How can a person not be happy when there are palm trees?:
I've been to Oahu several times (a couple of times for work, no less, back when I was working), but never Kauai and was excited to see another island. It was lovely, of course, and with my keen eye for detail I discovered a few things about Kauai which are unlikely to be found in any guidebook.
1. There is one fire eater on the island.
We took the groom to a luau as part of his bachelor party
Clockwise from top left: Bill, Soykan, Jose, Diogo (the groom), and me after a few drinks:
and thought the fire eater there was amusing even if his lines seemed a little too polished. He had to leave in a hurry to go to a wedding. A couple of days later he made an appearance at my friends' wedding reception, sandwiched between two other weddings he was performing at. 
Busy fellow. I'd say with his crammed schedule there is room for an understudy.
2. There is no bungee jumping on the island. The guys took the groom out for a zipline adventure
the morning after the luau (It wasn't anything like the world's longest zipline in Namibia, but it was thankfully a whole lot safer.), and, while it was not perhaps the most brilliant idea to be speeding through the trees suspended in mid-air from a harness with a hangover, 
Dueling zipliners!:
we did learn from one of our guides that there is no bungee jumping on Kauai.
There are great rope swings, though. Bill freefalls into a lake:
Yet another business opportunity. That is, of course, if you don't want to be a fire eater. From the same guide we learned that...
3. ...the Sheraton is built on a massive known traditional burial site. Creepy. Not to mention ethically problematic. And a bit unsettling because we were staying at the Sheraton. The guide, who once worked there as a bartender, claimed that the hotel is haunted, citing several examples of unexplained events that happened with some regularity in the system of tunnels under the hotel. A system of tunnels? That got my attention. I had never thought of it, but of course there is a system of tunnels under all large hotels to allow housekeeping and room service and maintenance personnel to get from point A to point B without being seen by guests. More importantly, was it possible for me to get into those tunnels?
Turns out it was and I did, and it freaked me out. Not because of anything ghostly, but because of the tunnel layout. There were your garden variety service hallway tunnels with mattresses and linens etc stacked up along the walls, and then there were the tunnels at the equivalent of dugout height that skirted the edge of the outdoor public areas. Noting the decorative cutouts allowing unobstructed views of even the "private" hot tub, I was struck by how easy it would be to eavesdrop on and take pictures of people without being seen. That was creepier than any ghost story. No more skinny dipping for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment