After passing through Incheon Honolulu Int'l was a big disappointment. I think Incheon was built sometime this past decade. It's so modern, vast, open and efficient. Everything is so convenient and intuitive, there was absolutely nothing confusing about getting to where I needed to go. I got there with 7hrs to spare mostly because I had to vacate my hotel room at 12pm and I had no other place to keep my luggage. However, with a handy internet lounge and lots of food available it was easy to kill time.
The only thing notable about the flight was the Korean style breakfast served. Rice porridge with dried nori flavor packets and a side of Kimchi flavored carrots. Always kimchi with these Koreans. I mean it's good but there are other spices on this earth. Take some lessons from the Tai. Seriously.
So as I was saying the Honolulu airport was a complete let down. The place was dark and blocky with low ceilings, looking to have been built in the 70's. They need to remodel. They packed a bunch of passengers on a shuttle bus but couldn't fit everybody so I and others were made to wait. I don't know, this just felt insulting.
It was nice to see my homey again. Chris Malkus, ThaChrizla, a dear friend from high school was waiting at the terminal to pick me up. I was to surf his couch for the week. After dropping my stuff off at his crib we took a quick tour of the area and had lunch at a Mexican restaurant. I haven't had Mexican in over a year.
So my friend lives in Waikiki beach area which is the main place that tourists come to. The thing that struck me about Waikiki was that there were tourists from all over the world who seemed to be trying to have a unique, authentic and personal piece of paradise as their vacation. There was this weird vibe as people tried to keep to themselves whilst being packed into the enormous confines of the accommodating buildings. There were chotchy motherfuckers everywhere. All the dumb fratboys from your college are drinking it up in Waikiki as we speak. Don't go there unless you have someone to visit. One thing I did like was all the open doors. Every establishment was just wide open allowing the perfect sea air to infiltrate. Air conditioning has always slightly bothered me, or maybe I should say the overwhelming abuse of it. But here in Waikiki people seemed content with the humidity, a welcome relief.
All over Waikiki are these vast malls and although I abhor consumer culture I did appreciate the layout. They were all built like massive caverns with the cave mouths able to accommodate elephants. It was a rather gaudy and probably wasteful yet ultimately satisfying use of space.
After lunch we met up with Silas, another high school buddy and hung out on the beach. We swam about the shore for a bit. I was stoked to learn that Silas was spending some of his free time volunteering as a docent at the aquarium. In high school he was so punk rock, funny as hell but just crass in a very teen aged way. I would never have expected him to participate in any kind of public service, but it was clear that he really appreciated the ocean and all the sea life around us. He could identify all sorts of creatures. We found a sea turtle swimming about the shore so I chased after it underwater. I tried to ride it for a few seconds but it clearly didn't like that. Ha! Funny dinosaur of a creature.
Later Silas showed me a part of the beach that had a massive shore break. Having barely ever been to the ocean before I had little understanding of the physics of the surf. In that short few hours I learned a great deal. Tidal forces draw masses of water towards the shore. Whenever the masses encounter a ridge on the ocean floor (such as a reef) the entire mass swells over creating what we perceive as a wave. As such waves reach shore they crash up on the beach creating what we know of as a shore break. (But you already knew that.) If you stand in the right spot and wait for the right mass of water you can swim so that the swell catches you and carries you rapidly to shore, dragging you mercilessly against gritty sand, then ripping you back again. An hour of this relentless assault left me exhausted. Thus my introduction, though rudimentary to surfing.
Afterwards we sat down to drinks which extended long into the night. Jet lag, shore break riding and alcohol combined to form extreme exhaustion. I passed out hard and was rendered completely worthless for all the next day.
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