Since MM fell asleep earlier last night, she woke up earlier the next day than RB. She went and grabbed a coconut flavoured mocha from a local chain, Kimobean. It was sooooo good, even RB approved of it, when she went back to wake him up.
They popped by the hotel's "business center" and looked up where good food trucks were. MM encountered her brother on gchat and he demanded a coconut bra. So be it.
They then took the #8 bus to the Ala Moana mall and had breakfast in the foodcourt. A poke ("poe-kee") bowl from Bangaa Bangaa with wasabi sauce, and 3 char-siu buns with scallions and hoison sauce from the chinese bakery.
They then hunted for a #52 bus route map, only to find that the info center and city hall were out. They improvised and spied some others at the bus stop checking out a map...and followed them. Bwahaha. The #52 bus took them right through the center of Oahu to the north shore. RB fell asleep on the bus, and missed the rundown, sketchy-looking inland town of Millilani, and the first food truck spotting of the day: Blue Shark parked next to a gas station.
As they approached Haleiwa, the famed area for shrimp trucks, they passed Mack's, Giovanni's, Hono's, another I forget, and another seen in the pics below. Although they weren't hungry yet, they tried shrimp scampi (mini) with garlic rice from Giovanni's, since it as most famous, most popular that day, and cheapest. Shrimp scampi turns out to be just like chinese shrimp and garlic stirfry, except that it was mildly overcooked. The garlic over the rice was very good though. All very greasy. There was also a shocking number of flies hovering over the garbage bins. All the tables were sticky. It was definitely roughing it out there.
Haleiwa (ha-lay-ee-va) turned out to be a small stretch of old rickety wooden buildings of a village. To balance all the meat and carbs they were eating, they shared an acai smoothie. Acai bowls, btw, are immensely popular in Hawaii. MM found a coconut bra for her bro at a souvenir shop.
They headed north to Haleiwa beach, where the waves were huge...up to 1.5 meters high. The waves were soo scary, MM totally chickened out of swimming. RB thought it looked kinda fun and went for it. He froggy swam against the current, and sometimes it was difficult to tell if he was making any progress. Upon leaving to change back into dry clothes, MM and RB finally noticed a giant sign forbidding swimming at this beach due to the "strong current". They scurried away asap, looking as innocent as possible.
There was just enough time to check out the Dole Plantation and so they stopped by on their way back. They got on the last train tour (scammed at $8/person).
Upon returning to Ala Moana, transfer point, they took another bus to Hawaii's best burger joint - Kua Aina Burgers. It was kinda raw and mushy. Wasn't as good as Big Kahuna's. The fries were the thinnest they've ever had...they got dry and crunchy really fast. Mildly disappointed though it was still good.
Returned to the hotel, had instant noodles, and took a night walk down Kalakaua and to Waikiki beach. A lot of homeless beggars appeared at night. One illegal flame thrower was on the beach practising, and they found themselves at the end of Kuhio and walked back super tired and fell asleep.
