Hanalei Colony Resort

On my lanai at Hanalei Colony Resort after finally being allowed in my room. Photo by David Lansing.

After leaving the Hindu Monastery I drove straight to Hanalei Colony Resort where it became immediately obvious that burning that paper with my confession about taking a photo of the temple had not successfully gotten me out of trouble. Then again, maybe there’s a time delay in solving problems. Maybe when you burn the paper to release your problem it’s like calling your credit card company to dispute a charge and you have to wait for the next available customer service representative and that can be anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. Or maybe it’s even worse than that. Maybe it’s like the bank clearing a check you’ve just deposited and it takes three to four days.

Anyway, burning the paper did not solve anything because went I got to the resort, shortly after two, they told me my room wasn’t ready. Check back at three. So I went and sat in my little rental car and checked my e-mail and around three I went back in the office. My room still wasn’t ready. Check back at four. At four—well, you know. Finally around five, they said my room was ready. So I went back to the office to get the key. Only problem was, they didn’t have the key. And they didn’t know where it was.

Since my room was on the opposite end of the property from the office, the woman behind the desk told me to just drive over there and she’d meet me there and let me in my room. Which is what I did. Except the manager’s pass key (which is supposed to unlock all of the rooms, right?) didn’t work either. How could that be? It’s a mystery.

Now, if you were here with your loved one and had just driven an hour or so from the Lihui airport and couldn’t get in your room at five in the afternoon, you might be a little annoyed. But I wasn’t. I knew what the problem was. It was the damn photo I took of the Hindu Monastery temple. Not being able to get into my room was my just dessert for offending Lord Shanmuga or Ganesha or god-knows-who. I had this coming and it definitely wasn’t the fault of the resort (they were as mystified by these strange turn of events as I was; in fact, the manager assured me several times that nothing like this had ever ever happened before).

Eventually some phone calls were made, some people were recruited, and a key that worked was brought to the building where I’d been sitting on the steps for a good long time and I was allowed to get into my room. Even better, there was a nice gift basket waiting for me with a bag of nut mix and Maui chips and a bottle of wine. Maybe the Hindu operator on-line had finally become available and all my problems had truly been released. At least that’s what I was thinking as I sat on the lanai watching the sunset and drinking my wine.