Kona The Other Side Of The Big Island.

Kona the other side of the big island, where all the fancy tourist go to spend their vacations trapped behind the walls of the resort looking at artificial landscapes, and surrounded by acres and acres of ancient lava flows, that look more like a black desert, or even better the parking lot at the new Dallas Cowboy's stadium without cars. The other terrible thing about Kona, is the Vog, which is a Sulfur Dioxide cloud that resembles Fog, being shot out of the Volcano. This Vog creates an L.A type of atmosphere, where its hard on the respiratory system, the throat, and the eyes, But there are some upsides to Kona, no rain and plenty of sun. Since the greener and more visually attractive Hilo side receives all the rain. So with that said I spend the day in Kona on Wednesday, walking around the mini downtown strip that featured an ABC store on every corner, and some sort of Hawaii ocean loving store right next to the ABC stores. Just another way of peddling useless trinkets to the affluent tourist of the Kona brand. For anyone who doesn't know what the Kona bran is here you go. The Kona brand is very similar to that of the Southern California brand, over the top and lacking character, full of people willing to spend money on anything and everything.


The Kona brewery was completely packed, but I did manage to do some beer tasting. There beer is alright, nothing special, just alright. I think I am spoiled for having such good breweries in the Northern California region to enjoy.

I spend the morning portion of my day walking around looking for a good beach to sit down and read, and by this picture you can see there aren't many choices to choose from. Nine out of ten shore access points were lava rock beach just like this one, but I did manage to find one area of white sand where I was able to read and enjoy the wonderful sounds of the ocean and the sunshine. Kona, once you get away from all the cruise tourist and the bustling downtown strip, its not a bad place to stop off and read a book on the beach.