It is day 3 of Oahu and I am excited to swim with tiger sharks today! We woke up bright and early to drive to the North Shore. Swimming with the sharks in an 8ft cage was a unique experience in itself. We took a small boat out until we met up with a floating cage in the middle of nowhere.
There was a group of 16 people total and we went in two groups of 8. It sounds crowded but there was plenty of space! I didn’t bring a GoPro so I couldn’t record or take pictures of myself in the cage, but I know I did it! 🙂 There were easily at least 20 sharks swimming around the boat and cage with many smaller fishes among with it. The tiger sharks appeared very calm and peaceful; the atmosphere seemed so serene. It was very soothing and calm about seeing all these smooth sharks just swimming around and above and below each other in the deep dark blue waters.
But I GOT SEA SICK!! The shark cage and the boat rocked so hard constantly from the waters that after I got out of the shark cage, I almost immediately got sea sick and felt nauseous. I threw up a few times, but it was all bile because I didn’t eat anything for breakfast! I hurled and I hurled and I hurled. Ugh!!
Docking onto land was the best feeling ever! I slowly started to feel better. We walked in the small part of town to get coffee. We went to Island Vintage Coffee, because it is apparently the other popular coffee place in Hawaii!
I got the Vintage Kona Mocha with macadamia and coconut and Paeberry chip, which happened to be the most popular blended coffee. It reminded me of java chip Frappuccino from Starbucks but better! There were grounded coffee beans in the drink that made it fun to chew. It was really good!! It also helped cool me down!
Afterwards, we walked around a bit more and decided to go down a few blocks to eat at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. It was a food truck with other food trucks but the most heavily popularly and the only one with the long line. The truck was also graffitied all over. I told Marian she should write something down so she did!
Luckily, the line moves fast! After you order, they hand the plates to you right away!
We ordered ..
2.5 plates of shrimp scampi (their most popular – marinated in olive oil, fresh chopped garlic, lemon and butter sautéed in a pan).
1/2 of hot and spicy (cooked and covered in their special blend of spices and peppers; award winning and spicy)!
1/2 of lemon and butter (boiled and sometimes in lemon and butter sauce and served with dipping sauce)
The scampi was pretty good and flavorful. There was a lot of butter and olive oil. Each plate is served with two scoops of chewy rice so it soaks up all of that buttery garlic goodness.
The hot and spicy wasn’t that spicy. It was just a small kick. Don’t be tricked! It’s not that hot at all!
We also stopped by Malama Market to buy special spams. I got cheese and chorizo for my mommy and boyfriend. Ive never seen these flavors in California anymore so I thought these would be a nice souvenir! They like spam! 🙂
Then we went to Laniakea Beach to see sea turtles swimming in the beaches! We saw big turtles and small turtles. Some of them got swept to the shore and we were able to see them up really close!!!!
Photo Credit: Marian’s little sister, Carol, who also asked if I would “pc” her. Haha! Thank you for also taking the pictures!
Now for some dessert:
Headed over to Matsumoto Shaved Ice. Again, there was another line but it moves really fast.
We shared two large shaved ices:
Green tea, lychee, lilikoi with Azuki beans, mochi balls and condensed milk.
Mango, guava, lilikoi with condensed milk.
We sat on the fake grass right outside to eat them. I am not a big fan of shaved ice, but I really liked the green tea and lychee flavors because they’re unique and very close in flavors. It was also so refreshing! I’ve never had Asian toppings with shaved ice before. The condensed milk was also a nice touch.
Then, Marian wanted to stop by Paalaa Kai Bakery to get snow puffies, which are these paper thin pastries filled with custard cream and covered with chocolate and powdered sugar. They were very light and fluffy and crispy!
Afterwards, we stopped by the Dole Plantation to learn a little bit about pineapples and eat some fresh pineapples and dole whip. It was sooooo gooood!
So light and smooth and on the verge of creamy. If you look at the picture closely, there are two different layers of yellow, a darker and lighter one. I wonder why? Hmm.. The pineapple chunks were very fresh and sweet!
Now, onto dinner…. oh my god so much food!!!! What did I expect, going with a bunch of foodies .. We eat even when we’re not hungry; we eat when we’re full; we just eat cause we want to before we leave Hawaii!
It’s our second night out and I finally feel hungry.. YAY! We walked to Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin to eat the Tonkatsu chicken!! Or pork..
This was also our first sit down restaurant too! Every place we’ve been to so far have been fast take-outs.
In the beginning, we were given the opportunity to pound our sesame seeds into powder.
And then you pour sweet shoyu dipping sauce over it. I poured more of the hot sauce.
For the appetizer, we started off with the Crab cream croquettes. These were served very hot and crispy on the outside. Be careful because when you bite into it, you’re greeted with super hot creaminess.
The meal came with cabbage that I dribbled sesame dressing over, unlimited miso soup and pickled radish.
For my katsu, I chose “Specialty” Thick Cut Pork Loin Katsu Set (7oz). This is extra fatty from the regular version. It was so crispy!!! So crispy that the top roofs of our mouths were raw from chewing on it. Ouch, my mouth hurts.
Look at how fatty the pork pieces are!
At the end of our meal, they served us hot tea! It’s to help wash down the fat we just ate. Overall, I really appreciated the nice and attentive service they gave us. Thank you!
Tomorrow we were supposed to hike the Ka’au crater, which was a 7 mile hike that also passed along 3 waterfalls and included some scrambling, but were not going to do it anymore because one girl has a bad knee and the other girl doesn’t want to do a long hike. 🙁 I’m really sad. We’re changing it to Koko crater hike instead because it’s shorter.
Oh well until next time but who knows when I will come back here!
