Hawaii Day 6 (2006-11-15)
Last free day in Hawaii! Oh no!
We showed up ten minutes before 9 am at the Segway booth in the
hotel to go on the Diamond Head tour we signed up for on
Thursday. I wanted to hike to the top of Diamond Head and KL
didn't. And I had always wanted to try the segway, so this tour
is a nice compromise for both of us.
Our friendly tour guide gave us a 30-minute training course before
we hit the busy Kuhio Ave and up the way to Diamond Head. The
two-guides-and-four-tour-members entourage turned heads everywhere we
went.
People were taking pictures and even videos of us. I felt really
cool and privileged, just that I was doing something so many others
were admiring and perhaps wishing they could be the one on my segway. The funnest moment
of the entire tour was when we segwayed at high speed on vast open
grassland in a huge park without people in our way. The low
grunting sound from the machine and its whooshing past slightly
overgrown grass sounded and felt like I was a Scout Trooper whooshing
past the forest on a Speeder Bike. Although I am not a fan of
Star Wars, it was an awesome feeling! I would've been totally
happy just whooshing back and forth in that park for the whole tour.
Knowing my history of accident proneness and severe lack of
coordination, I crashed on a low wall bordering a narrow path with a
200-ft drop down a cliff, but only once! KL said he didn't sleep
well last night worrying about the weather and that I would injure
myself or even die. I didn't injure myself or die, just a chipped
nail from the crash. Whew!
The 2.5-hr tour went overtime and we didn't get back to the hotel
till about 12:30 pm. By the time I stepped off the segway, my
legs were shaking from hunger and over three hours of non-stop
standing. I had a lot of fun segwaying but now that I've done it
I can say I prefer biking (unless it is whooshing past overgrown
grassland). At least with a bike, I can rest my butt and feet!
KL and I went to Kuhio Ave to search for lunch after the exciting
and exhausting tour. We stumbled upon Cheesecake Factory and went
inside without much thought cos we were just too hungry and couldn't
bother looking anywhere else. The lunch was fantastic.
Loved it.
We did more beaching and relaxing stuff before we headed back to
Kuhio Ave to soak in the night atmosphere. The place was bustling
with tourists, street performers and loud music could be heard from
bands performing in open restaurants. At around 9 we'd had enough of
the fun and went to a Thai restaurant for our last dinner in
Honolulu. It was recommended by the segway tour guide and is
located on the way back to Hilton. And we needed something light
to balance out the heavy meaty lunch we had.
The day was full, our bellies were full and it was great.
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