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I dunno, I think it's still an issue for quite a few folks, but those aren't the folks you find here on the computer. There are still quite a few folks who don't use cellphones as their primary communication but usually those are also the folks who don't do much with computers, either. There's a half dozen folks I know who have mainland cellphone numbers as their primary contact and they don't get called anywhere near as often as the folks with local numbers. Also it depends on the ages of the folks you interact with. The younger folks have a much higher percentage of cellphone use than the older folks.
Welp, TSEAS's auto-dialer will only call local numbers so it is something I knew I had to do. In responding to ads some folks didn't even post their phone numbers, they asked for email response so I didn't understand 0 response but it'll be ok. Calling Sprint today to hook up my island line and will use Line 2 to keep a MS # for mainland folks to ring.
Pepeeko isn't that far from Hilo, but it is much too far to walk. There is some bus service, check Hawai'i County Mass Transit Agency — Hele-On Bus for the schedules and such. Pepeeko would be a stop on the Hilo/Kona, Hilo/Waikoloa, Hilo/Waimea and Hilo/Honokaa schedules. From Pepeeko, it is about a fifteen minute bus ride into Hilo town.
Pepeekeo is on a slope overlooking the ocean. The belt highway runs through it and there are houses below the highway (on the ocean side of the highway) as well as some houses on the slope above, too. There is a small general store there along with a post office. If you are in the older section of houses below the highway, there is another small store along with a tourist place which sells snacks.
You could start out by staying with your friend and then figure out if you'd prefer to move to Hilo or elsewhere once you see the area.
Honolulu will chew through your savings really quickly, you can stretch it further on the islands other than Oahu. What are you planning on doing for employment? There isn't much employment in Hilo, but the living expenses are less than Honolulu. In Honolulu you can usually find at least some type of job although finding a job which will pay the bills is difficult. Especially if you are trying to support a family on it.
If you are going to need employment to live in Hawaii, I'd suggest finding that employment first and then finding a place to live near the employment. Housing is much easier to find than employment.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful answer. I'd like to be enlisted in the Navy in order to get a citizenship quicker. The family we'll go living with has an orchard, but I don't like agricultural works. I have a bachelor's degree and will get a master's degree soon, but I have no working skill, training or work experience. [You might know that, in Asia, a degree is more important than skills while it is the opposite in the US.] The only working skill I have is probably foreign languages (if counted).
The racism people speak of isn't really racism per say. I think at first glance it feels that way but I think it's more about their perception of you. I think most locals hear stories and expect you to be an ******* just like you're expecting them to be mean or racist. I found that walking over and introducing yourself will clear up 99% of that. In most cases they're curious about you too.
I thought this might come up somewhere in this thread. Here it is!
You've answered all my questions
I've lived in Asia a very long time...(I'm white, my wife is Asian). I always read about racist Hawaii, but I also always read about racist Japan - and I live here with very very very few personal experiences with it. That being said, i know other expats here who talk about it non-stop.
Sounds like I'll have absolutely no problem in Hawaii, not that I was expecting to, but nice to have that confirmed again.
Change your driver's lic or id to hawaii and it does open doors for you along with changing your cell phone number to local number there on the big island .
I use my hawaiian cellphone number as my primary means of concact with outsider's people there .
Second learn how the socalled transferring of the socalled lics work there in Hawai'i and it makes alot easly for the you or the better half to find work there like a nurse or other other field that make you have a lics to work in the island .My girlfriend is a lawyer and has three job interviews lined up the day after she touchs down there at the end of may when school get's out here in the NYC school year .
It is possible that I will be traveling to the big Island in the Honokaa area for an assignment. Looking to find what is available to rent for 3-6months and cost. Any ideas?
Someone was telling me about an ohana unit they had for rent at a real reasonable rate up in Ahualoa which is just above Honokaa. $300 - $400 or so a month, I think she said. Studio type apartment, bedroom, bath, small kitchenette sort of thing she said. I haven't seen it, but it's close to Honokaa and reasonably priced. I think she did say it was on dial-up, though, so if fast internet is necessary, you'd have to find a wi-fi spot in town. PM me and I'll see if I can find a phone number for you if you're interested.
Speaking of AT&T iPhones (discussed earlier herein)...what's the coverage like right in Kailua-Kona and a little bit south of town (Keauhou, Kealakekua) now?
Also, when I called AT&T about calling family back in the mainland once we relocate to HI, they claimed that the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico were covered, but that calls from Hawaii back to the mainland would be charged at the international rate. (We only use cell phones, haven't had a landline in 7-10 years.)
I reminded the cell phone representative that Hawaii is part of the U.S. and that I objected to it being under only "international" calling rates.
That being said, how do most of you call back "home" affordably?
When we traveled abroad for a few weeks last year, I bought an international calling plan for our iPhones via AT&T and still got smacked with a $400 bill (on top of the additional monthly international plan surcharge of $50) for calling each of our parents ONCE.
Would it help our mainland relatives (with landlines) if we kept our Michigan area code and didn't switch to 808? I'm guessing that wouldn't make a difference on my bill, considering it is location based, but perhaps it would save them a little on their end.
Our parents are older and not cell phone/internet savy, so getting them to sign up for wireless-to-wireless unlimited calling isn't an option.
Maybe we'll have to buy them iPods/iPads so that we can FaceTime/Skype for free...that shouldn't cut into my plan/minutes...
We use our cell phone all the time to call the mainland, and it is just like any other regular call to anywhere in the U.S. we have one cell phone with Colorado number and one with Hawaii number and they both work just fine everywhere.
BTW, we have Verizon and have pretty good coverage all over the island. But it is like everything else -- location matters. We know some people who can't get cell phone coverage at their house while neighbors a block away can.
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