Post #281213 by tiki mick on Fri, Jan 26, 2007 4:05 PM

During my time in Hawaii in the mid 80's, I had many adventures in Hotel street, which was Chinatown, but we called it "shit street". I used to love going down there with my Army buddies to spend money in what we called the "buy me drinkee" bars. I particularly liked the rough bars they had down there, as many still had old WW2 era jukeboxes with Tommy Dorsey and Glen Miller records in them. The ambience of the entire place was dangerous and exotic. Every single bar had Harley belonging to Samoan and Hawiian bikers outside, and Korean bar girls/dancers inside. One bar we used to frequent was called "the harbor lounge" and was run by a Korean dragon lady/madame named Ann. She would cash our military paychecks in advance, and trade us illegal substances and (for my friends) dates with the waitress. We would get in many fights with the local bikers and with Navy guys, and even when really drunk, with each other.
We almost always lost. This was the place where I first got into tropical drinks. One night I remember switching between Mai-tais and singapore slings, one after another, until my face was burning. Most of my buddies never reallt acclimatized, sticking to thier usual: Beer, or "Jack and Coke". I always wore Hawaiian shirts and delved deeply into the local atmosphere, and most of my friends thought I had gone native, or was otherwise crazy. As I recall, there was a large parkinglot somewhere in the middle of Chinatown, where we would park and drink and party, watching all the working girls returning to thier "managers" and cash out.
All in all, an interesting time, but on my last visit to Hawaii, I asked a seemingly knowledgeable taxi driver what had become of the place. He told me the last nasty bars had pretty much closed in the 90's. I did not bother visit, as time was short.

Has any one had similar experiences in that place? If so, I would love to hear about them!