Turtle Bay Resort - Oahu

Not impressed for a 5-star resort. Service was either shitty or excellent; nothing in between. The parking gate lady was very nice and informative and so was the Conference Service Manager. They were excellent! The rest of the staff I met, I would give a 2 out of 10 as a generous rating. We sat down by the beach lounge planning to eat, asked for the umbrella to be opened; we got a flat "no". Too windy; so we pointed to all the umbrellas around, they were all opened providing shades. The waitress looked and said "O.... I did not see it. I cannot open it; it is too heavy and requires a pool attendant to open it up". What kind of BS was that? She never returned by the way. We looked at the menu and the pricing; well, you thought Ritz @ Virgin Islands was bad; this one was worse. A veggie burger US$14, a hot dog US$8.00. The selection on the menu was small but compensated by the large font being used. We left the pool lounge and no one noticed. Strike one.

We walked around the hotel; found a public beach between the Villa and the hotel. The little pathway next to Ola, another beach front bar/lounge, led to the beach; it smelled of rotting garbage. The public beach was small. Strike two.

Room price was expensive; the local received (still is) at least 50% off the rate; so feel like being ripped off?

As I was sitting by the resort main entrance "observing" services, most guests arrived with their own cases of bottled water, sodas and coolers; what message I received! The concierge service, some staff were good, some were non-responsive. The check-in queue was long for the customary 2:00pm to 3:00pm official check-in time. Interesting. Strike three.

The views from around the hotel was superb; someone did put thoughts in designing the place; but the quality of service did put me off. Maybe I was old and demanding. Or I traveled enough to notice good service vs bad. Don't be fool by the website; it has the elegance of a very high end hotel; but in the end, I felt it has become too commercialized as an "American" destination.

Go ahead take an afternoon drive out there via Route 83 West. It's lovely. Single lane traffic. You get to see different sceneries: forests, Pali, ocean shores, lots of shrimp farms and local fruit stands; sample as much as you like. Remember if you want to eat at the Turtle Bay resort, make sure you get there before 130pm; nothing opens after 2pm except the beach bars which serve expensive second rated food.

We are engaged!

Hi all,

As of 3 days ago, Audrey has agreed to be Mrs. Lo!

I did give her a huge surprise with that. I prepared three cards for her to read on the way to Kailua from Honolulu. We took the long route there via Route 72. It was the route where most of the Magnum PI driving scenes were hugging along the East coast. Anyway, my unsuspected "victim" (hee hee) read the first card and thought nothing of it. In the first card, I said this new Nikon D40X camera is for us taking picutres wherever we go from now on. She read.... Yeah whatever. We drove and drove some more along the coast taking in the views and the sunshine. While Audrey talking away to catch up, I was selecting my location lookin for a beach...... Finally I stopped the card not far from Sandy Beach. We got out; I took the camera and she took the remaining two cards.

She opened the second card; it has a Canadian flag luggage tag. Surrounding the luggage tag, I had written her name with "Lo" at the end. The card said that she needed to obtain a Canadian passport; but we would not require to stay at Regina. I believed at that point, she had smelled a "rat". Upon opened the 3rd card, she didn't read much as my message was clear. A picture of a hand and a ring. Well, she did not expect me asking the question that soon. But long ago she had made up her mind. So after "forcing" me kneeling before her and asking the question, she had said "yes".

Now the fun begin with getting an available date in Hawaii and transport all dear friends to the middle of the Pacific. Tentatively, Dec 1/07. Why wait?

Movies to share

Tor Hill Golf Course

Yesterday was a beautiful day out at the Tor Hill. It was and is in superb shape; mind you, I only played the original 18.

What made me shake my head were:

1) Incompetent marshal
2) Don't know how to make money.

For the incompetent marshal, we parked the cart under next to a tree away from the main traffic area - looking for Bill's ball. This marshal drove up and told us that we should not drive around in the bush. Well, if he would take off his sun glasses, this guy passed us when we were stopping the cart, saw us got off the cart and walked. Number two, those were not bush; we were next to a group of trees that the ground was totally cleared. You can drive a 4x4 thru for pete sake. We were dumbfounded as to this marshal's comment. Same went with the guy who was golfing with us. Power trip?

For not making money.... Apparently, the golf pro mandated that no one could drive to sell refreshment. Umm... Maybe he was an environmental friendly freak? Or maybe he had some obsecure reasons that made no business sense. Maybe that's why the public golf course keeps increasing golf fee, to subsidize the expenses that could be recouped from "actively" selling refreshment? Those marshals don't do anything maybe should get them to sell refreshment.

Potala Palace exterior

Potala Palace.... We were there. May 19th, 2007. Very steep stairs walking up to the Red Palace. Walk sloooowwww.....

Praying in front of Potala Palace, Tibet

Here's a quick movie on Tibetans praying in front of the Potala Palace. The clip was taken May 19th, 2007 at Lhasa, Tibet.