Exotic Chinatown is a part of downtown, but is in a charming world of its own. Iwilei, once Oahu's notorious red light district, is now the respectable home of such retail denizens as Hilo Hattie, K-Mart, Home Depot, and the charming shops, restaurants and movietheaters of the restored Dole Cannery.

Kalihi Kai is a crazy-quilt collage of tiny and tenacious older houses and aging apartment buildings, car repair shops, industrial businesses, and venerable mom and pop establishments. The neighborhoods of Kalihi-Palama are so similar, they're like conjoined twins.

What once was urban sprawl came and went a long time ago, leaving Kalihi and Palama with the lived-in look and neighborly feeling of real ohana. The world's greatest repository of Pacific and Polynesian research and artifacts is located here in the stone gothic confines of the Bishop Museum.

Moanalua-Salt Lake are as different as Kalihi-Palama are alike, with a major exception: the military presence. Both neighborhoods can certainly claim to be well protected. Moanalua has the Army's Fort Shafter on one side and the Navy's Red Hill Naval Reservation and the military's Tripler Medical Center on the other. Salt Lake is encircled by U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy bases, and low-cost military housing.

Moanalua residences are mostly single-family dwellings tucked away in lovely hills and valleys. Salt Lake, on the other hand, is almost all vertical with medium- and high-rise apartment dwellings springing up like cornstalks.

Nuuanu is as much a botanical garden as it is a wonderful place to live. Sudden rain showers swoop over the Koolau Mountains creating perfect mists for this community's profuse tropical vegetation.

Both the Pacific Heights and Punchbowl communities have the advantage of loftier perches going for them, creating spectacular views and cooler temperatures.

Both communities are less than 10 minutes from downtown, the State Capital Building, City Hall and Hawaii's principal state and federal buildings.

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