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A View from the Top
A few days ago I ventured to the east of Oahu and went on a little hike up Diamond Head Crater.
The crater is actually the cone formed from a volcanic eruption. Seen from Waikiki beach Diamond Head looks like a mountain. It is not until you enter the cone through a tunnel that you realise the actual shape of the land formation. Inside the bowl it is dusty and dry and the fairly easy walk up the inside of the cone to the lookout on the lip feels much more difficult in the heat.
Reaching the top rewards hikers with a ridiculously beautiful view of Oahu. While the summit is only 230 or so meters to the west you can see Waikiki and Honolulu, to the east the coast of Oahu with it’s bays and beaches. To the south the great expanse of the Pacific seems to disappear forever over the horizon. Looking back over the crater facing north gives you a good idea of just how big the volcano must have been.
After sweaty and hot climb back down from the lookout I headed to Hanauma Bay. This bay is a Nature Preserve giving visitors access to some spectacular coral formations. While a little costly (an entrance fee of $7.50 is required if you don’t live in Hawaii) a visit to the bay is a must. The beautiful sheltered bay is like paradise and snorkelling in the bay is easy, safe and the sea life is amazing. I ended up going twice to Hanauma Bay I enjoyed it that much.
The end of my adventure is fast approaching, something that is filling me with a huge level of apprehension. I am not looking forward to leaving my travelling life and going home to debts and work but I’ll enjoy my last few days while I can.
Waikiki Beach
Ah Oahu, you are beautiful. Touristy, but beautiful. Dominated by Waikiki Beach the area is teeming with life. Waikiki means Spouting Fresh Waters in Hawaiian and at “The grove” you can see a recreation of the area as it would have been when the Hawaiian royalty would have seen it when they held the area sacred.
Today the grove is surrounded by Oahu’s biggest and most luxurious hotels, all suprisingly very open and welcoming to everyone. All day long you’ll find people from town mixing with those using the hotels, just wandering through to the beach or eating and drinking at the hotel bars and restaraunts.
Waikiki beach is massive, and curves in a cresent along the south of the Island. To the east is Diamond Head, which I hope to climb soon.
Emmett Broaddus
Emmett was 21. He was from California. We met in the HI Vancouver. He was as he would like to say “like a cookie man, hard on the outside, soft in the middle…”. We partied hard, played harmonica and drums during a 4am street riot: one of the fondest memories of my trip. We travelled to Victoria, drank beers at Big Bad John’s and tried to pick up ladies always failing with a smile on our faces. We swam in frigid waters and he did the best Steve Irwin impression I have ever seen. We talked, sharing a love of music and travel. We travelled together from Victoria to Seattle on a boat and then met up again in San Fran were we drank and talked about our future travels and Emmetts plans to visit me in Australia. I said ‘so long’ to Emmett in San Francisco, not farewell. He was funny, intelligent and profound. He was talented and energetic, open and compassionate. Most importantly he was my friend.
On Monday on his way to school Emmett was killed in a car accident. I’ll never get to introduce him to the ladies of Australia, or return the hospitality he showed me from the moment I met. The world is missing one magical person and is a little darker because of it. I hope that I can keep his memory alive by living my life as he would, always happy, always open and always with a smile on my face.
So long Emmett, I hope that where ever you are now the women are gorgeous and the beers cold.
Aloha
I arrived in Hawaii, the United States only Island state on Monday. Hawaii is the 50th State, making it the newest of all the US states, with it being added to the union in just 1959.
The hostel I am staying at is on the Southern side of the main island of Ohau in Waikiki. It is very touristy and built up, but yesterday Dustin a dentist from Texas offered us a lift in his car to go check out the North Shore.
The drive took around an hour, through a surprising amount of traffic. Following the highway up through the middle of the island we headed North west to meet the shore. Along the North Shore are some of Hawaii’s best and less populated beaches. While jumping from beach to beach we saw basking turtles and swam in beautiful coves. We floated in the deep clear water of a cove that fed an inlet to a national park and we watched the sunset at Sunset Beach. On the way home we followed the coast east around the Island.
The islands volcanic nature of Hawaii makes for some pretty breathtaking scenery. Huge mountains rising immense and sudden from the edge of the water. Absolutely spectacular.
Viva Las Vegas
Well I’m a little pissed right now, but I thought it would be the appropriate time to enlighten you all on my adventures in Vegas. Fairly fitting I figure seeing as pretty much everyone I saw in my time in Vegas was either drunk, or gambling and on their way to being drunk.
Vegas is a pretty amazing town. Sin City was founded in 1905, and officially became a city in 1911. It has pretty relaxed laws surrounding the various types of adult entertainment. I’ve had a bit of a crush on Vegas. Every film that it appears in as a major character has me entralled. One such film is Ocean’s Eleven. Yes, the 2001 film, not the original, because I think both Brad Pitt and George Clooney are awesome.
I think I probably would have had more fun, and more adventures in Vegas with a few mates, but I did get to see alot of the strip. I managed to see the major Casinos I wanted to, marvelling in the wonder of architecture that went into each and every one. I saw the Venetian’s Canals, the Luxors Pyramid, the MGM’s Lion and New York New York’s Coyote Ugly bar. I had drinks in pretty much every major Casino. I ate at restaurants and bars, and couldn’t get enough. One of the funniest things I encountered was the hawkers handing out prostitute trading cards. While I didn’t actually indulge in any of the girls I had first hand experience with one old dude in the elevator bringing a girl home (enough to put me off the Vegas girls forever), I did collect a heap of cards. Pictured here is but a small selection of the wad of cards lining my pockets after a short stroll down the strip. If the girls look half as good as they do in the their photos they would definitely be worth it.
I stayed in Hooters, which raised the eyebrows of a few of my mates, but if there is one thing that suprised the people around me that hadn’t been to a hooter’s before, its that the girls working in those slinky tops and orange shorts are beautiful ORIDINARY girls. One of the reasons I love hooters so much. None of this stuck up bullshit you get in nightclubs, just normal girls, each gorgeous in their own way, doing a job and loving it.
I’ve had a great time in Vegas, and right now my boarding call is being broadcast over the intercom. It makes me a little sad as I would have loved to spend more time here, especially with a few friends but I guess it will just have to wait until another time.
Oh and for those who have been listening to me whinge about internets, check out the rude internet connection available for free at the airport. I love Vegas.
The Rock
I was pretty excited to see Alcatraz and it didn’t disappoint. Sitting in the fog of the bay Alcatraz Island has had a long and interesting history. The limestone island was first used as the bedrock for a lighthouse, which is now the oldest lighthouse on the west coast and from there it has been a military installation, site of Indian rights protests and most (in)famously a prison.
Alcatraz’s prison history dates back to around 1861 where it was used a military prison. It quickly grew in population but it wasn’t until 1934 that the island became the Alcatraz we all know. It remained operation as a prison hosting some of the States most notorious criminals for 29 years.
Due to its geographics and the technology used in the prison Alcatraz was considered inescapable and it is easy to see why. The island sits tantalisingly close to the mainland but the water is freezing and currents churn the bay constantly. The buildings are imposing and there isn’t many places to hide outside the prison walls.
I spent around 3 hours on the island, listening to the audio tour and checking out the ruins of the prison. I took way too many photos but I loved the old run down buildings. There’s only one way to get to the island, Alcatraz Cruises. For $26 you get your ferry there and back, and the audio tour. My time on the Rock was worth every penny.
San Francisco
It is strange to think that San Francisco had a population of only 1,000 people when the gold rush hit. The search for riches caused the number of residents of the bay to swell quickly to 25,000 in just one year. It must have been a crazy time, how ever San Fran’s history stretches as far back as 3000BC when local Cali Indians once called the area home before being displaced in the 1700′s by the Spanish. Now home to around 800,000 in the metro and 8,000,000 in the surrounding ‘burbs San Fran is a buzzing city.
The entire metropolis is quite beautiful and new, mainly due to the great fire of 1906. Over four hundred thousand San Franciscan’s were left homeless after an earthquake levelled buildings and ruptured gas lines causing massive devastation. Today the town is full of life and history. Its famous trams rumble through the city and the streets are teaming with tourists. Along the port restaurants and museums line the piers. Out to the west in the suburbs is Haight Ashbury, a very alternative neighbourhood with a cool scene. Grungy, dirty bars and music stores run up and down the main street and bums and hippies sit on side walks calling for donations towards cannabis research.
On Sunday Chinatown hosted a party, filling the streets with parades, food and music. The Chinatown in San Francisco is one of the oldest in the entire USA and it is huge, but difficult to find nice cheaps eat’s in. A few bars are scattered through the streets of Chinatown, and around the city in general but the best I found was The Utah. It sits on the corner of 4th and Bryant and is a great venue with music almost every night and an awesome vibe. The locals are friendly and the bar staff fun and tough.
In the evenings the fog that during the day contains itself to the bay creeps into the city turning it into a frigid yet beautiful place. It wafts into the streets and blows a cooling breath over the entire metropolis. It is so thick you can feel it dusting your face with a light mist.
I got to catch up with a couple of mates in San Francisco. Jenn, who kindly put me up for a few nights and Emmett who took me around the city on Monday and to Fishermans wharf in the evening. I had a great time here and I’ll be back for one last drink before flying to Hawaii in about a week. But right now I am due to catch a flight to Vegas.
Golden Gate Bridge
It’s in that pea soup somewhere. You just gotta imagine it’s there. For all I know the cars were just falling off the edge into bay.
This was the best view I got of the famous Golden Gate Bridge that spans the opening of the San Francisco bay to the ocean. Its construction was finished in 1937 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The orange colour that I should have seen if there wasn’t the famous San Fran fog in the way was actually the original colour of the sealant, but it was decided that the bridge would look better staying orange rather than boring old steel grey and so a top coat of Internation Orange was applied.
I was really looking forward to seeing this landmark, but as luck would have it I didn’t get to. I went on a Sunday, catching the very easy 76 bus to Fort Point, and after being disappointed with the lack of view tried again the next day but the 76 doesn’t run so I had to change bus three times to get there just to be disappointed yet again.
Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
Greyhound
It is 2am. I’ve been on the Greyhound bus for 7 hours. The sound of the road peeling away under the wheels and the gentle rocking of a cabin should be lulling my senses into a blissful stupor but they bring no respite. I watch through my window into the clinging blackness and try to ignore the poster child schizophrenic that chose to sit next to me. He keeps yelling and yelping, one of three personalities at any time bursting forth onto the bus. Sometimes it’s the retarded boy, others the racist Southerner and when ever a sign came into resolve enough to be read: the educated Harvard scholar. If I am lucky I can catch them arguing between each other as their vessel jerked and roiled about in his seat. Their arguing continues through the night and punctuates the darkness. Around 5am he quietens a little, yet keeps snorting and fizzing and fidgeting. His odour has driven a few of my fellow passengers to move up into shared seats, foregoing their comfortable reclining positions for relief from the smell. I breathe through my teeth and count the hours, the minutes, the seconds until the next stop.
With the break of dawn comes an oasis of a gas station where we stop for food and drinks. My seat partner rises from his perch and lumbers down the isle, carrying with him his most valuable worldly possessions, 15 recycling containers. I stretch and am greeted by numerous faces that smile at me reassuringly and words of praise and amazement at my resolve. Only 13 more hours of travel face me but they lay stretched along the i5 through the new day. The terrain changes in hue and composition as we roll ceaselessly onwards into the morning. California opens before the bus welcoming me into it’s warm bosom. Mesas rise along the highway and farmland covered in dry grass surround the coach as we travel south in the morning sun.
While my strange friend has moved on he leaves a sinister stink he in his stead, standing sentry in the cabin like a ghost. I push my chin deeper into my chest and watch the white lines weave and duck back and forth along the asphalt. We’ll be coming up to San Francisco soon according to the woodsman that sits in the seat in front of me. I look out of my window and drink up the scenery. I gulp it up in an attempt to satisfy my excitement. A new city awaits just on the other side of the bay. A new city, with new sights, new people and hopefully new adventures.
Enforcers
It was a rainy day while I was in London that a post went up on the Penny Arcade website calling for volunteer submissions for “The Enforcers”. The Enforcers are the large group of people, clothed in black shirts that spot the Penny Arcade Expo generally being helpful and keeping everything running smoothly.
I knew of the group from discussions and news on the previous conventions and had always wondered if I could be part of something that seemed so cool. I applied for a job, not really thinking I would be accepted what being a travelling Australian and all. To my surprise soon I found an email from penny arcade in my inbox informing me of my acceptance to “The Black”. My life hasn’t been the same since
Being an Enforcer isn’t just a volunteer job. It is a way of life. Being surrounded by people who think, talk and act like you, all with an insane level of passion is intoxicating. Everyone is accepted. Parties are arranged on an almost weekly basis. Helping hands are offered to all those who have accepted the black. Being an Enforcer is about fun, games and friends. In the first two days of being in Seattle I attended two Enforcer gatherings, one specifically to welcome the 3 out of town enforcer Australians (and 3 local Aussies) at the Outback Steakhouse.
It is also about being some of the most professional mother fuckers around for the week of PAX. Exhibitors and staff of the convention were often amazed to find out that we don’t get paid for our work at the Expo. They were continually impressed by our expertise and professionalism. I explained to a few that asked me about it that I felt it came from a level of passion and dedication to the subject matter and organisers that you don’t normally see at most expos or jobs even.
I made more friends in my time in Seattle through the Enforcers than I have pretty much in my whole trip combined. At the moment my Enforcer badge is tucked neatly in my backpack, waiting to be hung somewhere safe at home to remind me of all those that made my time at PAX and in Seattle so wonderful.