Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

Anyone know the city well?

What areas do you know?

Would love to live in that city someday.. and just curious if anyone else on the board has some experiences living there or spending significant time there.

[sheba]

It has been years since I have been to Oahu, but all I can say is it was an awesome place to visit, the people were terrific... I just loved it.

Oh, and make sure you go to Hanauma Bay for snorkelling.

[Bulsajo]

Doesn't Hellofaniceguy live there?
PM him.

(um, that's "PM him and get him to participate in this thread" and not "This thread is stupid- take it to PM you moron!"
I'm a little embarrassed that I feel the need to write this disclaimer but that's my own damned fault)

[Tiger Beer]

maybe its a good time to bump this back up with so many newbies on here!

yeah, hellofaniceguy gave me some great stuff by PM awhile back. Thanks hellofaniceguy!

This winter vacation in the Philippines is really resparking my Hawaii interests.

[davai!]

lived there for 9 mos. or so... Hawaiians are laid back to a fault. Their pidgin English is really hard on the ear. It was frustrating to say the least...

Rock fever got to me pretty quick. The radio plays Elvis every day and there is an island version of just about every song ever written.

There are 9 military bases on Oahu and you will never be able to forget it. Think Itaewon is bad? If you are bringing your SO, this would make a world of difference, but the dating scene was extremely limited.


Thus, the guy to girl ratio is literally 9-1. Pretty depressing. And what I like to refer to as the Great Polynesian Dichotomy, local girls were either drop dead gorgeous or , well, you get the picture.... No middle ground.



The traffic is unbelievable on H1.

Went looking for a car there. There is a "location fee" of like 4000 dollars added to every car there. It only costs 800 to ship a car from Long Beach, but they want to gouge you at every turn. Food is ridiculously expensive as it is shipped in from everywhere else. (Those melona ice cream bars you pay 300 won for are 2 bucks a pop there) Citrus fruit is flown in and those prices are out of control.


Spam is on every menu there, in fact it is part of the Hawaiian psyche. Don't mess with spam.

Cops drive their own cars there and "rent" them to the PD, making alot from that. Ever been pulled over by an Xterra?

While in Honolulu, I never saw the beach. The south side of Oahu is all harbor or industry. Then there is Waikiki, which looks like Manhattan by the sea...

The east (Windward?) coast was really cool, (Waimanalo, etc.) but requires a hefty commute. The north shore, of course, was awesome, but is too far to commute. West of Pearl Harbor is the seedy area of the island, didn't get there much.


Some of the food was good, Kalua pork at Luaus and the fresh fish was awesome, but there is a ridiculous amt. of fast food... Poi is bland and you can only eat so much pineapple.

Overall, I didn't like Hawaii that much... Most rave about it, but when you're a tourist there, everyone bends over backwards for you, etc. But living there was not that much fun.





Sorry about the randomness of this post, if you have any specific ?? I'd be happy to give you my $.02

good luck!

[Tiger Beer]

Great stuff here Davai!

Regarding cars.. is that only brand new cars? Used cars wouldn't have that, right?

That spam thing.. I don't know whats up with that! Is it actually cheap? What about the Big Island and its meats.. does that bring the price down to reasonable levels for the beef, pork and chicken type of stuff over in Honolulu?

Hey, how much were you paying for rent?

[davai!]

used cars were a little expensive, had they been bought new there, the owner would probably try to pass this extra fee on to you.. better to befriend a GI and try to get one from their "lemon lot" - a lot of guys end up settling for very little cuz they have to get out of town fast...

watch out for jeeps with auto transmissions- they are almost always former rental cars...

meat. actually costco has some pretty good deals if you buy in bulk... no room for cattle on Oahu, don't know about Hawaii, tho...

rent.. stayed with my sister while there, she paid 1000 for a 2 bedroom place in a high rise, near the airport. that was 5 years ago... dunno now.

Spam started in WWII in Hawaii and they just really took a liking to it... it keeps really well and I guess it tastes something like ham, so...... Funny stuff, though, on the breakfast menu at McD's, spamburgers everywhere, 7-11 has spam musabi (?) right there at the register. Read a letter to the editor (Hon. Advertiser) where this lady was super peeved that the Phillipines was to be the test market (not Hawaii) for new hot 'n' spicy SPAM and she DEMANDED that the Hormel Corp. do this in Hawaii, too. On another occasion, the dock workers were scheduling a strike, so they put limits on bottled water, rice, toilet paper and, you guessed it, SPAM! I was waiting for the newscaster to start laughing when he read that one, but I was let down...

and personally, after complaining about SPAM, a coworker offered, "Spam's good, bruddah, you just don't know how to cook it!"

[Wishmaster]

Never say anything bad about Hawaii. Honolulu is awesome. Waikiki is great...damn, who doesn't like the beach? Hey, that's cool that you don't like it...one less person that visits and ruins paradise for the rest of us. I'm heading back there in two weeks

[Tiger Beer]

[spmorley]

What do you want to know about Honolulu? I lived there for 8 years, 1990 to 1998, and been back a few times since then. It really is an amazing place to live, to work, and to study. Very multi-cultural, can be expensive, and the traffic can suck!

[Tiger Beer]

One of the things.. is for a haole.. are there areas of Honolulu/Oahu to avoid for living? Or doesn't it really matter?

Also.. where is a good place to look for housing in general? Something thats almost affordable.. but not undesireable either (if there is such a place that is 'undesireable' in Oahu/Honolulu)..

What are average wages for temp jobs? Are there opportunties to teach ESL as well? How much is the going rate for that at an institute there? Whats minimum wage in Hawaii these days as well? How about sales tax.. and are property tax or income tax sky high.. are not really that bad?

Are cars essential?

Do many people live in Waikiki? Seems like a lot of condos/apartments available there.. are they mostly studios and such (of the affordable ones)?

How about Pearl City? Seems close enough to Honolulu.. its mostly residential? Is it affordable to some degree.. or right up there with Honolulu housing/apartments/condos costs?

Also.. how about the East-West Center? Have you met anyone who worked there? Are there many jobs available that open up there? How big of an employer is that place? Have you heard of it?

Also.. all the housing up in the hills overlooking Honolulu.. are they extremely expensive? Thinking of those housing going up into the hills nar Likelike and Pali Highways and such..

One more.. how is the Downtown for living? I drove around in that area.. and parking costs were astronomical.. but quite a few homeless and people hanging around as well.. and then with the university.. what is its perception of the downtown area in general?

Last one for now.. the Ala Moana.. that shopping complex area.. with Borders/BarnesandNobles/etc.. all that stuff.. how is it to live in that area? Looks very desireable for getting around by walking and buses as well.. is it as easy as it seems? Again what kind of prices are people looking at to live in that area?

Well.. those are all the questions I can think of for now.. if you know any of these.. would love to hear.

[spmorley]

Yes, there are some places to avoid, but this is in the various housing projects like Kuhio Park Terrace. Low rent areas around Pearl City are not the best. But other than this, I lived all over the place and never had a problem with the neighbours.

You have to think about where you are going to work, or if you are going to have a car or not. Use the Honolulu Star Bulliten, or Advertiser to find the rentals. Places around Makiki are not to bad, and in between Al Wai canal and UH. You just have to look around.

No idea about teaching English. It is not a problem there, and sure none is taking extra courses out of school. Always heaps of jobs around due to the tourist industry. Hawaii is expensive, but you got to get the right job, and find the right place to live.

For me, having a car is essential if you want to get around and really see the place. Second alternate if you dont want a car is a moped. I had one for 4 years whilst at university and loved it.

I lived in Waikiki for some time, but it is expensive, and if you want to live affordable you need to get a 2bedroom apartment and share if you are single.

Some parts of Pearl City keep away, some others are great. I lived almost a year in a area I think was Pearl Heights or something like that.

East-West Centre in Univ of Hawaii? Not sure about jobs there.

Downtown is a shitty place to live for me. Never lived there and the only people I knew did never liked it.

Ala Moana Shopping Centre and Boulevard is a nice area for shopping, but not really living. If you can get the right building then ok, but around the Holiday Mart area it is hit and miss on good buildings.

[Tiger Beer]

Thanks for all the great info.

I teach at a university in Korea.. meaning I have a lot of vacation time in the summer - about 9-10 weeks of vacation time.

Is it easy to get set up in a month-to-month lease or sublet for the summer.. particularly a very small studio somewhere in Waikiki for hopefully under US$1100/month?

If I were to look for 'temp work' during the summer months.. what kind of average pay would I probably get? US$15/hour?

[Tiger Beer]

booked my ticket.. and on my way mid-June.



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p.s. to the mods.. just curious.. can this be moved to 'travel forum'?

[Bo Peabody]

*bump*

This is a great thread... Tiger Beer, do you have any updates?