Waikiki: Nine Walks Through Time

A Waikiki Wanderer Book Review

Waikiki: Nine Walks Through Time, by Dr. Veneeta Acson, is everything a book about Waikiki should be. It's accurate, informative, entertaining, and above all, it's respectful.

There aren't really a lot of books currently in print about Waikiki (leaving aside pure tourist guides). A number of these are "coffee table" books, and though there are several that we'd call outstanding, we're afraid that many readers glance at the pictures and set the book back down.

But Nine Walks is a book that engages and even challenges the reader, to get out there on the streets and take the walks. While the book is interesting reading in and of itself, it's meant above all to be used, and it's written and arranged in such a manner as to make that easy to do.

Nine Walks Through Time was first published in 1983. Dr. Acson revised and updated the book in 2003. Much had changed in the interim. Waikiki is anything but static, and now a little of the content of the 2003 edition is out of date. For instance, the Waikiki Theatre, about which Dr. Acson waxes eloquent, has gone the way of Fong's Inn and other former landmarks. But the vast majority of the content remains fresh and relevant.

 

Walk V: Garden path, Tusitala Street

The walks consist of maps, photographs, and extensive, well-researched commentaries on various waypoints along the routes. The walks are in the one to two mile range and take about an hour and a half each, depending on walking speed and how much time is spent at each waypoint.

Walk I: Marker honoring Queen Lili`uokalani on the Ala Wai,

and part of the Waikiki Historic Trail

A walk along the Ala Wai canal begins the book; the adventure continues with a tour of the old Kalia area, once the location of fertile fields and ponds. The Early Royalty walk covers central Waikiki and includes a long stroll along the beach. The Miracle Mile walk takes the reader along Kalakaua Avenue, with an insightful look at the past and the present.

Walk I: `Apuakehau Stream meets the Ala Wai

The fifth walk, in central Waikiki and called Last Days of the Monarchy showcases locations related to the last rulers of the royal line. A walk on the Diamond Head side of Waikiki gives a view of local life today. The seventh walk covers Kapi`olani Park and the Honolulu Zoo.

 

Walk I: Canoes on the mauka side of the Ala Wai

Walk eight ranges outward to the foot of Diamond Head itself. The ninth and last walk is a purely delightful stroll along the sands of Waikiki, as fabled in film and song.

Walk V: In the Tusitala garden path

We could write at length about the high quality of the writing, the depth and accuracy of the historical research, the excellent photographs, the compelling descriptions, and everything else that goes into making this a wonderful book which everyone who visits or lives in Waikiki should have. But to us, what really makes this book something above and beyond the rest is the respect, even reverence, that the author shows for the land, the people, and their collective history.

Walk V: Tusitala is Samoan for "Teller of Tales" 

and refers to Robert Louis Stevenson

Waikiki has been called a "concrete jungle" by some, and is unfortunately--- and we believe quite mistakenly--- regarded by many kama`aina as a place best avoided. But someone once told us that the mana, the spirit, of old Waikiki is still here. It's been covered over and buried underneath hotels and condos and all the rest, but it's still here, and it's still strong; you just have to search harder to find it.

Nine Walks in Time is a book that will lead you to the mana of Waikiki if you open your mind and heart. Take the walks. Take your time with them. Read what Dr. Acson has to say about each waypoint. It won't be long before you start to feel in touch with the things that made Waikiki special then, vital now, and ever unique in days to come.

Dining in Waikiki: Pho Old Saigon

Vietnamese restaurants offering pho, the traditional soup with beef and noodles, abound in Honolulu. There are probably more pho restaurants than McDonald's, if we don't miss our guess. In Waikiki, the offerings are less numerous, but there are some. Recently we visited Pho Old Saigon, on the mauka side of Kuhio in the heart of Waikiki, between Seaside and Nohonani.

Pho Old Saigon has a very extensive menu, and we were only able to sample a couple of dishes this time around.

We started out with an order of cha gio, the popular Vietnamese egg rolls. We'll say that they were about average. They were nicely fried and attractively served, but somewhat bland in flavor, and we need to spice up our nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce in which the egg rolls are dipped) with some hot chile sauce to give the egg rolls a needed lift. We noted that they were made with Chinese-style egg roll wrappers rather than with rice paper. The use of rice paper is typically Vietnamese, but making rice paper egg rolls is more costly and labor-intensive. An order of six egg rolls at Pho Old Saigon is $11.95, and they're listed on the menu as "spring rolls."

Of course, we had to try the pho. Out of a large number of options, we went with the one that most Americans seem to order, pho tai, or pho with slices of rare beef.

The pho was served with the traditional accompaniments: fresh herbs, chile slices, bean sprouts, etc. We mixed hoisin sauce and chile sauce to add to the broth, as is usual when eating pho.

We thought the flavor of the broth was too thin. Pho broth should have strength, but it is very common for Vietnamese restaurants who want to attract a mostly Western clientele to dilute the broth to suit what the chef thinks is Western taste. In our opinion this is always a mistake; strong, well-made pho broth is delicious and can't be matched by a thinner, less authentic version. A small bowl of pho, which is large enough for a very good meal, is $9.95.

We also ordered one of the special Vietnamese dishes, grilled pork with shredded pork and rice, or com tam bi thit nuong. This is definitely something to try if you want authentic Vietnamese cuisine. The grilled pork had a nice charcoal flavor without being dry. The shredded pork was, again, best described as "average." The dish on the whole was reasonably good though hardly outstanding. It sold for $11.95.

We complimented our meal with the popular Vietnamese iced coffee, ca phe sua da, for $4.95.

Pho Old Saigon claims to be the only Vietnamese restaurant in Waikiki, but that's not quite true, as you can get Vietnamese food in the International Market's food court. And if you're looking for the best O`ahu has to offer, you'll have to go outside Waikiki, to a place such as To Chau in Chinatown.

Pho Old Saigon offers reasonably good Vietnamese food, at a price noticeably higher than you'll pay outside of Waikiki. We can't say that the restaurant offers outstanding cuisine or an outstanding value, but if you want a sit-down Vietnamese meal and don't want to venture out of Waikiki, this is the place.

Note: In this story we did not render Vietnamese orthographical markings as they do not reproduce reliably on all browsers.

The Price is Right?

A McDonald's in Waikiki

We've had many a tourist tell us that "everything in Hawai`i" is expensive; and some of those tourists have said that was the reason that they weren't going to come back again.

This is not what we want to hear. We need our tourists; we need new ones to visit, old ones to visit again, and everyone to tell their friends that they had a great time. All of us who live here share responsibility for making these things happen, if we want our state to thrive and prosper, and provide the jobs and opportunities that we'd like to have.

We don't agree that "everything in Hawai`i" is expensive, but if that's what someone thinks, it's an issue. So we decided to look into this a little, and today is the first in a series of columns which deal with various aspects of tourist-area pricing. 

To start out our effort, we took a look at prices for a couple of standard items at the ubiquitous McDonald's and Starbucks chains. We picked three locations each: one in Waikiki, one elsewhere on O`ahu, and one on the mainland in an upper middle class suburb of Denver. Here's what we found out.

A Mcdonald's in Littleton, Colorado

A Big Mac at a McDonald's in Littleton, Colorado, will run you $3.79 (we're leaving out highly variable sales and excise taxes). A Big Mac sells for the exact same price, $3.79, at McDonalds on Dillingham in Kalihi. A large fries is $1.99 in Littleton and $1.99 in Kalihi. The Littleton prices and the Kalihi prices are exactly the same. We found this a little surprising but quite pleasing.

However, if you check in at the McDonalds on Kalakaua in Waikiki, you find a somewhat different story. There, a large fries is the same price as the other locations, $1.99. However, a Big Mac goes for $4.45. That's 70 cents, or roughly 18.5% higher than our Littleton, Colorado sampling; it's a pretty good markup, and considering that the Waikiki location is a busy one, it likely translates into some pretty good money.

A McDonald's in Kalihi

How about Starbucks?

A Starbucks in Littleton, Colorado

At one Starbucks in Littleton, Colorado, a grande brewed coffee is $1.95 and a grande latte is $3.30.

A Starbucks in Kaneohe

Those same drinks at a Starbucks in Kaneohe run $1.95 for the coffee, the same as Littleton, and somewhat higher for the latte at $3.55.

A Starbucks in Waikiki

Go to a Starbucks in Waikiki (the one on Kuhio near Food Pantry) and you'll pay $2.15 for the coffee, and $3.95 for that latte. The coffee is about 10 percent higher than the Colorado price, while the latte runs just short of 20 percent more.

But what's really the bottom line here? Businesses in Waikiki pay pretty hefty rents, and the only way to recover increased costs is with increased prices and/or increased volume with at least some profit margin. The volume is surely there in Waikiki, but without having available full financial information for the businesses in question, we can't really judge if the markups are more than necessary.

Our feeling is that a 20% premium in Waikiki just might fall in line with increased costs; a 10% premium surely does. We honestly don't see these Waikiki prices as instances of gouging. While we didn't collect the numbers, we know that Starbucks and McDonald's pricing in other expensive areas, such as Manhattan in New York City, reflects costs as well. None of this seems at all unreasonable.

We were very pleasantly surprised with the outcome of our little initial study. But why, then, do tourists tell us "everything" is expensive, if the data doesn't particularly support this?

We have a theory about that, and it's got to do with our observation that Waikiki in particular doesn't have a huge amount in the way of lower-end, less expensive options, whether for dining, lodging, or entertainment. But there's enough here to fill several more columns, so we'll save the rest for subsequent entries in this series.

Reporting on O`ahu by local staff, with additional reporting from our Littleton, Colorado correspondents.

Briefly Noted

We begin the month with a few photos we found interesting. Here's a couple in the "we never thought they would last that long" category.

Puka Dog, at 2301 Kuhio, is certainly an original concept--- a hot dog with a hole in the bun, in which various fillings are placed--- but we never thought it would last. As the long waiting line above shows, it really caught on and we're happy to have been wrong about this one. The Waikiki location has been open since mid-2007.

And then there's Coconut Cafe, a little further east on Kuhio. Not very appealing from the outside, you wouldn't think it would have made it either, but it's been there for years, serving a menu of very reasonably priced coffees, smoothies, salads, sandwiches, and so on. We're so impressed that we plan a full report in one of our future restaurant review columns. Can't judge a book by its cover, we suppose.

OK, we'll bite, what's so dangerous?

It's this scary-looking construction site on the east side of Seaside. We wouldn't go very far into there if we were you ... who knows what's lurking in the darkness ...

And finally, this one was taken at a fast-food restaurant outside of Waikiki, making it a little out of scope, but it's too good to pass up.

So, want to sanitize your hands there?

Did you recognize our mystery photo from last month?

It's the very nice set of three reliefs on the `Ewa side of the Miramar Hotel, except one of them is missing, spoiling the effect. We hope it gets replaced; and could you trim the bushes while you're at it?

Here's the March mystery photo. You'll have little trouble IDing this one.

That's all for now, but we'd like to extend you an invitation: if you happen to be in Waikiki and see something unique or interesting, let us know or send us a photo. We're always on the lookout.