Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a great place to wander through while digesting a Kula Lodge breakfast or making your
way down from the crater.
Pick up baskets of locally grown protea at the
Upcountry Harvest Gift Shop
(638
Kekaulike Ave., 808/878-2824,
www.upcountryharvest.com
,
9am-4pm daily) inside the
Kula Botanical Garden. The gift shop offers a full range of floral arrangements at $59-250,
as well as bags of coffee beans grown right on the property ($22).
Ching Store and Fong's Store
Just past the park in “downtown” Keokea, you'll find
Ching Store
(9212 Kula Hwy.,
808/878-1556, 7am-5pm daily) and
Fong's Store
(9226 Kula Hwy., 808/878-1525,
7:30am-5:30pm Mon.-Sat., 7:30am-3:30pm Sun.), which are one part grocery market and
two parts time capsule. These stores are so old that oversize cigarette boxes still serve as
the decor, and the poster in the doorway of Fong's Store from the Maui County Liquor
Commission informs patrons that anyone wishing to purchase alcohol must be 18 years of
age. Mrs. Fong will be quick to remind you, however, that this store is in the “new” loca-
tion; though the original store opened in Keokea in 1908, the one that currently stands has
only been here since 1932. Wood shelves match the wood floors, and it's as if someone
forgot to tell these elderly children of the original Chinese immigrants that the rest of the
world has quickened its pace a little bit.
Art Gallery
Sandwiched between Grandma's Coffee House and Fong's Store, tiny little
Keokea
Gallery
(9230 Kula Hwy., 808/878-3555, 9am-5pm daily) has existed as a fully working
studio since 1989. Inside the humble little gallery are a collection of linocut collages, paint-
ings, painted surfboards, handmade frames, and of course the affable artist Sheldon and his
mellow dog Ipo. It's an odd place to find a gallery, and it catches you off guard, but when
you poke your head inside and have a look around, you find yourself wondering if you've
stumbled into something no one else knows about. It's almost as if you say,
Wait a minute,
these are good. So what are they doing way out here?
