mahalo for your kokua

i'm blogging here instead of at hawaii-oh5.blogspot.com because i don't really feel a part of it coz i wasn't there during its creation and i reckon my name appears maybe only 3 times in all the posts. plus this is my away-from-home blog anyway.

hawai'i this year is a lot harder to recap than last year coz it lasted twice as long and it was more eventful. so i'm not even going to try the paragraph style. point-form is it for me. (oh but if you prefer the paragraphs, go to hawaii-oh5.blogspot.com coz nix did a thorough recap... of the stuff she could remember hehe)


DAY 1 - MY FIRST DAY IN HAWAII
- got leid at baggage claim :P
- that was after they paged me over the PA system.. how embarrassing
- had to ride shotgun in the transfer bus coz i was the only person in the bus travelling alone
- the toilet wouldn't flush at the hotel so i called the maintenance man. turns out it was fine. i just didn't know you had to practically sit on the flush button to make it work.
- took a walk down the main strip and realised that waikiki IS pretty
- also realised our old hotel was extremely far from where we clubbed every night last year. how the heck did we walk all that way every night.. in heels?!
- hung out with solo at the apartment watching full house, the cosby show, and my absolute favourite the andy milonakis show (that little fart is SO funny!). very (x4) fun night (remember that?)

DAY 2 - KANEOHE
- went with solo to his place up in kaneohe. its so pretty up there on the windward side! very lush and green and fresh feeling
- hung out with him, mike and matt all night
- mike and solo fight like anything! and they both try to get me on their sides haha
- had dinner at 12.30am.. delicious chicken pasta. i would've eaten more if i wasn't half asleep.
- also a veeeery fun night

DAY 3 - NEL & NIX ARRIVE / WAIKIKI BEACH / PIPELINE
- matt drove me back to the hotel. i've never felt so thug in my life. it was only about 10am and we were blasting hip hop the whole way to waikiki.
- matt's police detector thing makes me feel so illegal haha
- nel and nix finally arrived!! complete with stories of near-arrests and other crimes they apparently committed
- we had no water for the first couple of hours. how's that for a nice welcome to hawai'i?
- nix kept asking me if he was mad. i tried to ignore her for as long as i could.
- apparently waikiki beach is man-made. its really weird how the waves go both ways.. i'd be treading water one minute then the next i stand up on the sand and the water's up to my knees
- the lady at reception was very stingy about getting us some extra pillows (nix: but there's only one pillow.. and three of us...)
- had dinner at a pizza sports bar where we got very patriotic about australian football
- went to pipeline with solo, mike and matt. not the greatest.. i think we had big expectations. i don't think i danced all night.
- nix and i got pretty tipsy though hehe i didn't even know i was mixing drinks till solo told me the next morning
- i made mad friends with the restroom lady. solo made me feel guilty for not tipping her.
- back at the room.. wasn't the best of times. i feel like i missed out on a lot coz i was too busy floating in and out of everywhere
- nel and nix scored new dork nicknames. i'm just a troll. thanks mike.

DAY 4 - THE NOTHING DAY / ALA MOANA
- hung out at the apartment with solo and matt, and went the whole day on 10 minutes sleep no joke
- had a nice talk with mike.. i wish i could've hung out with him more. we get along well.
- matt dropped us off at ala moana 20 minutes before it closed (mike was right... don't tell him) so all we had time to do was eat
- had a quiet night in coz i was absolutely dead

DAY 5 - DIAMOND HEAD / MOOSE'S & DDH / GIBBY'S CRIB
- we looked like the biggest tourists taking pictures of the TheBUS bench. how embarrassing!
- we got off at the wrong stop (of course) for diamond head so we had to get back onto TheBUS which was embarrassing enough, but then the disabled lady had to maneouvre her wheelchair around to make room for us =/
- the walk to the entrance of diamond head was a hike in itself
- and then the actual hike... MAYTE. that was challenging. the whole thing is uphill, and on top of that you gotta deal with loose gravel and rocks, burning heat, and winding paths. that's before you even get to those evil evil stairs.
- i did feel all accomplished though when we reached the top. the view was amazing. too bad there were so many bugs.
- when we got back down, nel's camera clock told us that the whole experience took us 4 hours. as wrong as that sounded, i kinda believed it. we sat and rested so many times and the way my muscles were aching, it seemed likely. then we realised what she thought was an 8 was really a 6.
- that night we paid our first visit to our old regular spot at moose's. it was kinda boring but when i heard what gibby had to say it made my whole day hehe
- somehow we made friends with these two guys sitting at the table next to ours. rodney and brock came to be our favourite new hawai'ian friends! i knew we'd get along with them when i saw how they made fun of how other people dance. boy versions of us!
- somehow plans were made to go hiking with them the next day. if it weren't for rodney saying "yes ma'am" (sigh) when i asked if we could rest along the way (haha i'm such a loser) i wouldn't have agreed to it.
- the boys introduced us to Da Dawg House (referred to from now on as DDH coz i feel so tryhard when i say or type that) which was badly Red Lion But White lol
- that was the night we started getting scared of hawai'ians coz rodney nearly got beat up by one over a game of pool. that was scary.
- other than that i think i was a bit off my chops. all i remember from the walk home was that the boys walked with us which was sweet of them.. very fun night.
- we called gibby when we got home to relay some information :) and i don't know if he invited us over or if we invited ourselves (i hope it was the former) but suddenly we were making nel come with us down the steet to his apartment, where pat (white pat, not infamous pat) made nix and i some sort of evil drink that got us drunk all over again
- next thing i know, i'm asleep on gibby's lap, nel's asleep on the other chair, and nix has just finished taking a shower. what the heck?! what a crazy night.
- did we stop and talk to brian (our favourite concierge) that night? we probably did coz i remember him making fun of how we came home at 3am and then went out again and didn't make it back till after 5am. he thought we were crazy. i think from that day forward he greeted us with "good evening crazy girls" every night.

DAY 6 - MAUNAWILI FALLS / MOOSE'S
- HUNG. OVER. BAD. what the heck was in those drinks pat?!
- rodney and brock were late picking us up thanks to traffic (hmm?? haha) and as we stumbled into the car i think we messed up the pre-assigned seating plan. sorry :( i just really hate riding shotgun in this country. the car ride was so fun though! i've never laughed so much. that pair are too much. i've never met such entertaining people.
- first we went to pali lookout.. that was so beautiful! i just wish i didn't look like death in the photos.
- then we were on our way to maunawili falls. what an experience. it wasn't as physically tiring as diamond head but it was so much harder because i spent the whole time trying not to fall and crack my head on a rock. the whole time i walked with my head down, in full concentration trying to work out where to put my foot next. i've never done something so wildnerness-ish in my life. i felt so badly inadequate everytime brock and rodney would run ahead and practically skip down the trail or over a stream.
- when we finally got to the falls though, that was so nice. it doesn't look like much in the photos but it really was pretty. it took nix and i a good half hour to actually get in the water coz it was freezing and then another 2 hours to jump off the 10ft cliff thing. what wimps!
- moose's that night was packed because a ship had just come in. marines galore. i'm a bit over marines though.. i keep hearing bad things about them. i danced with a few losers that night.. one that told me "i was only dancing with you coz i thought you didn't have a boyfriend" and one that got angry at me for dancing with some other guy while he was "waiting" for me to get back from the restroom. niiiice. not such a fun night.

DAY 7 - SANDY BEACH / ZANZABAR
- i did not enjoy sandy beach at all. i think i caught a case of leptosperosis (from maunawili falls) so i felt like absolute crap all day and the sporadic rays of sun and the wind weren't helping me. plus we were so sandy (at sandy beach haha) after we left coz the sand there was sticky.
- also i was feeling slightly off emotionally that day so i just wasn't in the mood for anything
- until i received a phone call later that evening... hot hot hot! it was one of the toughest things i had to do though, to refuse AGAIN (esp after last year) but i knew i had to
- that night the girls went to the club ahead of me and i never actually made it in (looong story) but i had fun waiting for them outside anyway. and when they finally came busting out of there that was when the real adventure began. that was just.. such an experience. i think i only started breathing again once i had both nel and nix safely back in the room (which took nearly an hour to do i reckon)
- and then i felt so terrible (even though i wasn't involved) when rodney called to ask why we hated him :( poor boy... imagine what he was thinking!?

DAY 8 - MY 2ND NOTHING DAY
- i was still feeling the leptosperosis effects so i hung around waikiki while the girls went out for the day with rodney and brock. i was bit jealous when they came back with wide smiles and all their stories but i reckon i would've just felt even more sick if i'd gone and tried to hang out on a beach with my fever and sore throat.
- oh and besides, solo and i "broke up" that day.. should've seen nix's and nel's faces when we told them haha

DAY 9 - PEARL HARBOR / RED LION & MOOSE'S
- the line to get into pearl harbor was a joke. it went around the whole front lawn (which was probably as big as a soccer field) 1.5 times! then when we finally got in we found out we'd have to wait two hours till our tour thingie began. yeh right! we were half contemplating not even going but then that'd feel like a waste.
- so then we tried to find a place where we could sleep, and failing that we decided to be lovos and amuse ourselves with taking pictures of ourselves. that was badly the highpoint of my pearl harbor experience! haha
- i fell asleep during the movie about what happened the day pearl harbor was attacked and i felt really bad coz nix came out of it feeling so sad about what happened, and i was too tired to feel anything. i'm sorry :(
- the Arizona memorial itself was nice though.. took lots of pictures in there. i think its so nice how americans are so patriotic. even i was getting snap happy taking pictures of their flag and stuff.
- we went shopping at pearl ridge afterwards. i might've enjoyed it if i wasn't soooo dead tired. all i wanted to do was lie on a beach and sleep. but its ok coz i got a hair straightener there! yay. i also bought an eyeglass repair kit (haha how dorky does that sound?) but i think the counter lady stole it coz i couldn't find it when we got home.
- on the way out we ran into marcus (the dude who was only dancing with me coz he thought i didn't have a boyfriend) and he turned out to be not such a loser coz he drove us all the way back to ala moana after i said we were lost and didn't know how to get out.. that was nice of him. it was all we could do not to say "bling bling!" when we saw his car. we rode to ala moana that day in style!
- we got home and while the girls went to go hang out at the beach (and the internet cafe haha) i caught up with an old friend from last year. twas veeeery fun.
- that night we decided to check out the new red lion.. waste of time! it is totally a different club to what it used to be.. they need to change the name. there were uni kids there gyrating up on each other in the most awkward way possible, and girls in tracksuits who took it literally when lol jon told them to bend over to the floor and touch their toes. it was painful i tell you. i had to look away. i was so much happier sitting at the bar watching royden make nel's martinis.
- after red lion closed at 2.30 (?!) we checked out DDH but it was dead too. nix and i decided to go to the restroom at moose's (coz that makes so much more sense than peeing at the hotel right? haha) and ended up staying a while, while nel went to the hotel and hung with the night crew.
- while nix did some ballroom dancing with some old dude i listened to chae sweet talk me. my favourite bit was when i asked why he was shaking his head at me and he replied "i'm just trying to shake the thoughts of you from my head.." hahah he was so adorable. OH! and when i asked him if he was from the south and he said "yes ma'am", i dropped. that phrase gets me every time. he was a nice guy.

DAY 10 - IMP / GERMAINE'S / MOOSE'S / GIBBY'S CRIB
- we went souvenir shopping at the intl market place and had another run-in with an angry stall owner just like last year. "you keep try, no buy!! always try, on and off, then put back and no buy! that is right size, buy now! you try, no buy!" OKAY! bye then! rude ass woman. sorry if we need to make sure the rings actually fit us before we buy them!? so we ran far away from her and her cursing.
- i got quite a lot of stuff but not as much as last year coz it was all the same thing. when we got home i did a money count and realised i'd spent around $700 in hawai'i alone. eeeeeek.
- next we went to catch our ride to germaine's luau. that was fun and we had a cute bus tour guide guy, cousin jaysin. too bad his jokes were lame.
- the luau was so lovely. we got to see the sunset and the food was awesome!!! the best meal i had in hawai'i by far. i wish the dancers were a little hotter like at paradise cove hehe. and i wish there were activities. but still, i liked that luau. very satisfying.
- that night we planned to go to zanzabar since everyone said it was poppin on tuesdays but when we got there the bouncer let us know there were only 8 people left. the heck?! it was only 1am!
- we went to DDH next but that was shit too so we landed at moose's. we don't even like moose's that much anymore and we still frequented it the most. they were playing dance music and michael jackson's greatest hits and other crap like that so i spent most of the night on the wall or sitting on a stool. i was a bit sad during the last song of the night (back at one.. ahhaha) coz i had no one to dance with :( i was stuck talking to Weird Filo Guy in Yellow Shirt about how nice a guy he was or something.
- we were sitting at hotel reception afterwards talking to brian and kalani when nix and i saw gibby walk past and he invited us back to his place again to meet his non-girlfriend. she was cute. it was so weird seeing this little asian thing sitting cradled against gibby.. kinda cute actually. it was not cute how at one point she straddled him though, right there on the couch next to nix. haha.
- pat got home and made us another one of his evil drinks.. i got real scared when i was about to take my first sip and nix whispered "smell it first!!!". man we were drunk after the first sip! all i remember was eating their pizza (after gibby told me 3 times he didn't want to give us any) and using their toy guns to shoot rubber darts at the tv. oh.. and for some reason we told them how much we liked the whisper song so they played it for us hahha. nang badu nang badu!!!!

DAY 11 - ALA MOANA / D&B & DDH / DENNY'S
- nix and i decided to leave gibby's before pat made us anymore drinks. we stumbled back to our hotel then chatted to brian and kalani until their shift ended at 6am. then we decided (and brian backed us up.. kalani really didn't care either way, he was too sleepy) that if we tried to sleep we'd never wake up and make it to ala moana beach, so we might as well just go and do the sleeping there.
- we caught TheBUS the earliest we'd ever caught in and got to ala moana beach by 7.01am. there were all these old people swimming back and forth in the water like it was a pool.. it was so weird! and that beach has absolutely no waves. we slept for about 2 hours all up (with no tanning oil.. grrrr nix!!) and when we couldn't take the heat and the dehydrated feeling anymore, we walked back to ala moana mall...
- where we received a call from rodney to say he was going to meet us there. nix and i just had to laugh at the fact that everytime we see these boys we looked less and less attractive. the night we met them we got drunk, the second time we were hung over and doing a freaking hike through the forest, the third time i was chasing nel down the street as she cussed at them, and now here we were on 2 hrs sleep, dehydrated, and with sand all over us. greeeeaaaaaattttt.
- when nel got there we did some more shopping.. i bought "andies" hehe and we got "thank you and goodbye" presents for the boys.
- along with solo we headed to dave & busters for our last night in hawai'i *tear*.. where we ran into rodney and brock (who were wearing the shirts we bought them that day! haha how cute). and so started one of the most awkward nights i've ever lived through.
- the line to get up to the bar in D&B was too long and nel was getting heated with some girls in front of us.. and since we didn't wanna hang out on a queue for our last night (and neither did we want another display of nel's fiesty side) we decided to leave and go to DDH.
- DDH was fun! i didn't dance much but it was still fun. we had a few dramas throughout the night.. i felt annoyed, sad, guilty, happy and relieved at least 5 times each while we were there. i even cried! i can't get over that!
- our time there ended up abruptly and we followed nel home. since it was our very last night in hawai'i, nix and i weren't ready to call it a night yet so for old times sake we went to denny's for some eats. awkward awkward awkward! it was an interesting night..

DAY 12 - BYE HAWAI'I
- i woke up with much difficulty and watched quietly as nix tried to sort out our airport transfer
- i said my goodbyes to solo outside the limo cab... which was really sad. coz i'm never gonna see him again.
- i had to have extra security measures carried out on me at the airport coz i handed them my receipt rather than my boarding pass and i guess that made me look like a terrorist or something
- the whole morning was messed up. i'm not gonna pretend i wasn't pissed and offended and most of all hurt by that, but whatever.
- and on that note, i said my goodbyes to the girls and headed to my own gate alone. and then our holiday was officially over :(


RANDOM CONVERSATIONS

*dancing to wait (whisper song)*
al: hey.. wasn't the plan to dance to this song with a boy? ... not each other...?
nix: .. oh yeh! .. oh no...
al: okay i'm gonna find solo

rodney: i'm going to Like Like (pronounced lih-keh lih-keh)
al/nix: .. what?
brock: its a road
nel: oh! i thought he was telling us he needed to use the restroom

nix: then we went to the military base --
al: *gasp* you went to a military base.. without ME?
nel: yeh we were driving in going "ooohhhh alisa's gonna hate us..."

*middle aged filo marine walks past and eyes us*
nel: .. yeh okay.. TITO

cousin jaysin: okay ladies, you're on this bus
nix: coolies!!!
al: did you really just say that nix? did you?

nel: i love how i have to break my back everytime i go to the toilet just to reach the toilet paper

*bitchy aussie girl pushes infront of nel*
al: pffft... perth!

nix: so.. gibby's actually nice..!
al: yeh! he doesn't hate us anymore. you even showered at his place!
nix: omg! why did i do that?
al: i have no idea! but it made sense at the time.

al: i was so squashed in the bed last night!
nix: so was i!
al: i thought it was you taking up all the room!
nix: i though it was YOU!
nel: oh gross, it was me

nix: can we get a donut with chocolate on it?
dunkin donuts guy: what about this one?
al/nix: OKAAAAAAY!!!

*phone rings*
nix: i'll get it!
al: that soooo better be solo..
nix: al, its for you
al/nel: who is it?
*nix shrugs*
al/nel: WHO IS IT?
nix: well... its not solo...

*nel talking on the phone at the top of diamond head*
nel: yeh its nice! ... we're okay ... alisa's dying

nel: you have bugs in your hair
nix: omg! get them out!
*silence*
nix: please?! i'd get them out for you!!!!
nel: yeh later. i wanna take a photo first.

*rodney turns on the a/c and brock opens his window*
rodney: yo brock what are we doing here? cooling down the whole world.. or..?

nix: brock was telling me he likes to go camping... with knives and guns...
al: like... for hunting?
nix: yeh... and i'm like "well.. i like sleeping.. at home.. in my bed"

rodney: hey brockli, do i go straight?
brock: uh.. no. go left.
*a minute later*
brock: oh.. actually...
rodney: you monkey ass chicken f*%#er! i was 75% going straight, then you said to go left so i went 25%, and now we're 100% this way! ... that doesn't make sense but it adds up!

rodney: you shithead!
brock: don't go there
rodney: oh my bad. i'm sorry. i called you something rude and i apologise
nel: what so... "shithead" is bad?
rodney: yes. i need to go home and cry now.

*playing truth or dare*
solo: i got a question for you! WHY was you all up on the geek in the club?!

al: i don't think gibby will let us cut the line...
nix: why not?
al: we're not THAT close..
nix: hello we were at his house till 5 this morning!

solo: yo fix her up. she bout to break loose.

al: omg what's in this drink?
pat: little bit of rum, fruit punch, and OJ
nix: "little bit" my ass! he was in the kitchen making it forever!

al: what the heck is going on with me?!
nix: i'm telling you al... unchartered territory!

al: haha you look like a little sailor girl nix!
nix: that's what nel said too
nel: except i said she looked like a little sailor boy

al: hi what are you guys doing?
brock/nix: saying goodbye

al: do i look like i've been crying?
nix: no..? do you want to look like you've been crying?
al: no..?
nix: don't cry al! *mwah* look! i can withdraw money in hawai'i! yay!

gibby: you ladies want a drink?
nix: not if it was that same shit from last time

al: have you .. grown or something?
pat: i was bout to ask if you've shrunk
al: shut up!
pat: well it don't matter to me. but you cut your hair!
al: ..yeh
pat: you cut it!
al: well.. its been 8 months! what was i supposed to do?

al: do you want another drink?
nix: ... okaaaaaay..
al: do you wanna not shout each other since we're so poor right now?
nix: okay!
(we ended up shouting each other 2 rounds anyway)

nel: its so mad singing in our bathroom! you can hear yourself so clearly!
al: yeh and we could hear you too
nel: i don't care! it sounds so nice in there!

nix: is that safe al?
al: no.. i'll probably wake up with a penis growing on my forehead or something