Halfway Around The World 2017
Honolulu, Hawaii
My flight from Hanoi to Honolulu is significant so let me briefly explain. The 4 hour flight from Hanoi to a change of planes in Seoul, South Korea was uncomfortable, sitting next to an unusually large Vietnamese man. Watched a Pink Floyd documentary on the in-seat screen, awesome. Seoul is a significant place to be in the world right now, given the North Korean leader’s penchant for launching missiles and Donald Trump’s penchant for saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time. And guess what, it’s September 11. Not kidding. I’m sitting in the terminal looking out into the darkness. I developed a plan – if I saw the flash of detonation, I was going to run and take cover behind that wall over there. Not joking. Did I mention the last time I was in Seoul was on October 9, 2006? I was teaching a class for IBM when the news came down that the North Koreans had just tested their first nuclear weapon. I’m getting serious deja vu here. As the plane rolled down the runway and pulled up into the night, I breathed a sigh of relief. Oh and the 8 hour flight to Honolulu was even more uncomfortable. Jeez, I barely escape nuclear war and I’ve still got a shitty cramped economy class seat.
Landing in Honolulu was a joy. Warm breezes, cool Immigration agent wanted to hear all about my trip in Vietnam and life in Thailand. I’m staying with my ole IBM buddy Jim Lewis for 5 days. Jim found me at baggage claim and we headed back to his place on the hill above Pearl Harbor. We spent most of the week drinking, retelling old stories and generally catching up since 2007. He drove me to Safeway where I got a lifetime supply of Cool Ranch Doritos that lasted only 3 days.
The next morning I picked up a SIM card at AT&T that worked nicely in my phone. I started my search for new shoes but at $115 I decided to keep shopping. At 2 pm, we drove to the Tesla showroom in the Ala Moana shopping center where Jim had previous reserved a test drive for me! Score! This was my first time driving a Model X and my first experience with AutoPilot. We went for a very extensive test drive through downtown Honolulu with a brief sprint down the highway. Acceleration was amazing as usual and I was very nervous when I switched on the AutoPilot, holding my hands about 1/4″ away from the steering wheel, but it worked beautifully. Back in the parking lot, we let the car autopark itself. It was very cautious but I think that’s a good thing. Overall, a great day! I’ll edit my video clips and pictures and provide a link below.
Back home to a dinner of grilled shrimp and movies on the big TV.
In the morning we drove to a beach in Jim’s old neighbourhood. The area security guard really didn’t want to let us in but in the end couldn’t stop us since it’s public land. She radio’d ahead to a security car to make sure we parked in space #4, even though spaces #1 – #20 were empty. The nice man in the car didn’t have a very high opinion of the gate lady either.
The cool thing about this beach is it’s directly on the west side of the channel into Pearl Harbor. Yes, that Pearl Harbor. The channel looks so narrow when you’re right there, but the biggest military ships in the world manage to come in and out. We even saw a small submarine leaving, with a pair of gunboats guiding the way. Also, the Honolulu airport was just across the channel so we watched dozens of jets come in and out, and I downloaded the FlightTracker app to track them. You can see the airline and plane type, where it was coming from or going. Fun sitting there on a deserted beach in a wooden chair under an umbrella drinking beer watching the air and sea traffic and beautiful blue water and waves rolling in. I’ll link my video below too.
Back home I mapped out all the things I want to visit at my next stop in Los Angeles, then booked an AirBnB in Hawthorne near SpaceX headquarters. Turns out the host is a Thai lady who married an American. Small world.
We headed back out to the other Tesla showroom in the International Marketplace mall. Strange that they have two showrooms in one small city… It’s a two-story showroom with three Model Ss and two Model Xs.
From there we went to see the special one-night-only movie presentation of David Gilmour’s concert called “Live in Pompeii.” This is footage from a concert this summer in the amphitheater in Pompeii and an homage to the original Pink Floyd concert there in 1972. If you’re a Floyd or Gilmour fan, you need to find and watch this concert, really good.
After a good sleep-in to get rid of the last of my jet lag, we went shopping and I found a nice pair of shoes at a reasonable price. Yay!
Lots of good food and good times with Jim and Gabby. Big thanks for the hospitality!
Next up: Los Angeles and a geeky overload.
Pearl Harbor: https://youtu.be/dvHwWPd-_sY
Tesla showroom: https://youtu.be/5rr4YQpBQzY
