Everyday things about Big Island life that make visitors go "Wha?" (disposal, living in)

[hotzcatz]

That's even some considerate directions to get to Ken's House of Pancakes. If you didn't like the tourists, you could tell them to go out of the airport, turn right at the light, go to the next light and look left. They'd have a fun time trying to figure out how to get into Ken's parking lot across all the cars waiting at the light.

Well, Big Island is on a hill pretty much everywhere so there's usually a "down" and an "up" to the roads. Or "maikai" and "mauka" if it makes you happier.

Those mainland people keep expecting roads to have numbers on them or something. Someone asked me last week where "the 19" was. ???!! Never heard of it. After finding out they were looking for the highway, that was easy, though. It was two blocks directly ahead.

We're nice to tourists. If we were grumbly at them, we'd give them directions like we would local folks - i.e. "go to where the big mango tree used to be and turn down the little dirt road towards Auntie Lolo's place" etc. On Oahu it's places like "where Aloha Chevy used to be", etc., so it's not just us.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

That's even some considerate directions to get to Ken's House of Pancakes. If you didn't like the tourists, you could tell them to go out of the airport, turn right at the light, go to the next light and look left. They'd have a fun time trying to figure out how to get into Ken's parking lot across all the cars waiting at the light.

Well, Big Island is on a hill pretty much everywhere so there's usually a "down" and an "up" to the roads. Or "maikai" and "mauka" if it makes you happier.

Those mainland people keep expecting roads to have numbers on them or something. Someone asked me last week where "the 19" was. ???!! Never heard of it. After finding out they were looking for the highway, that was easy, though. It was two blocks directly ahead.

We're nice to tourists. If we were grumbly at them, we'd give them directions like we would local folks - i.e. "go to where the big mango tree used to be and turn down the little dirt road towards Auntie Lolo's place" etc. On Oahu it's places like "where Aloha Chevy used to be", etc., so it's not just us.

BTW when those ladies were talking about Big Island directions all I could think about was Trinidad driving directions... same thing. Maybe worse.

Example with captions since you probably can't understand the dialect:


Driving Directions Video - the Trini way! - YouTube

"Thas how yuh know yuh turned left by de right tree" = "That will be how you know that you took a left at the correct tree"

[MMoon17]

You guys sound nice.

[hotzcatz]

Pretty soon we won't have to give directions anymore. Folks are starting to show up with GPS units. My father-in-law brought one with him and couldn't even go to the local store without it. Sheesh! We don't have that many roads around here and if you get lost, you can't go anywhere anyway. It's an island. Eventually, you'll be back where you started since it's round and if you've circled it, you would have seen lots of stuff, too. Sometimes it seems mainland folks are all so busy trying to go someplace that they can't be where they are.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Pretty soon we won't have to give directions anymore. Folks are starting to show up with GPS units. My father-in-law brought one with him and couldn't even go to the local store without it. Sheesh! We don't have that many roads around here and if you get lost, you can't go anywhere anyway. It's an island. Eventually, you'll be back where you started since it's round and if you've circled it, you would have seen lots of stuff, too. Sometimes it seems mainland folks are all so busy trying to go someplace that they can't be where they are.

Although they're improving, most GPS units still mangle quite a few street names in Hawai'i and don't necessarily give the most efficient routes to a location. For instance, a late-model Garmin GPS unit would give the following directions in the "Hilo International Airport to Ken's House of Pancakes" example:

Turn right at "Ka-newlie-hoo-ha" Avenue (Kanoelehua Ave.), turn left on "Ka-mo-ha-mo-ha" Avenue (Kamehameha Ave.). Your destination is on the left. Recalculating. Make a legal U-turn as soon as possible. Recalculating. You have arrived. Ken's House of Pancakes 1730 "Ka-mo-ha-mo-ha" Avenue.

Most likely, someone will be up the street near the car dealership when the GPS unit tells them that they have arrived at Ken's.

[warptman]

I just returned from a week on the Big Island, I loved it! I didn't bother renting a GPS, I love a challenge and found local maps work well. Ken's is one of the best places we ate, all the local restaurants were also great. If you see a road anywhere on the island and it calls you, take it! I'll return one of these day, next time it'll be a longer stay!

[hotzcatz]

Oh dear, if Ken's is one of the best places you ate at, you missed the good ones! Ken's has a very extensive menu, but I'm not sure if it exactly has the best food. Interesting place to eat, it's always open and all, but "best" food? Although they do make great pancakes and waffles with a huge assortment of syrups for them. And the coffee just keeps coming. So, well, maybe it is good!

The new "wha?" around here is a pizza place temporarily operating part time out of a storage bay. There's two guys and a pizza oven, tables made from packing crates and the other half of the "restaurant" has a boat and furniture stored in it. They make a great pizza, though. I think they are looking for a more traditional type spot but can't find one yet or something, I didn't really ask.

[FallenIntoGreatness]

Which part of the BI is this storage bay pizzeria? Better yet, have they named it?

[hotzcatz]

They are over near Waimea, send me a PM and I'll try to describe their location to you but I don't know if they want to be overly public about where they are or what.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Hey, OpenD, can we add this to the list of "1001 Things they do differently in Hawaii"? There are probably a whole bunch of reasons why mobile homes (that have been popular on the mainland for something like 50-60 years) have not caught on in Hawaii. And it doesn't have anything to do with zoning.

You bet. If I was to do over again, I'd call this thread "1,001 Things We Do Differently in Hawai'i," and post it on the main page for Hawai'i, but I don't think we even had that forum back before this section of CD Forums was reorganized. But this will do.

To recap previous discussions, there are few house trailers in Hawai'i, and nobody has ever mentioned seeing any trailer parks anywhere in several iterations of this line of questioning.

For one thing, house trailers were illegal in Hawai'i for many years, and they are still not very practical here. Their lightweight construction and limited air circulation makes them a poor choice for a tropical location, and termites can make short work of the untreated wood typically used in their construction. Mold and mildew are common problems with typical house trailers here, and widespread presence of vog and acid rain can turn metal shells and aluminum trim into flimsy cheese in surprisingly short order.

The outrageous costs of shipping house trailers to Hawai'i is another key factor, because they can't be handled like ISO containers, and have to be rolled onboard like a vehicle. So all the economy of driving a house trailer, or... ahem... manufactured housing from the factory to the final site via truck is lost.

Also missing are the real estate economies of mainland trailer parks, where cheap land just a little ways off the main drag and a minimal cost to prepare a multi-unit zoned property for house trailers can add up to cheap housing options for those on limited incomes. To a large extent, I think that need is supplied in the islands by ohanas. These are the second residence unit (apartment, studio, attached or detached units), typically with only a kitchenette and no stove, found on many island properties which are intended for "ohana," or extended family under our building codes, but which often wind up as rental units.

Got that?