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.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
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...
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.
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.
Friday, January 2, 2009
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!
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!
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