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Other Resorts...

HAWAII, Sep 12 - As I was moving around the island in the last few days, I kept taking pictures of various other resorts I had visited.  Here's a potpourri of them...

The Four Seasons...

The Four Seasons at Hualalai has a rather Japanese feel to it.  It is a lovely resort, right on the beach, with lush tropical planting around it.

The Hilton...

The Hilton and Waikoloa Beach also has an Asian feel to it.  But to me, it is more of a Thai kind, than the Japanese.  Look at the giant Oriental vases, for example, in its lobby (left).  Or the big columns that mark the pathway from the lobby toward a canal (middle left).   That's where guests board these little boats or gondolas that take them to their rooms (middle and far right).

Thai art is everywhere.  They must have spent a fortune on it.  There are probably hundreds of bronze and stone Thai sculptures scattered across this vast property.  The three above are near the lobby.

There is water everywhere.  You can see, for example, those big lobby columns from across the little lagoon (left).  To get to the pools and the beach, you walk under two waterfalls (middle and far right).

The biggest surprise awaited me before I reached the beach.  Ten dolphins were frolicking before their dinner around this little enclosed beach.

A kid asked the attendant what their names were.  You can see them on the window of the little nearby beach hut.  Since it was fairly overcast, the sunset didn't look too promising.  But the exotic rope bridge over the hotel pools made up for it.

Mauna Lani Bay Resort...

HAWAII, Sep 14 - On my last day here, I biked around for about an hour and a half.  One of the places I visited was Mauna Lani Bay Resort, not far from the Fairmont.  I did it mainly because my old friend Woots from Canada told me that he and his wife Edith spent some memorable time there a while back.  So here's to you, Woots and Edith...

A lovely entrance...

... the bright and spacious lobby where a Hawaiian trio were giving a concert in broad daylight.  That's where I also saw an aerial photo of that pretty, but hard to play, par 3 hole that I described during my hike on my first day here.

Just to the side of the lobby, there is a traditional Hawaiian canoe... in its "garage."  :-) Outside, the grounds are very pretty...

... as is the beach with its pearly white sand.  You can see from the left photo and the right one in the previous row, that the hotel has been designed to look like a ship ready to be launched into the sea.

The Fairmont...

Back at the Fairmont, I was in time not just for a lovely sunset...

... but also for a Hawaiian concert that was in progress for one of the business groups that was having a sales recognition event there.  A bartender later told me that big corporate names, like Merrill Lynch, Oracle etc. use the Fairmont throughout the year for such events.

I was sitting on the hotel balcony, enjoying the sunset (there were only a few clouds here) and the music, when this scary looking Hawaiian showed up, armed with a torch.  He performed some sort of a ritual with a torch, and then started to blow his shell horn in all four directions (NSEW - two middle shots).

In the end, it turned out to be another lovely Hawaiian sunset.

To be continued... CLICK HERE to go to CHAPTER 9...

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