As a holiday gift, Nguyen bought me a flight to Honolulu Hawaii. Although Honolulu has a very heavy population density and the area we stayed in was heavily catered to tourism and shopping we still managed to have a pretty good time. Honolulu and the island O'ahu has a lot to offer in terms of natural beauty. A couple places we checked out was the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden and Diamond Head. Although O'ahu very much has a US city vibe (I got into a shouting match with someone in a pickup who almost ran me over while cycling), it's still unique and reminds me that there's a lot of amazing places to visit within the United States. If I ever visit Hawaii again, it will likely be an island other than O'ahu.
Nguyen also shared her experience on her website. It's in Vietnamese but she takes better pictures than I do.
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