Tuesday, April 23, 2024

If you come to Maui

 There are two Luaus that I have been to that are interesting so far. I have been to Luaus on Oahu, and Maui and Kauai by the way over the years.

The one that I likely would recommend on Maui would be "Old Lahaina Luau" which didn't burn down in Lahaina like almost everything else did. the Safeway Mall there next door also didn't burn down last summer either. 

Another one we went to last night this trip as well is the Sheraton Kaanapali Luau where they have Fire Dancers. If you want to see Fire Dancers they don't have these at Old Lahaina Luau which is more of a historic dance performance but very well done.  The Sheraton in Kaanapali  is located in Kaanapali a little north of Lahaina on that side of the island. It might be called something like this. Anyway, my only complaint at this luau is that they line you up waiting to go in about 1/2 hour before they let you in. Being 76 and having one leg that isn't the way it used to be this was very hard on me and my wife has one more knee that needs to be replaced so she was in pain waiting too. For me, I can either walk or sit but not stand without being in pain. So, this was difficult. Another thing was that the sun was blazing and we were outside. I already had a triangle of my right lower ear lobe cut off by a dermatologist because it was a precancer. You don't usually see it because he is a really good plastic Surgeon as well. 

However, I had already gotten pretty burned up (even though I wore a hat with a big brim snorkeling to protect my ears and face and neck pretty much so I didn't want to burn on top of burn that happens really quickly (within a half an hour) when you are out in the sun like here. A friend who is very white and not tan at all said she wanted to go back to California tan. I said that likely wasn't going to happen and that she likely could go back burned but not tan. Tanning requires weeks or months of small increments of sun to get a tan that isn't harmful to you through burning. For example, I sit in my hot tub at home and when I do this about 1/2 hour to an hour every day or so I get tan (at least in the upper part of my body outside of the water. And even then often I set up a beach umbrella rig over the hot tub so I won't get burned and sometimes I wear a water shirt so I don't get burned even in California.

However, Hawaii is getting sunburned on a whole new level than California because of how close you are to the equator here. So, if you come to Maui it's important to realize that Maui or other islands are NOT California sun but rather really piercing sun that will burn you within about 1/2 hour if you are not used to being in the sun or you are really white to begin with.

There are many things to get used to here sort of like being in a foreign country while still being in the U.S. This is sort of how you need to think of it especially after Lahaina burned down and so many desperate people without work or a permanent place to stay are here too.

So, if you come to Maui beware of all of this so you can have a good time here without having unrealistic expectations of what visiting here is really like.

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