1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (114 page)

Honolulu’s Chinatown has a history of constant change and an ability to rise phoenixlike and redefine itself. Chinese were first brought to Hawaii from Guangdong Province beginning in 1852 as indentured
laborers for the sugarcane and pineapple plantations. When their contracts were up, the immigrants looked around for better work, and many of them opened small shops and restaurants in the area around River Street, which soon prospered and by 1870 had become known as Chinatown.

Papered with Chinese movie posters, this produce stand on Chinatown’s King Street sells fresh local fruit.

The area has twice burned to the ground, in 1886 and in 1900—the second time because fires set to destroy bubonic-plague-infected houses got out of hand and burned the entire 40 acres. Chinatown not only rebuilt each time, but also continued to thrive. By the 1930s, tourists poured into the exotic area. A decade later, during WWII, sailors flocked to Chinatown in search of pool halls, tawdry bars, and good-time girls. Today, Chinatown is home to an eclectic mix of cultures, from Chinese to Vietnamese. Visitors come to bargain for jade and antiques, worship in incense-filled temples, pick up high-quality/low-priced leis, or eat authentic ethnic cuisine.

Food is central to the Chinatown experience, with everything for the East Asian kitchen—homemade noodles, fresh herbs, seafood, live poultry, you name it. A plethora of restaurants dishes up pho, pad thai, dim sum, and myriad other delights; a local favorite, Little Village Noodle House, offers such delicacies as super-fresh clams in lemongrass sauce and crispy pan-fried beef from its extensive menu. Chinatown goes all out for Chinese New Year, holding several big celebrations including the Narcissus Festival, with its queen pageant, cooking demonstrations, and cultural fair.

W
HERE
: 4 miles from Waikiki.
H
OW
: The Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Honolulu (tel 808-533-3181;
www.ccchi.org
) offers tours every Tues.
L
ITTLE
V
ILLAGE
N
OODLE
H
OUSE
: Tel 808-545-3008.
Cost:
dinner $10.
B
EST TIME
: Jan or Feb for Chinese New Year.

The World’s Most Famous City Shoreline

Honolulu, O’ahu, Hawaii

It used to be a swamp—its name, which means “spouting water,” comes from the springs that fed the taro patches and fishponds—but Waikiki also had a 2-mile crescent of sand, plenty of sunshine, and perfect waves rolling
into shore. So in the early days, after Honolulu became the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1845, the royalty wisely chose to build their beach homes on Waikiki.

At the turn of the next century, Moana Hotel was the first hotel to be built on Waikiki

Beach—it was considered cutting-edge because not only did each room have a private bathroom, but the hotel also had a telephone, an unheard-of luxury at the time. In 1906, the Hawaii Board of Health called Waikiki “dangerous and unsanitary” because of its swarms
of mosquitoes, and ordered the swamp drained. By the early 1920s, the Ala Wai Canal had been built, the former swamplands drained, and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel was constructed on the site of a former royal beach house. The “Pink Palace of the Pacific” is an institution beloved since it opened in 1927, and today it remains true to its time, though carefully updated.

A retreat for Hawaiian royalty in the past, Waikiki Beach continues to be a place for luxurious relaxation.

Just after statehood in 1959, when newly introduced jets were bringing visitors to the 50th state, builders usurped the rest of Waikiki Beach, resulting in today’s side-by-side cornucopia of tropical resort hotels. In fact, Waikiki even ran out of sand and for a couple of decades had to import it from Molokai, across the channel, to spread over the world-famous beach. It worked, and Waikiki still ranks as one of the world’s best urban beaches.

Today the sumptuous, intimate beachside Halekulani (“House Befitting Heaven”) is the premier hotel on O’ahu, and one of the best in the U.S., a 5-acre oasis of elegance that first opened in 1917. For the most romantic (and expensive) dining in town, visit its La Mer restaurant, whose superb preparation of fresh fish and island ingredients reinterprets the tenets of classic French cuisine. Downstairs, the hotel’s less formal oceanfront Orchids dining room has a famous Sunday brunch offering more than 200 dishes served buffet style, and draws as many Hawaiian families as visitors.

W
HERE
: Waikiki Beach is bordered by the Ala Wai Canal and Diamond Head.
M
OANA
S
URFRIDER
H
OTEL
: Tel 800-325-3535 or 808-922-3111;
www.moana-surfrider.com
.
Cost:
from $350.
R
OYAL
H
AWAIIAN
: Tel 800-325-3535 or 808-923-7311;
www.sheraton.com
.
Cost:
from $420.
H
ALEKULANI
H
OTEL
: Tel 800-367-2343 or 808-923-2311;
www.halekulani.com
.
Cost:
from $365; dinner at La Mer $95; dinner at Orchids $75.

A One-Stop Trip Around the Pacific

La’ie, O’ahu, Hawaii

The Pacific is vast, but you can experience its islands, its people, and its culture in a single day without leaving O’ahu. The Polynesian Cultural Center, a kind of living museum, details the lifestyles, songs, dance
, costumes, and architecture of seven Pacific islands—Fiji, New Zealand, Marquesas, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, and Hawaii—in recreated villages scattered throughout a 42-acre park. Visitors travel through the outdoor museum by foot or in canoes on a man-made freshwater lagoon, visiting villages “inhabited” by native students from Polynesia who attend the La’ie campus of Brigham Young University. Operated by the Mormon Church,
the park also features a variety of stage shows celebrating the music, dance, history, and culture of Polynesia, and a luau every evening. Just beyond the center is the Hawaii Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; completed in 1919, it was the first Mormon temple outside the continental U.S.

Since the 1970s, Hawaii has experienced a resurgence and revival of native Hawaiian culture. Not only is the Hawaiian language taught in public schools, but there has also been a renaissance in traditional Hawaiian arts—including weaving
lahaula
(the strawlike leaf of the hala tree), making the bark cloth known as
tapa,
building canoes, and navigating by the stars—in myriad programs, including the annual statewide celebrations known as the Aloha Festivals, which feature events ranging from an annual parade to a royal ball.

The biggest interest has been in hula, with a proliferation of
halau
(schools) teaching the ancient dance. The best way to experience this renaissance is to attend one of Hawaii’s many hula competitions. In June and July, top dancers from around the world travel to Honolulu to compete at the King Kamehameha Hula Competition, the Prince Lot Hula Festival, and the Queen Lili’uokalani Keiki Hula Competition, which features some 500 children from across the state.

Leis aren’t just beautiful; they were once used to signify peace agreements between disputing chiefs.

W
HERE
: 35 miles north of Waikiki; 55-370 Kamehameha Hwy. Tel 800-367-7060 or 808-293-3333;
www.polynesia.com
.
Cost:
from $50.
When:
closed Sun.
A
LOHA
F
ESTIVALS
: Statewide. Tel 800-852-7690 or 808-545-1771;
www.alohafestivals.com
.
When:
Sept–Oct.
K
ING
K
AMEHAMEHA
H
ULA
C
OMPETITION
: Honolulu. Tel 808-586-0333;
www.state.hi.us/dags/kkcc
.
When:
3rd weekend in June.
P
RINCE
L
OT
H
ULA
F
ESTIVAL
: Honolulu. Tel 808-839-5334;
www.mgfhawaii.com
.
When:
July.
Q
UEEN
L
ILI’UOKALANI
K
EIKI
H
ULA
C
OMPETITION
: Honolulu. Tel 808-521-6905.
When:
July.
B
EST TIME
: mid-May for the World Fire-Knife Dance Championships and Samoan Festival at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Big Waves, Big Kahunas

O’ahu, Hawaii

Ever since Hawaiians revived the ancient practice of surfing a century ago, and especially after Duke Kahanamoku—Olympic gold-medal swimmer and the original “Big Kahuna”—popularized it from Australia to
California, riding the waves has been the quintessential Hawaiian sport. For surfers and spectators alike, there’s no place like the

6-mile stretch of O’ahu’s North Shore from Hale’iwa to Sunset Beach, where in winter monster swells from Pacific storms rush unim-

peded toward reef breaks. This area of deserted beaches, spiky cliffs, and lush vegetation becomes a scene of death-defying thrill rides, as elite surfers come to test themselves against waves four to six stories tall. Cars, from prosaic rentals to sparkling BMWs to rusty pickups and kid-filled SUVs, line up bumper-to-bumper along the road to Waimea Bay, Sunset, and the fabled Banzai Pipeline off Ehukai Beach Park, taking throngs to see nature at its wildest. Only the very best surfers even attempt to enter the water when the big waves come, and those who manage to ride these gargantuan swells appear as fragile thumbnail figures on a raging backdrop. When the waves break and collapse, the ground actually shakes as if in an earthquake, and the air is filled with the roar.

It’s hard to believe that during the summer months, from April to October, these same tumultuous waters settle to a flat calm, inviting swimmers, kayakers, snorkelers, divers, and fishermen to come out to play. Hale’iwa, officially designated a historic, cultural, and scenic district, thrives in a time warp going back to 1899, when sugarcane king Benjamin Dillingham built a 30-mile railroad to link his Honolulu and North Shore plantations. Dillingham also opened a Victorian hotel overlooking Kaiaka Bay and named it Hale’iwa, or “house of the frigate bird,” the tropical seabird often seen here. The hotel and railroad are both gone, but Hale’iwa still draws visitors with its blend of funky old town and upscale boutiques. There’s also a busy fishing harbor full of charter boats whose captains hunt the Kauai Channel daily for tuna, mahimahi, and marlin.