When a place is besieged with year-round visitors, how do you separate yourself from the pack? What are some ways to meet local people, to rise above being just another tourist?
After having made nearly 50 trips to Hawaii, I can offer these dozen suggestions for feeling at home in our island state:
1. Get lost. On my most recent trip, it was dusk as I left Kapalua, dark as I passed Lahaina and, as I was tooling along to my rental condo at Wailea, I took a wrong turn. There being only two main roads on the island of Maui, that was not an easy thing to do.
Alone and feeling a bit silly, and intimidated by the ever-growing stream of lights in my rear-view mirror, I pressed on rather than turning around. Suddenly the car seemed jittery and jumpy. Obviously, I was going up a hill, but with ever more lights urging me on I kept going up, and up. . . .
Finally a shopping center loomed ahead, and with great relief I pulled off the road, next to a Chinese restaurant with a name rather like ”Oh, phooey.” Being hungry and tired, in addition to lost, I went in. Not another tourist in sight, but lots of local people. I had a wonderful meal for $7, chicken and veggies stir-fried at the table. (I later learned the restaurant, whose name is Fu Wah, is considered one of the best places to eat on the island.)
That night after hauling out a map, the owner, the cook and the waiter showed me where I was (Pukalani, a good ways up Haleakala mountain) and how to get back to sea level again. (Just retrace my route, bearing left.) And so we parted. Instant friends. Nice experience.
2. Bone up before going. Take time to read not only tourist literature but also something of the colorful and lively history of the islands.
To learn that where I stayed on Kauai was a battlefield long ago, and later a hideaway for royal lovers, put an intriguing perspective on a visit last month. Check a library for books by Gavan Daws or A. Grove Day, or the late Sydney Clark, veteran travel writer.
3. Memorize a few basic Hawaiian words. Even just to be able to understand the local weather report-”Mauka showers drifting Makai,” for instance-is a cozy, triumphant feeling. (Translation: Rain from the mountains will blow out to sea.) Also, it`s convenient to know that restrooms are often labeled ”Wahine” for women, ”Kane” for men.
4. Scan the local paper. Kauai`s Garden Island Press, the Maui News and the Hilo Tribune have news of public happenings you can attend to flesh out a special vacation. School concerts, church luaus, rummage sales all bring you in touch with islanders.
5. Go to church. In the center of downtown Honolulu, Kawaiahao Church is a Sunday morning must. Services are said and psalms sung in both English and Hawaiian, and tiny birds flutter in and out of the windows kept open to the fresh ocean breezes. Some church services are held in unlikely settings: the veranda of the Paddling Club at Kalapaki Beach, Kauai, for instance, and the oceanfront lawn at the Maui Inter-Continental.
6. Visit a supermarket. Even if you`re staying in a hotel room with no kitchen facilities, shopping for ordinary needs is a great way to mix with local people and be charmed by the different displays. Where but in Hawaii would you find octopus given equal status with steaks, and lychees and passion fruit stacked alongside oranges? A colorful market on Kauai I especially enjoy: Sueoka`s at Koloa on the way to Poipu. (Note to nostalgia buffs who know the name from the famous hula song: There is no more Hasegawa General Store in Hana, Maui. It burned to the ground last winter.)
7. Rent a condo. Pretend (just for a little while) you live there.
In my recent home away from home, Ekahi unit 47 E at Wailea, Maui, ($145 a day, car and maid service included), it was easy to feel ”at home” while leaving shoes outside the door in the accustomed island manner, browsing the owners` book shelves, using the stereo to play my own purchases of Hawaiian music tapes.
8. Play golf. Many Islanders are as hooked on this sport as mainlanders. And because they get to play all the best courses for a lot less than you and I do, and with 18 holes of golf typically taking at least four hours, your chances are excellent for making a new island friend through golf.
9. Take an offbeat tour. For example: a snorkeling trip to Lanai, a mule ride down the cliffs of Molokai, a guided hike along the Kona coast. Even island people do things like this as a way to rekindle their interest in where they live and avoid succumbing to island fever, the ”trapped” feeling some get being surrounded by water.
10. Buy a beach mat. And then take it with you from beach to beach; all beaches are public in Hawaii. Many connect with each other. For less than $1, the investment in a straw mat gives you the freedom of strolling the beaches and flopping wherever you please to be part of the ever-changing scene.
11. Be curious. If you hear a musical group that you like on the restaurant intercom, ask the name. (The Makaha Sons of Niihau came into my life that way.)
Wonder what certain catchy words mean, such as ”Kiele,” ”Koele” and
”Kaahumanu?” Find out. Curiosity can open up a whole new world of pleasant discoveries. (Kiele-”fragrant gardenia”-is a tough Jack Nicklaus golf course on Kauai. Koele-”dark sugar cane”-is a Greg Norman course in the highlands of Lanai. Kaahumanu-a large shopping mall on Maui-is named for the favorite wife of the great Hawaiian king Kamehameha.)
12. Don`t stay away too long between visits. Hawaii, like just about everywhere else, is swept up in the throes of growth and development. Many of the changes are good; some are just plain awful. If you wait 10 or 15 years before returning, brace yourself for a shock.
No, it`s not like it used to be.
But then, it never was!
