Hawaii classic or dud

grady otm. though i just came because my family moved here. it was a big culture shock, but now i think it's kind of a good thing that locals scare off plenty of the more thin-skinned people who transplant themselves to hawaii. you have to earn your acceptance here, and it keeps the place from becoming another california.

there will never be another california

because california is awesome

I was really surprised when we got over to my aunt's place in Kohala, I was like "what are these fields of wavy grass doing on top of this volcano"

i love california too. but i'm glad hawaii is distinct from it demographically is all.

ecologically we're pretty different of course. one thing i love is exploring the new land created by the volcanic flows around Kalapana. last time i went, that wavy grass was just sprouting up in patches through the lava rock. felt like being on the moon, but with the ocean right there.

oh man we drove the 137 when we were there, that stretch of rocky lava coastline is insane

being able to stand on land that didn't exist when you were born is a trip

yes! that highway is a beautiful stretch in spite of the many angry hippies who inhabit puna. the hot spring at ahalanui park down in that area is great, too. it's the only one in the state, which is kind of surprising considering that japan has about 7000 of them.

fun fact: just last year, the lava flow nearly destroyed the old hippie town of pahoa. it came as near as 100 yards of the main drag, then petered out for the most part. everyone was talking about it.

yeah we stayed near Pahoa when we were there, so when I heard about that and I checked some videos of the lava flowing - it's kinda funny what a slow-motion disaster that was, like no one could stop it but it moved at a snail's pace.

definitely angry hippies in Puna, I felt like we were perpetually on the verge of becoming very unwelcome visitors to someone's clandestine weed farm

the best, weirdest kind of natural disaster: ultra-slow-motion, daily headline updates (5 yards closer!), simultaneously of almost no danger to human life and totally impossible to stop from destroying an entire town -- xp

in hilo the derogatory term for hippie (besides "hippie") is "punatic"

hahaha that's classic

yeah there was something very *Hawaiian* about the lava flow. People just standing around looking at this stuff crawling forward, "huh well nothing we can do about it. shit, there goes the corner store"

if can can if no can no can

xp hehe 'punatic'. man, it's a pretty hardscrabble life, subsisting on the organic farm. i stayed on one in puna for a couple nights. to make a long story short, i wouldn't recommend it and i can understand where the anger and disillusionment comes from.

bumbye you going learn you bettah get one edumacation and one job.

from what I've seen the big island (and most of the other islands I've been to tbh) don't seem v conducive to farming in general

quite rich soil in places, like the hamakua coast, but yeah there's not a lot of soil compared to a continent, and most of this island is the dry stuff full of lava particles that i think needs a lot of coaxing to grow much except ohia and jurassic park ferns (this is the soil they grow the coffee in, and the mac nuts -- not exactly subsistence crops). another reason the pre-contact population is impressive. when i was seven another serious problem with the soil was the zero possibility of dinosaurs.

classic

Dud: Idiot travel writers coming to confirm their biases, disregard the history of the place, and paint the people who live here with broad-brush stereotypes. You might not expect the NYT to publish something that reductive and ignorant, but there it is: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/magazine/hawaii-travels-escape.html

headed to aunt's place on the big island at the end of June!

The lava flows have been going crazy lately. Should still be a great time to go see it by boat or on foot when you're here :)

I'm idly curious to see the destruction wrought by the lava in Pahoa since the last time we were there. dunno if we'll get around to where the lava's actually hitting the ocean in the south (assuming that's still going on)

I didn't get a chance to take one when I visited last year, but I've heard good things about the guided lava tours around the Pahoa area, in case you'd like to seek them out.

Most tourist destinations attract tourists because they are naturally attractive places, which is classic. But tourists generate their own atmosphere and where they congregate in the greatest numbers suffers degradation in proportion. This is like a law of the universe.

I'll keep it in mind, at the moment we just bought our plane tickets and are trying to figure out where to stay next. We'll be there for 8 days, I think, with half of that spent at my aunt's in Kohala, but I think the other four days we'll probably stay somewhere near Hilo, idk have to look around

xp

As for places around Hilo, I would try to stay in the Volcanoes National Park area b/c that is forever my favorite natural place in the islands. Note sure if that's too distant from Hilo for you tho, it depends on your itinerary.

xp Agree that tourism inevitably is exploitative.

You might not expect the NYT to publish something that reductive and ignorant

isn't that basically what they do about everything, including their local coverage? IIRC we have a few threads on it

maybe just need a rolling "NYT is dumb #6590728340 in a series" thread

I'd like to visit hawaii one day though.

You're probably right. I've only read their more journalistic news stuff, not so much the lifestyle stuff. Anyway you should come visit some time.

shakey - highly recommend a day trip to Waipio Valley:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waipio_Valley

http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/content/rare-look-waipio-valley-hawaii-island

one of the weirdest and most beautiful places i've ever been to.

there are feral horses walking around!

Arriving on big island today huzzah

a-looooooooooooooo-ha!

Super nice weather on Oahu today! So I went on the Hanauma Bay Ridge Hike and snapped this photo.

http://i.imgur.com/ltKDi4Jl.jpg

Hope you'll be getting similar weather on the Big Isle :)

why do people bring their fucking drones to the beach, on vacation WHY

happened twice, immediately cast about for a rock to throw both times

Ppl bring them to make themselves feel like they haven't wasted hundreds of dollars iirc. Yeah that shit is pretty annoying.

I feel like drones should be fair game for ppl with things to throw / slingshots

on the plus side I swam with some sea turtles and saw an (apparently rare?) hawaiian monk seal, so that was cool

Oh! All those creatures are magical. And yes the Monk Seal is fairly rare, population currently is about 1,500, I just heard on the news.

Classic: Monk seals birthing and raising pups on the busiest beaches in Waikiki.

http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/content/rocky-endangered-hawaiian-monk-seal-gives-birth-kaimana-beach-waikiki

Waikiki FAP this week? Or not nbd always next time

Waikiki... FAP?

Kaka'ako FAP > Waikiki FAP imho

any other ilxors got INCOMING BALLISTIC MISSILE THIS IS NOT A DRILL on wireless emergency alert this morning? better than coffee.

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/9522437235256770

i think i'm coming around on her

oh that's not how it works? okay well tulsi says there is actually no inbound nuke. good arguments on both sides imo

okay official never-mind notice. this has been cool cuz i definitely needed an experience that made our moment feel both more real and less

wait...so what actually happened?

how much time passed between the 'you're going to die' and 'oops, false alarm' messages?

wtf

40 minutes.

waht

The moment the EAS alert interrupted Hawaiian TV is terrifying pic.twitter.com/pVwpCBeRgD

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 13, 2018