09-07-2006, 03:19 PM
A belated reply to this thread: Molokai is an acquired taste, but if you acquire it, no other Island may be good enough for you. I went to Molokai almost by accident. We were supposed to go to Kauai, but it was flooding there, and my partner fuh-reaked. I called Hawaiian airlines to ask for a refund. They said no refund, but you can go to another island. So, I said, okay, uh, send me to eeeny-meeny- miny molokai!
It was my first ever trip to Hawaii. I am proud to belong to an infintesimal minority of people who visit Molokai first.
I was there 20 minutes before I knew that I HAD to live in Hawaii. The airport is open air. The dirt is red. The sign at the airport famously says "slow down,it's molokai". The former Sheraton there is in a breathtaking locale with a view of Lanai from, well, I guess the lanai! The weather is extraordinary every single day (I watch it on the web every single day). It's like strawberry fields -- nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about.
Were you looking for an island that makes you feel like you are on an island? This is the one! The east is jungly and slightly damp; the west is dry as a bone with foreever ocean views. The three mile long sand beach is dangerous except in summer (it tried to kill me -as you approach it, at least in the winter time you can hear the sound of the waves EXPLODING on the shore, ka-BOOM), but it is gorgeous and completely uninhabited. So uninhabited that it will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, as if you had been thrust back in Eden. I also found a horeshoe shaped semi-secret beach where the water was very warm and the view was forever.
The locals get together and strum ukuleles at the Hotel Molokai on Fridays I(when I was there). As for the locals, I wouldn't say they are unfriendly. I would say that they feel somewhat invaded and sometimes show it in an understated way. They live in Paradise. They saw what happened to Lanai -- you have to be a multi-millionaire to live there. No locals can own property on Lanai. The locals are in a state of servitude to some of the ritziest hotels on earth.
Molokai has kept a balance, so far, of allowing more people to partake of its quirky paradise, without allowing enough people in to build that first Costco.
Chains do not do well. The KFC folded. There is a Subway, but you will search in vain for any other sign of civilization. My cell phone didn't work there, and after day three, I was kind of happy about that.
Molokai cannot actually be recommended to anyone. I literally saw daytrippers from Mauai SCOWLING at how they had been tricked into the experience.
But it worked for me. After I came back to California, I underwent a religious experience, started shotting shakas at everyone, bought a ukulele and started singing along with it, learned how to say "aloha" without an accent (you don't say it....you exhale it), and then started hunting for property.
As for property, Molokai has it, but I could not get my partner to agree to live there. Molokai bored him to tears.
It was my first ever trip to Hawaii. I am proud to belong to an infintesimal minority of people who visit Molokai first.
I was there 20 minutes before I knew that I HAD to live in Hawaii. The airport is open air. The dirt is red. The sign at the airport famously says "slow down,it's molokai". The former Sheraton there is in a breathtaking locale with a view of Lanai from, well, I guess the lanai! The weather is extraordinary every single day (I watch it on the web every single day). It's like strawberry fields -- nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about.
Were you looking for an island that makes you feel like you are on an island? This is the one! The east is jungly and slightly damp; the west is dry as a bone with foreever ocean views. The three mile long sand beach is dangerous except in summer (it tried to kill me -as you approach it, at least in the winter time you can hear the sound of the waves EXPLODING on the shore, ka-BOOM), but it is gorgeous and completely uninhabited. So uninhabited that it will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, as if you had been thrust back in Eden. I also found a horeshoe shaped semi-secret beach where the water was very warm and the view was forever.
The locals get together and strum ukuleles at the Hotel Molokai on Fridays I(when I was there). As for the locals, I wouldn't say they are unfriendly. I would say that they feel somewhat invaded and sometimes show it in an understated way. They live in Paradise. They saw what happened to Lanai -- you have to be a multi-millionaire to live there. No locals can own property on Lanai. The locals are in a state of servitude to some of the ritziest hotels on earth.
Molokai has kept a balance, so far, of allowing more people to partake of its quirky paradise, without allowing enough people in to build that first Costco.
Chains do not do well. The KFC folded. There is a Subway, but you will search in vain for any other sign of civilization. My cell phone didn't work there, and after day three, I was kind of happy about that.
Molokai cannot actually be recommended to anyone. I literally saw daytrippers from Mauai SCOWLING at how they had been tricked into the experience.
But it worked for me. After I came back to California, I underwent a religious experience, started shotting shakas at everyone, bought a ukulele and started singing along with it, learned how to say "aloha" without an accent (you don't say it....you exhale it), and then started hunting for property.
As for property, Molokai has it, but I could not get my partner to agree to live there. Molokai bored him to tears.