Part 3: No More Glitz

(This entry was actually written on May 21st, 2008)

The time has come when the perks of 5-star resorts are no longer to my advantage; I have no more pools, no more fancy dinners, no more maid service, and no more gifts every night upon return to the room. However, my trip does continue into a much more fun chapter: family adventures.

Right now I am writing to you while sitting in the Aloha Cottage #79. The book Maui Revealed describes this “hotel” as following, “Cheap and dreary units with a kitchen or kitchenette. Don’t expect much here—no phone, no internet, and not much aloha. Some rooms have a TV.” (None of ours do.) Contrary to this review, we believe it to be a pretty nice place. Perhaps that is only in comparison with where we stayed last night—Banana Bungalow, a youth hostel.
Please imagine staying at a youth hostel with your mother. Upon arrival, I left my family and sat in the common room where I met 2 guys from Germany, one from Switzerland, one from Brazil, another from Russia, a girl from Canada, one from Ireland, one from Scotland, and 3 from Norway. Everyone was under 30 and traveling through Hawaii on their own (or in small groups), and they were candidly surprised that my mom was checked in to this run-down bungalow. My mom, however, thought this was the coolest thing ever; It reminded her of her hippie days when she traveled, staying in only tents and youth hostels.

After going to dinner with my new friends at Rosa’s, a Mexican restaurant very much like Don Lorenzos (hopefully minus the illegal immigrants) we came back to the hostel and hung around a bit more. I decided to get to bed at around midnight. Let me tell you, it was a good thing I did. On my way back to the room, I see a 54 year-old woman in pink satin pajamas wandering half-asleep down the path to the common room, where everyone was having drinks, smoking, etc. (No, despite what all of you think, I was neither smoking nor drinking!) “Mom, what are you doing?" I ask, refusing to believe she was doing as I suspected. “I didn’t know where you were, and I realized I hadn’t seen you in several hours; I don’t know who you’re with, and I couldn’t sleep.” Yep, that’s what I thought. Now, if you were talking with a bunch of world travelers who were half-way around the world from their country, on their own, and out comes your mother in pink satin pajamas worried about where her baby was, wouldn 't you be pretty embarrassed? Yeah, me too, and I am very difficult to embarrass. I tell her this through laughter, because I was relieved I met her on the path, stopping her short from making her appearance, and her response was, “You would have been embarrassed? I’m sorry.” Then she decided that if I’m going to London on my own and traveling around Europe, staying in youth hostels, I can probably do without her midnight check-ups.