The China Town manifest

Sometimes it seems as if Hawaii was only developed to accommodate tourism. Which is not so strange beacuse it basically was. But I just cant help but wonder; Where did people live before the seventies? Every structure in south Oahu seems to ave been erected in the golden age of Hawaiian tourism and possess about as much charm and soul as a slab of concrete. In Europa every major city has an 'old town' district with some sort of history to it. Untill recently I simply assumed that all housing in Hawaii was erected after the sixties, and before that people lived in tiki huts and tents. Then I stumbled upon the China Town district, and behold, it would seem as if this little corner of town was actually founded pre mass-tourism. The buildings look like something out of an old Louisiana district, and you can almost imagine an old schoool western shoot out to have taken place here once. Im sure it never did, as the wild west was no where near this far west, but you know what I mean.





The China Town district is home to the usual range of weird asian shops and minimarts that sell crappy suveniers, cheap pirated DVDs and exotic food. Hate gifts basically. I sometimes wonder if the asian themselves shop here, or they leave that to the stupid tourists who think theyve found a little bit of Asia in America.








China Town however is also home to some of the trendier bars and clubs in Honolulu. This seems to be the place to go if you are not in the market for the particular brand of "young-fun-extra-power-all-night-long-banana-boat"-partying that Waikiki has to offer. People here wear tight jeans, mac books and fancy hair. Usually that gets old pretty quick, but in this case its actually a welcome change. Sis, Emma and I went to a bar called Manifest and were pretty surpiced to notice that this bar might as well have been situated in Berlin or Copenhagen for that matter. Nice to know when you have snobby european guest. I could have done without the tribal-logo myself, but apart from that it was a pretty damn cool little bar.