After a restful day in Seattle catching up on a little on sleep missed while camping in Alaska I caught another plane out to Honolulu, Hawaii. I could get used to this flying lark - it's way better than taking the bus! Although I did have to get up very early for my flight.

I had the luck of being sat next to somebody chatty and nice. (Chatty without nice is just plain annoying!) She was a Seattle girl flying out to Hawaii to get married. I bombarded her with questions about her wedding. It sounded lovely and was so incredibly cheap because friends and family were helping out and yet she was getting married in Hawaii, somewhere I would consider exotic and, by implication, expensive.

I asked before take-off whether she was a nervous flyer and she said she was so I kept her talking all through take-off even though my first instinct is to have my nose pressed against the glass and watch the ground disappear. As we approached Honolulu I stopped reading and started asking innocent questions again, trying to keep her occupied through the landing. It nearly worked except there were a few bumps that had her gripping the arm-rests but she thanked me when we landed for keeping her talking. I just wish I'd chosen a better ice-breaker when starting talking to her, rather than "well, if the engine falls off I'll be the first to know because it's right outside my window". Next time I'll just stick to commenting on the weather like most people.

There was a three hour time difference from Seattle (two time zones across and one more hour because Hawaii doesn't observe daylight savings) so I temporarily gained some time until I go back. I also realised when I landed that this is the furthest I have ever been away from home.

Jackie, my new temporary friend from the plane, invited me to a bar in the evening, where she was meeting some other people who'd flown out ahead of the wedding, if I had nothing better to do. I thought that was nice and I wished her luck with her wedding and went to get a taxi.

I had the best luck with my taxi. I waited in line with the other patrons as each car came up and whisked people away. When my car pulled up it was a limousine - a proper big (but not stretch) limo operating as a taxi. So I really travelled in style to my cheap hostel in Waikiki - the famous beach resort.

I didn't like the hostel much when I got there. I can't put my finger on it but there wasn't a good feeling about it. It was otherwise secure, clean and well-run. I spent a good number of hours during the days catching up on sleep properly because my body was still telling me it was tired. With hindsight - and reading the guide book more thoroughly - there's not much for a budget traveller in Waikiki. I'm not going to sit on the beach and I'm not going to go shopping. There are lots of good shops on the main street but the beach, contrary to its large fame, is really small and therefore crowded. There are other beaches a fairly short distance away that are clearer though.

The funniest thing about the hostel was that there was no wireless internet but I was advised that I could get onto a nearby hotel's wireless from the front balcony. The only thing was that for the signal to be strong enough to make it usable I couldn't sit on the balcony floor comfortably; instead I had to prop my laptop on the narrow ledge and use it there with the constant fear that it would fall ten feet to fairly certain demise if I dropped it. When it came time to make financial transactions for future accommodation I paid money to use their internet terminals in the hostel to make sure I didn't suffer dropout in the middle of spending lots of money. I bought the laptop out here to avoid just that thing though so it irked me, which was the first time I'd used that specific sub-division of an emotion.

I did go to the bar in the evening to meet Jackie, her fiance and various other guests. It was a cool bar, despite being on the top floor of a mall, and they had live music on a Tuesday, which was good. I had the strangest experience at the bar of being told by another customer that they had formed a queue. I have never in my life seen a bar at which customers spontaneously started queuing, it's usually a crush of people. As everybody departed Jackie and Danny (her fiance) invited me to the wedding on the Saturday, saying there would be plenty of room and food and that was the Hawaiian way. I was really honoured but I told them (truthfully) that that was the day I was flying out of the island.

On my first full day I was supposed to do an island bus tour run by the hostel but they only got three bookings and they need four before they'll run it. I'd hoped to use that as a way to get to know fellow hostellers, which has usually worked well in other places. Instead I took a hike up to Diamond Head - an old volcanic crater with excellent views of Honolulu. I made the mistake of wearing my sandals for the 'light hike' without realising that it's still quite a distance and I learned in Charleston, South Carolina that my sandals aren't suitable for long distance. So I ended the walk with sore feet but also a delicious smoothie.

In the evening I saw a free hula show on the beach, which was very enjoyable. There were three musicians/singers and then alternately hula dancing were a young girl, two young boys, four women, multiple young girls and then a whole mix. I liked it and it seemed properly traditional. At one point the girls had cellophane hula skirts on and the lead musician explained that this was what Hollywood popularised when it started making movies in Hawaii.

On my second day I took the hour long local bus ride out to Pearl Harbor and saw the USS Arizona memorial, where the sunken ship lies still on the harbour bottom with some parts just out of the water and where four hundred service personnel still lie entombed. I learned a lot more about the Japanese attack in 1941 too. I did not realise so many people, nearly 2400, were killed. I also went onboard the USS Missouri where the Japanese signed the 1945 surrender when it was anchored in Tokyo Bay, and I toured the USS Bowfin. The latter was a WWII submarine and it was incredibly familiar from the sub I saw in Buffalo, New York, which must have been from the same era.

On my final day I finally got to do the bus tour and it was worth it. For just $39 it started at 10am and finished at 8:30pm and went all over the place. We stopped at several scenic points as the guy told us a lot about Hawaii and the island of Oahu in particular. He explained why the UK's Union Flag is in the corner of Hawaii's state flag, and he also told us that there was a bad crime problem in Hawaii and he said we shouldn't ever leave anything in the minibus and he wouldn't even bother locking it when we stopped because they'd just break in.

We stopped at a lovely quiet beach for a while at lunchtime and I went swimming in the sea for the first time in a very long time. My reward was being stung on the wrist by a Portugese Man O' War. The lifeguard sprayed me, and two other people from my group, with vinegar. Nothing to do with our wounds, he just didn't like us much. It was quite painful but subsided after an hour or so. I was left with two red lines across the inside of my wrist, looking like I tried to slash it.

Later on the tour we stopped at another beach where we saw two turtles basking. We were there for several minutes and I think that was the longest time I've ever stood and looked at something that wasn't moving. Just down the coast we got to Sunset Beach. However it was cloudy on the horizon so the sun just disappeared at sunset. And then it started really raining so we packed up early and drove back to dry Honolulu, which is protected by the central mountains from all but the lightest of rain all year. Overall the tour was really good and I did get to meet some fun fellow hostelers. The next morning I checked out and left all the hostelers I'd met behind. Oh well.

From the point I touched down in Honolulu airport I can now say that I have set foot in all 50 states of the US in my life. Two of them (Oregon and California) I have not yet visited on this trip, but it's still a grand achievement.

I can't say I enjoyed my time a lot on the island of Oahu and I am very much looking forward to seeing the other two that I'm due to visit. I came really to see the countryside and not go surfing or get a tan so this place, in hindsight, was not for me. It had some good points and I'm glad I saw it but now it's time to move on to better things.