Everyday things about Big Island life that make visitors go "Wha?" (Hilo: house, neighborhood)

[hotzcatz]

There is a gas station we usually fill up the truck at since it has tasty manapua. If a gas station has a good manapua as well as spam musubi and good coffee, then it's a full service gas station, IMHO.

Spam musubi is a slab of Spam usually lightly grilled sitting on a ball of sushi rice and wrapped with seaweed. They are quite tasty and they sell them at gas stations and 7-11s and such places.

Oh, something else this island lacks is same day or overnight mail service. You can pay for overnight mail service, but it will still take three to five days to get to where ever you sent it. Same for just about any expedited mail or package service, it's gonna take three to five days to get it anywhere. Doesn't matter if you pay more or not, it's still gonna take three to five days to get there. You can put things on the plane - Aloha Air Cargo is still around even if Aloha Airlines passenger service folded - and then folks can get them off the plane at the other end. That's about the quickest way to get things to Oahu, dunno how you'd get them quickly to the mainland, though. I don't know if that's exactly an "overnight service" or not since you have to go to the airport and whoever you are sending it to has to go to the airport, too. That's how they airlift the Krispy Kreme doughnuts over from Maui for the school fund raisers.

[AlohaHuey]

YMMV on the overnight...I sent in my pet request form to the DOA via Express and included a self-addressed Express envelope, and it arrived on a turnaround I would have expected in the mainland. For west coast cities, the service is pretty decent.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by AlohaHuey

YMMV on the overnight...I sent in my pet request form to the DOA via Express and included a self-addressed Express envelope, and it arrived on a turnaround I would have expected in the mainland. For west coast cities, the service is pretty decent.

Yeah, a FedEx Overnight Letter will get to most West Coast Cities the next day, but takes two days to the rest of the country. And the cutoff time is early... 4:30 at Hilo Airport?

Express Mail is slower, 2 - 3 days, and if you want to mail it here in Volcano, the cutoff time is 12:30pm.

But yes, "overnight" service in this direction is generally faster than outbound service, due to the islands being in a later time zone.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by PacificFlights

How are local residents able to drive 60 mph in a mini van full of goods from Costco over the rutted western end of Saddle Road while drinking cold soda in a cup WITHOUT a top and not spill a drop but visitors can't even get to 20 mph on that same road in their new rental SUV without feeling like they are on the Crazy Shaker ride at an amusment park?

It's called Car Surfing. Kama'aina (long-time residents) know that there's a certain speed on rutted roads that allows a car to surf along on the tops of the ruts without ever hitting bottom. And it's usually pretty fast.

[henry1]

you guys are makeing me laugh and i allready shot soda over the screen once today ..

good thing about the donuts and i wonder if bought a Krispy Kreme donut stand to the big island do you think it would make money off the locals and where to put it to get max amount of traffic from the people on the island

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by henry1

i wonder if bought a Krispy Kreme donut stand to the big island do you think it would make money off the locals and where to put it to get max amount of traffic from the people on the island

Maybe if you offered a breakfast sandwich made with a slice of teriyaki spam between two donut halves.

One reason there are so few mainland food franchises here (you noticed that, right?) is that Hawai'i has such a rich and diverse food tradition here already, from the accumulated tastes of Japanese, Filipino, Portugese, Chinese, and Mexican laborers who came to work on the plantations and stayed, bringing their food preferences with them. At KTA, one of the bigger supermarket presences in Hilo, I'd guess that Asian and Hawai'ian food specialties represent about half of the food they sell. I'd say they offer a dozen different kinds of furikake (Japanese rice sprinkles), and they sell tubs of fresh poi and poke (raw fish salad) and udon noodles and saimen (fresh Chinese noodles, an island staple), while the "American" food section will bewilder you by its omissions. "I can't BELIEVE they don't carry (fill in the blank)."

You can always try to import a mainland food specialty, but historically they don't have a very good track record here.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Spam musubi is a slab of Spam usually lightly grilled sitting on a ball of sushi rice and wrapped with seaweed. They are quite tasty and they sell them at gas stations and 7-11s and such places.

Make that "usually marinated in teriyaki sauce and lightly grilled," but yes, they are ubiquitous. The closest 7-11 to me (18 miles away) has half a dozen different varieties of musubi for sale in the case next to the cash register. Musubi (moo soo BEE) is a prototypical Hawi'ian fast food, along with "plate lunch," poke (po kee), and laulau. And let's not forget loco moco and bentos. Or a bowl of saimin. Pasteles, anyone?

Geez, why would anyone other than a tourist want a Big Mac instead?

[henry1]

i love the local food as you call it but every now and then i get my fix of the fast food bugers or a subway sandwich here and there..

[OpenD]

Where is the closest BofA/Chase/Interstate/Wells Fargo branch?

San Diego. None of the big mainland banks has a presence on the Big Island. All the banks are local.

Bank of Hawai'i is the largest, and has the most branches and ATMS. You can open an account online, so you might consider doing that before you come, since your mainland checks won't be accepted most places either.

Welcome to Hawai'i !!!

[roadfamily6now]

I love Hawaii!
It is very much like Alaska, only warm.