Hawaiian Fun
Created | Updated Sep 30, 2004
When Everything Comes to 'Wine and Roses'
Sparkling sunshine woke me after a gloomy night. Refreshed by the blessing of a deep sleep, I walked out from my compartment to find out
where am was.
The name of the hotel was Dolphin's Bay but it was really more a 'bay' for homeless people - not an inviting, lovely location to spend your holiday.
In my quest for 'geographic' orientation I found a very dense jungle
opposite the hotel. Here and there I saw wild orchids blooming but hiding from people who could not get to them without overcoming great difficulties.
Walking on the only road I found another hotel called Wild Ginger. It was charging the same price as my hotel but it seemed much better compared to my 'compartment'. I got something to eat there because 'all the dolphins went to sea for food' from the Bay where I spent the night. Perhaps the hotel guests do the same thing.
I had no intention of staying in that neighbourhood but the final decision to move came quickly and ended my investigation. A couple of yards further down the road was a collapsed building and two dogs started to bark at me as I tried to pass causing me to freeze on the spot. One was a pit bull the other was a Doberman and they were hanging with their teeth on the wire fence to get through and tear me apart. The taxi driver told me the truth on my arrival. It was a drug-infested area. These kinds of dogs are kept as 'bodyguards' by drug dealers.
I turned back to Dolphin's Bay and found a public phone in the foyer. I called for a taxicab and went to the hotel where the girl was staying whom I met at the airport. It was so early that she was not yet up. While waiting in the lobby I found the hotel very nice, with many flower decoration. Hilo is known for its orchid production and the place had flowers all over. I also saw some signs on the walls: 'What to do when a tidal wave comes.' What does that mean? I found out later!
The girl's name was Leila and she was happy to see me. We had breakfast together and swopped our life stories. She was about 28 years old (she said), born in India with dark skin, very skinny and had the standard Indian feature of long braided hair. She had been adopted by a German couple when a very young child and grew up as a German subject. As she worked for a German airline the flying part of her travelling was easy and cheap but an acceptable hotel generally is always expensive. This 3 star hotel in the middle of the town had been newly furbished and was recommended to her by an agency. But it was too expensive for her budget. By telling me that her money was very limited it was obvious that my offering to pay for half the price of her room, if I moved in, was very welcome. The hotel management did not ask more for a shared room with 2 double beds in it. It turned out to be a most wonderful situation because it was nice, comfortable and we also had a balcony or lanai overlooking the Ocean.
I quickly went back to the Dolphins. I did not feel obligated to stay under the circumstances since my agreement called for a regular hotel room that I had not been given. I paid the bill and checked out. As I returned with a taxi to the nice lodging it seemed that my friendliness and better budget turned out to come in handy!
I quickly settled in and we looked around. Hilo has no sandy beaches. It is covered with rough black lava rocks which look bleak and unfriendly. There is no way to get to the Ocean for swimming. The better hotels have nice swimming pools which was the case for our place also. Walking in town in the hot, humid weather was not very interesting so we took a local sightseeing bus and learned a lot from this tour.
The main attraction was not in town but a few miles to the south and reached by travelling on the only road for cars. When the bus first stopped for visitors to get off a very unusual sight grabbed my attention and I frantically took some photos. It was a little farm
where roosters were raised for cockfighting. This is illegal in the US1, but I had seen plenty of illegal activities around Dolphin's Bay already.
Every rooster had his own little 'A' frame house for protection from the rain but they were very peacefully grazing around and there were no fights of any kind. Suddenly I realized that cockfighting is only an evil activity instigated by man. The way they stimulate the animals against each other is the way a cockfight is created. What wicked human cruelty! Apparently those Islands where there is not much tourist activity have all kinds of illegal things going on.
But than we arrived at a most beautiful place called Lilluokalani Gardens which are named after the last Hawaii queen. The fantastic 30-acre garden is owned and operated by a Japanese family. We got on an electrically powered sightseeing train with a very talkative guide.
He explained about the collection of hundreds of plants which have a very Japanese taste to celebrate 100 years of Japanese immigration to Hawaii. There were ponds with carp in them, many stone-carved lanterns, teahouses and many colourful 'manicured' acres of gardens which kept us totally amazed.
This is how our day ended in the Hilo and vicinity area. Having dinner on the lanai we made plans to move on next day to the other side of Hawaii - the hot and dry Kona beaches.
