Thursday, January 25, 2007
Chapter 171 - ALOHA! (Part II)
Day 3 - 22 Dec 06
Snorkelling at Hanauma Bay
On this very day, Xiayi, Mark and I decide to go snorkelling, while Boon has gone off diving and Shanlong to the Iolani Palace. It was the perfect day (almost) to go snorkelling, with the sun out in its full glory.
A picture of us on the beach. Scandalously, this photo looks like I wasn't wearing anything! I was wearing a pair of trunks, which magically disappeared in this picture. ;p
Did I say it was a beautiful day yet?Snorkelling was damn fun man.. It was my first time snorkelling and I loved it, except that the water was a little too cold for my liking. But it's pretty amazing, the marine life you see. Too bad I don't have pictures to show for it. I have to go to Tioman or something now.... maybe even take up diving! ;p
A trio at the end of the day, looking significantly tanner.....Bottom fishing!
In the evening, we made a booking to go out fishing, for once, something all five of us went for. :) It was fun to say the least, watching the sunset into the ocean, and the city lights come on. We even got to catch fireworks from the sea. (Apparently the Hyatt or some hotel has fireworks every week).
Kenny's catch! Kenny caught about 3 fishes in total. Although not quite the marlins I thought we were going for.... ;p
Here's what I'd call a three-some. Day 4 - 23 Dec 06
Day 4 was what we called OTOT (ie. Own time own target) day. Shanlong, Mark and I had brunch at IHOP, which they've not had yet apparently.
A rather unglam shot of Mark and Shanlong in IHOP.Then Mark & I wanted to go to the Iolani Palace, but we decided not to go in, cos it was too expensive for a visit to a small bungalow (USD12!!) But we took photos of it nonetheless...
More chilling at the beach after that. (yes, our itinerary was something like, eat, chill on beach, more beach stuff, eat, sleep.. hehe)Dinner was at this place called "Side Street Inn" and it's worth mentioning cos it's DAMN BLOODY GOOD! We had the recommendation from our guidebook Fodor's, and sure enough, it was worth our visit. It serves the darndest bestest pork chops and fried rice, which is out of the world.............................. (series of dots before this indicates salivation)
Shanlong with a prized piece of pork chop. Thinking of it now makes me really hungry.... I wanna have Side Street Inn again!!!!!!!Labels: Hanauma Bay, Hawaii, Side Street Inn, Snorkelling
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Chapter 169 - ALOHA! (part I)
Finally, I get to blog about HAWAIIIIIIIIIII! :)
On this very day, because Xiayi and Boon Leong had been delayed on their flight to Hawaii, the trio consisting of Mark, Shanlong and myself went do a little bit of exploring of O'ahu, or rather just Waikiki. After having a little breakfast at MacDonalds (which had interesting local food), armed with a Goza (beach mat), from one of the ubiquitous ABC Store, Mark and I set off for a morning of suntanning/wading at the beach. The beach at Waikiki, though crowded with tourists is hon-to-nee su-goi (really amazing!).. And the water is surprisingly cold for the warm weather...
Lunch was at this Japanese Ramen place - There's an incredible number of Japanese tourists and establishments all over the island, so much so that every shop had signs in English AND in Japanese. And of course, everyone started speaking Japanese to us, seeing that we're Asian looking...
Thereafter, we decided to hike to Diamond Head Crater, which is somewhat the nearest attraction to our hostel, which looked like this:
I was occupying the top bunk... ;p
The trek up Diamond Head crater was somewhat easy (it was meant to be, considering it's supposed to be good for "family outings"), so we finally got up to the top. Of course, Shanlong and I treated ourselves to some shaved ice as well, which is actually very expensive crushed ice, topped with syrup. It's somewhat like ice kachang, without the kachang. hehe
Here's Kenny at the top of Diamond Head crater.
This was decided to be the day of adventures. We made a booking for parasailing at noon, and headed off for some Hong Kong dim sum for brunch. And there were 4 of us, less Shanlong, cos Shanlong doesn't really do activities vaguely related to heights, water and excitement, which I suppose worked well, since it was tandem parasailing.
A candid shot of Xiayi in the boat. It's somewhat scary I thought to be in a small boat like this in the vast ocean. You're suddenly very vulnerable to the elements. Every small wave lifts the boat a few feet up and crashes down in the next. Somehow, I'm a little more used to the Fastboats I was handling back in the Navy.. haha...
Xiayi and Mark about to fly away. On the same boat was this family with 3 kids, of which the youngest was something like 4 years old. When the brother and father went up (they were first), the youngest girl seeing her daddy flying away cried so hard. Of course, the rest of us in the boat found that amusing though.....
Kenny & Boon Leong on their way up. It's strangely peaceful once you're up in the air. No winds, no waves, just the peaceful sea beneath our feet and the shore a distance away. If only everyday was this peaceful.
After that, we decided that we were gonna go for surf school and do some surfing! So we forked out some USD40 for a lesson, which by the end of, we had some semblance of a surfer:
Kenny preparing to mount his board
Kenny on the surfboard. This photo looks somewhat impressive, but actually, the waves are pretty small (relative to the 25-foot waves on the North shore) and the water where we were learning is rather shallow (slightly more than waist-deep), which is quite helpful to use amateur/novice surfers. ;p
Dinner was at this Japanese restaurant called Aka Saka, which Shanlong & Mark were raving about after their dinner there on the first day. Must say they do serve pretty good Japanese food, something we don't really get here in the UK (not without cutting deep into the wallet that is..)
So this pretty much concludes our first two days on the sunny island of O'ahu, Hawai'i.
Day 1 (20 Dec 06) - Diamond Head Crater
On this very day, because Xiayi and Boon Leong had been delayed on their flight to Hawaii, the trio consisting of Mark, Shanlong and myself went do a little bit of exploring of O'ahu, or rather just Waikiki. After having a little breakfast at MacDonalds (which had interesting local food), armed with a Goza (beach mat), from one of the ubiquitous ABC Store, Mark and I set off for a morning of suntanning/wading at the beach. The beach at Waikiki, though crowded with tourists is hon-to-nee su-goi (really amazing!).. And the water is surprisingly cold for the warm weather...
Lunch was at this Japanese Ramen place - There's an incredible number of Japanese tourists and establishments all over the island, so much so that every shop had signs in English AND in Japanese. And of course, everyone started speaking Japanese to us, seeing that we're Asian looking...
Thereafter, we decided to hike to Diamond Head Crater, which is somewhat the nearest attraction to our hostel, which looked like this:
I was occupying the top bunk... ;pThe trek up Diamond Head crater was somewhat easy (it was meant to be, considering it's supposed to be good for "family outings"), so we finally got up to the top. Of course, Shanlong and I treated ourselves to some shaved ice as well, which is actually very expensive crushed ice, topped with syrup. It's somewhat like ice kachang, without the kachang. hehe
Here's Kenny at the top of Diamond Head crater. Day 2 (21 Dec 06) - Parasailing/Surfing
This was decided to be the day of adventures. We made a booking for parasailing at noon, and headed off for some Hong Kong dim sum for brunch. And there were 4 of us, less Shanlong, cos Shanlong doesn't really do activities vaguely related to heights, water and excitement, which I suppose worked well, since it was tandem parasailing.
A candid shot of Xiayi in the boat. It's somewhat scary I thought to be in a small boat like this in the vast ocean. You're suddenly very vulnerable to the elements. Every small wave lifts the boat a few feet up and crashes down in the next. Somehow, I'm a little more used to the Fastboats I was handling back in the Navy.. haha...
Xiayi and Mark about to fly away. On the same boat was this family with 3 kids, of which the youngest was something like 4 years old. When the brother and father went up (they were first), the youngest girl seeing her daddy flying away cried so hard. Of course, the rest of us in the boat found that amusing though.....
Kenny & Boon Leong on their way up. It's strangely peaceful once you're up in the air. No winds, no waves, just the peaceful sea beneath our feet and the shore a distance away. If only everyday was this peaceful.After that, we decided that we were gonna go for surf school and do some surfing! So we forked out some USD40 for a lesson, which by the end of, we had some semblance of a surfer:
Kenny preparing to mount his board
Kenny on the surfboard. This photo looks somewhat impressive, but actually, the waves are pretty small (relative to the 25-foot waves on the North shore) and the water where we were learning is rather shallow (slightly more than waist-deep), which is quite helpful to use amateur/novice surfers. ;pDinner was at this Japanese restaurant called Aka Saka, which Shanlong & Mark were raving about after their dinner there on the first day. Must say they do serve pretty good Japanese food, something we don't really get here in the UK (not without cutting deep into the wallet that is..)
So this pretty much concludes our first two days on the sunny island of O'ahu, Hawai'i.
Labels: Hawaii, Parasailing, Surfing
Friday, January 19, 2007
Chapter 168 - Teaser
Because I've been way too busy to blog about my trip to Hawaii, which is a must-read, I shall tease you with some shots that I have recently scanned from film:
This was shot on a 18-35mm lens on a Nikon F5 last term. One of my favourite shots. It's amazing how this shot turned out well, considering I shot at ISO400 for a Velvia 100F film, and got it push-processed (don't worry if you don't understand the terminology! ;p)
This was taken at Waimea Parks in Oahu, Hawaii. I hadn't expected an effect like this, but I must say I am quite pleased with this shot. Shot again on a 18-35mm lens I THINK...
So yes, stay tuned for more!
This was shot on a 18-35mm lens on a Nikon F5 last term. One of my favourite shots. It's amazing how this shot turned out well, considering I shot at ISO400 for a Velvia 100F film, and got it push-processed (don't worry if you don't understand the terminology! ;p)
This was taken at Waimea Parks in Oahu, Hawaii. I hadn't expected an effect like this, but I must say I am quite pleased with this shot. Shot again on a 18-35mm lens I THINK... So yes, stay tuned for more!
