Holo Holo Stop

5/2

After the Kualoa Park shoots, we were starving :kedizzy: ! On our drive back home (Kahalu’u, a few miles south of Kualoa Park on Kamehameha Hwy.), we passed by some interesting signs on the roadside.

IMG_4845_m

Apparently there was a farmer’s market happening. And there was food! :ohseediamond: Oh yeah!

We quickly parked our car and assessed this very tiny farmer’s market.

There was a van selling roadside snacks under a huge banyon tree.

IMG_4861_m

There are a few rules that I follow to increase the probability of getting good quality street food. First, observe the customers.

There were a line of local customers and they knew what they wanted to order (except the two tourists in the photo, can you spot them?) .

Good sign.

IMG_4863_m
The stall name is Holo Holo Stop.

Second step, chat with the stall owner.

IMG_5041_m
Keoki, owner of Holo Holo Stop

“What does Holo Holo mean?” I asked

“It means cruising, going places. We say I holoholo to the shopping mall. I holoholo here, I holoholo there. When you holoholo, stop here!” Keoki replied

“How long have you been in business?”

“Oh… long time. 15 years. 3 years at this location. I only open during weekend. Other days, I prepare food.” Keoki said

Wow. 15 years and still in business with line of customers to order his food, that’s a REALLY good sign.

IMG_4862_m
Best shot of the menu. Keoki’s customers probably know the menu by heart and they don’t really need to see this menu.

IMG_4846_m
R & K placing orders

First of, cooling coconut juice!

IMG_4849_m

IMG_4848_m
Coconut juice rules!

IMG_4851_m
Laulau pork, kalua pork, tamale, coconut juice, Lomi salmon, poke

IMG_5049_m
Laulau pork (pork wrapped in Luau leaf) with rice

IMG_5051_m
Luau leaf is edible

IMG_5047_m
Tamale

IMG_5048_m
Yum!

All three dishes were very flavorful. My favorite dish was the laulau pork. The luau leaf had very soft texture and went well with the laulau pork.

So far on Oahu, I found more pork dishes on the menu than beef and chicken dishes.

IMG_5040_m
This is not chili powder. It is Li Hing (prune, sweet) powder for pineapple and fruits.

IMG_5043_m
Flower vendors under the huge banyon tree

IMG_5042_m
Friendly local

IMG_4866_m

Who doesn’t like flowers? Although I think buying cut flowers is a waste of money, we gotta support the farmers once in a while. Thanks, darling:)


IMG_3350_m

A pair of birds of paradise and ginger flowers

IMG_3741_m
The flowers are now gracing the dining table – adding so much colors to the space.

IMG_4864_m
Next to the farmer’s market, there’s this ultimate outdoor gym. How refreshing it is to work out next to the mountain and water?

We enjoyed the food at Holo Holo Stop so much that we stopped by there twice during our Hawaii trip. Thumbs up.


Beat it

The border around the smilies had been bothering me for a while now.

I finally took some time to fix the css. Oh yeah!

I also imported three sets of emoticons.

Kawaii Egg :keshy:

Onion Head :ohidiotsmile:

Rabbit Tzuki :rtdance3:

Better yet, I configured the templates so that these emoticons are auto-converted in the posts. Sweet!

Don’t you love emoticons? They express so much more than words can.

Never Ending Home Projects

5/25

Back from vacation and back to work.

I already missed a couple bonfire gatherings :rtcry: , but I gotta do what I had to do — the never ending projects.

IMG_5011_m
Don’t be fooled by the smile. It’s hard work!

IMG_5016_m
One down, hundreds to go

Ahhh… the “beauty” of summer. :rthitheadwall:

Kualoa Park Afternoon Shoot

5/4

We came back to Kualoa Park for a beach shoot today.

IMG_3312_m
Chinaman’s Hat island can be seen from the park

There are many facilities on the park – picnic tables, restrooms, showers and BBQ grills.

We set our stuff on a picnic table.

The sandy beach is narrow and it’s just a few feet away from our picnic table. 🙂

This park really is a great place for picnicking, fishing, camping and swimming.

Want to see what a dirty lens could do to your photos?

IMG_3313_m
Fishing (I need to remember to clean my lens daily, it gets dusty real fast.)

I brought my boogie board with me. There weren’t any waves, so it wasn’t the ideal place to boogieboard. But since I barely know how to swim, I felt safer having a boogie board with me.

IMG_3924_m
Let’s go boogie! :rtdance1:

IMG_3953_m
Mommy, I am safe!

IMG_3937_m
Hmm … peace …

IMG_3960_m
Trying to sit on the boogie board

IMG_3956_m
Ooops! Maybe not.

IMG_3972_m
Happy time! :ohhappyshake:

Mom is not going to be too thrilled looking at these photos. Asians (can’t speak for all, but at least the Chinese) generally prefer fairer skin, and we avoid getting tanned.

When I first came to USA, I had a hard time understanding why Americans are so crazy about tanning while we tried our best staying out of the sun. I guess people desire what they don’t have.

I personally don’t care much about the fair skin mentality, but I’m not crazy about tanning as well. Just let nature do its thing.

IMG_3945_m
The water was so clear and blue, how could I stay away from it?

IMG_4000_m
Love, love the water

IMG_3993_m
The beach wasn’t crowded at all so I had my own “private beach”. 🙂

IMG_4046
Radim – Scouting

IMG_4050_m
Radim – Go snorkeling

IMG_4052_m
Sculpture- by Nature

We played some frisbee before we called it a day.

What a super fun and relaxing day — for me. 🙂 It was a little stressful for R & K because the RED camera malfunctioned at the end, although they still managed to capture several hours of great footage in the morning. Malfunction reason — to be figured out.

See ya, Kualoa Park. :ohbye:

Kualoa Park Morning Shoot

5/2

Just when I thought I no longer had to bother about the traffic noise and could finally have a restful sleep. I was wrong.

I got woken up at 4:30am today. First, a rooster decided that he had a very important announcement to make. Then, a family of birds disagreed with him and offered their ideas. That woke up the whole neighborhood of bird relatives. Soon, everybody had something to say. Finally, a bullfrog (or whatever that was) decided to do a protest 24/7!

I rolled my eyes and told myself to enjoy this symphony of nature. But with the lack of much needed sleep, I couldn’t help but to curse at the birds. They were really not so cute when they started to chat away so early in the morning.

“Someone please arrest those birds and kick the bullfrog into the ocean.” I thought.

Anyway, it was impossible to sleep in. The sun rose at 6am. Then, the sunlight started to beam through the skylight in my bedroom. By 8am, the sun was at 70degree position. How could the sun rise that fast??

Did you know that Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight saving? So, the time difference between the mainland and Hawaii could vary throughout the year.

Anyway, today was the first day of shoot.

It was not my job to shoot. I was simply tagging along happily and helping out here and there when I felt like.

We get in the car and started driving north.

10 miles later, we reached Kualoa Park.

“Let’s check it out.” Radim said.

This park wast not crowded at all.

IMG_4835_m
Kualoa Park parking lot

It is primarily open lawn with some palm trees. As you can see, there was someone camping there.

IMG_3293_m

Radim and Karan immediately spotted a good place to shoot.

IMG_3256_m
Mountains with low hanging clouds, pond with clouds’ reflection, some palm trees, simply perfect.

IMG_3268_m
Karan and Radim were setting up the video equipment.

Apparently the video equipment, a.k.a RED Camera is all capitally VERY EXPENSIVE. We’ve been told that the car break-in rate in Oahu is high. So, we never let the equipment out of our sight.

I also had a very important task at hand –setting up the … beach chairs and umbrella (got them from the cottage). 🙂

The park with Kualoa Moutains in the background is stunning. The mountains are so majestic.

IMG_3295_m

I have never seen something like this. They are so different than Bukit Matang and the mountains in Boulder.

IMG_3296_m

Wait a second. Don’t you think these mountains look somewhat familiar?

IMG_3348_m

Where have i seen these mountains before?

Hmm… where???

Think harder….

Where???

…….

Bingo!
Bingo! It was the Jurassic Park!

Did you know that part of Jurassic Park was shot at the Kualoa Ranch? 🙂 Who doesn’t love dinosaurs? 🙂

IMG_3298_m
A family came here for a picnic. I love the mountains in the distant.

Ok. Ok. Back to setting up the camera.

IMG_4838_m
Getting ready

IMG_3290_m
Checking the microphone
IMG_3289_m
Checking the sound

IMG_3302_m
Scouting

The thing about outdoor shooting is that we can never know how the clouds are going to look like today. Clouds are constantly moving and changing. As for today, as soon as K & R finished setting up the equipment, the sky started to turn a little gray and drizzle. 🙁

We had to protect the camera with the beach umbrella. The one who brought the umbrella must be a genius. ^_^

At the end of shoot, I volunteered to jump in the bush to retrieve the microphone. While I was in the bush, I “kindly suggested” Karan to snap a few photos of me. Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a good photo.

IMG_3330_m

IMG_3336_m

IMG_3341_m

I jumped out from the bush. More photos, please, with the mountains!

IMG_3316_m

“Mountains! Mountains! Make sure the mountains are in the photos, okay?”

IMG_3322_m
And all Karan had in mind was “turkey”. So, I was reluctantly crowned Miss Turkey (not the country, think turkey the bird). Thanks, Karan. “Great shot.”

We were pretty much done with the shoot by 11am. Not bad for the first shoot!

We came back to this park on another day for a beach shot. I will cover that in the next post.