Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Hale Malu Gueststye

Secluded beaches on Molokai's west coast.

Aloha!  Well we made it in one piece.  Exhausted from long packing night and long travel day.  Got some great views of Oahu from the air.  Too bad its lush rain-sculpted mountains are covered with buildings.  Rabbit Island and Shark Island (below) off Oahu's east shore were favorite landmarks of mine as a kid.


We flew on a tiny 9-passenger plane from Honolulu to Molokai.  
You couldn't even stand up in it!

We are staying at Hale Malu Guesthouse which I expected to be a cute house shared by two parties.  But as it turns out, it feels like we're renting a room in messy community household.  The host lives in the bedroom next to ours, and a maintenance guy lives in a shack in the backyard but uses the kitchen in the main house.  Our room is nice, but all the common spaces are littered with their crap.  The host's office is in the kitchen.  The kitchen is a mess.  The tub is disgustingly stained from the shockingly red dirt that covers everything here.  There are two dogs and a CAT!  For those of you who don't know, cats are like kryptonite for me, I'm highly allergic. 
This is what $50/night buys you on Molokai.  Trying to be budget-minded, but I feel trapped in this room, and that's not good.  I'm desperately seeking other accommodations, although we will probably have to pay at least twice as much. We are going to feel it out tomorrow and decide.  Gonna get some sleep and have fun tomorrow....    Sorry for the downer first entry!  I promise to deliver some paradise soon!

2 comments:

Julia from Dozen Flours said...

I'm so grateful for your honest review. I almost booked this place for my upcoming trip. I knew it was too good to be true!

Anonymous said...

Glad to see a review that is right on the mark. This place is described very differently every place else it comes up. We stayed there last year - were horrified by the filth and clutter in the house - the bedroom we stayed in was OK - bathroom and kitchen incredibly filthy. AND we found out that they were raided by the police not long before we stayed there -for growing marijuana. We also felt "trapped" but not many options for cheap lodging on this side of the island so it's a tough choice. Like my Gramma always said "you get what you pay for".