Comments on: I’m In Maui, Day 17!

By: DirtCrashr

DirtCrashr — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:36:48 +0000

What I found somewhat annoying was that most all the peripheral roads that one might drive up and go exploring were gated so there was no choice on direction really, and like you say nobody really wants to just gawk at the neighbors. Heh - the Hilo side of the Big Island is kinda the same way. Wet and lotsa potheads. Hmmm…didn’t think about the guide/code-book that way, but now that you mention it, it seems a very likely publishing trick. We used a different book seemingly without code, “Maui Revealed” that has really good and detailed directions to places like the blow-hole and various swimming-spots, so detailed it’s made some locals and businesses mad. But at one jumping-off spot for a suggested hike, we wound up in such a neighborhood and didn’t feel safe leaving the jeep or even getting out - so we bailed. We also had the rental-Jeep tossed once in Pa’ia, but they didn’t take anything because it was just a cheap stuff from the ABC store and some CD’s of IZ that everybody (except us) is already tired-of. ;-) I think they did it just to show us they could, and get away with it, and that we couldn’t do anything to prevent it.

By: ninme

ninme — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:54:56 +0000

That’s exactly what I said!!! Sort of. Specifically, I said “I guess if you’re from Iowa and you come here thinking, ‘yeah this is exactly what Maui should be like!’” but it’s not, and frankly there’s not a lot to see, and it’s way too much work and the books tell you to go down these side streets which you do because you think there’s going to be something there but really it’s just a bunch of people’s front yards with signs that say “this is a neighborhood watch community if you don’t live here you don’t belong here” because they don’t want you gawking at their front yards about as much as you don’t want to either. And I swear half the stuff in this book now is code for “great weed”.

By: DirtCrashr

DirtCrashr — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:58:37 +0000

We share your feelings about Hana and have our own Hana horror-story. We arranged by Web to stay overnight at a Bed&Breakfast, and stopped for evening libations at the General Store. We both noticed a woman who’s legs looked like a topographic map of nasty bug-bites and welts…and when we arrived at the B&B it was she who greeted us. We tried to unload the Jeep but were driven away by the flock of mosquitoes who were already inhabitants of our B&B’s little back room - an attachment to a drab 70’s era garage behind a 70’s era house. We just ditched it and drove back and ate the cost. It’s a wonderful drive for flatlanders from Kansas who haven’t driven anything like the twisties on Highway 9 to Santa Cruz - and like some mountain towns (with whom the locals could be interchangeable) the stoners and dreadlocked scary hippies still think it’s “quaint” to be a such.