Jul 4 - Fun fact: There is no hour time difference between Kiritimati and Hawaii, but you go back one day. We get to experience the 4th of July twice this year.
Land at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Have our immigration app already on Janet’s phone, so it is a quick run through the short line and wait around in the baggage claim. The cheapest way to get into downtown Waikiki, where we are staying, is Bus #20. It is $7.50 for the three of us, more than we would pay for a Grab in Malaysia for the same distance.
Off on Kuhio Street, we have an Airbnb in a building there. Though I informed the host that we would need early check-in, he forgot, so there is no key in the lockbox. We go to find lunch with the packs. Next door is a food truck and plastic tables sitting outside. Three basic meals cost us $63, about the same price as our most expensive meal on record for the whole trip, which was in London.
I thought Hawaii was going to be expensive, and everything I see confirms that. It is a sort of culture shock to walk the streets of Honolulu, with the hordes of sunburned bodies, selfie-seekers, and posers with surfboards. There is a sort of unreality to it, like we’ve been transported to a land where people aren’t doing normal things. I’m sure this part of town is almost entirely tourists, as each towering apartment block up and down the street is full of rental properties.
It is the 4th of July, but hard to see in the crowds, other than the occasional US flag t-shirt. There is no fireworks display in Honolulu: The only one I see listed is in a town on the island’s east side. Waikiki Beach is everything it tries to be: an idyllic photo opportunity, a place to practice surfing, and be seen in skimpy beachwear by everyone that matters.
Amazing how different the climate is from Kiritimati. It is cool and not excessively humid. In fact, it does not feel humid at all compared to everywhere we’ve been in the past few months.
Kiribati