I’ve tried to be homeless for one night in Honolulu and this is why you should try it too!

During my amazing summer internship in Hawaii, I took 2 weeks off to travel the other Hawaiian Islands. One day, when the sun was going down and I still didn’t have a place to stay the night I decided for small adventure I had never done before. To spend the night under the stars. Since they are saying: “Step out of your comfort zone”, “Say yes to new things” or “Fortune favors the bold”, so I told to myself: “Why not?”.

Right at the beginning of the story I’d like to say that I was just 19yo who spent every night of my life in the comfort of my parent’s house and had never before slept under the whole sky of stars. The only purpose of this article is to share my feelings and remarks from that night as well as how this experience influenced me in general.

It’s about 9 PM and I am totally tired after the whole day of hiking (Hawaii is super awesome for hiking, stunning views and sunsets) searching for a place where I will spend the upcoming night. I came to a park that was at the end of Waikiki Beach where a bunch of kids were doing some martial arts. I was lying in grass and thinking.

It seemed like preparations for some festival were taking place right behind the corner because I could see these white huge tents. Heading close to one of them I found a small hole through which I could get inside. Meanwhile, heavy rain started so I didn’t have a choice. I laid down and fell asleep.

“Wake up!”, resounded in the middle of the night. I was woken up by bright light, shining into my eyes. Apparently, a police officer found me and asked me whether I was homeless. I declined: “No, of course not. I just had to avoid the heavy rain when I was on my way home.”

So then being tired and and a bit irritated, I set out to the beach at night.

Sitting on a wall some guy suddenly appeared.

He wasn’t really neat, seemed like he’d been in the same situation. Said he was heading home by foot which would take him another 3 hours, obviously with no money to take a bus.

He began to talk. Spilling out his life experiences and truths. Trying to explain how world works, sharing his views on different nations and countries (I am really sad that I don’t remember exactly all the topics we discussed since I’m writing this four months after it happened). From his words, I felt he definitely wasn’t just lazy or without an attitude towards work. On the contrary, it seems that he, as well as many other strenuous people, were simply not that lucky and this is why they ended up on a street.

I could sense how this prejudice from society really bothered him.

I’m still amazed by how simply society convicts people who don’t look “normal”. Stranger, danger. But this is not entirely true! Yes, I think, it’s good to be watchful in life, you never know who you will come across, but let’s be the kind of people who don’t immediately convict others. During that night, I felt that people like him are much more willing to share even that little that they have.

Contributing to that, this guy — who was heading in another direction — took me to some block of flats where the homeless people, without a roof over their heads, slept. After coming to this place, I saw an elder woman, sleeping next to the front door. I said goodbye to my new friend and sat on the concrete, trying to fall asleep. But without a success. After a while, I moved to the grass where I could stretch comfortably.

I put the rucksack with a camera equipment worth $4k under my head and fell asleep. The best thing about Hawaiian weather is the temperature. One can sleep in a t-shirt and shorts on grass and not feel the cold coming from the ground. I can’t really imagine experiencing something like that in any colder area of the world. But even Hawaiian weather has its shortcomings. It’s unbelievably changeable. I was waking up during the night feeling small drops of rain on my body. But I was still pretty lucky.

Right after awakening in the morning I started to look around. It was like a movie. One man sleeping behind me, another next to the wall of the building, there were at least 5 of us. I followed up an eye contact with a passing-by lady who kindly offered me her (just bought) breakfast right after spotting me. It was pretty hard for me and maybe weird from her point of view to persuade her that I’m really grateful for her generosity, but I can buy the breakfast myself, I have money and I didn’t want to misuse her kindness.

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Honolulu was a great place for this kind of adventure also because a lot of showers and restrooms were stretched around whole beach. The only disadvantage of this kind of adventure is electricity and the ability to charge your phone which you need because it’s the only device where you have the internet. Of course, this article is not advising you to disobey the laws or to sell your house and becoming homeless. I just want to share my observations because it was a great experience that I can recommend to everyone. To realize what we perceive as granted.

Follow me for more Hawaiian stories. I’m preparing few more, can’t wait to share them with you! Stay updated by following my Facebook profile.

(I’ve came back to this place another day to take a photos on my shitty iPhone because I thought that it would be good to share this experience and inspire you to do something unusual)

Thanks a lot to Martin Mikuska, Peter Toth & Maros Bartko for proof-reading.