Hawaii Day 3: Diamond Head & random exploring

RB & MM started their first fully rested day together by trying a cheap and nearby restaurant...largely persuaded by MM's hunger and a little old lady insisting they check the place out.  They tried their first "hawaiian" fusion food: loco moco and spam. 

Loco moco was a perfect meld of meat and rice, a warm gooey comfort food to rival mac-n-cheese, and was the ultimate deconstructed burger.

 

After finishing breakfast, they could not help but notice the large chinese influences in Hawaiian cuisine.  For example...

They then took the #23 bus to Diamond Head, a closeby hiking trail up a crater.

Tunnel leading to Diamond Head

It had a number of stairs, but was nothing for the extremely fit pair...cough cough choke choke.  

They made it to the top...which was just an old military lookout bunker.  Nice views though...lots of pretty beaches and giant mansions and solar panels and seriously giant mansions...

 

Waikiki beach...around the pink building...just to the left of it.

Looking chill in his (fake) polarized shades.

When they came back down, MM could not resist her first food truck...and bought another hawaiian favourite: shaved ice.  It was disappointing...as it was essentially a snow cone, but in a cooler looking cup.

Then RB meticulously read his bus guide and brochures and figured out which bus we needed to take to get back to Waikiki.  The first bus that came, was unfortunately the wrong one...a #3...but RB was overcome with a fit of spontaneity and threw MM onto it!  So much for planning.  They ended up at some transfer point north of Diamond Head, in the middle of a slightly run down, old and small suburban street. 

They walked down a few blocks, and examined the stores, which included various eateries.  They settled on a crepe shop...and MM ordered a crepe, solely based on its witty name and a weird craving for mushrooms.  It was delish.  Whilst in the shop, they got directions to head to the botanical garden.

Crazy expensive char siu!

They then promptly ignored the directions, explored the local Goodwill (nothing good), and then hopped on a #1 bus, heading exactly opposite.  And got off when things looked dangerously far...into some area in Hawaii Kai.

                                    
They found a large shopping plaza and they eventually figured out that they were at the Koko Marina.

As a pleasant surprise, they found the cheapest sushi take out they had ever seen.  Everything in Kozo Sushi was about 1/2 that of Toronto's sushi!  RB's eyeballs were huge and he salivated and was instantly in love.  They had a a light snack to celebrate their lucky find.

Turns out this is a chain.  Found another one near Ala Moana mall.

                                    

Dragon roll

They hopped back onto a #1 bus, heading what they thought was Waikiki.  And got off when they realized they were waaaaay off.

 

  Luckily, they were within a few blocks of the giant shopping mall, Ala Moana, the central bus station.  On their way to the mall, they explored a local Korean supermarket.  They bought a papaya and instant noodles.  The papaya had yellow flesh when it was ripe...it was sweeeeet.  MM also picked up a japanese version of Gatorade...except that it's older and better tasting, aka Pocari Sweat.  (Okay, not better named though...)

Somewhat un-trusting of the bus system, and also their ability to find a decent route map, they walked back to the hotel.  It was surprisingly close - only about 10-15 mins away. 

To cap off their long day of random discoveries, they went to the Big Kahuna restaurant, which MM thought was a fusion place, but it was more of a bar.  The waitress was unable to understand why we didn't order alcohol.  Her closed-mindedness was nicely overshadowed with a most awesome Hawaiian burger and mahi mahi.

                                   

MM, still tired from her long flight, fell asleep by 10 PM, while RB stayed up until midnight, planning their next trip with their growing collection of free brochures.