I arrived early morning for my second to last destination - Hawaii!

Many people stay just down the road from Honolulu in a place called Waikiki, which has high rise hotels next to an excellent beach. I still find it strange to walk along a beach and not get hassled as I often did in South East Asia.

On first impressions, Hawaii seemed really picturesque and this was highlighted after a walk up the crater of an old volcano that blew it's top years ago. The view was stunning as the photo below indicates, but it quickly brought forward how developed these islands have become at the hands of the US of A. There are convenience stores over here called 'ABC' and there are sometimes 3 on each block - It's insane, yet they are always busy with Americans buying food and drink....





Hawaii really doesn't cater well for backpackers like the other places I've been to so far. It's really a place for old people and others on holiday looking to do all-in tours with money not often an issue.

Usually when I ask a hostel worker for tips on places worth seeing, they're only too happy to help - here in Hawaii no one seems keen. On the whole I've found the people to be quite rude, whether it be on the bus or people in shops.

Oahu is the most popular of the Hawaiian islands and is home to the famous Pearl harbor. There is a relatively good bus network, but it's painfully slow to get anywhere. The other islands can't even offer much in the way of buses so if you don't have a car, you don't get far.

The pictures below are of Waikiki beach at day (with the crater in the background) and night.







For one of my spare days I took the bus to the East coast of the island to check out what I'm told was voted the best beach in the US. It certainly was pretty good and not too busy either, which was a bonus. Pictures of this are shown below...








One of the attractions I hoped to see the most was Pearl Harbour and to visit the museums and memorials. The picture below is of a memorial which sits across the Arizona battleship that was taken out by the Japanese. The ship is pretty much a mass grave which is obviously sad and leaves you feeling a little down.





I managed to get some pretty cheap flights enabling me to island hop to Maui and the Big island (called Hawaii) but it was close to pointless, as they don't cater for people without cars. There's the odd bus (not in service on weekends!), but really I shouldn't have bothered. Would have been excellent if someone had told me this, but what with people not being friendly etc...

It wasn't a complete waste of time however, as I met a good group of guys who had hired a car and went out with them couple of times, to the beach etc. Two of them were Spanish and from Barcelona so I mentioned I supported Liverpool. What a win >: )

So that's the short and sweet version of my time in Hawaii.

I'll add this edit - Hawaii really was great in many ways and the pictures show that. If you decide to go however, make sure you drive so you can make the most of your time. It's just that I wasted a few days due to the poor public transport >: )

Next (and last) stop, New York....