lol,,,man XTONKA sorry to hear about your mishap....But maybe I should stick to the whole hotel thing...Is there less of a chance seeing scorps and cents(especially crawling in my mouth)at a hotel??

Shark Head first off, for the mouth comment. I used to spend every possible spare moment of time SCUBA diving but now that my back is screwed along with some other health issues I pretty much have to keep my head above water. I have seen many a shark while diving including a few tigers. The only sharks that have caused a mess in my wetsuit were a huge ass 12-14 foot hammerhead and a big tiger. No estimate on how big because I got back out of the water quicker than I got into it. Kaneohe Bay is the Hammerhead breeding ground of the pacific so they are quite plentiful. Other shark breeds are found hear and there if they aren't already in somebodies bowl of soup. Sorry, kinda drifting off the topic. I haven't spent much time in Kona so I don't know of an old tiger at Banyans. Probably just a bunch of huhu to keep the Haole Boys out of local surf spots.

oh, i thought you lived in Kailua-Kona, my bad. I take it you are on Oahu?

Yea, I don't know if its a Haole scare tactic or not. I've heard the story from a few people though. None of the locals gave me any beef when I was riding at White sands. I was pretty surprised. They were actually very nice. Hell, everyone I met there was cool.

RI - i have no idea if you are better off in a hotel (bug issue). i didnt see any centipedes at the house though. and the only scorpions i saw were in the bathroom sinks. that house is booked year round, so i dont think its an issue. i would definitely stay there again.

I say embrace the bugs, cuz. You'll be in the tropics. Bugs live here. A lot.

Consider that any hotel that doesn't have any bugs is LOADED with poison. I think you're better off to find something more down to earth. Scorpions are rather rare and the centipedes prefer to stay buried in the dirt.

I guess this is going on a divergence... but isn't that status quo? Back in the old days of XOC...

-miket