Day 38 - Arrive in Honolulu

So after two approximately 5 hour flights with a night in Los Angeles in between I finally made it to Honolulu this afternoon. My flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu was with Hawaiian Airlines. I wasn't expecting much from the flight but I was extremely impressed by the service which included one meal (my last two flights with two different airlines which were marginally longer flights we didn't get any meals). The plane was an A330 which was reasonably big (seats were 2 -4-2), it was certainly bigger than I expected.

After checking in to the hotel I went downstairs where there was an Expedia Local Expert and we organized my next three days here tomorrow and the next day I have some full day activities and then on my final day I have a morning activity and left the afternoon free to chill out before my 9 hour flight back home. I will talk more about the activities as they happen.

All I know about Hawaii is that Pearl Harbor and also what I have seen on Hawaii Five-O. There is a building with a statue out front that they show a lot on the show. I asked the local expert where that was and she pointed me in the direction so I took the bus out to see it. Next door to that building is the Iolani Palace this is the restored palace that the old royal family of Hawaii used to live in between 1874 and 1893. You can do tours but it looked like it might have been shut.

I then headed across the road to see the building I was actually there to see which is the Hawaii Supreme Court. It also has a statue with gold detailing out front which is of King Kamehameha, this is what I wanted to see from Hawaii Five-O. Since it was still early I decided to walk the 45mins back to the hotel grabbing some tea on the way.

I'm not to sure what I was expecting of Hawaii but it is different to what I had imagined.

Maybe after going to Rarotonga last year I was thinking it would be similar to that but obviously a lot more built up and touristy. On the shuttle from the airport to the hotel I was surprised to see the size of the highway and walking home tonight seeing the homeless people and the Ferrari and Mercedes car yards it just seems like a normal place, you could almost be forgiven for forgetting you are on an island. I do have to keep reminding myself that I am still in America knowing that I have crossed the ocean and also looking around it seems like quite a large Asian population here. In fact from a quick Wikipedia search the 2010 census showed that 54.8% of the population of Honolulu is Asian. Hopefully over the next couple of days I will get a better feel for this being an island in Hawaii.

The other weird part of being here is the feeling that I am on my way home. When I was heading to the airport in Los Angeles this morning it was feeling like I was heading to a flight back home. I guess in a way I am on my way back home as instead of an 11hour flight home stopping in Hawaii means it is only a 9hour flight home. Also in my mind is the fact this is the last stop on my way home.