Tourist Town

For the most part, everything in Waikiki revolves around the tourist dollar. The town itself hugs the beach and is seperated from the rest of Honolulu by a wide canal. Soaring hotels mimic the palms as they break the skyline, and at street level souvanier shops are as colourful as the hibiscus and frangipani.

But like the frangipani perfume, all that glitter and lack of substance becomes very overpowering. I would love to see the real Haiwai but even the culture comes at a cost and at this end of my trip there is not a lot of time or money to venture too far from the prescribed tourist area. I think if I returned I would venture over to the other islands and find something a little less "made in China". The most prevalent shop here is the ABC store which appears on nearly every corner. There is no love lost by the locals who see these stores as a cheap imitation of their culture nicely packaged for the tourists. It is hard to find any unique souveneirs.

Today I fly out, but I took a shopping trolley trip to the bid mall which was quite a contrast to the streets of Waikiki as all the big name department stores were there with there big prices. Did manage to get a real bargain handbag at Sears - $49 reduced to $7.99!

Looking forward to being back home and seeing the rest of my family!