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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I highly recommend visiting the Dole Plantation if you’re ever on Oahu, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share my story about visiting Diamond Head.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
Since we were going to be in Honolulu for about 10 days, it was important for us to find the right place to stay while we were there. Eating out every meal was not an option for two very important reasons. First, eating out every meal would soon add up to big bucks. Most importantly, however, my son has several food allergies so eating out is a challenge for us. We knew that we needed a place that had 3 beds, 2 bedrooms, and a kitchen.
I started my search by looking at various hotels. To get a hotel with the accommodations we needed was very expensive. I then turned my attention to private condos in the area and soon found the perfect location. It was located on the 35th floor of the Aston Sunset Waikiki building, and it had all the space we needed at a price that we could afford. Better yet was the fact that it had been recently renovated and it had amazing views.
We arrived at the condo and were happy to realize that the views were even better in person than they were online. We had an unobstructed 35th floor view of the Honolulu Zoo, Kapiolani Park, and Diamond Head. The condo was on a corner of the building so the views out the other side were amazing as well. Even with a couple of other building blocking part of the view, we had a great look at the beach, ocean, and much of the sunset.
Sitting out on the lanai was amazing. I could hear the ocean waves, smell the fresh ocean breeze, and soak in the beauty of Diamond Head. We had planned to visit Diamond Head while we were in Hawaii, but now that it was greeting us every morning with its beauty, there was no doubt that we would be making the trek to get the view from the top.
On our third day on the island we decided to check it out. We had made arrangements to meet our friend Emilee at the entrance to Diamond Head around 9am. We first considered taking The Bus to Diamond Head, but Emilee sent me a text to tell me that she was already there and it was just a quick 30 minute walk. So we opted to walk there. I must have looked at the map wrong. I calculated that it was just over a mile from our condo, but it turns out that it was about 3 miles.
The walk was nice at first. There is a stretch of Paki Avenue that is really beautiful and lined with cool shade trees. We soon reached Monsarrat Avenue and made the turn toward Diamond Head. The road was now getting steadily steeper and we were getting steadily wearier. I don’t know how long we’d been walking but it was longer than 30 minutes. We thought that we would have already arrived and it was clear to see we still had quite a way to go. I can now tell you that we’d walked a little over a mile and still had ⅔ of our journey left.
Suddenly, a taxi stopped and offered to take us to Diamond Head for only $6. That seemed like an excellent deal so we agreed. The driver was very nice. She drove us to the ticket gate and I pulled out my Visa card to pay. We immediately had a problem.
It turned out that she did not accept credit cards. I couldn’t believe it. I can’t even remember the last time I took a cab that didn’t take credit cards. I had intended to go by the ATM before we left Oklahoma City, but it had slipped my mind. When I did remember, I didn’t really worry about it.
You see, I don’t carry cash except on rare occasions. Traveling to a different city is usually one of those rare occasions, but the past several times that I’ve traveled I’ve not needed the cash. Everything everywhere takes credit card. So, again, when I realized that I’d forgotten to get cash, I wasn’t really worried about it.
Now back to Diamond Head. I opened up the part of my walled where money is kept and I only found $2. She looked at me and asked me how I expected to get into Diamond Head. I told her I was going to use my Visa card. She informed me that the ticket booth only takes cash. Really? I couldn’t believe it. I asked her if she would drive me to an ATM and she agreed, but I would have to pay the metered rate, of course.
She drove us back down to the nearest gas station which was near where she picked us up in the first place. On our way there I had a terrible realization: due to a fraudulent charge on my debit card, I had just received a new debit card about two weeks before we left Oklahoma City. With the new card came a new PIN. I had had the previous PIN for several years. I did not have my new PIN memorized.
She dropped me off at the gas station and kept the meter running. I went inside and my fears were realized. My old PIN would not work. I tried my Visa card, but it required a PIN for a cash advance. I called my credit card company, and they informed me that there were hefty fees for using my card for a cash advance. I decided that I didn’t want to pay the fees.
I called my bank but they said they keep no records of PINs and that Visa would have the info. They transferred me to Visa who then informed me that they keep no records of PINs and that my local bank would have the info. They transferred me back to my local bank who still insisted that they could not help. The best they could do would be to issue and mail me a new PIN to my home which would arrive in a few days. Um, yeah, that’s not going to help me. By the way, the meter is still running on the taxi.
I then asked the clerk at the register if I could buy something and get cash back. Nope. Having no options left, I called my credit card company back and agreed to pay the fees. They issued me a PIN and I got the cash. The driver took us back up to Diamond Head and my $6 cab ride was now a $40 cab ride…plus ATM fees, plus credit card fees.
Meanwhile, Emilee had been patiently waiting for over an hour and a half for us to arrive.
The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful. There’s a stretch near the top of the hike that takes you through a tight, dark tunnel. Kari is very claustrophobic so that was as far up as she was able to make it. She was getting pretty winded by that point so she was kind of relieved to rest and wait there while the rest of us took in the view from the top. It’s beautiful. It’s worth the hike to the top.
Here’s what I learned.
Always get cash when you’re traveling. You never know when you’re going to need it and the time you don’t have it will be the time you’ll regret not having it.
By the way, I paid off the credit card as soon as we got back to the condo so the fees were less than $10, including the $2.50 ATM fee. Oh, and in a random moment of enlightenment, I remembered my new PIN later that day and got the cash I needed for the remainder of our trip. Someone should tell the fine folks in Hawaii about portable card readers.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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