Sunday, November 21, 2004
Hawaii, Part 7: Third day on Oahu
The morning of October 10th was full of promise: I'd booked a visit to Sea Life Park on the east side of the island and an up close and personal tour of the dolphin training facility. There was a family at the shuttle pick-up spot with me who spoke French; I didn't understand enough to figure out where they were from (maybe not France). When we got on the shuttle, I took the last available seat next to a nice Japanese couple. Because they'd heard the people I got on with speaking French, they thought I was with that family and started speaking to me in French. I took French in college, so I knew a little of what they were saying. But then they heard me speak in English to the shuttle driver, so they tried to talk to me in English.
It was about at 45 minute drive to the park, so I had time for some conversation. The couple next to me were from Tokyo; the man knew English better than the woman, so he translated what I was saying to his wife and vice versa. I found out their trip had been delayed by a typhoon and that they'd had to change a lot of their plans around. We figured out that our home cities were probably an equal distance away from Hawaii. We talked about what we liked to do at home (the lady enjoyed snowboarding), and the efficiency of public transportation in Tokyo. Again I found myself wishing I had more than a rudimentary understanding of Japanese.
Because I'd booked the dolphin encounter tour, I was allowed to enter the park half an hour before it opened to the public. This was great; it was still cool outside, and with only the others from the shuttle in the park, I had uncrowded access to any place I wanted to go. I got lots of photos of the animals in the park: sea lions, green sea turtles, sting rays, even Chilean penguins. And when the park did officially open, I had a front row seat at the first dolphin show.
My tour of the dolphin training area was an hour and a half after the park opened. There were about 15 of us in the tour including the couple I'd traveled with. We all brought swimsuits and towels, but for some reason, I'd forgotten to put on my aqua-shoes and had worn tennis shoes. I put them in the locker, thinking it probably wouldn't matter if I walked barefoot. That proved to be very wrong.
The first place we went was to the large performance area where there were four bottlenose dolphins who were veteran performers. After we put on life jackets, we went out to the water's edge, where one of the instructors gave us some information on dolphin anatomy with one of the dolphins (their participation is voluntary). Then in small groups of up to four, we waded slowly out in the water and swam to the deep area wearing goggles. While gazing down into the water below us, the dolphins swam underneath us so we could get a good look at them. Three out of the four felt like participating, so we were allowed with the trainer's supervision to swim close enough to a dolphin to actually touch him. The one I met looked me right in the eye; he looked sooo intelligent, and I could swear he was smiling at me! He was about 30 years old, and had lived at the park for several years. I did make one mistake; I'm not a very strong swimmer, and my leg accidentally got in the way of his tail. Boy, can they kick! It hurt like the dickens, but that was my fault, not his. This dolphin seemed to really enjoy having his tummy rubbed, and of course was fond of the fish we fed him.
Part two of the tour was at the behind-the-scenes training area. This was quite some distance from the performance area on blacktop that was scalding hot and growing hotter by the minute. I did my best to walk in the shady areas, but I burned the bottoms of my feet before we got there. Once there, we were taught some basic hand signals they use to train the dolphins, such as asking them to "sing" (vocalize), and to lean on one side waving a flipper like they're saying goodbye. Then we got to try this with a young dolphin in training, and when he indicated he was feeling friendly that day, we got to walk up to the edge of the tank and give him a tummy rub too. We also got to meet a "whalphin", part bottlenose dolphin and part false killer whale. She was a dark charcoal color with the rounded snout of a whale, but about the size of a dolphin. She was also quite friendly and seemed to enjoy the attention.
So in spite of the blistered feet, the dolphin encounter is something I'll never forget. They really are beautiful creatures, and probably smarter than we'll ever know. Being eye to eye with one, even briefly, was the experience of a lifetime.
The shuttle left the park about 1pm to go back to Waikiki. I got back to the condo about an hour later; I had only until 4pm to be cleaned up and ready to go to a luau. I think I took an hour long nap so I wouldn't be completely devoid of energy that night (only partly devoid of energy, ha ha). I decided some "Aloha wear" would be appropriate for this occasion, so I put on my new purple shirt with the hibiscus flowers on it. This excursion required a shuttle too, but we arrived at the pick-up location in plenty of time. The vehicle that came to pick us up was a full-size bus, and there were enough of us to fill every seat.
Our guide to and from the luau was a local named Paul. He told a lot of entertaining stories and played us some songs on the ukelele, so we were in the mood to party by the time we arrived. The luau was located on a private beach, and there was probably enough seating for at least 500 people. There were several other buses besides ours, and I guessed there were about 400 in attendance. We chose one of the tables nearest the stage; we had one to ourselves because nobody wanted to sit on the sand (the ones further back had benches). So I had a great view of the stage in order to get good photos.
I was feeling festive, so I ordered a virgin pina colada, which was delicious. We got reasonably comfy as the sun went down (as comfy as one can be sitting on the ground), and then some people on stage sounded horns made from conch shells to signal the beginning of the feast. I'd read up on luaus a bit, so I had a good idea of what I could and couldn't eat. I had lomi lomi salmon (marinated with onions and tomatoes like a salsa), kalua pork (roasted pork), white rice, poi and coconut pudding. The poi was a little weird, but everything else was awesome, and I threw caution to the wind and actually went back for a small serving of seconds.
As we ate, the entertainment began. They started with a lady singing songs in Hawaiian to the accompaniment of a band. Later, the dancers began, demonstrating different styles of dance from various parts of the Pacific. Some looked fairly traditional while some were very obviously modern, at least in attire (like outfits that glowed in the dark). Some dances were slow and beautiful and others had the performers moving so fast they were just a blur. Some were done by men only, others by women only, and some had them dancing together in pairs.
The comic relief of the evening was when the audience members were invited onstage to learn to hula. I think the men were funnier than the women, mainly because they didn't care if they looked awkward. There were kids up there too, and all seemed to have a good time. At one point, they selected one of the men from the audience to go onstage with one of the Tahitian (I think) lady dancers. Even though this woman probably does this every evening, the guy they picked was so goofy that she could not stop laughing.
The only disappointment was the fire dance, where the performer juggles lit torches. This man must have been having an off night because he dropped the batons more than once. I was sure he was going to set himself or an audience member afire. Guess it was a reminder that these things are even harder than they look.
Overall, though, the dancing was great and plenty entertaining for both men and women. The show was surprisingly lengthy, too....I think at least three hours? By the time it concluded, I'd taken well over 100 pictures, and I had to be helped to stand because I was so sore from sitting on the sand. It was well worth the discomfort, anyway.
On the way home, Paul taught us a song on the ukelele....we sang along to "Just Hang Loose". I was sleepy, but satisfied. I think we got home about 10pm, and I'm sure I fell asleep shortly after.
It was about at 45 minute drive to the park, so I had time for some conversation. The couple next to me were from Tokyo; the man knew English better than the woman, so he translated what I was saying to his wife and vice versa. I found out their trip had been delayed by a typhoon and that they'd had to change a lot of their plans around. We figured out that our home cities were probably an equal distance away from Hawaii. We talked about what we liked to do at home (the lady enjoyed snowboarding), and the efficiency of public transportation in Tokyo. Again I found myself wishing I had more than a rudimentary understanding of Japanese.
Because I'd booked the dolphin encounter tour, I was allowed to enter the park half an hour before it opened to the public. This was great; it was still cool outside, and with only the others from the shuttle in the park, I had uncrowded access to any place I wanted to go. I got lots of photos of the animals in the park: sea lions, green sea turtles, sting rays, even Chilean penguins. And when the park did officially open, I had a front row seat at the first dolphin show.
My tour of the dolphin training area was an hour and a half after the park opened. There were about 15 of us in the tour including the couple I'd traveled with. We all brought swimsuits and towels, but for some reason, I'd forgotten to put on my aqua-shoes and had worn tennis shoes. I put them in the locker, thinking it probably wouldn't matter if I walked barefoot. That proved to be very wrong.
The first place we went was to the large performance area where there were four bottlenose dolphins who were veteran performers. After we put on life jackets, we went out to the water's edge, where one of the instructors gave us some information on dolphin anatomy with one of the dolphins (their participation is voluntary). Then in small groups of up to four, we waded slowly out in the water and swam to the deep area wearing goggles. While gazing down into the water below us, the dolphins swam underneath us so we could get a good look at them. Three out of the four felt like participating, so we were allowed with the trainer's supervision to swim close enough to a dolphin to actually touch him. The one I met looked me right in the eye; he looked sooo intelligent, and I could swear he was smiling at me! He was about 30 years old, and had lived at the park for several years. I did make one mistake; I'm not a very strong swimmer, and my leg accidentally got in the way of his tail. Boy, can they kick! It hurt like the dickens, but that was my fault, not his. This dolphin seemed to really enjoy having his tummy rubbed, and of course was fond of the fish we fed him.
Part two of the tour was at the behind-the-scenes training area. This was quite some distance from the performance area on blacktop that was scalding hot and growing hotter by the minute. I did my best to walk in the shady areas, but I burned the bottoms of my feet before we got there. Once there, we were taught some basic hand signals they use to train the dolphins, such as asking them to "sing" (vocalize), and to lean on one side waving a flipper like they're saying goodbye. Then we got to try this with a young dolphin in training, and when he indicated he was feeling friendly that day, we got to walk up to the edge of the tank and give him a tummy rub too. We also got to meet a "whalphin", part bottlenose dolphin and part false killer whale. She was a dark charcoal color with the rounded snout of a whale, but about the size of a dolphin. She was also quite friendly and seemed to enjoy the attention.
So in spite of the blistered feet, the dolphin encounter is something I'll never forget. They really are beautiful creatures, and probably smarter than we'll ever know. Being eye to eye with one, even briefly, was the experience of a lifetime.
The shuttle left the park about 1pm to go back to Waikiki. I got back to the condo about an hour later; I had only until 4pm to be cleaned up and ready to go to a luau. I think I took an hour long nap so I wouldn't be completely devoid of energy that night (only partly devoid of energy, ha ha). I decided some "Aloha wear" would be appropriate for this occasion, so I put on my new purple shirt with the hibiscus flowers on it. This excursion required a shuttle too, but we arrived at the pick-up location in plenty of time. The vehicle that came to pick us up was a full-size bus, and there were enough of us to fill every seat.
Our guide to and from the luau was a local named Paul. He told a lot of entertaining stories and played us some songs on the ukelele, so we were in the mood to party by the time we arrived. The luau was located on a private beach, and there was probably enough seating for at least 500 people. There were several other buses besides ours, and I guessed there were about 400 in attendance. We chose one of the tables nearest the stage; we had one to ourselves because nobody wanted to sit on the sand (the ones further back had benches). So I had a great view of the stage in order to get good photos.
I was feeling festive, so I ordered a virgin pina colada, which was delicious. We got reasonably comfy as the sun went down (as comfy as one can be sitting on the ground), and then some people on stage sounded horns made from conch shells to signal the beginning of the feast. I'd read up on luaus a bit, so I had a good idea of what I could and couldn't eat. I had lomi lomi salmon (marinated with onions and tomatoes like a salsa), kalua pork (roasted pork), white rice, poi and coconut pudding. The poi was a little weird, but everything else was awesome, and I threw caution to the wind and actually went back for a small serving of seconds.
As we ate, the entertainment began. They started with a lady singing songs in Hawaiian to the accompaniment of a band. Later, the dancers began, demonstrating different styles of dance from various parts of the Pacific. Some looked fairly traditional while some were very obviously modern, at least in attire (like outfits that glowed in the dark). Some dances were slow and beautiful and others had the performers moving so fast they were just a blur. Some were done by men only, others by women only, and some had them dancing together in pairs.
The comic relief of the evening was when the audience members were invited onstage to learn to hula. I think the men were funnier than the women, mainly because they didn't care if they looked awkward. There were kids up there too, and all seemed to have a good time. At one point, they selected one of the men from the audience to go onstage with one of the Tahitian (I think) lady dancers. Even though this woman probably does this every evening, the guy they picked was so goofy that she could not stop laughing.
The only disappointment was the fire dance, where the performer juggles lit torches. This man must have been having an off night because he dropped the batons more than once. I was sure he was going to set himself or an audience member afire. Guess it was a reminder that these things are even harder than they look.
Overall, though, the dancing was great and plenty entertaining for both men and women. The show was surprisingly lengthy, too....I think at least three hours? By the time it concluded, I'd taken well over 100 pictures, and I had to be helped to stand because I was so sore from sitting on the sand. It was well worth the discomfort, anyway.
On the way home, Paul taught us a song on the ukelele....we sang along to "Just Hang Loose". I was sleepy, but satisfied. I think we got home about 10pm, and I'm sure I fell asleep shortly after.
Comments:
Post a Comment
