Back to Bangkok again

The day-time journey back to Bangkok from Mae Sot was effortless again, and we passed some beautiful Thai scenery along the way (all very bright green fields, and cool limestone hills).

Another taxi ride from the bus terminal had us back in the Khao San road area. After a quick scout around I found a cheap place to stay (the area seemed a fair bit quieter than when we left, thank god), although Mullins' wee bit of impatience meant he paid a fair bit more than he needed to.

That night myself and Mr. Mullins had a bit of a late night in the Khao San area, but finished the night with a coffee and a pad thai from a street stall. The following day we saw him off to his bus for the airport for his flight to Vietnam, and myself and Sarah just spent the day relaxing and using the Internet.

Next day I wanted to do a bit of exploring, so we strolled around to the river to catch the boat to the famous Wat Pho, home of the huge reclining Budda (after trying to arrange free bicycles, but I didn't have photo ID other than my passport, which they wouldn't take).

After Wat Pho we tried to get into the Grand Palace, but I was stopped for wearing shorts (I could have swore I got in last time wearing shorts, but maybe not). Anyway I decided to check out the national museum and modern art gallery while Sarah headed back to the hostel (it was getting mighty hot in the midday sun).

So the following morning I walked back to the free bike place and this time managed to get a bike although the conditions seemed to have changed from the day before - the time limit was now 3 hours now instead of 2. So off I rode, and in fact the roads and traffic really weren't a problem at all. Probably because the traffic was heavy it was forced to move very slowly, so riding along on a bike seemed quicker at times. Although it was high season with backpackers all over the place, there didn't seem to be many takers for the bikes (I think I saw three other people on bikes my whole time in Bangkok). No doubt it's just the usual Epsilonic fear, doubt and paranoia, there's just no escaping it I suppose...

The bike route map was a little confusing though, as at one point I was directed the wrong way down a one-way street, but it was easy to circumnavigate that and in no time at all I had arrived at the Grand Palace. I was here years ago with Hanno, but it was still great to see it all again. Also, this time I took the free English tour, which although a little slow was still interesting.

I dropped the bike back after 4 hours - they never seem to mind little indiscretions like that - and after grabbing a bite to eat in a LP-recommended place across the road from the bike place (very nice), I strolled back to our hotel where Sarah was waiting. After a nice shower and a bit of a rest we headed out to sell back our South East Asia guidebook, check out buses to the airport (awkward if early in the morning), and grab our last super-tasty dinner in Thailand before the expected madness of India (after hearing all of Mullins' horror stories about India I think myself and Sarah were both a fair bit more apprehension than we would have been - I guess nobody is immune from 'the fear'...).

Mae Sot

Mike is working at a school for Burmese refugees, and this is his 3rd 'tour of duty', helping to teach the kids about computers and the internet,and for the next 2 days he was our fantastic guide to the whole area of Mae Sot.

Our first port of call, after renting another scooter, was to visit the school itself. It was actually World Child Day, so the place was pretty crazy with kids from many local schools all running around and playing. The school is quite big (catering for 250 kids I think), with a few very solid structures, a nice new playground and playing fields nearby. Many of the kids live right next to the school in very simple, primitive houses, but it was great to see all the kids enjoying themselves and just being kids really.

We also go to see where Mike lives, which was another modern building, but very spartan (Mike's only here for 3 months this time around), and got to see the neighbour's impressive crossbow for fishing from the balcony!

After lunch at Canadian Daves, we drove out to the Burmese border. This is just a narrow river (at this time of year anyway), with a sprawling market selling all the usual nick-nacks (Mullins buying an electric mosquito-killing tennis bat thing), so after a few posed photos it was back on the bikes and back to town.

Later that night we did a bit of a pub crawl around the small town, and met some interesting local characters, like the ex-pat Cheap Charlie from Scotland - but really the town was kinda quite (even though it was Saturday night). Myself, Mike and Mullins did manage to pop out to the local food market late in the night for a snack and nightcap, but even there seemed to be shutting down.

The next day Mike brought us out to the local reservoir that is in a lovely setting, hiking up the hill there to check out the views from the Buddhist temple at the top. Then it was back to the school area where the local cock-fighting ring was holding it's weekly competitions. I wouldn't be a fan of any blood sport, but everything here was quite subdued really, all very friendly and welcoming. It was certainly interesting to see the whole thing, which is still very much legal in Thailand, and it wasn't as gruesome as I thought it was going to be (the birds have their heel claw taped up and they only fight until one gives up (as opposed to the death)).

Even if it is natural for cocks to fight in the wild, I'm certainly in favour of it's being banned - forcing any creature into an extremely stressful situation just so a group of men can satisfy their need for a bit of gambling doesn't cut it with me.

Anyway, we didn't stay long, but we did get to see the end of a fight (a single fight can go on for over an hour with rounds of 20 minutes each). It all ended very simply when one of the birds turned and walked away a little bit - within 2 seconds all the spectators were roaring and those that had won were celebrating immediately, it literally seemed over in the blink of an eye.

So after that we strolled to the local market (which was much like a market anywhere really), and Mike bought a selection of local foods which we ate watching a group of refugees playing volleyball, and playing with a couple of the local kids.

Our second night was a quieter affair, being joined for dinner by another American volunteer named Brandon, a few drinks in Trungs Bar where we were staying, and winning some American states for Irish sovereignty over the pool table.

The next morning Mullins got up at 7am to drive to the bus station to make sure we got tickets for the bus back to Bangkok, and then over breakfast in our usual cool local coffee house we said goodbye to Mike and got a songthaw back to the bus station for the trip back to Bangkok.

Getting to Mae Sot

So the next day we all headed off to the Vietnamese embassy to get a visa sorted out for Mullins. He was familiar with the route, so we just followed him to the canal for the boat that would take us most of the way (after getting a little bit confused about which canal we needed).

I think there are only two canals still in use as transport routes in Bangkok, as the Government tends to cover them up and build roads instead, but for now getting the boat is by far the quickest option for getting where we needed to go. It was pretty cool screaming down a narrow canal too, and we arrived in no time at all.

When we got to the embassy it turned out we couldn't have timed it better, as the embassy was closing for the following 6 days due to a big Vietnamese holiday (similar but different I think to the Chinese New Year). Mullins could get an express visa that same day (extra money of course), but would have to come back at 3pm to pick it up.

So with time to kill we headed back down the road to the SkyTrain and popped over to Siam Square for the afternoon. Poor Mullins wasn't feeling very well though (he'd eaten stagnant stall food on our bus journey up from Phuket), so he used the Internet to re-arrange his flights home to pass through Ho Chi Minh City while Sarah and I had lunch nearby.

We didn't get to explore much of Siam Square, but I've been there before, and really it's just big malls with fancy shops, so not really my scene anyway. So come 3pm we hopped back on the SkyTrain, picked up the visa and headed back to Khao San road.

Mae Sot isn't on one of the typical tourist routes so we had no choice but to get a Government bus there (which suited us anyway after being ripped off by the last 2 tourist bus people). So we got a metered taxi to the bus terminal and got a bus ticket for later that night (unfortunately the cheaper, earlier buses were all full, so we had to wait around an extra couple of hours for a VIP bus).

The journey was easy though, and the bus was really comfortable (only the 2nd 3-seats-in-a-row bus we've taken on this trip), so we all slept really well. We arrived at Mae Sot at about 6am and hopped into a songthaw for the quick trip into the town.

After wandering about aimlessly looking for our hostel (which Mullins' mate had kindly pre-booked for us), we eventually found it, but couldn't wake anyone up to check us in. So we hung around for a bit and at 8am went to a lovely nearby cafe for a coffee and to use their internet. A little later we found people awake at the hostel, checked-in, had showers and then Mullin's mate, Mike, arrived on his scooter.

Getting back to Bangkok

Leaving Koh Phi Phi was simply a matter of arriving at the pier at 9am and hopping on the big ferry boat. A smooth 1.5 hours later we arrived on Phuket and hop into a local songthaw for the 15 minute ride into the main bus terminal in Phuket Town itself. All 3 of us had been to Phuket before, and so we weren't particularly bothered about skipping the island (if Mullins had had a bit more time we might have tried to find a nice beach spot on Kata or Karon beach for a day or two though).

From the bus terminal we had a number of options to get up to Bangkok. We could take a cheap tourist bus leaving at a convenient time, or a more expensive government bus leaving a few hours later. We all knew the dangers of taking the tourist bus (i.e. the various scams they pull on you), but after talking to 3 different operators both myself and Mullins had a good feeling about one of them. So we decided to trust our instincts and go with the tourist bus (although we didn't take the cheapest option, opting instead for a slightly more luxurious option).

Well, you simply can't always trust your intuition I suppose! It turned out we were rightly ripped off again, or at least we would have been if we didn't kick up an almightyful fuss. Our first minibus to Surat Thani departed about 45 minutes late, but at least the 3 of us got the best seats. Mullins got the passenger seat beside the driver, and myself and Sarah got to share the first row.

After waiting for about 25 minutes at the transfer point (just a restaurant in the middle of nowhere), a guy arrives in a nice new air-conditioned car to take us to what we think is another transfer point (basically, long-distance tourist bus journeys seem to be made up by connecting various bus journeys). Anyway, it turns out he drops us at a tour office in the city and then just kind of ignores us. There are a couple of girls there too, but none of them have much English, and when we start to inquire about what is happening it turns out there are no seats available on any of the tourist buses to Bangkok that night (at least that's what we think they were trying to say). It all becomes very messy, and after we start going mad, and make a show of looking for the tourist police, and the guy and the girls start coming and going and making phone calls, eventually a songthaw (a big taxi thing) driver arrives and we're beckoned to follow him.

It ends up that he takes us to the government bus terminal a few kilometers away and he buys tickets for us on the cheapest government bus to Bangkok. At this stage we're just thankful to be getting to Bangkok at all, but we all realise we've been ripped off yet again (as we'd paid for a luxury bus, and we could have just gotten the cheaper government bus ourselves from Phuket - although a further complication was that the government buses don't go anywhere near Khao San Road, whereas the tourist ones drop you right there).

As the songthaw driver is taking his change for the bus tickets I grab it right out of his hand and explain to him that that money will now go towards the taxi we were now forced to pay for to get us to Khao San Road (which was were we had originally paid to go). The songthaw driver acts all hurt, almost beginning to cry, saying he won't get paid a penny for bringing us to the bus terminal, but strangely he doesn't put up any kind of fight to get his money. Sarah and Mullins are both telling me to give him back the money, but I've never come across a taxi driver that would give up a legitimate fare so easily. To me it was as clear as day that this was all just part of the same scam, and I was damned if I was going to let these guys get away with even more of our money.

Anyway, it was all quite funny in the end, and we were really lucky to get seats on that bus (although we had to take the seats at the very front of the bus, which have the least leg room). So we arrived at the Eastern bus terminal in Bangkok and after checking the options for continuing directly to Mae Sot, we decided to stay a night in Bangkok (as Mullins needed to get a Vietnam visa sorted out) and get a bus the following night. So we hopped into a metered taxi for the journey back to Khao San road.

Koh Phi Phi

So we arrived at Koh Phi Phi in the late morning, and leaving Nick and Sarah at the port to mind our bags, myself and Mullins ignored all the touts and started strolling about the town looking for accommodation.

Mullins has been to Phi Phi twice before, and thought he knew the lay of the land, but it turned out things have changed a bit since his last visit. After a bit of backtracking we ended up checking about 15 places without finding anything with available rooms at a good price. We ended up going back to Nick and Sarah and taking a tout to a nearby large complex of concrete bungalows. The rooms were very nice though, and we stayed there for 2 nights before finding much cheaper rooms in the centre of the town.

All-in-all I don't think any of us was particularly impressed with Koh Phi Phi. Although the scenic setting is lovely (I personally preferred Raileh though), it was still very much high season (although thankfully not super-high season which is the time between Christmas and Jan 10th), and so everywhere was very, very crowded, with everything from rooms, food and drink all very overpriced. The main beach was also very crowded, and if it wasn't for Nick finding a secluded area of beach on the pier-side of the island we almost certainly would have left the island after just a day or two.

As it was, we basically just hung out on that secluded part of beach every day for 4 days. There were free umbrellas and sun loungers (although the umbrellas weren't very effective, and I got burnt after the first day sitting under one), and a great, cheap little local restaurant right beside us.

We had all wanted to try scuba diving in the area (and had been thinking of maybe heading to Phuket to do a live-aboard to the world famous Similans, but in the end my budget wouldn't really have stretched to that). But the reports from the dive shops all told us the visibility was pretty terrible, but that it might improve in a day or two. So we decided to skip Phuket and just hang around Phi Phi for another couple of days hoping the seas would clear up a bit.

It all turned out very well too, as a couple of days later all 3 of us did 2 fun dives together and the visibility was a very healthy 12-14 meters. We got to approach a very beautiful, heavily pregnant leopard shark just resting on the sea floor, a small turtle feeding on coral, lots of shoals of small, colourful fish, quite a few lion fish, barracuda and just lovely rock and coral formations.

On one of the mornings we trekked up to the viewpoint that gives great views over the isthmus to the two crescent beaches below. It also provides views of just how overly developed the island has become since the tsunami destroyed much of it in 2004. It was fascinating to see the before and after photos of the area, but not so nice to see what a mess the Thais have made of developing the 'clean-slate' they had after the tsunami.

Each evening was pretty much the same - after the beach and a shower we'd stroll to a nice restaurant for cheap Thai food and then a few beers in the places we knew had happy hours. Then maybe we'd check out the fire shows on the beach (one night there was a traditional Thai dance troupe of lady boys from Phuket, which got a bit boring after about half-an-hour).

So after 6 nights on the island it was time to leave and start heading up North. Mullins wanted to catch up with another friend of his currently volunteering with refugees on the Thai/Burmese border, and so myself and Sarah decided to join him for the long trip up to Mae Sot.

Short stop in Ao Nang

We only stayed 2 nights at Ao Nang, as none of us where particularly impressed with the town. It's all quite developed, and has a major road between the bars/restaurants/touristy shops and the beach itself.

So for the full day we had there we got a local boat out to Raileh beach, a far more peaceful area that has no road access. It's still quite developed though and the main beach there was very busy, so we strolled across the narrow stretch of land to a more remote beach with beautiful limestone rock formations famous for rock climbing. After relaxing on the beach and swimming a few times in the warm seas it was back to Ao Nang on the last 6pm boat.

That night after dinner we strolled the few kilometres to Lucky Bar (we didn't realise how far a walk it would be), and had a couple of beers in the cool bar there watching a not-so-good local rock band play covers. We all took a tuk-tuk back in Ao Nang where myself and Mullins played some pool and Connect-4 with some of the 'locals'.

The plan the following day was to make our way to Koh Phi Phi, a famously beautiful island only 1.5 hours away by ferry, and so the next morning we all made our way to the end of the road and boarded the very comfortable air-conditioned ferry.

Getting to Ao Nang

The bus journey from Bangkok was fine, and we got to the connection hub of Surat Thani early in the morning, waited for about an hour and then continued on towards Krabi. But it turned out that the bus stopped at a tour office about 5km before Krabi town itself, and everyone had to get out. This is a very common scam here in Thailand, where you buy a cheap bus ticket to a destination only to be hit by extra charges or left miles from where you're supposed to be going.

Myself and another traveller got quite irrate with the girls working at the tour office, trying to insist that they pay for the waiting taxis to drop us into Krabi town proper. Of course they completely refused, so in an attempt to work out exactly where I was I grabbed a local map from in front of them (all the other travellers on our bus just seemed to accept being ripped off, and quitely paid the extra 'charge' for taxis into the town).

My original plan had been to go from Krabi town directly to the beach town of Ao Nang, and it turned out that we were actually very close to the road to Ao Nang. So after a bit more gesticulating to the scam artists in the tour office (which one of them returned by sticking her tongue out at me!), we just walked the 300meters up the road to the Ao Nang turn-off. As 'luck' would have it, a songthaw heading to Ao Nang just happened to be passing as we reached the road, and of course he stopped to let us hop up on the back. So it turned out we actually saved time and money by getting 'ripped off' (although the stress of arguing with the scammers wasn't too nice), and so 20 minutes later we arrived at the beach town of Ao Nang.

In fact, I saved even more money when I got back to Bangkok 10 days later when I confronted the guy who sold us our original bus tickets. I knew he knew it was all a scam, and I told him so in no uncertain terms. Of course he immediately got all defensive and started making up crappy excuses, none of which I entertained, and he very quickly handed me back 100 baht to cover the taxi fare into Krabi town that I never got - the sucker! I think my case was strengthened by 2 girls that just happened to be sitting behind me while I was arguing with him who also just happened to have been on the same bus 10 days earlier! I don't think they bothered to argue their case though, like most Epsilons they just casually accepted being ripped off for some reason.

Anyway, myself and Sarah got settled in Ao Nang while waiting for Mullins to arrive (Sarah had to run around quite a few places to find anything reasonable, but again we seemed to get lucky and she found a great spot).

It turned out that Mullins just happened to bump into a friend of his from Melbourne on the bus, and so we got to meet up, and spend the next few days, with Nick. We all got settled and headed out to explore.

Arriving in Bangkok

Due to our short delay leaving Bejing we arrived in Bangkok even later than planned. But the public buses here are excellent, and it was no problem finding the bus to the backpacker enclave of Khao San Road (as usual the bus was actually waiting for us, and pulled off within a minute!).

On arrival at Khao San Road though I was hit by probably the strongest sense of culture shock of this entire trip so far, and the reason was simply the shear number of Western backpackers milling about. Even after all this time travelling I have never experienced such a concentration of identi-kit travellers in all my life - all of them seemingly dressed in the same T-shirts and shorts, with tans, tattoos and body piercings and all trying ever so hard to look cool and different!

Anyway, the crowds of backpackers immediately had me worried about getting a room, or least getting a reasonably priced one. I immediately headed away from Khao San itself to the adjoining streets I'd stayed in before, but every hostel we tried was either full or very expensive. But after continuing to stroll away from the main strip we eventually found a lovely place for a good price, Peachy Guesthouse for 400 baht a night.

We spent the next day just strolling about the local area, and discovering that the National Museum and the Gallery are both closed on Mondays and Tuedays (not being told by a tuk-tuk driver, actually reading the plaques outside!).

The following day we again just strolled about, paid for Indian visas to be processed while waiting for a night bus that evening to Krabi in the South. The plan was to try and meet up with Sean Mullins, who was making his way up though Malaysia, and to spend some time on the famous southern beaches of Thailand. So at 6pm our bus duly arrived and off we went.

Hong Kong

Our flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong had a short stop-over in Bejing, and we arrived there right on time. We were all very casual and relaxed as we made our way to the transfer area, but we were forced to pass through immigration.

I assumed Hong Kong would be an Internal Transfer, but in fact it's still regarded as an International Transfer (Hong Kong will remain a special region until 2050 I think). That confusion caused us to be delayed quite a bit, and we had to get manually written boarding cards for our connecting flight to Hong Kong, which caused further delay, by which time I was getting quite anxious about catching our flight. As it turned out the airline staff simply moved us onto a later flight, leaving us with about 1.5 hours to kill in the airport (as it turned out we could just have caught the original flight, but the staff were right to play it cautiously I suppose). The huge Bejing airport (or the section we were in anyway) was almost completely deserted, which was all a bit eery really.

This was my 3rd time in Hong Kong, and it still captivates me every time. Again our cheap flights meant we arrived very late at night, but Hong Kong's public transport system must be one of the best in the world. It was easy-peasy (and cheap) to catch a bus directly to the city, and we arrived at 2am on a normal Tuesday morning to streets flooded with crowds of people.

It was a bit of a job to find the correct entrance to our hostel (Ah Shan Hostel in Mongkok), as it was on the 14th floor of a skyscraper and had no signage on street level. But once we'd woken the owner (by simply banging loudly on the door of her tiny little room), we were checked-in and relaxing in a great little room.

So the next 5 days were spent doing all the usual Hong Kong things, and using the brilliantly helpful free walking-tour guidebook provided in the airport. So it was great just strolling around refamiliarising myself with all my favorite places, like the huge avary, the escalators, the Green Star ferry, etc. This time I also popped into my favorite building in the world (the IFC Tower 2) to pop up to the observation deck to see the city views, and also an interesting presentation on world currencys.

Of course we strolled around the Peak trail, and of course we didn't pay the pointless extra charge to climb up the new SkyTower (the views from the free trail are much better). I had a relaxing coffee reading the paper and using the free internet at the brilliantly positioned Pacific Coast Coffee house at the base of the SkyTower that looks down on the city (definitely the best value view on the Peak, as you can just pay for a coffee and have the same view as all the rip-off touristy restaurants).

We had a great meal at the Peking Restaurant, which specialises in Peking Duck. Although I thought the food was no better than a good Chinese back home, the atmosphere in this restaurant was brilliant, as we were the only non-Chinese people there, and everyone eats at shared big round tables (and Sarah got an impromptu chopsticks lesson from one of the really friendly 'auld lads beside us).

I tried to go back to one of the best restaurants in Hong Kong at the Langham Hotel (which apparently recently received 2 Michellin stars), where we'd had a fantastic dinner the last time here, but unfortunately when we arrived it was fully booked. We did get to eat twice at another of my favorite Hong Kong instituions though, the chaotic but delicious Kau Kee on Gough Street (mentioned in this interesting looking web page, which I'll need to consult for my next trip).

We also popped into the famous Felix bar in the Peninsula Hotel, but didn't stay long this time, strolled about the convention centre and the new walkway of famous Hong Kong celebrities (cool bronze statue of Bruce Lee), and saw the very underwhelming nighttime laser show across the city. I was thinking of maybe getting to Macau this time, but again we just didn't have time.

So after another hectic 5-day tour of Hong Kong it still just seemed to whet my appetite for this amazing city, and strengthened my ideal of one day living here for a bit. But all too soon we were catching the bus back to the airport and hopping on another flight, this time bound for Bangkok.

San Francisco

Our per-booked shuttle bus (since we arrived too late for the BART or public buses) dropped us at our pre-booked hostel (Elements Hostel), so after checking-in and dropping our bags in the dorm we popped down to the bar for a couple of New Years drinks. The bar was really pumping out the music, so there wasn't much point in trying to sleep anyway.

The drinks however were mad expensive, so after the first one Sarah popped across the road to buy a couple of beers in the convenience store and smuggle them back into the bar. At 2am though, one of the bar staff simply swiped my drink from the counter right in front of me and poured it down the drain. When I complained she simply told me that there were no drinks after 2am, and so it was my own fault! There had been no warning or anything, so Sarah got really mad and complained to the manager (who had a drink in his hand himself!), and somehow managed to get him to fork over the $8 price of a beer, which was funny 'cos we'd just paid $2 for it in the store across the road!

So the next day we strolled about the town, spending the whole afternoon getting completely stuffed in Chinatown by popping into numerous restaurants trying all the dim-sum. That evening we explored the waterfront and Pier 39 - neither of which were very impressive in my opinion, just collections of touristy shops and restaurants.

It turned out we couldn't book tickets to Alcatraz either, as it was fully booked for the next 3 days. We've done Robben Island in Cape Town though, so I wasn't too bothered - and it leaves something to do next time I'm in San Francisco.

Another night we just happened to be passing a comedy venue and I decided on the spur of the moment to get tickets (I had no idea who the headline comedian was). The show turned out to be great, with the compere and first act both being fantastic. The headliner was actually the weakest of the comedians in my opinion (he plays a character in the American Office), but it was still a great night's entertainment.

It turned out that Sarah's friend Shane was visiting his brother in San Francsico while we were there, so we meet up with him for a day too. Shane had been in town for a while, so I thought he'd have the low-down on where to go in the city, but it turns out his brother lives miles outside the city, and so he didn't have any top-tips at all really.

We did manage to explore the crookedest street in the world though (nothing special), and had a lovely dinner in the Italian quarter of the city before Shane had to catch the last train back out to his brother's house in the suburbs.

I had wanted to hire bicycles so that we could cycle out to the Golden Gate bridge, and cycle across it, but we were both just too lazy in the end really, which was a pity.

I hadn't wanted to stay too long in San Francisco due to the high costs, which is a pity because I was really getting to like the town. We didn't even have time to check out Berkeley or Oakland, so another trip back to San Francisco is definitely on the cards.

So after just 5 days it was time to head back to the airport (just hopping on the really handy BART straight there), and we were off to my favorite city in all the world, Hong Kong.

Leaving Las Vegas

Our flight out of Las Vegas left at 10pm on New Year's Eve, so we spent the morning and afternoon strolling down the full length of the now familiar strip to the Stratosphere casino. Not having the time or spare cash we didn't bother with the trip up the observation tower, or the impressive-looking thrill-rides at the top. After waiting a good bit for a bus back up the strip we kinda decided that we must have missed the last one that day (as the strip was being closed to traffic for the New Year's Eve celebrations later that night), and so we had to walk all the way back to the Wild Wild West. The streets were getting pretty crowded (there is construction along parts of the strip, and in other parts the sidewalks are very narrow), so it was a bit stressful rushing back to our hotel.

We managed to push and shove our way through the crowds and had managed to get back in time for a last pasta special in the hotel restaurant before retrieving our rucksacks and making our way towards the airport. We knew the main roads would be closed for New Year's Eve, and so had planned on walking beyond the blockades and getting a taxi from the far side. As it turned out the blockades started early, and the cops prevented us from crossing the main road (you really can't talk to American cops the way you often can with the Guards back home - they really are like robots sometimes, just following orders no matter what). Anyway, after getting a bit stressed out and hopping over barriers a couple of times, the cops changed the barrier layout and we could cross the main street. We got a taxi no problem and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare (and this time the guy didn't even try and rip us off!).

The airport is all very new and snazzy, and was practically deserted. We were flying Virgin America, which is a new airline that had the fanciest plane I've ever flown on. It was all very sleek with subdued lighting and very modern personal entertainment systems (even a charger socket for our camera, which was the first time we'd been able to charge the camera in America!). So the flight to San Francisco was effortless, and we arrived on time, picked up our bags and strolled outside to await our shuttle bus direct to our hotel.

It was actually on board this shuttle bus that we celebrated New Year's itself - not so very exciting really...

The Great Grand Canyon

There are many Grand Canyon bus tours from Vegas, all costing about $100 each, but checking online I saw that we could rent a car with insurance for less than half that (HotWire was great - thanks Podge!). But the main reason for renting a car of course is the freedom to explore at your own pace.

Sarah was pretty nervous about driving a car in the States, mainly because they drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. On my last big trip I'd driven a motorbike for over 2 months up along the East coast of the States, so I knew driving in the States was a doddle, but it still took a fair bit of persuading to convince Sarah it was the best option.

So we picked up the car late on the night before we wanted to travel so that we could head off very early in the morning, as the journey is about 4 to 5 hours. It also allowed us plenty of time to return the car the following night. The drive back from the car rental place (at the airport) was pretty straightforward, but still a bit daunting for Sarah given the shear scale of the highway system here.

So at 5:30 the next morning we headed off through very light traffic and easily found our way onto the right road. We passed over the Hoover Dam, and although it was still dark we got great views of the huge construction job they're doing there to by-pass the original road (which is very windy and only has one lane in each direction). In fact, we had no traffic to speak of at all on the entire journey to the Grand Canyon, but the landscapes we passed though weren't very impressive unfortunately.

So we arrived at the Grand Canyon park in the late morning, parked the car in a spot along the road and strolled the 100 metres or so to the rim of the Canyon itself. I reckon we must have picked the perfect day to visit, as not only was the traffic in the park very light, the weather was shear perfection. There had been a snowfall the night before, which resulted in the entire rim area being layered in a few inches of beautiful snow. The canyon itself, being at a much lower altitude, didn't have any snow at all, and the clear blue skies illuminated the whole scene spectacularly. The visibility was brilliant, and we could clearly make out mountains 60 miles away.

It was immediately clear why the Grand Canyon is so famous - it really is a spectacular sight. Even though the Colca Canyon in Peru is much deeper than the Grand Canyon (twice as deep apparently), it's definitely not a patch on it scenically. The exposed layering in the Grand Canyon, and rich red hues were displayed perfectly in the clear skies we had, so it was all quite spellbinding I must say. And I wasn't even that disappointed that our camera battery was dead, as any famous picture on the Internet of the Canyon in Winter will do justice to the day we had there.

After strolling along the rim for a bit, we checked out the nearby visitor centre and the ranger there advised us that the best thing for us to do was self-drive along the distant part of the rim.

This section of the rim (to Hermit's Rest) was closed to the free shuttle buses, and so it made a fantastically scenic drive with practically no traffic at all. Along the 10 miles there are 7 lookout points, and having our own car meant we could stop at each and every one of them. Each stop had very few people (some having nobody at all at times), although a couple of half-empty tour buses would stop at the more famous lookouts.

So after a couple of hours of driving along this route, stopping at the nice village (which really felt like a ski resort with all the snow about), and looking-out from all the viewpoints, it was time to head back to Vegas.

Again traffic was really light on the way back, but for some reason we got seriously held up coming back through the Hoover Dam. In all we were stopped for about 1.5 hours, and I've no idea what the hold up was all about (probably just traffic heading to Vegas for New Year's, but also maybe due to the construction work, although I didn't see anything obvious causing such a long delay).

All-in-all poor Sarah had to drive for most of the 16 hours it took us to get to the Grand Canyon and back (we left at 5:30am and got back to the airport about 9:30pm), so it was a pretty exhausting day for her. She was fairly nervous throughout the trip, and at one point towards the end when we had to pull off the highway to refuel, the road system got really confusing. We were on a 4-lane oneway off-ramp, turning left onto a 5-lane two-way road (3 nearside lanes going right and two farside lanes going left). When the traffic light changed Sarah starts driving directly towards oncoming traffic! The road markings and signage weren't very clear at all, and it was now dark, so I was confused myself, but luckily there was no traffic behind us, and so in quite a panicky moment she could reverse back again. On the second attempt all went well, but Sarah was fairly shaken by it all.

Anyway, having the rental car not only saved a good few dollars, it also meant we got to see the Hermit's Rest section of the Canyon, stop and explore the village, see all the lookouts and we could stop for lunch when and where we wanted. It really made for a great day, and was certainly far better than being stuck on a tour bus.

Once we'd dropped the car back to the rental company we had to get a taxi back to hotel, as it was too late for the buses, and of course the guy ripped us off by going around the long way (and he even had the cheek to suggest we book him the next day to get back to the airport for our flight to San Francisco - he said all the other taxi drivers would be charging $50 for New Year's, which of course was complete nonsense!). So anyway, all-in-all it was a very long and exhausting day, but worth every second.

Las Vegas

Both the bus from Indio to San Bernardino, and the connecting bus to Las Vegas left on time, but we hit seriously heavy traffic entering Las Vegas itself. So we arrived about 1.5 hours late, but I'd booked our hotel in advance and so we just hopped in a nearby taxi and zoomed there in a few minutes.

We (well, Sarah really) was a wee bit worried about the hotel, as it was the cheapest option we could find online, and some of the reviews weren't all that flattering to say the least. But in fact, the Wild Wild West Casino and Hotel was possibly one of the best 'finds' of the whole trip so far.

Originally I'd only booked 2 nights there as I had no idea how we were going to get to see the Grand Canyon (I was thinking we might spend a couple of nights in or around the canyon), and the price for the hotel was amazingly cheap ($17 for the first night, $25 the second). This was the main reason for Sarah's anxiety, as she thought that for that price the place must be a real dive. But it turned out that they had very recently remodelled the whole hotel, and our room was fantastically comfortable and spotlessly clean. The room was big, the bed was huge and really comfy, and even the outdoor swimming pool looked immaculate (but the weather was way too cold for us to use it unfortunately). The hotel isn't on the main strip, but is only 10 minutes walk away, so it made a great base from which to explore the town.

Not only all that, but the attached restaurant was also really good, and they just happened to be serving the cheapest food we saw advertised anywhere in all of Las Vegas - a big hearty breakfast was only $1.49 and their dinner special of meatballs at $6 was the tastiest dinner we had (we had it twice, and both times it was better than the $25 meals we got at the fancy casino restaurants).

After checking a few Grand Canyon options I decided the best option would be to just stay in Vegas and do a 1-day trip to the Canyon. So after checking online we booked another 2 nights at the Wild Wild West. Sarah did a great job getting a low room price on the phone, but on double checking the booking in person that night it turned out the price was wrong. Anyway, the next morning Sarah talked to the manager and managed to wrangle the original price somehow, so again we were all set and could relax knowing we had great accommodation sorted (the manager telling Sarah she was amazingly lucky to get such a low price for December 30th). Anyway, enough praise about the Wild Wild West.

Las Vegas is of course centered around the casinos, but for me the town is really about a lot more than that. I was well impressed with the whole town really - I especially loved the general atmosphere in the casinos, and the endless buzz of people 'enjoying' themselves, so I just loved sitting and people watching. But Vegas these days is also about big shows, and I would also have loved to catch a few of the shows that were on in town. The famous 'Blue Man Group' for instance, or a Cirque de Soleil show, or a Penn and Teller show, but unfortunately I reckon my budget wasn't really up to the prices being asked. I probably could have found a half-price ticket if I'd really looked, but we only had a few days and there was lots more to see besides, so haggling over show tickets just didn't seem to be worth the perceived hassle.

Instead we spent most of our time strolling up and down the 6km strip, popping into the various casinos and just taking it all in really. Some of the casinos are really eye-popping - for me the Bellagio (with it's elegant water fountain shows), Caesars (with it's outstandingly decadent constructions) and the MGM Grand (with it's pride of lions in their superbly designed enclosure right in the middle of the casino) were the highlights, although Circus Circus had the most impressive free show with the most amazing acrobatic team I've ever seen.

We also rode the roller-coaster in New York, New York (whose interior I also thought was pretty cool), which was brilliant, but as with the roller-coaster in Colombia it all seemed to be over far too quickly.

So all-in-all we spent 3 full days in Las Vegas and managed to gamble the sum total of $1 between the two of us! Sarah had a go on a $1 slot machine (she lost the whole lot!), but for some reason she didn't get sucked into the mystifying slot-machine craze. I still can't get my head around the whole gambling fascination thing, but I still loved Las Vegas and I'd certainly love to go back and, with a bit more money to spend, to catch some of those shows and just sit back and relax in the opulent atmosphere of the town. Even if a lot of it is fake imitation (like the Venetian, which didn't work for me at all), a lot of it really did work well, and the people-watching opportunities must surely be unrivaled anywhere in the world.

So our only day-trip from Vegas was to visit the Grand Canyon, for which I'd booked a rental car online from inside the Apple store in one of the big malls. The Apple stores are great, 'cos you get to use the Internet for free, whereas the casinos and the two internet places we found in the town were all charging about $20 per hour, by far and away the most outrageous price I've seen anywhere in the world!