Hong Kong and Hawaii, August 1993

For our 10th anniversary, Barb and I took a special trip to Hong Kong with Larry and Ashley Harder, then came back through Hawaii, staying at the Mauna Lani Resort on the Big Island.

Being our 10th anniversary, I resolved to do this trip right. We had been in Hong Kong for a few days after our China trip in 1988, but we wanted to spend more time there, and tie it in with a return to Hawaii. Our friends from Barb’s work, Larry and Ashley Harder, wanted to spend time with us in Hong Kong, so we coordinated the trip with them.

Barb and I flew to Hong Kong via Chicago, upgraded to business class (“Connoisseur Class”) on United using miles I accumulated. The good old days.

Do you think United still offers “Oriental Features”?

We checked into our harborview room in the Regent Hotel, now the Intercontinental. This hotel had (has?) the best view of the harbor and Hong Kong Island and a lobby famous for its feng shui design (allowing Kowloon’s dragons direct access to the harbor for their morning swim and drink) and multistory glass wall overlooking the harbor. I had stayed there once before in 1982 and wanted to treat Barb to the same experience. Here are a few of the Regent’s postcards, for the record.

Here are a few shots, mostly taken from our hotel room. It was a glorious view, endlessly entertaining to open the curtains and see what was going on in the harbor.

We arrived a few days before Larry and Ashley, giving us time to do some shopping and reacquainting ourselves with the city. One of the first things we did was buy a new camera. I can’t recall if we connected with Lloyd Chao or any other friends from the old days — Lloyd was about the only one we knew, but at that point he may have been living in California. Then again, I dimly recall that Lloyd pointed us toward the camera store and helped make a selection — but if he was with us you think we’d have taken a photo.

I’m pretty sure we made a pilgrimage to the New American Restaurant in Wanchai for onion cakes, making the journey on a tram. I’m also pretty sure we made a stop at our old Hong Kong International School for a quick look around, but didn’t find much that we could recognize, nor any people we remembered. That would have been while catching the #6 bus out to Stanley Market to do some shopping.

One thing Barb and I definitely did was to find jewelry store of Philip and Helen Chu at 51 Hankow Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. Philip and Helen’s shop was Louise’s favorite from their times in Hong Kong both in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Chu’s knew Barb since she was a baby, and it was the place I’d gone for Barb’s engagement and wedding rings. It was great to find Philip, Helen, their daughter and whole extended family there for photos and reminiscences. Barb may remember which jewelry we came away with on that trip…maybe some pearls?

It was Larry and Ashley’s 5th anniversary and they were eager to join us in Hong Kong. Ashley had especially scoped out a number of tourist activities to check off. They didn’t want to splurge on the Regent, but stayed next door in the more reasonable New World hotel (but looks like it no longer exists…though there’s now a New World Millennium down the road).

Once Larry and Ashley arrived, we did some of the tourist basics like taking the Star Ferry and the Peak Tram up to the Peak. The views from the Peak were great, though I think we only walked partway around on the Peak Trail, one of my favorite walks in the world. Neither Larry, Ashley nor I held up well in the August humidity.

I think it was Larry and Ashley’s idea to take a tour “into” China. It was possible in 1993 to take an organized day trip across the border to Shenzhen and Shekou. We selected a small group tour that ended up being a minibus with one other couple. We drove from our hotel through the New Territories then across the border. Shenzhen at that point was very much “under construction.” There were some ambitious-looking highways, a lot of lowrise factory and apartment buildings just like in the New Territories and much of Hong Kong, and a lot of dust. We did not fathom that within another decade or two the city would overtake Hong Kong in population.

About the only thing to actually see in Shenzhen was a tourist trap theme park called Splendid China. This park had miniature recreations of famous sites in China, sort of like Legoland without Legos. The park was kitschy and kind of pathetic, but a place for photos. Interestingly, it seemed to be mostly set up for Chinese tourists, a way for them to see the highlights of China without traveling around the whole country. One of the first baby steps toward what would become a boom of domestic (and international) Chinese tourism.

The tour included a “banquet” lunch at the Shenzhen Bay hotel which was awful. Barb and Larry ate hardly anything. As we were driving later, Barb saw a McDonald’s and hijacked the bus, forcing a stop. We all got some food and Larry has remained forever grateful to Barb.

Back in Hong Kong, we had a few other memorable meals, including one at Jimmy’s Kitchen which was a landmark western restaurant, and a visit to the Jumbo floating restaurant in Aberdeen. I’m pretty sure Barb and Ashley also had tea at the Peninsula.

After being there a few days, Ashley had a few other tourist wishes including visiting a temple and the famous bird market street. Barb didn’t have much interest in those, so we sent them on their way. I think they had a good time navigating the city on their own.

Perhaps it was while they were doing their tourist thing that we took a day to enjoy the Regent and its pool. I remember it being a peaceful afternoon.

After a fine week in Hong Kong, we capped the trip off with a week in Hawaii. I wanted to focus on the Big Island, where Barb had not been before. I looked into staying at the Mauna Kea Resort where I’d been with my folks when we first moved to Hong Kong but got hooked on one of the newer resorts, Mauna Lani, with its own hotel, condos and set of prestige golf courses.

We stayed in a very nice condo at Mauna Lani Point with a view of the famous 15th hole on the South Course.

I played both the North and South courses a couple of times, and enjoyed walking the South course one day when it was closed. I found dozens of good golf balls in the lava rocks that lined the fairways (though it’s more accurate to say that the fairways were carved out of the lava formations). I daresay I had as much fun doing the Easter Egg hunt for golf balls in the lava as I did actually playing golf. My most memorable moment while playing was when I holed a 140-yard shot out of a sand trap — the closest I’ve ever come to a hole-in-one — but I was playing alone so you’ll have to take my word for it.

When I wasn’t playing golf, I enjoyed driving around the Kohala coast, sometimes with Barb, sometimes without. We went down to Kona to explore the touristy town. For a field trip another day, we went to the Waikoloa resort just down the coast from Mauna Lani, which is now a Hilton but was then a Hyatt development. They had an impressive set of swimming pools including a “swim with the dolphins” pond (which I’m surprised they still do). But there were also a lot of noisy kids and families and it was a much larger property, so we were glad we weren’t staying there. We drove around the Mauna Kea resort a little bit so I could show Barb, but we weren’t able to get out and walk around.

Folks swimming with jumping dolphins (not us)

The happier drives for me were heading toward the north end of the island, passing through the upcountry town of Waimea on the fringe of the huge and historic Parker Ranch, following the ridge line to Hawi then back down the coast to Kawaihae. You got a sense of older, more agricultural Hawaii, with ranchlands, cattle and horses, yielding to high forest and then pineapple and sugarcane fields. You also got a sense of altitude, temperature and microclimate changes from mile to mile. It was beautiful country, not heavily populated or traveled, and a gorgeous drive.

I remember wandering through a luxury housing development just getting underway, the Kohala Ranch, with homesites sprawled up the slope, most with magical views of the ocean and sunsets. I figured if there was ever a dream spot for later in life, this might be it. I still think that, from time to time, but it’s not very practical for many reasons (expensive, isolated, living on a volcano…things like that). Still, it might be nice to rent a home there for some short period to see what it would be like.

During these explorations, we came across a small restaurant in Waimea called Merriman’s (TripAdvisor). The chef and owner, Peter Merriman, opened it a few years earlier after a stint as cook and then Executive Chef at the Mauna Lani Hotel. The restaurant was at the forefront of using local farm-to-table ingredients and subtle fusion of Asian, Hawaiian and American cuisines. It was friendly, delicious and a really unexpected treat in this little ranch town. We ate there twice and have returned every chance we get. Merriman went on to open a mini-empire of top-notch restaurants around the Hawaiian islands.

One afternoon/evening, I took a stargazing tour to the observatories on the top of Mauna Kea. It was a long 3+ hour van ride from the hotel all the way up the nearly 14,000 foot mountain. We stopped within sight of the observatories and in time for a spectacular sunset. It was cold but not frigid, and the tour provided coats that made it comfortable enough. I took photos for as long as it was worthwhile with my camera. The guide then set up some telescopes and we viewed several planets and the moon while he pointed out constellations. The best view was of the Milky Way itself, stretching across the sky — perhaps the first time I really grasped why the Milky Way earned its name in antiquity. We weren’t at the summit for terribly long, and I don’t think the current visitor center lower on the mountain existed yet. But it was a terrific and very memorable trip. Access to the summit is now more restricted but still possible.

We took a full day to head to the southeast end of the island for Volcanoes National Park. We went through Hilo as we came down the east side of the island. We stopped at the Visitors Center where we found out that lava was flowing down to the shore at the end of Chain of Craters road. We headed through the park as far as we could go, watching the plumes of steam and smoke as we approached.

Though I’d been to the park with my folks some 20 years before, I hadn’t seen lava flowing. We parked as far along the road as we could go and started walking past the end of the road. It was remarkable how open and accessible the area was, and even more remarkable to clamber over the lava. We made our way — no marked path, wander at your own risk — toward a cluster of people near a small lava cliff.

We were amazed at how close we could walk to the slowly flowing lava. There was a park ranger to make sure no one got too close, but we were within a few feet and could definitely feel the lava’s heat. There was not a huge crowd of tourists, so we were able to stay quite a while and marvel at the new rivulets of earth being born.

We were fairly well mesmerized by the display, staying to take way more pictures than were needed. But each view looked like some new work of lava art. We couldn’t get close to where the lava was entering the ocean, but we were more than enchanted by this lava fall.

After finally getting our fill, we headed back up the slope to the actual Kilauea crater. The views were quite majestic and forbidding, but there was no flowing lava to see from up top.

Along the way, we were lucky to see a pair of Hawaii’s endangered state bird, the nene, the world’s rarest goose. We stopped to check them out while they checked out our car. Even Barb admired them…from a distance.

Our adventures complete, we finally headed home. Both Hong Kong and Hawaii were a bit magical. I’m pleased that we’ve been able to return to both in later years with Allie, and hope to get back to each at least one more time.

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