On A Mission In Chinatown

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​On A Mission In Chinatown

...Continued from yesterday:
     My mate Tom needed a new watch. Well, in truth, all he really needed was a new battery installed in his old watch. However he'd have settled for either an inexpensive new watch or a new battery in his old watch.

      We were in Honolulu, though, and, while there were some upscale jewelry stores in the area where he could have procured a high-end watch if he'd wanted a high-end watch,  neither the Target at the Ala Moana Mall nor the Long's Drug Store in Waikiki had a watch department. We figured maybe it was because most people simply don't use watches to tell time anymore. They use their phones. Tom still likes his watch.
​       However, I came up with the idea of looking for a watch or a battery replacement shop in Chinatown. 
         Chinatown is an old historic part of downtown Honolulu near the waterfront. The Chinese laborers who emigrated to Hawaii in the 19th century to work on the sugar plantations eventually left the fields and many gravitated to this area to become merchants and entrepreneurs. During our visits to Honolulu Tom and I always visit Chinatown. 

     We like getting a sense of Hawaii and its history beyond the beaches. And this time we were also on a mission. 
​      And so on Thursday morning we started out from the Hale Koa,

...and walked a couple of blocks to the bus stop,

...from where we took a bus to downtown Honolulu.

      We then walked to the heart of Chinatown.

       We looked in a few shops, but without any luck at finding a watch,

...until we came to this shop, which carried watches.

      But, alas, all the watches, even the men's watches, were glitzy, glittery affairs with rhinestone faces and shiny faux silver or gold bands that Scoutmaster Tom wouldn't be caught alive wearing. Nor would I.
       We went next to the Maunakea Marketplace,

...where we came across all kinds of interesting things,

...but no watches.
      We entered one place that looked like a consignment store.

     We asked the elderly woman who was tending the shop if she sold watches. She appeared not to understand English, but called from a back room a young man who translated for us. She then smiled and nodded and gestured for us to follow her.
      She led us out of her shop and down the street...back to the glitzy watch store!
     We decided to abort the watch mission and go visit the Kuan Yin Buddhist temple.
      We walked several blocks along the river,

...past men playing cards and board games,

...and  the Japanese Izumo Taishakyo Shinto shrine,

...until we came to the Kuan Yin Temple.

      Behind the temple is located the Foster Botanical Garden, which we next visited.

     After our walk through the garden we decided to seek out some lunch at our favorite Honolulu Chinatown eatery, a Thai-Lao restaurant called Olay's,

...where the dining room is set in a charming garden,

...with a koi pond,

...and yummy food. Tom and I both ordered the Pad Thai.

      Though the restaurant was crowded when we arrived, by the time we left most of the lunchers were gone and the place  was quite serene.

      After lunch we decided to head back, so we walked back to the bus stop,

...and caught the "E" bus to Waikiki.   
​      We actually got off the bus a couple of blocks early. Just because it is such a nice walk to the Hale Koa hotel.

    That evening we walked the mile from the Hale Koa to the Ala Moana Mall,

...where we ate at the food court, a place we discovered a few years ago when it was revealed to us that this was a favorite eating spot among the locals.

      We tried a place we'd never tried before called L.A. Brisket,

...where the beef was out-of-this-world tender and delicious, and the portions so large that we split a meal.

     After dinner we walked back to the Hale Koa. Which was also a nice walk.