Stayed at a hostel, Arnott's Lodge, in a private room with a private bath, with a shared kitchen. $60 a night and that included the 11% taxes. The room had no TV, and was very clean but you handle your own linens. Unlimited fresh linens are stored near the kitchen. The bath had a large, tile shower, no tub. The hostel location is in the edge of a residential neighborhood with a small, almost private beach, half a block away. A few houses away from the hostel, there is a rooster who can't tell time. We were far enough away, but the dorm dwellers were not.
A mile or two away, at Carl Smith Beach, the lava has formed a lagoon that attracts the same big sea turtle specie seen at Punalu'u black sand beach that is 40 miles away. Go see the distant beach once, then check daily on the neighborhood turtles.
We took a tour to the lava entering the ocean site. We then returned on our own at night for several more visits. After the water occasionally splattered some glowing lava back onto the shore at night, I darted in to pickup the nearest, smallest, still glowing fragment. Wearing leather gloves, I've held a small rock that was so fresh, it was still glowing faint orange in the middle.
North of Hilo, where a road ends at the Waipio Valley Lookout, you will recognize the splendid standard view from all of the photos taken from the same spot. For hikers, intend to spend half a day or more on the huge black sand beach there. Next visit, I'm headed for the trail that goes up and down for eight miles over to the next trailhead at the end of the other road. The valleys are so large and steep that the highway bypasses them.
Tucked away in the northeast corner of the Wednesday and Saturday Hilo Farmers' Market is Ratana's Green Papaya Salad stand. The $5 quart container of Pumpkin curry with a quart of either the cucumber salad or the green papaya salad (each $5) is a healthy, delicious $10 meal for both of us. That makes up for the Loco Moco bowls that we usually ate for breakfast. LM is a big scoop of rice topped with a well cooked burger patty wearing a fried egg, then covered with brown gravy. That is Big Island fast food.
The pineapple curry on dark brown rice at the Naung Mai Thai Kitchen is the best dish I've eaten--sweet, flavorful, and hot. Perfect with Thai iced tea. A bouquet of six big different colored anthuriums that lasted for a week was only $5 at the Farmer's Market. Across from the restaurant is Garden Exchange where they sell a plant named Bat Flower. The blossom looks like a black lily.
To answer Laurence's question below, we always walk to the end of a garden path so yes we went out on Coconut Island and climbed the same stone diving tower where he hung out as a student.
A mile or two away, at Carl Smith Beach, the lava has formed a lagoon that attracts the same big sea turtle specie seen at Punalu'u black sand beach that is 40 miles away. Go see the distant beach once, then check daily on the neighborhood turtles.
We took a tour to the lava entering the ocean site. We then returned on our own at night for several more visits. After the water occasionally splattered some glowing lava back onto the shore at night, I darted in to pickup the nearest, smallest, still glowing fragment. Wearing leather gloves, I've held a small rock that was so fresh, it was still glowing faint orange in the middle.
North of Hilo, where a road ends at the Waipio Valley Lookout, you will recognize the splendid standard view from all of the photos taken from the same spot. For hikers, intend to spend half a day or more on the huge black sand beach there. Next visit, I'm headed for the trail that goes up and down for eight miles over to the next trailhead at the end of the other road. The valleys are so large and steep that the highway bypasses them.
Tucked away in the northeast corner of the Wednesday and Saturday Hilo Farmers' Market is Ratana's Green Papaya Salad stand. The $5 quart container of Pumpkin curry with a quart of either the cucumber salad or the green papaya salad (each $5) is a healthy, delicious $10 meal for both of us. That makes up for the Loco Moco bowls that we usually ate for breakfast. LM is a big scoop of rice topped with a well cooked burger patty wearing a fried egg, then covered with brown gravy. That is Big Island fast food.
The pineapple curry on dark brown rice at the Naung Mai Thai Kitchen is the best dish I've eaten--sweet, flavorful, and hot. Perfect with Thai iced tea. A bouquet of six big different colored anthuriums that lasted for a week was only $5 at the Farmer's Market. Across from the restaurant is Garden Exchange where they sell a plant named Bat Flower. The blossom looks like a black lily.
To answer Laurence's question below, we always walk to the end of a garden path so yes we went out on Coconut Island and climbed the same stone diving tower where he hung out as a student.
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