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Friday, July 18, 2003 |
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Having been in Hawaii for a little while, we would like to share some observations with you:
One of the first things that we observed was the emphasis on conservation. Our hotel room has a sign urging us to recycle water by reusing our towels and bed linens. It is titled "NO NA MAMO (For Our Future Generations)". The signs at Diamond Head State Park also encouraged us to watch what we carried in or out with us to prevent contamination or erosion. We were even encouraged to wash off our shoes before making the climb if we thought there was a chance that they carried pollutants.
Besides the emphasis on conservation, there is also a noticeable emphasis on health, at least in the shopping centers. At the Ala Moana, for example, there are billboards picturing an evil looking woman with green skin. Underneath is a caption calling her "The Dragon Lady" and explaining that she wants to take your life. The logo for this particular campaign is "You smoke. You die. Game over."
Now we come to the part you have all been waiting for:
We lounged around in the room so long today that the maid resorted to slipping a note under the door explaining that our desire for privacy had caused her to be unable to clean up and that she would be back tomorrow. We called and told her that was fine with us and then made our way to the lobby to wait for our escort to the Sunset Cruise that we were going to take.
We ended up sitting in the very center of the lobby. Apparently, this area is part of the Marina Front Cafe snack bar because no sooner had we sat down than a waitress appeared asking if we wanted anything to drink. Feeling slightly obligated, we both ordered something but ran out of time, for our escort had arrived.
On the way to our cruise, a prerecorded voice gave us some information about the Star lines. According to the tape, Star has been in business since the 1950's. In addition to the Honolulu Star (the largest of the three "ships"), the line owns a fleet that includes the Starlet and the Starlet Two. These vessels run trips to watch the whales, take scuba divers to their intended spots and, like the ship that we were on tonight, run "romantic sunset dinner cruises".
Our hosts for the cruise were "Cousin" Moi and "Cousin" Tony. They played a mixture of traditional Hawaiian music (Tony turned out to have a "magic" ukelele), surfing melodies, and songs by Elvis and Don Ho. The show was good and the food was also (except that Stephanie is discovering that she has NO passion for "passion fruit"). The dancers did well with their limited room to move around in and, at one point, Tony began a conga line that they called a "love chain". Stephanie was impressed that both the hosts and the cruise director gave welcomes in English, Japanese, Thai and Korean. Instructions and announcements were also given in four languages. Moi continued his duties as host by singing a couple of songs in Japanese and a few in Thai. He also taught us some of the customs and language of Hawaii. Did you know that the word "Aloha" does not mean "Hello" or "Good Bye"? It actually means "love". To say "Thank You" in Hawaiian, you would say "Mahalo". And an unmarried girl would wear her single "flower of love" over her right ear while a married woman would wear a flower on her left side.
As Paul Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story.