Tag Archives: hawaii

Aloha from Hanalei – Ching Young Village Shops

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki Sites and Stores and tagged with , , , , , ,

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While we were in Kauai we did some souvenir shopping in Hanalei, stopping first at Ching Young Village. On the other side of the highway are the Hanalei Center shops, including Havaiki Oceanic and Tribal Art and the vintage store Yellowfish Trading Company. (That area is more picturesque as the boutiques are housed in restored historic buildings.)

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But Ching Young Village has its fair share of nice shops too, such as Hanalei Strings & Things (where Mr. Baseball bought me a uke!), Robin Savage Gifts & Gourmet, and the one I’m featuring in this post: Aloha from Hanalei.

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The New York Times travel section included it in a great article from a couple years ago about shopping on Kauai, “Hawaiiana, Beyond the Hula Doll.” Aloha from Hanalei has a cozy tiki hut vibe with bamboo, thatch and surfboards on the walls, plus a few tikis and run-of-the-mill tiki masks.

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You’ll find an interesting and varied selection of wares, from locally made soaps to Hawaiian salt and spices to vintage aloha shirts to framed Hawaiiana sheet music like “Drowsy Honolulu Moonlight.” Like several other stores we visited, they also stocked typical tiki items like salt and pepper shakers, magnets and figurines.

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The purple Ku on this tiki photo album was on the cusp of what I’d classify as an ugly tiki, but I liked the natural materials on the cover. I don’t recall seeing this particular tiki scrapbook before, but there are somewhat similar ones for sale on Amazon.

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I was also pleased to see they sell tiki postcards from Brad Parker a.k.a. Tiki Shark, who resides in Kailua-Kona. (I’ve mentioned his awesome “Monsters on Vacation” paintings on this blog before, and he just had another show at La Luz de Jesus gallery that I’ll be writing about at some point.)

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We were staying nearby in Princeville, so we had a few opportunities to hang out in Hanalei and do the tourist stroll. But if you have limited time on the North Shore, your two must-dos should be browsing at Havaiki Oceanic and Tribal Art and drinking at Tahiti Nui. (More on them soon.)

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Why did the wild chicken cross the road? To get to Havaiki!

Aloha from Hanalei
Ching Young Village
5-5190 Kuhio Hwy.
Hanalei, HI 96714
808-826-8970

Tiki Carver at The Westin Princeville – Kauai

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Objets de Tiki and tagged with , , , ,

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Blame my sporadic posting on an especially jet-setting July. We just got back from New York, but earlier this month we were lucky enough to spend a week in Hawaii on the island of Kaua’i.

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Even looking back at my own photos I can hardly believe how beautiful it was. From the Kalalau Valley (above) and the Na Pali Coast to Waimea Canyon to Hanalei Bay, the landscape was so varied and breathtaking.

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I knew there would be some tiki sightings on the trip, but I hadn’t expected them to start with the resort we were staying at. Everyday a couple local vendors would set up by the plantation-style main building of The Westin Princeville, and on our first day there happened to be a tiki carver.

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He was mostly whittling away, much to the fascination of passing children, but I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition when he started working on his iPad. In addition to tikis in many sizes, he also had carvings of turtles, whales, an octopus and other sea creatures.

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An intricately detailed (and heavy!) war club with rope and feathers caught my eye, but I decided to think about it instead of purchasing it on the spot. Of course, when I came back the next day he had already sold it. I later saw some of his carvings for sale at Havaiki Oceanic and Tribal Art, but more on that soon.

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The Brady Bunch Ku Strikes Back – Tiki on The Daily Show: Part Two

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki on TV and tagged with , , , ,

Last week it was our typical routine: Mr. Baseball was watching “The Daily Show” while I was on Twitter (and researching for our upcoming London/Paris trip). Then he nudged me to look at the screen because there was a tiki! (I had to laugh, because it wasn’t the first time we’d spotted something tiki with Jon Stewart.)

Anyway, the bit was about Donald Trump and how he’d said he’d found unbelievable things in Hawaii. To illustrate that they photoshopped in a “cursed amulet.”

You might recognize it from that famous episode of “The Brady Bunch” where they go on a Hawaiian vacation and the boys find a tiki idol. (The prop was based on a Ku made by Coco Joe’s.)

However, it brings bad luck to whoever wears it, causing Greg to wipe out while surfing. (Not sure that’s the tiki’s fault though since that happens to everybody who surfs…) So the boys go to return the necklace to the caves and run into a bunch of giant tikis and an archaeologist played by Vincent Price(!).

With such a cool and kitschy pop culture pedigree, it’s no wonder that reproductions of The Brady Brunch tiki are in demand. (They were even worked into an episode of “Scrubs” set in the Bahamas, though the tiki necklaces they featured looked different and weren’t “exact replicas” as claimed.)

Anyway, stay tiki, Jon Stewart!