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Reply to "Puna"

Goblin, I haven't found the resort you mentioned but the town nearest to where I'm staying is about twelve miles away and it is Pahoa. In the local dialect it translates as knife. Back in the days it got that name because cane field workers would go there on the weekend to get drunk and usually cause altercations featuring their cane knives. Quaint, no? Today, the sign on the one little main street through the village, which is a collection of about 30 small buildings slightly redolent of a town you might see in a place like Montana, -the sign pointing out where the police station is is almost completely obscured by a large bushy vine, I suppose as an open advertisement about the overall need for law enforcement and an advisory also not to count on it too much. Pahoa has four or five small restaurants, Thai to Mexican, a decent organic grocery, post office, laundromat, gas station, and a couple of alcohol depots. Someone just opened a 'music club' but no one expects it to work cause people here just don't spend money on that kind of thing. About five more miles up the road there is a concentration of larger stores and a nice coffee shop with inexpensive web access. If you want more than this you gotta drive or hitchhike (very common here) to Hilo which is the second main town on the island after the more middle class Kona.

Mostly, I've found this part of Hawai'i to be much more of a foreign country and not very much American. The population is extremely diverse, totally in to its Polynesian heritage. Everyday attitudes and conduct are kind of like a california times 500. And since the big island is the least tourist-overrun things don't appear to be as expensive as on the other main islands.
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