Waikiki: A look at the many faces and places of the night

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

Kuhio Beach in Waikiki at night provides a silent retreat away from the street entertainers and bustle of the evening crowd.

Independent taxi driver Dung Tron plays his acoustic guitar as he waits for customers in Waikiki. Only a few days earlier he was robbed. He has been driving a taxi in Waikiki for the past 10 years.

Mike Hawk of Waikiki cruises in front of a restaurant advertisement on Kalakaua Avenue. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, Waikiki remains a many-splendored fling, continuing to provide a variety of activities to a diverse crowd.

Chantel Price, left, and Jody Woods, of Pearl City, relax at The Irish Rose Saloon in Waikiki. Photos by Jeff widener • The Honolulu Advertiser Facts and figures Waikiki by the numbers: • 1,300: Number of seats in the state's largest movie theater, the Waikiki 3. • 37: Number of ABC Stores in Waikiki. • 20/7: Number of dollars ($20) for number of cheap-T-shirts (7) you can buy from bargain merchants. Only in Waikiki Things you can't find anywhere else in Hawai'i • Revolving restaurant: Top of Waikiki, atop the Waikiki Business Plaza. • Statue of Duke Kahanamoku, Waikiki Beach, near the police substation. • Walk-through aquarium tunnel in a shopping complex: DFS Galleria, Kalakaua and Royal Hawaiian Avenue. • Dining with the fishes: Neptune, with its aquarium wall, Pacific Beach Hotel. • Thai dancers: Singha Thai Cuisine, during dinner hours. • Royal Guard: King's Village. A changing-of-the-guard ceremony, at 6:30 p.m. daily. • Imelda Marcos impersonation: Frank DeLima, Palace Showroom, 'Ohana Reef Towers. • Trolley service: Hub is in Waikiki, with links to Kaimuki, Hawai'i Kai and downtown Honolulu. • Chocolate fantasyland: Ghirardelli Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop, on Kalakaua Avenue between Beachwalk and Saratoga Road. • World's largest 'ukulele: You can't play it but you can admire it, at the 'Ukulele Store at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center.

Waikiki's nightlife starts at dusk, as the sun sinks into the horizon.

Visitors are enjoying their last prance in the sea before darkness.

Early revelers already are sipping mai tai, beneath the kiawe tree at the House Without a Key at the Halekulani Hotel, watching hula and listening to steel-guitar music. This is a spectacular vista of Waikiki as it changes its posture from sunny playground to night wonderland.

Not far away, at the Mai Tai Bar of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the fun already has begun, with Diamond Head lurking beyond. The lu'au torches, fronting the beach, are lit.

At both destinations, folks wait for the canopy of stars to complete the perfect picture.

Hawaiian performers gather at the Duke Kahanamoku statue, ready for duty, in a torch-lighting ritual followed by a hula performance. A crowd gathers; many poise their cameras for a Kodak moment.

With tow-away restrictions over, cars begin to park in available spaces along the Ala Wai, on Kapahulu Avenue, on selected side streets that link the Ala Wai with Kuhio and Kalakaua avenues.

Sea cruises already are partying off Kuhio Beach, with passage that allows a panorama of that golden mile of hotels and beaches. On board, visitors hear Hawaiian, pop music or an Elvis impersonator, depending on the choice and vessel.

Waikiki — for this report, the area generally stretching from Kapi'olani Park to the Ala Moana Hotel, and bounded by the Ala Wai Canal and the Pacific Ocean — still is a destination folks save up for: that dream trip to paradise. In the aftermath of the events of Sept. 11, Waikiki still is wrestling for normalcy, eager to embrace visitors, hungry for the camaraderie, hoping for survival, waiting for the turnaround.

It's still slow going, but there's hope and life everywhere. Sunset on the Beach and Brunch on the Beach have sparked renewed interest in and support of Waikiki, but a comeback depends on far more than movies and meals.

We traipsed through the streets and corridors of Waikiki, along the main thoroughfares and through a few side streets, during the day and during the night. In the warmth of the day or the cool of the night, Waikiki remains a many-splendored fling, depending on what turns you on. You pick your destinations, your pacing, your stops. If you haven't "done" Waikiki in a while, what are you waiting for?

We like night a tad better.

Daytime, there's a ritual of finding your spot on the pristine sand, at Kuhio Beach, or scoping the souvenirs at Duke's Lane and the International Market Place, where haggling is not as common as, say, in Tijuana, where merchants may drop prices for a quick sale. Alas, there's sameness — a few treasures among trinkets.

Day options also include a visit to Honolulu Zoo, where sights of creatures such as elephants and apes compete with the sounds they make and scents they evoke, or Waikiki Aquarium, with its enclosures of Pacific marine life making it easy to soak up underwater wonders without fear of sharks. Even a hike up to Diamond Head Crater.

Nighttime, a sleeping giant awakens and stretches, as street entertainers start to set up on their usual turf. There's a bit of a bustle (hawkers with fliers, trying to hand you discounts for catamaran tours or dining options) and, yes, still a round of later-in-the-night hustle (ladies of the night, coyly trying to dodge the authorities).

Silver Man was on duty on Kalakaua Avenue, doing his statue pose, near the International Market Place. Gold Man was in front of the DFS Galleria — sitting, hoping for tips.

Outlet shoppers, take note: A second-floor section of the Galleria mini-mall offers some terrific bargains ($1 place mats, $4 T-shirts, 50-cent lanyards) in clearance merchandise.

And while talking shopping: The Galleria is a great destination for omiyage, with packaging of cookies and candies not found at other retailers. Buy six for the best prices. Ditto, for a super selection of beef jerky.

Tip: You no longer have to go to Hilo to buy Big Island Candies' deluxe box of shortbread (original and coffee), in $18 gold boxes. For smaller packaging, or dipped-in-chocolate variety, you still have to fly to Hilo to hand-carry those back.

If you tire from your day at the office, consider the Aqua Massage at DFS. You lie on your tummy and you enter a tubular gizmo that shoots gushes of water from feet to neck ... and you never get wet. (Cost: $10 for five minutes, $20 for 12 minutes). It's an installation we've seen in Mainland malls but not anywhere else here.

Strolling lets you encounter many nightly rituals and scenes: An Elvis impersonator, fully costumed, walking up Beachwalk, a roll-aboard piece of luggage (what, no guitar?) in tow ... A man carrying an ABC Stores bag loaded with goodies, stealing a lei off the statue of Duke Kahanamoku ... A young couple, smooching while sitting on the fence at Kuhio Beach ... McDonald's pitching "fresh pineapple," at the Kuhio Avenue restaurant near Royal Hawaiian Avenue ... A couple reading the movie posters at the Waikiki 3 Theatre ... the Society of Seven signing autographs in the lobby of the Outrigger Waikiki, after their shows in the Main Showroom ... A woman walking her two dogs, each wearing jackets ... A homeless musician (he said he was homeless), strumming guitar and singing for quarters or dollars, at Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street ... A woman merchant prepping dinner on a hibachi, at the Duke's Lane arcade of carts ...

Maybe you want to drive in Waikiki? Kool Karz, open for about three months in the Waikiki Town Center on Kuhio Avenue, boasts a darling collection of electric cars available for rent by the hour or by the day. But it's not cheap — $25 for an hour, $69 for six hours, $99 for 12 hours and $119 for 24 hours, plus insurance. Certainly, it's different; some vehicles are polka-dotted, some have footprint motifs, one has fake lashes on the front lights; but pray for good weather, because there's little cover or shelter. Definitely a slow-cruising alternative (no odors) to the horse-drawn buggy, to whisk in and around the streets of Waikiki.

The International Market Place lives up to its monicker, at least in the food court, which resembles Singapore's hawker stalls, offering everything from Korean to Greek, from Chinese to American fare. The heady flavors provide a curious aroma, mixed in with Hawaiian music (free) from the mini-stage and sights of a cosmopolitan array of visitors, some dining, others merely watching the entertainment.

If you want to share pride in saluting the police and firefighters of New York as well as Hawai'i, a relatively new shop called CitySearch at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center has, among its wear, logo items that read FBI, NYPD, FDNY and more. Plus HPB and HFD for the Hawai'i bunch. (Another shop, Ranger Sports, offers similar gear but is harder to find, at King's Village).

If you savor memorabilia, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Boop and Coca-Cola items are bountiful at Rock Island Cafe, at King's Village. Mugs, stationery, T-shirts, pendants, posters and more — this is a hot spot to remember if you have an Elvis or a Marilyn fan on your gift-buying list. And you can order up an ice cream soda, too.

But for chocoholics and ice cream aficionados, a section of Kalakaua Avenue, between Beachwalk and Lewers, should not be missed. Cold Stone Creamery, where your toppings of choice are folded into the ice cream on marbled blocks, is a counter operation that offers ono flavors. And Ghirardelli's Soda Fountain & Chocolate Shop, where the fabled San Francisco cones, shakes, malts and floats are duplicated (along with the signature $6.25 hot fudge sundae), is the perfect place to end your Waikiki exploration. There are sit-down tables and air-conditioning and a chocolate shop section to take home those dark chocolate squares. Yum!

Reach Wayne Harada at e-mail wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, phone 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.