Opening/Cracking a coconut

The other day I found this cheap coconut at Kokua Market for only 2$ (yes, that is cheap for Hawaiʻi). In my excitement, I got the water out after poking one of little black top area with a thin knife.... But then I wanted to get the meat and tried to break open my coconut using some Hindi Film method of just crushing the coconut on the floor (they usually crush it on an alter). But it would not budge, it sort of bounced like a hard cricket ball.. Tried few more times, while fearing that someone from 12th floor hale manoa can come up to me any time and question me for the destructive activity... thankfully no one seem to have cared.. i gave up and came down to my room and googled the term, how to break open a coconut.. found many interesting and useful sites including ehow  and a site dedicated to coconut breaking etc. Those helped to establish the fact that I am not the only one who felt the predicament of a hard nut to crack! Next day, while I was planning to arrange a hammer and a towel (recommended by the websites) I bumped into a fellow kitchen mate from Vietnam.. She is from a province in the South of Vietnam where they grow lot of coconuts and ppl use fresh coconuts to make coconut milk!!!! So, I thought she would be the best for my coconut too.... (I know she often uses fresh coconut in Hawaiʻi too, and once she spent hours scraping a coconut with a beer bottle cover).. So, she took the coconut to her room (to avoid noise) but came back in 5 mins with apologies saying this one is really too hard and she can't help and recommended asking Paulino, the 12th floor cleanliness manager (i donʻt know his title) to help with heavy duty hammer!!!! He being from Philippines might help too, that is what I thought... While thinking that I said to the Vietnamese girl and a Chinese girl (who had no clue about coconuts!!) that why wouldn't it break.. You see I can strike to the ground like a ball... And boom, as soon as the coconut slid my hands while I said the words, we heard a small cracking sound... and yes, there was a cute crack.. So I used my primitive method of dropping the coconut with all my might the floor and it cracked open.... The Vietnamese girl gave me her newest contraption (a hand grater for papaya) to grate the coconut, but it looked like that it was going to take forever, so I decided to use a regular knife and scooped all the meat out in 15 minutes... It was great.. The meat the fresh and tasty! But the price was a few blisters on my right hand..... But I think it was worth it... Will make coconut milk tomorrow with the meat, in my blender (u are supposed to use a food processor, but I donʻt have one!).. So, letʻs see how it goes....