I have always enjoyed the Hawaiian Islands. I
like the climate, the plants, the beach, the mountains, hiking, swimming, scuba
diving, the food, the culture and the people. I’m comfortable spending the day
in sandals, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, with little to do but enjoy
whatever comes along. But this trip to O’ahu was bittersweet. Perhaps it was
the time of year or the amount of road construction, but I don’t remember that
the traffic was ever as difficult as it was this trip. I also don’t remember
the large numbers of homeless people (locals and foreign) nor the regularity
with which we encountered the obviously habitually inebriated (either through
drugs or alcohol); for the first time I did not feel particularly safe walking just
a block off the tourist areas. The environment seemed tired (for want of a
better word), with litter in the streets, along the beaches, and even in some
of the out-of-the-way places we visited. The local population of all of the
Hawaiian Islands continues to rise as does the tourist population; perhaps
population stressors are finally having a visible effect. Would I return to
this island? Yes, but only to visit the few places I have not seen and to eat
at one or two favorite restaurants. For information about my rating system, see
Reading
the Reviews.
