The Other Oahu

Quick Tips:

I know that I am supposed to be your guide, but I just can't thank the author of "Hawaii: Off the Beaten Path" enough for his guidance on this trip. Without leaning on the crutch of glossy photos, author Sean Pager brings Oahu to life with interesting historical facts, trivia, and great suggestions for hikes, walks, drives, and other adventures. The book is an invaluable traveling companion if you wish to wander more than 100 feet from Waikiki Beach.

Bring a camera with you at all times, except while swimming! You never know when you'll round a corner and discover a scenic overlook where frigate birds wheel in circles over a perfectly calm sea. I left my camera behind on our slippery walk through the Hanauma Bay tide pools, and missed the chance to capture a shot of fearless adventurers wriggling into The Dragon's Hole.

Best Way To Get Around:

A final Hawaii discovery is a place called Shower Tree, in Honolulu Airport. They offer an a la carte menu of services to weary travelers, from rooms to nap in, to fully equipped bathrooms. This is an inexpensive alternative to a hotel day room if you're checking out in the morning but leaving at night, or if you're daytripping to an island where you have no hotel. Thanks to Shower Tree we went directly from the beach to Oahu airport, where we showered before our red-eye home. The nap room is a ripoff at but the shower was much cheaper. 808-833-1411.

Before I get into the food, I just have to describe the surroundings. The café is tucked away in the back of the Celestial Natural Foods store, next to the Haleiwa Post Office. Home-grown construction projects have expanded and divided the space. These are painted, vividly - the photos below say it all. Every inch of wood is covered with fanciful paintings and inscriptions of every hue. There's a narrow counter where you can sit and drink a smoothie or vegetable juice, or settle down in one of the bright red vinyl banquettes that add to the visual cacophony. If you're bored waiting for your order to arrive, you can read the many quotations and notes written on the walls.

We arrived toward the late end of lunchtime and were almost the only customers. This seemed lucky, as the sole employee was both our waitress and chef. I fear the level of service might suffer when there was more than one table and one juice-drinker at the counter to worry about! Yet the food was consistently excellent. We ordered way too much (as is our habit when we've been deprived of our veggies) and still managed to finish every bite.

Our appetizer was a plate of nachos covered with everything you'd expect, black bean chili, and an unexpected addition of raw cucumber that was actually very tasty. For entrees, we ordered a Maui Taro Burger and a Coconut Milk Curry. Both were fantastic. The burger was everything a Hawaiian burger should be: made in Hawaii with delicious chunks of taro and poi inside. Yes, poi! If you've read my Kauai journal, this is the ONLY way I could eat poi without gagging. It came topped with shredded raw beets in addition to the usual stuff. Crunchy and again, interesting. The curry was divine! They take their tofu vegetable scramble and simmer it in a medium spicy curry, then serve it over a huge mound of rice, with a side salad. Of all these delicious treats, the most expensive was the nachos at $6.95 and each plate alone was more than enough for one person, even a large man (as opposed to a small-ish Truly Malin!)

That is all we could force down, but there was so much more on the menu. Nothing was as exotic as what we ordered, but it all seemed wholesome and fresh, like homemade roasted eggplant wraps, or tempeh-mushroom-walnut burgers made from a secret recipe.

Finding the Chinatown Cultural Plaza would have been easy with a map, but finding the restaurant inside it required some studying of a directory on the wall and a bit of wandering around the maze-like hallways. Walking into the Chinatown Cultural Plaza was like stumbling through a gateway to another country. The central courtyard was lined with tiny shops hawking everything from souvenirs to acupuncture. Inside we found a shrine to the goddess Kuan Yin, bedecked with candles and offerings of fruit. A wizened old man glared at us from a shady bench, clearly disapproving of the two "non-believers" at the shrine. But I digress ...

The hostess seemed bemused by her sweaty "mainlander" guests. I say "mainlander" because I still can't quite shake that persistently foreign feeling that Honolulu has to it, which was accentuated by our sudden detour into China. A Buddhist vegetarian restaurant is a find in any country or state and even more surprising in Honolulu. It is an interesting evolution in Chinese cooking, created by Buddhist monks whose religion required that they abstain from temptations like meat. They got around this particular brand of abstention by honing their craft at creating ever-better mock meats and fishes made from tofu, wheat gluten, and other mystery ingredients.

Even at 2pm, the restaurant was half full of people chatting in Chinese and English over plates of dim sum. Our usual dim sum strategy is to check out what other people are eating and then ask if they contain meat. Not necessary here: everything is vegan and everything is delicious. We got to ogle the carts to our hearts' content, picking out stuffed bundles of rice, mushrooms, and mock ham wrapped in lotus leaves, delicate sui mai dumplings, and pot stickers filled with crunchy veggies. One was tastier than the next! We took our flavorful Singapore Style Mai Fun to go - if our hotel had a microwave I would have ordered extra dim sum to go, to heat up later. Instead we had to settle for going back another day for a second lunch. Be forewarned, though, they're closed on Wednesdays. Send me a message if you'd like their recipe for Vegetarian Ham rolls.

Chinatown is off the beaten path, so unless you're a vegetarian or have plenty of time to spend exploring Honolulu, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. Chinatown is a fun place to visit though. Many of the buildings date from 1900-1920 and some of the shops don't seem to have changed a bit since then. It's also a great area to find inexpensive restaurants of all Asian persuasions.

Hanauma became wildly popular for good reason. It is a perfectly round bay formed from a sunken volcanic crater, ringed with white sand and steep cliffs. This natural shelter, and a state ruling to prohibit fishing, created an outdoor aquarium that is safe for swimming year-round. As a result, it is so crowded that when the parking lot fills up, newcomers are turned away. I honestly don't know why you'd try to wedge your towel in amidst the madding crowd and spend a day there, but if you're a little adventurous and sure of foot, there are surprises waiting on Hanauma's fringes.

Down the steep hill from the parking area, bear left and bypass the vacationers baking on the beach and frolicking in the shallows. Head toward the ocean, skirting the side of the bay, but watch out for slippery footing among the tide pools. We saw tiny fish swimming in them, and scared a few crabs out of their hiding holes along the way. It's a fun walk that will require clambering around a few large boulders. If the waves aren't crashing too hard at the end of the bay, slip to the left until you are outside of the bay in a small cove.

Better guidebooks direct you here to see "The Toilet Bowl", a large bowl-shaped lava tube that fills up with water when the waves come in, then flushes loudly as they ebb back to sea. The water level inside rises and falls about five feet. We found a mom and two kids inside having a complete blast. More exciting yet, though, is a local secret called "The Dragon's Hole". Close to the Toilet Bowl, but far from the open water, a hole in the rock barely wide enough for a man's shoulders lurks like a malevolent mirror with water instead of glass. As we watched, five daring young men arrived to challenge the Dragon. We watched in abject horror as one after another wriggled into the hole and disappeared, only to surface endless moments later, fifteen feet away in the open water. They were scratched but totally exhilarated, and some went down a second time. If you visit Hanauma, please don't try it without local help - it was terrifying!

On Land
Inside, you'll find a sophisticated collection of exhibits. They follow Hawaiian maritime history from its earliest known beginnings in Polynesia, progressing through the whaling industry, the rise of canoeing and then surfing, World War II, the arrival of the cruise ships, up to today's extreme wakeboarders. The exhibits make full use of multimedia, life-sized dioramas, and audiovisual effects to make almost every subject exciting and compelling. We had only intended to spend an hour there, and only managed to tear ourselves away because after two hours, we could hear our bellies growling for lunch! The cruise ship exhibit deserves special mention for both its interactive accessibility and the content of its displays. You enter by climbing up a ramp that is painted to look like a real boarding ramp. Above you, a mannequin waves from a railing as if the ship is about to set sail. A ship's horn sounds deafeningly overhead. You are immersed in the excitement and drama of "boat day", when one big ship left, another arrived, and hotel staffs scurried like maniacs to clean all their rooms in time for the next flotilla of guests to arrive. Inside the exhibit is a flabbergasting array of memorabilia from the luxury liners. Pay special attention to the fancy dinner menus - they are hilarious!

On Water
In the water outside float two historic vessels. One is the Hokule'a, a reproduction of an ancient Polynesian sailing canoe. This is no green fiberglass Old Town special, but a working replica of the same kind of double-hulled voyaging canoe that carried Hawaii's early settlers through the South Pacific, using only the current and the stars to guide their way. In 1976, National Geographic shocked the world by airing a special documenting Hokule'a's sail from Hawaii to Tahiti. This proved once and for all that ancient Polynesians were making ocean passages with no sophisticated navigational tools centuries before the Vikings.

The other boat in the harbor is the Falls of Clyde, the last remaining four-masted square rigger afloat in the world. Built in 1889, this beautifully restored boat is a floating museum and well worth a visit to stroll its decks and below-decks. The museum's observation tower offers a nice aerial view of the Clyde. The Aloha Tower next door is a good place to grab lunch before or after your visit. Built in 1926, it's now the centerpiece of the Aloha Tower Marketplace, a shopping and dining complex which includes Don Ho's Island Grill.

Getting There The Waikiki trolley stops nearby, as do city buses 19 and 20.

Waimea Claim to fame: Waimea is the place the Beach Boys oohed and ahhed about in "Surfin' USA". I had hoped to see some surfing action but those famous raging 35 footers were nowhere in sight when we visited in September. Waimea was more like a lagoon. Boooring! I hear it's quite a show in January, though. (S,P)

3 miles N of Haleiwa

Pupukea
Claim to fame: Home to Shark's Cove, a series of interconnected underwater caves famous for great diving (but thankfully not for sharks!) Pupukea is a long narrow beach that runs parallel to the highway, with calm waters excellent for snorkeling. It's also a marine wildlife conservation area. (R,S)

Opposite a gas station - the No. 52 bus stops there.

'Ehukai
Claim to fame: 'Ehukai is home to the infamous Banzai Pipeline, rumored to create the most dangerous waves in the world. This is where professional surfers hone their skills in times other than September, unfortunately for me. When we visited there were just a few kids drifting out past the breakers, occasionally riding a wave for short periods before sitting back down on their boards. (R,S,L)

Opposite Sunset Beach School , 1 mile north of Pupukea

Sunset Beach
Claim to fame: Possibly the longest beach on the North Shore, Sunset stretches for miles along the shoreline. With its wide, soft sand and mellow crowds, Sunset seems a good place to while the day away, maybe even to meet new people. A few patient surfers floated on their boards, hopping up for the occasional weak ride. (R,L,F)

1 mile N of 'Ehukai

Malaekahana Park
Claim to fame: Overlooks Goat Island Bird Sanctuary, within wading distance. Now this is my kind of beach. Empty but for one quiet visitor with a blanket and an artist's easel, wild waves just a little too dangerous for swimming crashing against the shore, and seabirds wheeling and careening on unseen currents over the water. Wild, oblivious nature nearly at its best - though if you walk all the way to the one end, you can spot the buildings of Laie blighting the shoreline. And the park itself seemed a little seedy, although Lonely Planet raves about the camping facilities. But we really enjoyed our nature walk (bring Tevas or sneakers if planning to wade out to Goat Island - the coral can be sharp!) and the windswept bravado of the beach. (R,S,C,P)

1/2 mile N of Laie - watch carefully for entrance!

The Point is little known and rarely included in Oahu itineraries. No signs exist to lure travelers from the highway to see the claw of stone and rock which curves out into the Pacific Ocean. Fishermen are likely to be your only companions, if indeed anyone is there when you visit. A plaque recounts the tale of Mo'o, a hero of ancient times who fought and defeated the local giant lizard monster. He broke its body into five pieces and cast them into the water, where they became the five islands you can see from your perch at the end of the natural jetty. (Of course, Mo'o might have been the name of the lizard; I can't find the story in any of my guidebooks.) One of the five islands may not, in fact, be an island, but a lava sea arch. I also read that it was an island with a puka, or hole, carved into it by the waves. In any case, it is stunning to watch the waves breaking through the puka/arch/whatever it is, and would be a challenge for a serious photographer to capture the moment (our attempts can be found below.) Also photo-ready are the jagged ridges of the Ko'olau Mountains.

Coming from the East on Kamehameha Highway, look for the Laie Shopping Center. After you pass it, turn right on Anemoku Street then right on Naupaka street to reach the Point.

North of Laie is Kahuku, once a plantation town settled primarily by Samoans. You'll know you're in the center of town when you see the painted remains of the machinery of a sugar mill that once stood in Kahuku. Next door to the brightly decorated flywheels and other giant pieces of metal is the Sugar Mill Restaurant, an utterly uninteresting-looking little takeout place that serves absolutely acceptable coconut shrimp and tempura vegetables for a pittance. It's a good place to stop if you're hungry, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

A worthwhile stop on your way home from Laie or Kahuku is Kualoa, home of another god-defeats-lizard-and-throws-it-in-the-ocean legend. The resulting island is Mokolii, but it is more often called the Chinaman's Hat because of its distinctive shape, which would be right at home in a rice paddy. The view of Mokolii from Kualoa beach is lovely and takes a great photograph.

Job One is to get out of Waikiki on Highway 1 eastbound. You'll want to bypass Diamond Head (covered in my Honolulu journal) and other tourist-heavy attractions on the way up the coast. Continue east on Highway 72 (Kalanianaole Highway.) You can take a detour to see the luxurious Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel if time permits - we heard it has an amazing view - but when we pulled in, parking didn't seem easy so we just turned around and kept going.

Be patient as you enter the Koko head area with its tediously perfect planned community and cross over Maunalua Bay - the view will improve shortly. Slow down rounding Koko Head or you'll skid right into the traffic jam at the entrance to Hanauma Bay, which merits its own entry. Pull over at the next stop, an unmarked lookout 3/4 of a mile after Hanauma, and drink in an expansive view of surf-drenched coastline and an endless teal-blue seascape. I believe it's called Molokai Lookout. It's not marked on the Oahu Drive Guide map, so keep a careful eye out. The daring can ignore the danger signs, climb over the guardrail, and hike a ways down the cliffs. We were rewarded with some disapproving stares and some great photos (see below).

Just past Molokai is the Halona Blowhole, a complete waste of time when we visited. Wave conditions need to be just right to see any action there. Don't skip Halona lookout altogether. Instead, stay to the right as you pull in, ignore signs for the blowhole itself, and look down and back south at tiny Halona Cove. Does it look familiar? That's because it is home to one of the most famous scenes in movie history: the wave-splashed, moonlit, sand-in-the-skivvies, torrid (well it was torrid in 1953!) love scene between Deborah Kerr's cheatin' army wife and Burt Lancaster's Oahu-based Sergeant in "From Here to Eternity". Even if you haven't seen the movie, you've doubtless seen that once-scandalous scene. Of course, if you have seen the movie, you know that soon after that seawater-saturated gropefest, they get in a big fight and he as much as calls her a slut, and she tries to hit him... perhaps you're better off not seeing the movie, come to think of it.

As the road begins to slope downward toward the coast, you'll see less of the scenic overlooks and more roadside beaches. The next sight to see is Sandy Beach, a long, sunny, friendly-looking swath of sand that's actually a very dangerous place to swim, but a great place for experienced bodysurfers to do their thing. You can't miss Makapuu Point from the road - it is graced with a charming little lighthouse that can be hiked to (1.4 miles) if you've got time to spare. From there the view north embraces nearly half of Oahu's windward coastline. You can see it from the road but the hike offers a better perspective.

The next beach to stop at is Makapuu, a photographer's dream. It's just as dangerous as Sandy but much prettier. You can look back up toward the lighthouse, or just wander amidst the low-growing plant life that separates the parking lot from the beach. Just off the coast to the north are two small islands poking up from the brilliant blue ocean. The larger is called Rabbit Island because it looks like a rabbit's head with the ears folded back. At the time I thought that was absolutely ridiculous, but when I got my photos developed, I could actually see the rabbit! See for yourself, below.

It's a few more miles until your next stop, Waimanalo Beach Park. Waimanalo town will seem awfully urban after all the scenic overlooks and beaches! If you're hungry, keep an eye out for a little strip mall along the road on the right. The fruit stand in its parking lot sells some of the best pineapple we had on our entire trip - and if you're nice to the cashier, she might just cut it up for you. The beach is unusually long (3 miles!) and fades in and out of view from the road.

This concludes my driving tour, but if you plan to continue further and explore the rest of the coast, consider stopping for lunch in the tourist-free town of Kailua. It's the sort of place "real people" live, who have jobs that aren't in service industries, and in fact many of its residents commute daily to Honolulu. Don't bother trying to find any shops or restaurants without a map though - there isn't really a "main drag" where all the businesses are located. We managed to find Baci Bistro on Aulike Street after much driving around, and had a decent Italian lunch of homemade gnocchi and ravioli, monstrous portions of bruschetta, and excellent cappucino for dessert. Kailua also has a lovely beach that isn't easy to find either - your best bet is to locate Highway 61 and take it toward the ocean.

Many roads lead to Haleiwa from Honolulu. It doesn't matter how you start out, as long as you end up on Highway 99 or 803. Both will take you there. However Kamehameha Highway (99) will take you past the Dole Pineapple Visitors Center - click here and scroll down to Dole, a fun stop. En route, you'll pass field after field of pineapples, as ubiquitous as roadside corn in the Midwestern U.S. It's beautiful in a disorienting way - the "amber waves of grain" you are expecting are more like "ochre waves of spines". Stranger still: if you succumb to curiosity and pull over, you'll find baby pineapples like little green and yellow grenades, nestled among the spikes. You'll pass Del Monte's Pineapple Variety Garden, a bizarre collection of pineapples from around the world, planted in neat rows with signs designating their heritage. Bizarre, yes, because the garden is nestled in the fork of the road, with no sign, visitors' center, or any discernible way to spend money on Del Monte products. It's worth a stop to stretch your legs and find out how many colors pineapples come in!

Haleiwa is a friendly town whose inhabitants seem to have arrived years ago for Spring Break surfing and never left. Bright colors and hand-painted signs predominate on the small, dusty main strip. Tanned twenty-somethings roam the streets, dressed in swimwear and little else. Sports gear stores, galleries, and boutiques seem left over from the '60s surfer invasion. Yet there are also gently faded tin-roofed shops dating from Haleiwa's first tourist invasion, starting around 1900 and continuing until the beginning of the war. Among these is Matsumoto Shave Ice, arguably the most famous shave ice stand (think Hawaiian sno-cone) on Oahu. We waited on line a good ten minutes for our turn to order in front of the ancient-looking ice shaving machine. This gives you plenty of time to browse through the overhead signs listing the myriad of flavor combinations you can order. The ice globes in their paper cones are doused with a rainbow of colored syrups in dayglo colors that are never what you expect (blue for pineapple?). I had sweet azuki beans added to the bottom of mine, which cut the sickening syrupy sweetness. You can also add ice cream, but why...? Then a spoon is stuck in the side, a long straw is jammed in the center, and the entire affair is handed over to the waiting customer. The straw plays a key role in keeping the colorful droplets of melted ice off your clothes. They're fun, and worth waiting in line for, but if you manage to finish one, I bet you'll be sick the rest of the day!

The beach is known for its surf in the winter, so we went to check it out. The small crescent of sand was unremarkable - slightly dingy and not particularly pretty.

Haleiwa is a great place to eat, particularly if you're on a budget. Lonely Planet has a few suggestions - mine is the Paradise Found Cafe at the Celestial Natural Foods store. It's cheap, fresh, and the interior decor absolutely typifies the vibrant, eclectic, wonderfully creative wackiness that is Haleiwa.