Bad experience
I’ve been coming to Kaua‘i for over a decade. We got married here and the island had so much aloha.
We came back after COVID and it’s like a different island. Very little aloha and everyone is mean and nasty.
What happened to this beautiful island that oozed aloha out of every ounce of being?
The mean bartender yelling at us, the gruff fish monger, a hostess and manager that made me cry on my birthday and anniversary.
All this happened on Sept. 16. It was trifecta of the most horrible kind I’ve ever encountered ever on my five times to Kaua‘i.
Something has changed and not for the better. Where did the aloha go?
Sadly, I will be spending my monies elsewhere, where me and my happy self will go where the aloha still shines.
Mahalo.
Tami, La Jolla, Calif.
Traffic light
Are we waiting for an accident to occur?
The yellow blinking pedestrian traffic light is nonfunctional at the crosswalk between Kukui Grove Center and Home Depot.
This is at the intersection of Kalepa Street and Ulu Maika Street. I called the Department of Transportation about this, but the push button switch has not been fixed.
Thus pedestrians must walk their way through heavy traffic without a blinking light, during rush hours.
Will Davis, Lihue
Rail transit
I rode the HOLO Rail Transit from Pearl to Kapolei . It was a nice 22 minute ride. There were six stops along the way. The scenery was OK along the way.
The ticket is good for The Bus, too! Because some places you have to ride The Bus to get to your destination.
The down fall is that there was hardly any people riding it and there are no restrooms along the way. Rode it to see what it was like.
Howard Tolbe, Eleele
Thank you
This is a shout out of excellence to Airborne Aviation for your wonderful donation, generous and appreciated, for the ball drop at Rockin Range in Lihu‘e.
A fun time was had by all. It was a kickoff for suicide prevention month and was hosted by Kauai Mental Health Advocates.
May we all be more aware of others pain (seen and unseen) as we learn to help carry each other’s burdens.
Joanne Davila, Kapa‘a
Gosh, Tami, I was sorry to read about the difficulties you incurred on your recent visit to Kauai. But since you’ve been coming to Kauai for over ten years, I thought you would know by now that September 16 is celebrated as “Bad Aloha Day” on the island. It’s the day that Islanders get to vent and let off a little steam — unfortunately, it sometimes comes at the expense of travelers. So, you see, the aloha hasn’t gone anywhere, you just need to plan your vacation for another time.
Tami….COVID and fears of illness has made many folks frustrated and nasty! It is not limited to Kauai.
Here is what has changed, Tami from La Jolla. Too many people on too small an island. When you miss appointments because the roads are jammed, when your favorite beach is so crowded that you can’t enjoy yourself, when you see people come on island and disrespect the local people, wildlife and the land itself, it is a problem. The government refuses to regulate what it can (the exception being Ke’e beach) and so people are upset. We realize that not all tourists are like that but when 80% of them look down upon the islanders and treat them like servants (“without our money those people are nothing”) you see the picture more clearly. Aloha is a two way street.
Tami, I remember those days too. I used to give suggestions of where to visit, where to eat. It’d be hard put to get me to even talk to you now if you asked me anything. Our island is overrun and we all saw how badly so during lock down when all of a sudden we could drive anywhere easily, we could go to any beach. We didn’t want visitors and yet they came anyways. That is when the anger and the change of welcoming started. A percentage of people here rely on the tourist industry and some of those were mad too. And then we opened up and no longer could we go to any beach easily, no longer could we easily drive anywhere, and then we noticed the jerks that came, and the ones that thought we should be thankful they deemed to come here. The ones that care about your attitude of not revisiting is the specific industry that catered to you and the government that wants your tax dollars. A lot of us are going good, go somewhere else. Harsh, but true, we need less people visiting and our government seems unwilling to help solve it.
Hello. First to Mike. Late for an appointment? The horror. Seriously, you don’t know that traffic is slow. It has been that way since 1998. Now to Marie. “Our Island” . How long has it been “our island” ? Did you arrive six months ago? Six decades ago? Were your ancestors on the first dug out from Polynesia? And by the way, don’t bring up the good ole covid, beaches empty thing. While you were self righteously enjoying an empty beach, families all around you were losing homes, business, etc. So chill out and oh my God, talk to a tourist.
Yeah, Home Depot is a good place to shop. Last time checked they ran out of multimeters. I’ve been wanting to buy one just for around the house purposes. It comes in really handy especially if you’re a technician. The reason is the streets are so small. Not sure why they made it that small.
The aloha spirit was dying long before Covid. I believe housing price increases caused by mainlanders buying houses thus making it near impossible for residents making minimum wage to live on the Island is one cause. Another is the traffic that the local government refuses to address. One more thing is the belief that Hawaii should be an independent nation fueled by people with some percentage of Polynesian blood. Certainly not 80% of visit nasty elitists but the few that are stand out and fuel the anti-mainland racism that exists..
Aloha nui loa….I moved to Kauai in the very early 70s…no coconut market place, just a Ruebens restaurant. Mainlly Japanese dry good stores…gosh, I miss them! No Princeville just the Plantation Hotel (the one they used in South Pacific) Every town had its own dump! not every piece of trash going to Kekaha…a land fill…which is actually a whole in the ground that you fill with trash not the nightmarish Mount Mana they have now. Only two hotels in Poipu and Koloa was a funky little town. Hanalei Ching Young Store was also the post office. And you waved to cars cause there were so few you could recognise your friends. The population was about 35,000. So much has changed and not for the good. We bought our house in Kekaha for $99,500 which was highest price paid in Kekaha at the time and it is a little overa half acre. Now most kids born and raised on Kauai must leave unless they get property from their parents. It is all so sad……..I miss the good ol days. I moved to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 2007, six years after my husband passed. I miss Kauai every day and the Pacific Ocean. Love the aina and your ohana its all we have.Susan Kinkki