Living Quarters in the United States

Hale Manoa

This is a dorm owned by East-West Center, and it houses the center's long and short term students and participants. Basic accommodation, but in a beautiful location right in the University of Hawai'i at Manoa campus site. Bus stop number 13 is just next to it and if you come up to the 12th floor, you will have a spectacular view.

I love staying in here for the duration of 3 weeks, we each got our single room, shared bathroom and two massive kitchens on each floors. My room's view has half of the city, and the other half is the Diamond Head crater. One problem is the hot shower, sometimes it works sometimes you just have to shower cold.

The key card is a mess too, our friend has made the most record of getting a key replacement 8 times! It is so easy to forget and left the key in your room, and your door is not helping you either as you can not manually lock it or leave that metal bits jutting out so you can leave the door slightly opened.

We played American football, frisbee, running in the grasses in front of the hall. It was nice that they have a small building to host small gatherings or parties; Hale Halawai - that me and my friend Peter used to roll bjj no gi (they have mats that you can set up too!).

USS Missouri

By far, this is the best night I had in the United States! There is absolutely no comparison to the exclusive experience of an overnight encampment in the historical war ship, USS Missouri.

Only youth/school groups are allowed for this experience and 'Friends of the Mighty Mo' meaning that you must be a member or families of the organization. The program is inclusive of a complete tour of the ship, as well as a special tour to the 'Big Guns' or 'Engine Room Snipes', catering (we had burger for dinner + ice cream and cereal for breakfast) and story telling time by the guide on board.

The USS Missouri Memorial Association, Inc. (the Association) is a non-profit, and receives no funding from either the U.S. Navy or any other governmental agency for the operations or ongoing maintenance of the ship. So what makes it special is, the operation is run by war veterans and their families. We received educational program, history lessons from the war veterans themselves.

We had a 'navy shower' using this odd shower head (sprayed water only when you pressed it), and slept on the bunks of where soldiers used to sleep. If you are a tall person.. you will be a little awkward trying to get into the bunk. I am a small girl and have no problem at all ;)

Here is me in a room where Rihanna and the crew filmed Battleship:

It is incredible that there is a good wifi on the ship too! On the morning of departing day, we helped clean the berthing place, folded the blankets and removed the sheets from the beds. I had heaps of fun here! Check out my instagram's saved story 'USS Missouri' for this experience.

Host family

Me and Nesha were hosted by Lori and Jim, in their beautiful place at Kaneohe Bay. The bay is the largest sheltered body of water in the main Hawaiian Islands, Oahu.

We went to a nearby pier on the night we arrived and we saw some residence puffer fishes that have been there since forever, just doing their nightly patrol. This area is crowded, in a sense that the houses nearby our host family's house has narrow roads and loads of cars and boats parked on the side of the street.

Kaneohe Bay has a sandbar, that a lot of American families would come and spend some time there swimming, drinking beer and bringing their 'water dogs' to play.

Lori and Jim gave us the best times of our lives when they took us to the 'secret' spot of patch reef, and where the big Honu (sea turtles) are resting. There was no tourists, no other boats but us and we got to see so many Honu popping out of the water. We estimated at least 10 in a span of 1 minute. Yeah, it was that abundant! The green sea turtles are very mature, and we are guessing that this is not just a resting/cleaning spot but could potentially be a mating site too.

The neighbourhood is relaxed, generally and the other side of the bay is here is Marine Corps Base is located. They took us there too so we got to see some army planes and it was my first time seeing Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, which is a plane-helicopter marinated together. You will need a special pass to enter the base though.

Yosemite: Half Dome Village

This is more like a glamping trip where we got to stay 3 persons per tent, on a nice comfortable beds, with a heater, a safe box and a bear-proof box outside the tent for food/toiletries storage.

There are pizza place, supermarket, outdoor shop, mountaineering training, a common cabin where the only wifi source is (cabin is closed at 10pm every night, but wifi is open 24 hours), bathroom, swimming pool, open theatre, bus stops and even a museum (but we did not make it there).

Yosemite is very, very cold at night and when we were there it was mostly raining and we had to cut a day short as everyone had to evacuate the place. River Merced that runs through the valley was forecasted to be overflowing from the snowmelt caused by the warm rain.

This glamping site is dark at night so we had to use our torchlight on our phones and there are brown bears, so we were quiet careful about it especially at night. Everyone on site was respectful in a sense that it is quiet by 10pm so you can have your sleep nice and early. If you don't fancy glamping, there are other nearby sites for actual camping (set up and BYO tents) as well as RV park.

I can't think of a downside of this place, the food was awesome, the place caters for school groups, families, international tourists, they have special ramps for wheelchair users, and the shops sell souvenirs and really, everything that you need.

Oakland: Z Hotel Jack London Square

A cool hotel shaped like a rectangle, with a swimming pool in the center. It is a typical of a 70s motel?

The beds are comfortable and fluffy, some rooms have bathtubs while some only showerheads. Some rooms have a connecting door to each other.

They have a tiny gym that my friends and I took over one afternoon.

There are two things that I don't particularly like about this hotel is that breakfast doesn't come with the price per night, and the price of washing your laundry is at least USD6 (including washing powder, washing machine and dryer) and this is expensive compared to most self washing services.

My friends mentioned that the train nearby is making a lot of noise. It was okay for me as I stuffed my ear with the ear plugs but some of us kept waking up from the noise, unfortunately.

San Francisco: HI San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf Hostel

There are alot of information being plastered everywhere in the hostel such as where to go, what to do, this week's activities, instructions on cleaning and washing your dishes. I realised this is not an ordinary hostel. It carries with it a big symbol and a name, 'Hostelling International' or HI for short.

HI is the federation of more than 70 National Youth Hostel Associations in more than 80 countries which have over 4,000 affiliated hostels around the world. The founder of HI, Richard Schirrmann set up the first youth hostel in Germany in 1909. Their mission, is to encourage exploration and travel, as this will lead to a better understanding of other cultures, and in turn that creates a peaceful, smarter, and more tolerant world.

'We operate ‘for good and not-for-profit’ which means your stay should be cheaper while contributing to something amazing — any surplus of funds is reinvested in affordable hostelling and not shareholders.'

Now that's a little bit of the story of HI but the hostel itself is actually an old military base. We had the best view of the bay being on a cliff, and 10 mins walking distance to the center of the touristy area of Fisherman's Wharf. This place is on the quiet side and not that easy to find for our Uber driver. It is away from the main attractions but supermarket is just 10 mins walk away down the cliff.

Downside?

The rooms that we had was tiny though. Imagine having 8 girls in a bunk beds, small room. Not to mention that, the floor is covered with everyone's stuffs and luggages. The hostel is always full with guests, and the breakfast is not bad actually. They served oatmeal, apples, juices, hot drinks, toasts. They have a small movie theatre too. I was upset that I lost my bra and long pants here. I had a shower and forgot to bring it with me back to my room :p

Marin: HI Marin Headlands Hostel

I have to say, my friends were freaking out when we first saw this hostel-house. It was foggy, cold and gloomy, as we drove uphill in Marin Headlands, and the sight of the house is nothing but creepy. It was like a real-life start of a horror story.

Then we got in and we were welcomed by the warmth of the huge common room, and the pretty kitchen. The common room has a piano and a fireplace (I'm assuming it is a similar design for HI branches; HI San Francisco has these as well) and long wooden picnic tables for dining.

The bathrooms are vintage, the plumbing system has been around for more than 100 years. The rooms are named after national parks in the US like Yosemite, Grand Canyon etc.. and there were 6 of us in my room.

At the basement we have a game room, with a pool table, 2 soccer tables, a ping pong table, yoga studio and lounge couches. My friends enjoyed the basketball court outside. I think I enjoyed the little trails over the hills that you can take to be in nature. They gave us a free and accurate trail map to do so.

There are some cons, for example the breakfast is a pancake mix - and by this I mean literally just the mix, syrup, honey, dried berries. So you have to make it yourself.

This hostel was a hospital during the military days and I don't know but some of us felt some sort of 'presence'. A friend got so scared one night when she was showering and she thought she was talking to our friend when she heard back a 'yea' as a reply. But of course no one was in the bathroom with her. So maybe this place is not for the weak-hearted?

Another thing is, this place is freezing. I wish it could have been warmer, but the heater was not on and we were provided with extra fleece blanket under our bed to use. Also to note, we had to clean the room ourselves upon checking out: hoover, remove sheets, fold duvet, clear out the bins.

Oh! and washing here is the cheapest ever! They only asked for a quarter for the washing liquid, then insert a dollar for washing machine and another dollar in the coin slot for tumble dryer.

Adams Inn

When we first arrived here, the inn looked so well camouflaged amongst the other residential flats. One thing that gave it away is the flags of China, Germany, USA and a few other countries just outside the balcony. It looked very small on the outside, but there are plenty of rooms inside actually.

This place is like one of those 'maze house' where the rooms are a bit tricky to find along the narrow corridor, stairs and basement. I felt like home with their interior design, and the little trinkets that they put all over.

Breakfast was included, free flow of tea and coffee (and they provide take away cups + lids too) AND free energy bars and chocolates. Nyums! The common dining area only have a small oven and a microwave, but there is a full kitchen and washing machine at the basement.

The problem of trying to fit in 22 of us was crazy. The inn has 2 buildings, not connected though, there is a parting walkway in between. So the boys were placed in one building and the girls got the main building (where the front office is located). There are some of us who had to share room of 4 people, while some has a single room for themselves.

The inn is situated in the Adam's Morgan area and is very accessible to metro, bus, restaurants, fast food and supermarket. The metro station 'Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan' is the nearest station, and you can ride for 1 stop with the circulator bus from the inn.

The downsides?

Well it was down to 4 degrees C in DC when we were there and they do not heat up the inn anymore because it was already mid-April. So we have to use personal electric heater in our rooms (which is not enough) and some of my friends could not sleep very well because of the cold.. The other issue is, they only give 1 key per room, so I had 3 people in my room and we had to coordinate and get up to open the front door for example.

There you go, a list of places we got to stay when we were in the US for 5 weeks. I hope this helps you to decide where to stay should you are visiting the places that we went. Do pack light, because the accommodations that we have here is backpacker-ish style especially if you are staying in the Hostelling International chains. Also, these are not exactly suited for those who prefers luxury and comfort.

Personally for me, the one thing that matters when I travel is accessibility. You would be spending more money if you want to stay at such a cheap place but is very far away from bus stops/train stations.