Waikiki to Polynesian Cultural Center (breakfast first though)

On Friday the 15th, well, before that really, I had been getting really hyped up for the Polynesian Cultural Center. I didn't know what to expect. I had heard that there were several different villages, and that it would take all day, and that there was a Luau afterwards that was voted the best Luau ever by someone. Plus there was an "awesome" show at the end. We double checked everything, and found out our bus was going to pick us up around 10AM, (and then we'd return at 11PM, LONG DAY) so we decided to go to the Waikanadlk;agsdrpuih Coffee Shop next door for some Medocre Breakfast. I had a waffle; I guess I had some Hiro Nakamura in me that day. Cheap is the key word at that place. Coffee's good though.

We were being picked up at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, across the street. Now, in my opinion, there's two things wrong with the title of the place. I'll give you a hint, it actually has a relationship with the Hilton, so I'll leave it to you to figure out what the other two wrong things are.

Anywho, the Village sports a pretty cool shopping area where we browsed and laughed at how expensive things were, it being Hilton-ey. 10 rolled around, and we went to the bus area, waiting for the huge dumbass bus that will take us to the PCC. Sparing the boring details, it wasn't too bad until the bus, huge and dumbass and all, came over and our tour guide for the bus showed up. Yes, tour guide for the bus. We weren't treated to a calm bus ride across the island, oh no, we had our friend Cousin Ghandi from SAaaaamoa talk to us the entire time. He was charming enough, but he called us Cousin the entire time, and that struck me as a very Mormon thing. Nothing wrong with Mormons, it's just wild how they influenced Polynesian culture. I suppose without that, though, we wouldn't have the PCC, so that's good. Right?

Anyway, one semi-annoying bus ride later and we made it. Sunscreen was applied, and we opted out of the guided tour by Cousin Ghandi (only $10 extra! how could we pass that up!?) And just when I was thinking, "Man, I could really go for some more of Cousin Ghandi's odd self and other depricating humor, oh well, guess we won't encounter that at all today," we encountered that again, at our first stop of the Villages. We eventually realized that it was a cultural humor. Really hard to explain... it's kinda funny, but then again, kinda not.. just different. I suppose it would take some getting used to.

For the most part, we agreed that PCC was like Disneyland Lite. It was big, expensive, fun, but no rides! Except for the canoe, which was kinda fun. It was more of a living museum, full of people who are working off going to Bringham Young University, and therefore may not necessarily want to be there. So, more like a living museum with half of the pieces of art beautiful and representative, the other just sort of boring and sitting there out of necessity.

Some highlights:

• Parade of the canoes. Full of dancing by each culture. On canoes! One of the people steering the boat fell in the water. I think he did it on purpose.
• IMAX showing of a film about the reefs dying around the Pacific Rim.
• Luau, that was the shit. Especially with the Emcee! He was rockin, and had a good voice.
• The show at the end. Dances from many cultures. I (of course) liked the fire dancing best. Oddly enough, it just made me think of Lilo and Stitch.
• OH YEAH! I drank out of a carved out pineapple! Mango smoothie! I just wish it had alcohol in it, because, oh yeah, no alcohol or caffene because their Mormons.

The day went by faster than anticipated, with much ice cream and pig eaten. The ice cream was banana and guava, I think, and was delicious. Monica had an allergic reaction to the banana. Hilarious! The pig was delicious too. It was cooking in a pit. I didn't get up to see it because I was tired; I took their word for it.

The bus ride home was alright, I slept most of the way back, and when we got to the Hilton, it was almost sleepwalking to my room I was so tired. Fun! A good day, a little fakey, but I'm glad I got to do it, and now I never have to do it again!