, the faster it seems too. At low altitute, when you can see in detail all the ground passing below you, your mind can compare it to the speed of a car or a train and realize that both the acceleration time and the speed are considerably higher.

As we climbed gradually higher, moving slowly along in the air above the coastline of Oahu’s lengthy North Shore, I came to my second surprise: The smoothness of the travel.
Having been in small aeroplanes, I figured that the smaller an air vessel was, the more succeptible to turbulence and hence the more bumpy. No sir-ee! Moving around the air in a helicopter (at least on this particular day and at this altitute) seems to incur little resistance, even less turbulence and provides in actuality, a far smoother trip than any aircraft I’d been on.

That is, until you rotate.

As we came to popular spots like Pearl Harbour, the Wahiawa world’s largest Hedge Maze (it’s A-MAZE-ING! – stole that joke from the pilot), and Waikiki Beach, the pilot dutifully spins the helicopter around on the spot to allow all passengers to see the sight from all angles. While it’s not the same as the abrupt bumpiness of airline turbulence, the albeit controlled swinging while simultaneously floating in the air was definitely a cause for a little stomach weakness the first couple of times it happened.

Which brings me to the fourth surprise: Floating.

If you’ve been in a plane you’ve probably observed the beauty and awe of large expanses of the earth observed from the viewpoint of the sky. What you won’t have experienced in a plane is the feeling of viewing the same expanse of earth for an extended period of time because you’re sitting in the sky but you’re not moving! (otherwise known as hovering) The feeling of floating over a single piece of earth was rather surreal, kind of like your dangling from a big string whose other end is hidden somewhere in the clouds above you. You also get the sense that maybe you should be falling.

When I hear a funny noise in an airplane, I often think, “what if that was the engine’s dying”, then in my mind, play out a situation where the plane’s forward movement gradually comes to a halt and then after hanging in the air a brief moment, instantly begins falling straight down towards the ground. (maybe that’s just me, but I doubt it!) When the helicopter came to a halt in mid air and began floating silent and still in the middle of the sky, I have to say I expected the same thing to happen.

However, floating soon became a joy, as we had more and more “hover stops” over spots like the Diamond Head Volcano and the old millitary bunkers dug deceptively into it’s walls, the snorkelers enjoying coral spotting at Hanauma Bay, and the giant swimming pools and uber ritzy mansions of the Kahala region, Oahu’s Beverly Hills.

Just like the terrain covered, the nature of the flight conditions never quite seemed consistent, keeping you always on the edge of your seat, a mix of enjoyment and trepidation. We next passed between the walls of the breathtaking Kahana Valley, where Jurassic Park was filmed and made our way to the Manoa Falls, Oahu’s highest waterfall. This is where things got dicey.

Final surprise was that, when you float down low, when valley walls surround you, it creates swlrling air. As the pilot moved around this crater type land mass to make sure we saw the falls, the chopper swung (what seemed to me like) just a little more wildly back and forth, and although the pilot didn’t seem in the slightest perturbed, I confess that at least for a moment, the enjoyment of the landscape was overcome by the fear of plumetting to our death. But this was soon all over, we moved on from the crater and continued up the coastline back to base, and the hour long flight which seemed more like 15 minutes had come to an end.

If you’re considering a chopper flight and you haven’t taken one before, I can confidently say that there’s no way possible that you’ll forget the experience and if you’re like us, you’ll remember and cherish it forever.

If you’re trying to decide which service to use, I can tell you that our experience with Paradise Choppers was completely professional, very easy, and more than great value for the price we paid.

I left the North Shore with the complete hope that whatever happens, Oahu won’t be the last place Elysia and I hover over on our travels.

Technorati Tags: Hawaii

The broken meter… The missing meter… The excess surcharges… The longest route… The “Sure, I know where that is” lie… The negotiate-a-fare scams… The “I have no change” guy…

Just to name a few

Unfortunately however, trying to make our way from Waikiki to the North Shore of Oahu, we forgot about and consequently fell prey to the most rudimentary taxi scam of all… and got the biggest cab fare of our lives as a reward.

Here’s the story:

So we’re heading out to the North Shore on our 3rd morning in Hawaii for our Helicopter Tour and were understandably excited to be doing so.

Strangely, we’d been having trouble working out how long it actually took to get there on the bus.

The helicopter people told us 1 hour, the lady at our hotel desk told us 2 hours, and the shuttle driver who brought us from the airport told us 3 hours.

Anyway, our breakfast took longer than expected so by the time we got to the bus stop we realized we probably wouldn’t make it out there, however long it took, by the time we needed to arrive. For added speed we thought “Let’s just take a cab”… That was our first mistake.

I asked the lady at our hotel desk “About how much do you think a cab to the North Shore would be? About $50?”

“Oh no, more like $80″. She replied.

At that point, we decided we were happy to pay $80 to avoid missing our helicopter flight, so we went out looking for a cab. That was our second mistake.

I walked up to the window of the first cab we saw and asked him how much it would cost for him to take us to the North Shore.

“I’ll use the meter… but about $50″

BARGAIN we thought!

As we get in, he did, so honestly adjust his estimate for us to “Maybe $70″.

At this point, I really have to take responsibility and say that I should have seen it coming.

After all the meter shenanigans in South East Asia, I had this idea in my head that as long as we were using the meter, everything would be ok. That was my third mistake.

Have you ever had the feeling when something bad is happening to you and you realize you can’t do anything about it, so you just have to sit there and take it as you stew in a pot of your own anger?

That’s the feeling we had as we watched our meter tick past $100, $120, $150, not knowing how much longer it’d take to get to our destination.

At $100 we decided this driver was getting NO tip.

At $130, Elysia was moved to say to him “Not really $70 is it buddy…”

At $150 we realized that on top of him giving us an estimate about 1/3 of the fare’s actual cost, he’d also taken us the scenic, and surely the longest route in a sick combination of taxi scams that if he were playing a taxi driving video game would have surely earned him double points.

And as the cab came to a halt with the meter at just over $160 we hastily departed, slapping the money in his fat little hand and turning our backs in disgust.

Lessons Learned:

1. Waikiki to North Shore is not a journey to take in a cab.

2. Just because a meter is turned on, doesn’t mean you’re not getting scammed.

3. The “downplay the fare” trick is the simplest and most effective taxi scam there is and it’s genius because you don’t even know you were ripped off until it’s too late.

Fortunately all was not lost. We had a memorable day on the North Shore, definitely became wiser travelers, and got a good travel story out of it to boot.

If you’ve got awesome travel taxi scams, we’d love to hear em!

Technorati Tags: Hawaii, North Shore, Oahu

That’s what he said. And then:

“Best Luaus on the island, who wants to know what they are?”… “Hands down, the best Luau on Oahu is at the Polynesian Cultural Center on the North Shore.”

That’s what he said.

Having been and returned, we are still scratching our heads trying to think of what exactly we saw that would have been the best of it’s kind on Oahu…

The Polynesian Cultural Center is about an hour North of Waikiki on the North Shore. The bus ride is about 2 hours and the cab, which unfortunately and stupidly we took, is about an hour and 10.

The center is huge, kind of like a theme park of little rides, shows, and exhibitions of each of the Polynesian islands in the pacific: Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and of course Hawaii. Imagine a Disneyland of Island Culture with less rides but equally as many tourists. That’s about what you’re getting at the PCC.

When the guy first told us, hearing the name Polynesian Cultural Center I made the mistake of thinking it might be the most authentic most traditional Luau on the island. But no, it not only isn’t, the reverse is true. It would have to be the least authentic, most touristy Luau on the island.

Let me try to quickly give you the experience.

The Luau is not on a beach, but in an auditorium of sorts, with a stage at the front and a seating area full of tables that seats probably 1000 people. We thought it was more like a big cheesy cabaret show than any kind of cultural experience.

The entertain was so so, some of the child dancers were cool, very skilful for their size, but it wasn’t a stage spectacular. The opening “procession” recreating the tribal tradition of the king and queen entering was just very forced, like they had to do it as part of the show, not with any real appreciation of the cultural significance.

The food was ok. Some nice tender pork that was supposedly from the pig that they took from the underground “imu” traditional oven (but we aren’t even sure that actually happened), some decent chicken and some nice coconut pudding, but that’s about it.

All of this took place in a setting of at least one table of senior citizen, uber un appreciative token American tourists complaining that their Hawaian traditional meal didn’t come with any mash potato and their red Koolaid wasn’t tasty enough.

And on top of that, we paid $75 each for it, more than what 2 awesome dinners with drinks at some of the local Waikiki Restaurants would have cost.

At the end of the day, here’s the verdict:

1. The Polynesian Cultural Center is certainly not any kind of “traditional” or authentic Luau, BUT if you go there knowing what to expect (that is some mega touristy action), you could enjoy it probably just enough to make it worth your money.

2. This isn’t a young people’s experience. Another thing we didn’t realize. This is for old peoples and families.

3. If you’re staying at Waikiki, I don’t think it’s worth the hour drive or 2 hour bus trip no matter how old you are.

4. I find it REALLY hard to believe that this is actually, in any way the best Luau on Oahu.

There’s so many great things to enjoy on Oahu that unfortunately, for us, the PCC wasn’t worth the time or money. If you’re like us, don’t be concerned if you have to skip it.

But we were there with a purpose.

The only real reason I’d wanted to attend was the supposed magnificence of the diner’s Macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup. I consider myself a connoisseur of highly unhealthy sweet foods, so the second I heard the name of this breakfast special, the decision to have one of our breakfasts at Wailana was made in the shade…

Anyway, so Sunday morning we stroll down to Ala Moana boulevard along with a pilgrimage of other tourists and conference goers and the adventure begins.

I’d heard one reviewer say that eating at Wailana’s was a trip back in a time machine to his first Hawaii experience in the 80’s as a child. Walking in the door, we quickly saw why. The feel is extreme “vintage American diner” so don’t let the traditional sounding name fool you about what you’re getting.

The place was packed to the brim with tourists of all kinds, and the menu stacked with cheap, every day breakfast eats. As far as I could see, there’s nothing that stood out on this menu besides those pancakes, which however I’m sure you could have also gotten elsewhere in Waikiki.

But, after some friendly, relatively fast service considering how busy it was, the pancakes arrived…

I have no hesitation in saying that they made the whole experience worth it many times over.

I got a breakfast that was about $6 with unlimited pancakes. That means as much coconutty macadamia-y goodness as you can eat for a measly few bucks.

The first stack was 3 pancakes. The macadamia nut is finely chopped and both on top of the cakes and cooked in, so you don’t miss the macadamia flavor. The coconut syrup is a thick, sweetened coconut nectar type substance that comes in a container you can serve yourself; perfect for the pancake fanatic. You MUST have the macadamia pancakes with the coconut syrup too… don’t dare put maple syrup on that or you’ve ruined the whole day; as our Hawaian shuttle driver explained.

The combination is a unique but divinely sweet flavour that will leave you craving more. The cakes were nice and big too, leaving me unable to finish even my first plate, but leaving completely satisfied at the sugarry goodness I’d experienced.

At the end of the day, the restaurant and the food overall were just average, not amazing, but not bad, and diito to the service and the atmosphere but those pancakes, and the fact that we paid $17 total for the two of us for more food than we could finish, makes Wailana Coffee House a place that’s definitely worth checking out in my opinion.

Technorati Tags: Waikiki