Pake Is as Pake Does

Pake: pronounced "pah-kay".

1. This word is only commonly known in Hawaii. Person who is frugal. Someone who will not make a purchase at an excessive price. A person reluctant to spend money.

2. Word used as a sort of ethnic slur in Hawaii to describe a Chinese person.

Local beer that ended up costing $15.

The driver thought that it would be a good idea to cruise down Kalakaua Avenue at night to check out Waikiki. When they approached a famous hotel, one of the passengers said that she wanted to go into the gift shop to use a hotel gift card that she had been carrying around for months.

The driver offered to drop off the passengers and return in an hour.

Just leave the car with the valet; we'll be done in a few minutes.

After they disembarked, the driver gawked at the fee schedule (excluding tips) on the valet claim check:

With restaurant validation $6
Hotel Guests w/ no validation $15
Non-guests w/ no validation $50

The whole exercise appeared especially useless when it was discovered that the gift card ($42 remaining balance) could only be used at the restaurant or bar. And so it was that, in true pake fashion, the tired passengers and driver sat down to have a drink that they didn't really want or need in order to get the claim check validated.

The tab, including parking and tips, was $30.

The evening wasn't a total loss, however, because they did get to use the gift card. © 2013 Stephen Yuen