On Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:44:59 -1000, pure kona >
wrote:
>On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:23:24 -0800, "Steve B"
> wrote:
>
>>I want to go to Kauai again. But this time, I want to ship over staples I
>>can get here very cheap instead of spending lots of money for the same thing
>>there. Plus, there are some things available here that are hard to find or
>>impossible to get there.
>>
>>Anyone have any experiences with shipping foods to Hawaii UPS? No fruits or
>>vegetables. Mostly spices, specialty batter mixes, flavored oils, sauces
>>and marinades, stuff like that. Any inspection or quarantine or caveats?
>>
>>Hooooooooooey, the prices there are high, except, ironically, liquor. We
>>went to the grocery store and got groceries for three for a week and it was
>>$350.
>>
>>Steve
>>
>
>I guess I am used to prices here, but I question why after spending
>thousands (?) of dollars to come here, you want to bring your food?
>Spices, I understand more, because you use tiny bits. But Kauai has
>COSTCo which has good prices and excellent meat etc. $350 for 2 weeks
>while on vacation, sounds okay. Unless it is a part of traveling that
>you enjoy. You know, pack as much of your own stuff and just
>transport to a new location.
>
>And those tubes of wasabi suggested in another post? If you go to a
>local store, I know you can find them. I buy them here in Kona very
>easily.
>
>I hope you enjoy your stay on Kauai, no matter what!
>
>aloha,
>Cea
I absolutely agree... if you need to bring your own food then you
can't afford the trip... and that means you really won't enjoy
yourself anyway, every cent spent will give you agita. And anyway,
why travel so far to a distant land and not eat the local food (which
ain't very pricey, not everyone in Hawaii is wealthy, far from it),
kinda moronic spending thousand$ on transportation when what you're
saying by wanting to bring food to save a few bucks is that you can't
afford to eat too well at home either. On a one week stay cooking
ones own meals can actually cost more and won't be so good as eating
at the local joints... why travel all the way to Hawaii just to eat
specialty batter mix... WTF is specialty batter mix anyway, is that
like a box cake?
I've done plenty of traveling in my life, especially to the tropics...
I would avoid fancy hotel and restaurant foods at all costs, may as
well have stayed home. When I'd stay on the Belize cays I'd rent a
tiny cabana on the beach for a week, $10/day... no hot water other
than from the solar tank on the roof, was really just a tiny bedroom
with a mini terlit. The street venders from town would stroll by
often with delicious local foods, cost so little I'd offer them more
to ensure their return. One of the traditons on the cays was that the
townspeople would cook extra and when they saw tourists strolling past
on those hot dusty streets they'd envite them in to eat dinner or
lunch with the family... they'd actually have a sign out on the picket
fence with the day's viands and the prices, was cheap but good and
plentiful, mostly seafood you'd pay a fortune for back home... lobster
was dirt cheap, a big platter of conch steaks with tropical produce
and baked goods was wonderful... getting hungry... where will I find
fresh from the sea conch and fresh picked tropical produce in the
Catskills... and there coconut, pineapple and local rum was
practically free, and cashew wine was free... everyone made their own
and was offered in exchange for the company. Going to the tropics and
staying at a fancy schmancy American hotel is not a vacation, that's
an exercise in conspicuous consumption. It never occured to me to
bring my own food to Belize.. back then the only important product to
pack was plenty of TP, was very little available and very dear... like
$5 a roll of a no name brand, a telephone book was better. But now
Belize has its own TP factory, Rose's. In fact I bought a lovely
piece of property from the owner, I posted pictures previously... ten
years later sold it to some very wealthy NYC socialite at a huge
profit... good seaside building lots on th eBelize mainland are rare
and expensive, all reclaimed from the sea by sand pumpers, piped
ashore from way out at sea on barges... the Belize coast is below sea
level (The Mosquito Coast).
I would travel from Belize City out to the cays on Chocolate's speed
boat, I wonder if he's still around, he'd have to be 90 now. I have a
load of speed boat pics at sea I never bothered to scan. I never did
learn SCUBA but I did plenty of snorkling, still have all my gear but
haven't used it in some ten years.
I really don't see the point in US mainlanders, especially from the
east coast, going to Hawaii when for a mere pittance they can
experience the real deal only a small hop, skip, and a jump from home,
Hawaii is much too commercialized. I never visited Hawaii but I met
plenty of folks in Belize who have, and once they experienced Belize
would never do Hawaii again.
Click all the links, you won't be wasting your time:
http://www.islandexpeditions.com/art...les-globe2.htm
Took me a while to find this and scan it but that's me on a tropical
vacation... 1991 - Cay Caulker... next pic is of who took my photo and
sittin' in that other chair but I ain't showin' my rosta gal.
http://i48.tinypic.com/of1p5k.jpg
One day I have to sort my thousands of Belize photos and scan some,
too bad there were no digicams back then or I'd have many more and
much better.