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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

The View From Your Window Contest: Winner #4

By The Daily Dish
Jun 29 2010, 12:15 PM ET

Vfyw-contest_6-25

A reader writes:

Somewhere tropical, reasonably developed. Not continental US. Can't find somewhere in Hawaii with this much flat land. Phuket, Thailand?

Another writes:

Looking at the chair, it has a certain elegant South Asian feel to it. But the water has that beautiful tropical glow and the surroundings look fairly prosperous. Thus, I'm going to guess: Victoria, Seychelles.

Another:

Judging by the trees, landscape, ocean color, and river through town, I'm going to wildly guess Hoi An, Vietnam.

Another:

I'm going to guess that's the Rock of Gibraltar out in the water, so let's try La Linea De La Concepcion in Spain.

Another:

This one's tough. Inactive, eroded volcanoes in background point toward somewhere in the South China Sea.  I'm taking a stab in the dark: Malaysia, the city of Georgetown. 

Another:

Based on foliage, the style and condition of the buildings, and the odd looking vegetation, combined with the terrain, I'll say Australia. Google image search, combined with combing through Australian coastal towns, leads me to believe this must be Townsville, Queensland.

Another:

This game is fun, especially for those of us who enjoy maps. Trying to match the Google satellite images of my guesses to the little clues offered here is one way I've attempted to answer. So, this is probably Christchurch, and more specifically, taken from the Phillipstown section of the city, looking east. Now, go ahead and tell me that I'm half a world off the mark.  

Half a world. Answer after the jump:



If this isn't my hometown, I'll be embarrassed to misidentify it, but this looks like Honolulu, Hawaii. Specifically, the neighborhood of Kailua, overlooking the Enchanted Lakes section. If I'm right, it was the silhouette of the Mokapu peninsula in the distance that tipped me off.

About 40 out of 500 entries were Kailua. But the VFYW book has to go to the reader who divined the exact street address:

That is obviously the view from Kailua looking towards Kaneohe on Oahu, so I figure the location guess has to be pretty specific. Mahalo to the fellow with the skylights to the right for an easy landmark to look for in Google Earth for the street.

Congrats to the winner. A few readers have more on Kailua:

The water in the foreground is Enchanted Lake. The water in the background is Kailua Bay. The mountains on the left are the Ko'olau. The mountain in the far right actually looks like a sea turtle up close. The crunchy brown seed pods off the lanai are called "haole koa." The picture was taken on a foggy day, but it's usually much clearer there because of the trade winds.

Another:

The area is home to the Marine base at Kaneohe Bay (K-Bay, as it's known on the base). My brother-in-law was stationed there for three years, deployed to Iraq from there, and met my beautiful sister, an island girl, in Kailua Town.

Another:

Would be great if you posted a link to last week's winner with this week's entry, will save your readers a lot of digging through the Dish to find it. Thanks!

You're welcome. See you Saturday at noon.

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