Then a hotel view of the ocean.During the two weeks I was there I never saw any of the famous big surf anywhere however the surf at Waikiki always seems neat and reliable even when it is small.
Hawaii is a "package tour" destination for Japanese and increasingly Chinese tourists.They come in their tens of thousands.They shop in the designer label stores,they dabble their toes in the sea - some even take surfing lessons and they take thousands of selfies with that invidious invention the selfie stick.Let's hope that the selfie stick craze passes rapidly and that all the shops that are stocking up with them get stuck with the inventory.
I like the photo of the photo booth.A Japanese couple slipped into it -you can just see two feet-not noticing I was nearby.They were in there for some time and there were a strange muffled noises......
In Waikiki the Japanese tour companies have dedicated buses and fake trolleys which their customers can hop on and off for free.That's the story behind the "Look" bus below.
Everywhere I went there were people looking at their phones.Phonephobia is not confined to any nationality.I reckon that at any given time 60% of the people lying on Waikiki Beach are playing with their phones.I saw families having dinner with the mother and father looking at their phones with small children totally ignored and obviously looking for attention.That to me looks like a form of child abuse.I even saw a woman riding pillion on a Harley-Davidson at high speed (and with no helmet as helmets are not compulsory in Hawaii) on the freeway and she was texting on a big screen phone with one hand.Sacre bleu.
For many people phone fiddling seems a very serious addiction.I just cannot understand it.Why go on holiday with your friends or family all the way to Hawaii and spend all that time looking at your phone? It is killing social skills.It is destructive and above all else it is sad."What were you doing whilst your children grew up? I was looking at stupid videos on Youtube and updating my Facebook page telling people what a great time we were having.And I posted a few selfies each day."Oh yes.
I did see some spectacular scenery in Hawaii but landscape photography is not my thing.The landscape shot was taken on the north of the island of Maui.We drove up the winding.very scenic and quite challenging coastal road and were close to our destination when we found the road closed as three Swedish ladies had managed to drive their rental car off the road and over the edge into a deep ravine the day before and a tow truck was trying to winch it back upto the road.Whilst we waited I took the photo.Not surprisingly the ladies did not walk away from the accident and one sustained very serious injuries.I hope that she is recovering and that she has adequate insurance as a helicopter was required to airlift her out to hospital.The telephone call they had to make to the rental car company explaining why they were not bringing the car back on time would have not been easy.
After a long wait it was obvious that the retrieval operation was going to be a drawn out affair and so I backtracked and ended up having lunch at the Maui Brewery many kilometres back down the road.Twenty years ago the US was a beer desert but now it seems that every small town has a microbrewery and they make really good beer.The Maui Brewery in particular makes a great brew called Bikini Blonde Lager.They even serve it on Hawaiian Airlines.Bikini Blonde is one of the good things about Hawaii.
Leica X1 photos.
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