Rich and Strange Aeons

* Finally had a fellow guest, who turned out to be pretty interesting to talk to. Chatted a couple hours the first night, then he gave me a tour of Ala Moana and Koreatown the second.

* Mailed passport renewal stuff. I feel naked without a passport in hand.

* Visited Ala Moana, took some nice photos of the bay

* Visited Waikiki. Both areas are definitely more 'happening' than downtown, but yeah, pretty commercial and touristy off the beach. I couldn't find the area where I stayed in 1996.

* Tried visiting Manoa Falls. Turned out to be a longer hike than I expected, and very muddy. Crocs are great in many ways but "stable on slippery inclines" is not one of them; I eventually turned back, fearing a twisted ankle or worse if I kept going. I got told it was worse than usually ironically because it *hadn't* rained for the past few days, with tourists spreading the mud around. Lots of gravel, but not helpful because the stones were all covered in mud.

A parking lot had 30+ chickens and a few cats. The cats were way more scared of me than even a mother hen with chicks was.

* Took a bus to Kailua on the windward side. The bus ride was pretty neat, straight through the central mountains and greenery. Kailua itself was okay, a disappointingly cloudless and sunny day. I had a catchup call with Jane (been 27+ weeks!) on the beach, though. Well, behind the beach, with grass and shade.

** Had another 'interaction' on the bus. This woman was eating some food, dropped a lid, and seemed ot be having trouble coordinating things to pick it up safely, so I went to help. First response "I got it!", followed by many repetitions of "I don't have a shroke" [sic], making me think that she indeed had had a stroke. :(

* I don't think I saw a single rainbow in Hawaii this visit, vs. 1996 where I saw one every day for at least the first part, on the windward side of the big island.

* For my final day I had various options: zoo ($19, "feels bigger than it looks"); Diamond Head crate ("great view", "no shade"), or the Honolulu Museum of Art ("biggest collection of Asian art", indoors so no Nature, but indoors so A/C.) Given that just walking downhill with a parasol to dim sum had gotten me sweaty, I opted for the museum. It was pretty good! The Japanese and Chinese rooms aren't that big but still interesting. Pretty big Indian/SE Asian gallery, and Philippine room.

* Went back to the secular book group, to watch the movie "Merchants of Doubt", which starts with the tobacco industry lies and segues to the global warming denier lies. Interesting if depressing. The group was neat as before, friendly and even remembering that I was leaving the next day, I'm glad I met them.

Flew to Honolulu via Sydney. Wasn't too bad. Didn't sleep much on the plane. US customs was surprisingly painless, and almost disturbingly so: I even told the passport kiosk I had food, but no one asked me what it was.

Time is weird. I left at 2pm 27 November, and arrived at noon 27 November.

I kind of regret my choices. My immediate neighborhood here has no sidewalks or safe green space to walk on, so it's dicey until I get to the sidewalks on busier streets. Downtown might have been better but also more expensive and this place ain't cheap as it is.

Kind of twisted my ankle yesterday. Don't think it's too bad but I'm taking it easy today, given all slopes I'd have to walk down and up.

Took Lyft/Uber twice. Kept getting told the many airport shuttles only do hotel dropoffs, not the home dropoff of SuperShuttle. Then took an Uber with my groceries, given my ankle. Bus infrequent and would leave an uphill walk.

Bus system apparently mostly runs on cash. They experimented with a smart card last year but I can't find any mention of some place that actually sells them. There are monthly passes for $70, tried to figure if it'd make sense to get one. If I took the bus twice a day for the next 13 days, yes.

7-11 here has no real groceries to speak of but does have bento and onigiri, though they call the latter something else.

Have seen various small kids on their own, all Asian or native looking.