Happy, friendly and touristy Kailua-Kona

Is that Mr. Prsident with a Ukulele?

I was disappointed by the fact that we had missed the opportunity to see Hulihe’e Palace. I had the palace as point no. 1 on the itinerary that I had drawn up but our plans went awry when we took time to find a way to get around the island (without proper GPS addresses| Tom Tom, how you’ve spoilt us!). [You can read about the first part of that day -the culture tour — here.] We had to make a new arrangement in the culture tour so as to be able to catch some hula, and ended up leaving out the Palace for the time being. To feel better we turned to retail therapy in Kailua-Kona between missing Hulihe’e Palace and the Hula performance we managed to catch late that evening.

Kailua-Kona is the place where the Hulihe’e Palace and the old christian church in Hawaii — Moku’aikaua Church are situated. Kailua-Kona, once a Hawaiian fishing village, has now grown into an attractive and tourist-friendly town.

Strolling through Kailua-Kona and stepping into some of its shops was very refreshing. It was also a coming back to the other side of Hawaii and its  contemporary culture. This was the touristy Hawaii. The hospitable and fun-loving Hawaii, as opposed to the ancient Hawaii we were taken to earlier that day, during our visit to Pu’uhonua O Honaunau. 

Kailua-Kona is a picture of present-day Hawaii, where everybody seems to be in the holiday mood, even the people who are working there. Lots of Hawaiian shirts and flip flops, lots of Alohas and Mahalos. Tropical vegetation. And there’s so much colour and high spirits all around.