It's our last day here! :(
We have breakfast with the happily married Mr. and Mrs. Simms, who are absolutely glowing with marital bliss (or something else), although the wedding night seemed to have tuckered them out a bit...! So Neda and I leave them to recuperate further and we decide to hike up the Diamond Head Crater this morning. We've seen it from just about every angle on the island, so we figure why not take in the view from the top. It's a fairly warm morning, and we're warned at the bottom of Diamond Head that the climb is fairly steep and involves lots of stairs and some tunnels, so adequate hydration and cool clothing is required. What kills me are some of the Japanese tourists who are decked out like they are going to a nightclub or something! I wanted to take a picture, but I felt that would have been impolite! :)
When we get back to the hotel, we're a bit tired from the morning's hike and we've already checked out of our room, so we hang out with Jerome and Lisa. I take a very long nap on the balcony trying to tan away my racoon eyes that my sunglasses left on my face. Damn you, Oakleys! And when I awake, it's time for the sad trek to the airport! Our cab driver told us many facts about Hawaii, how it is one of the few states that is experiencing negative population growth, mainly because of the high cost of living. When he saw our helmets and jackets, he told us about his motorcycles he had back home, and how his parents made him sell them when they moved to Hawaii. He actually spent most of the cab ride telling us about his dream bike - the Ninja ZX7R, nice choice!
Well, I'm writing this on the Monday after we returned. And man, am I jetlagged. Woke up at 5AM again! But alas, this time no sprinklers! :( I think I expected motorcycling through Hawaii to be a lot more exotic than it turned out to be, especially through Oahu. We were just underwhelmed with the whole North-American-ness of it all. I think travelling through Europe last year really opened our eyes up to how different another culture could be. Everything from the food, the language, the street signs, the narrow-ness of the roads, how people act towards each other, was an entirely different world from North America. Especially when each country in Europe is a distinct society which changes immediately when you cross a line drawn on the map. I'm not sure how the European Union is going to change how these separate cultures evolve in the future, especially when borders start to dissolve and something as important as a unified currency changes how inter-related and dependent the member countries are to each other. Not so in Hawaii. There is no doubt this is a member state of the United States of America. Whatever Polynesian origins this island once had are now relegated to self-contained museum/theme parks and after-dinner theatre shows. I think to really experience the island culture, we'd have needed to travel to the Polynesian Islands and given up a measure of North-American comfort and convenience. Maybe we'll do that in the future, but no matter how homogenized the culture has become, I am satisfied to at least have experienced what American Colonialism couldn't change - tonnes of lava oozing from the centre of the earth over millions of years - providing us with some land to explore on two wheels. Volcanoes and jungles, Oh My! Very cool! :) Anyway, thanks for joining us on our travels. Remember, if you're getting married somewhere exotic, send us a note and we'll be sure to show up on our bikes to wish you a happy wedding day!
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