Hawaii - Polynesian Cultural Center

The Polynesian Cultural Center is like a mixed-cultural theme park consists of 6 different natives of Hawaii, hailing from the islands of Samoa, Aotearoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti and Tonga. Daily scheduled activities and island presentations kept us busy throughout the day.




We got there at 3pm and only managed to see 3 of them :

1 - Samoa. Here, a tanned man, rippling with muscles was the main person who joked most of the time. We saw how fire was made and put out, how they are able to climb a coconut tree with agility ....and many others. Mostly, we were told of the simplicity of their daily lifestyle.

2 - Aotearoa - They danced for us. Their music was simple and calming. To my surprise, I heard one very familiar tune and the lyrics, although it's the same as what I know, was sung with their heavy accent. Nevertheless, this song reminded me of my childhood days where we would use two bamboos and danced over it.

3 - Tonga - I guess you could say they specialise in drums (I really don't know the specific name for those big drums, looked more like a giant bongo. Three men from different countries in the audience were picked and they were to imitate the presenter.

We managed to squeeze in some time for a short movie on how the Polynesians came to Hawaii. This was shown in an Imax theatre.




After a buffet style dinner, we settled ourselves down to watch their performances, where each tribe would showcase their different culture. The entire performance was about 2.5 - 3 hours long with a 20 minute intermission break. Out seats were assigned to us according to our ticket number and we were quite far up from the stage.




By the time the show ended, I was half asleep (mainly due to jet lag), even though it was only about 10pm. The 45-minute ride back to the hotel gave us all a chance to snooze to our heart's content.


It was an exhausting but worth-while day for us. The Polynesian Cultural Center is really a must for those visiting Hawaii and wanting to know more about it's origins and culture.

Hawaii - Dole Plantation

Before we went to Hawaii, I checked the itinerary. Dole Plantation was one of the highlights. I googled this place wanting to know what was so special about it. I found this unique maze which I really looked forward to going to. I even printed it out so that when I get "lost" in the maze, I would be able to find my way out.



The first thing we did was to buy their famous pineapple ice-cream. I saw most of the adults queueing for it. I haven't tasted this flavour before and was curious. It was really creamy and refreshing, but it melted very quickly in the hot sun



We decided to go for the shorter train ride around the plantation. We were a little disappointed with it because all we saw was a huge field with lots of huge machineries and few types of trees. I have to admit, we did see a few rows of pineapple plants but that was about all. The place looked a little deserted. My suspicion was that we took the shorter ride (due to time constraint) that didn't get to go to the actual plantation site. The earth was reddish and it reminded me of my visit to Kunming, China.



The rambutan tree looked scrawny compared to the ones that we have here in Malaysia. The joyride took about 15-20 minutes. We didn't even get to see the famous pineapple maze. :(



Lunch was at a place called Fumi's Shrimp Farm. Simple environment. The food tasted great, though. Very fresh. There were 10 shrimps in each set and I couldn't finish mine!! Yummy, but I didn't want my cholesterol level to shoot up.

Hawaii - Pearl Harbor

I was pretty excited when dear hubby said that we were going to Hawaii. To me, I've always had this picture of Hawaii in mind : An exotic place where the sea has different shades of blue, coconut trees swaying lazily in the sun and people lounging about in the heat without a care in the world.

We went together with a group of 33 people. Transited at Incheon, Seoul, Korea, for 3 hours. Our very first impression of Korea was that things were pretty expensive. Hubby bought shaving blades, a bottle of water and lip balm costing RM62.

It was a total 18 hours traveling time inclusive of transit. By the time we arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, we were feeling a little restless and tired. To add to our exhaustion, we arrived at the airport at 1am. The immigration officers were surprisingly pleasant and friendly. One of the them commented that it was "humid" out there. We, as Malaysian, do know what humidity is all about. We were welcomed with a lei each by our Hawaiian tour guide, Henry.

Earlier when we were in Incheon Airport, we were told by our tour leader that we were upgraded to stay at The Royal Hawaiian (we were supposed to stay at The Sheraton), which is a luxury hotel.

We checked in at 2.30am. We didn't feel sleepy at all because Hawaii is 18 hours behind us. Nevertheless, we forced ourselves to sleep (it was about 3.30am by the time we unpacked) in the cool comfort of the king sized bed.

First day was quite relaxed. We went to Pearl Harbour, waited for about 1.5 hours before we got onto a ferry to take us across to the site where a shrine was built in honour of those who died during the bombing.

As we gazed out in the waters, there were still signs of oil from the remains of the ship. According to our tour guide, Henry, to this day, the oil never stopped leaking into the water from the day Pearl Harbour was bombed.

After Pearl Harbour, we did a little shopping near the hotel. There was an Apple Store nearby and almost everyone went into the place specifically to get an iPad, which at that time, wasn't sold in Malaysia. I was seriously contemplating on getting one myself but somehow the features didn't meet my expectations.

We rested for a short while before heading to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.