Playing "Hookah" from School: Hawaii's BYOB and AYCS (All You Can Smoke) at The Burning Tree

Everyone has their vice out here.

Some ditch class to go surfing. Other ditch to go fishing. Some even ditch just to go body boarding or diving.

And people who can't swim or don't like the beach distract themselves with quality shopping time at Ala Moana or around Waikiki.

But what do people do if they dont' like the beach and they don't have a lot of money to spend?

They go play Hookah at the burning tree

The Burning Tree is located on Waialae avenue. The shop is situated right in front of a bus stop, and is between Azteca and Kaimuki Chop Suey. The Burning Tree occupies what used to be a bike store. When we walked by to get to BC Burrito, we saw two guys through a large picture window playing soccer game on a flat screen television.

Don't expect this to be a fancy cafe or anything nice. It looks and feels, as other reveiws of this place have described, your next door neighbor's garage. And I like that feel. I grew up in Waipahu where the garage wasn't a place where you parked your car, but a place where you had your second TV room. And all the neighbor kids would come over to play video games until 10:00PM.

Since we've established that this place is low key and has a relaxed atmosphere, don't expect waikiki service. And what do i mean by waikiki service? I mean workers who pay attention to your every whim and are there to serve you, and try to get as much money out of you as possible. The guy who helped us was friendly enough. We'd ask him questions; he'd stare up at the TV screen, twiddling with his x-box remote, then answer with a blank stare and keep playing. He makes us wait till he looses control of the ball before he'll press pause to help us set up for our Hookah experience.

This was my first time to do Hookah so I let the Grand Master pick the flavor and take the first puff.

First Round

Flavor: Mobster

Rating: Great

Taste: Like Ramnue (a japanese soda)

Feel: Refreshing

Second Round

Flavor: Queen of Sex

Rating: Average

Taste: On the citrus side--perhaps a fruit taste

Feel: Light

My first experience was great. I've smoked ciggarettes before and I like menthols. This is better than that. It's a smooth, clean feeling and as the smoke leaves your nose and mouth you can taste whichever flavor you picked.

I can't provide you with a technical review of this Hookah place because I'm not an expert in this area. I will say that I ended up not going to class and spent about 4 plus hours at that place. I am an expert at finding things to do instead of going to class, and I have to say that class time was well spent at The Burning Tree.

Total price: It's about ten dollars per hour (they don't charge per person) and we stayed about four hours so we paid around forty dollars. The shisha is included with your first hour. They charge you for every 1/4 hour if you go over an hour, and if you need more shisha they charge you anywhere from $5.00 to $6.50. They also let you mix your shisha. The coal used to keep the shisha lit at the top is included but you can buy coal upgrades if you'd like.

BONUS: Sometimes the Burning Tree will have live musical performances. We left around 10:00PM and that's about the time when the performance started.

The singer's first song was 96 degrees in the Shade. If you're from Hawaii and you're familiar with local songs, you know what this song is talking about. Watching him perform was like watching tourist in Waikiki listen to Kaulana Na Pua, saying "I love this song. It's so pretty," and have no idea what the lyrics mean. Too ironic--too funny.

DOUBLE BONUS: They are BYOB!

Tip1: If you don't like crowds, come early--say around 5:00 or 6:00PM. We were the only ones in there at that time.

Tip2: If you prefer the crowded atmoshpere because you like to talk to people, then you should come some time after 7:00 or 8:00PM. I say this because if you wait too late you'll have a hard time finding a place to sit and Hookah.This place is sort of small and can get very crowded at night.

Around 7:30PM or so, parking that used to be metered becomes free and some loading zones become regular parking spots as well.