What You Don't Know About Hawaii?

Thinking about visiting Hawaii? More than likely you are thinking about the beautiful ocean, and the wonderful climate. This is what you don't know.

There are numerous gangs in Hawaii. Samoan's and Phillipino's to name a couple. How bad can a gang in Hawaii be? Well they kill and rob...What else do you need to know.

Worse than the gangs are the locals. The locals despise the howlie's. Howlie means, without aloha spirit. But most locals don't actually know what it means. If you are walking innocently on the beach and someone calls you a Howlie, you would have no idea, someone is trying to start a fight. To them it is like calling a black person the "N" word. If you are white, you're a howlie. Don't look a local in the face. You may get the reaction, "What, like beef!" You may think, well yes, I do like beef. They actually want to know if you want to start a fight. They see tourists/howlie's to be the ones, who took their island, take their jobs and keep them poor. Yes, as a tourist you are spending your money there. Your money does not change how they view you. They are still poor, and to them, the howlie's are to blame.

Hawaii is filled with housing projects. If someone there actually owns a home, more than likely it is an extended family living together. Most of the family members are sleeping on the floors. This is normal to them. Or they have quite a few roommates, so they can afford the rent, taking turns sleeping in the bedroom. Many of the locals make a bedroom on the balcony. Have you checked out the prices for a home there? They don't earn income according to the prices. If you see a 500,000.00 home, it's probably still a shack.

In Waikiki, they have Hari christna's in the streets with their tambourines. Drug dealers are ready to feed your every need. There is always someone waiting to steal your purse.

On the beach you'll see the men walking around, wanting to take your picture for money, with the beautiful Amazon birds, or cockatoo's. First of all, these birds are not from Hawaii. You are not taking a picture with Hawaii's habitat. In Waikiki, I saw where one man kept his bird. It stayed in a small bathroom. They don't feed or water the birds all day because they didn't want the birds pooping on tourists. Good reason, bad for the birds. Birds should constantly have food and water supplied to them.

Watch out for things falling. From 30 stories up, people throw anything from ice to knives.

Don't take a walk in the park. Most bums' sleep in the parks. Where else can they sleep? Hawaii does not have any facilities for them. Most of the bum's aren't just homeless but mentally unstable.

Rent a car, or take tour buses. If you ride the public bus, you will get an education that you really don't want. I'll give a few examples of my experiences and you can judge for yourself. I was standing and waiting for my stop, I looked down towards the man sitting, and saw actual bugs crawling in his hair. In Hawaii they call those uku's, which is lice. Another time, a man was humping the pole that you hold on to while standing and when he finally got off the bus, the silence broke some while everyone watched him walk to the telephone pole at the bus stop and he started humping it. Then once, a crazy woman got on the bus and stood over another woman who looked like she was going home from work. The crazy woman stood over the other woman and started caressing her hair. The poor lady just kept trying to lean away from her. Then the crazy woman pulled out a pair of old metal scissors and started hitting them across the poor woman's seat. Finally, the bus driver made the crazy woman get off.

If that's not enough, try walking down Waikiki. You wouldn't believe the education you will get there. They have what the locals call mahoo's. Mahoo's are men that cross dress. It's nothing to be walking and see a 6-foot man in high heels, a thong and a bikini top. His hands will be bigger than my feet. If you use the women's restroom by the beach, it's not unusual to see them in there too.

If you want to have a great time, don't hang with the locals, stay with your tour group or rent a car to see the sights. Don't take mopeds around the island. When I was there a new army recruit was riding a moped, seeing the sights, on the wrong side of the island. The locals started calling him howlie and throwing things at him until he fell off his moped and was beat.

After everything, I would still go back to Hawaii. It is like opening your eyes and seeing for the very first time. Not in a bad way. It's beautiful and Hawaii has a rainbow everyday, sometimes all day and maybe even two. I even found some hidden waterfalls. Hawaii itself is a beautiful place. Like everything that is beautiful on the outside, its usually ugly when you take a look on the inside. So tourists beware, I would do it differently, if I returned.