Blessed beyond measure

July Trip 06 - The long awaited entry is finally up

Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon was the toughest part of our trip. We hiked down the South Kaibab trail, camped at Phamton Ranch, hiked up Bright Angel trail and campstop at Indians Campground and finally reached the top in 3 days 2 nights. It was my achievement!!! Grand Canyon is simply grand and majestic.. the colour of the rocks changes from red to grey in different times of the day and as the sun shine on it. It was incredibly HOT down the South Kaibab trail and a forest fire in the North Rim does not help either.

I sprained my ankle on the second day on the way up due to carelessness and kaykiangness... wanted to take less but big steps and jumped down from a rock and lost my balance... well the rest of the trip i ended up with a swollen ankle which was bundled up. Thank God! we have Tim, the medic, who helped reduced the swelling and it eventually feel better on the almost last few days of the trip. Bought an ankle guard after i came back to protect the weak tissues... And Sharon even teared becos her shoes were failing her and she got abrasion making walking and sitting hard on the second day.

Well it was tough but worth the trip and is highly recommended. But needs to train up.. hahah we took 12 hrs to hike down the South Kaibab while pple usually takes 6 hrs max. what do you think? whahahaha... Memorable... No pain no gain as the saying goes.. ;)


Las Vegas
Vegas was a luxury especially after our Grand Canyon hike. Washed our dirty clothes (which was reddish becos of the red soil/earth/ whatever u wanna call it.. ) and shoes.. Tried to have fun with the coin slots machines.. actually no fun at all cos you cant really win... so just for a little experience as it was the first time i ever stepped into a casino...

well one thing we did regret is that we should have get tickets for shows in advance. Being kiam gana we did not, so we went to the place where they sell tickets for the day at cheaper price, maybe abt 40-50% less, but the trade off is big shows or those better ones are sold out. Hence we ended up watching a striptease show (from crazy horse). Well is Vegas... one should at least catch a show in Vegas. Vegas is a short one with 2 nights. At least it was a good break, a luxury one after our tough Canyon hike.

Part 1 of July Trip – Vegas & Grand Canyon
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Los Angeles
Los Angeles is not what I perceived it to be. The place is pretty old where the buildings are old and not refurnished. One can see that it is a old city. We were originally staying at Venice Beach Hostel. It is good for its location, just next to the Venice Beach. However we did not get what was promised. When we booked the hostel, we wanted a 8-bed dorm but we realized that it was a 16-bed dorm after payment was made. We felt cheated and wanted to get a refund and stay somewhere else. And the management was not forthcoming in dealing with issues at all. We did not get a refund and was disappointed at the place. In the end, we stayed in Hilton Garden Inn for a little bit more but with more comfortable.

Venice Beach is not very nice as the water is brown. Somewhat disappointed… but it is where Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out at the Beach Gym. We went to Santa Monica Beach which is better than Venice Beach. Santa Monica seemed like a more happening place than Los Angeles City. The best beach we been to in LA was Manhattan Beach, a surfer beach. There were a lot of babes in bikinis and hunks in surfer shorts. However I see more babes and er… where are the hunks??? ZW even rented a surfer board and both Tim and ZW tried to surf the huge waves. Kee bought a board too! The waves were really big!

LA is more of theme parks. We went to Six Flags and Universal Studios. Six Flags LA is better than Six Flags San Antonio. However the lines are longer and we only took 4 rides from morning 9am to 9pm (till it closed, cant rem exactly the closing time though). Universal Studios is fun! The rides are mostly stimulated types but I like Jurassic Park and the Mummy rides most.

Well we saw Hollywood and the walk of fame and drove around Beverly Hills where rich and famous people live. Did not spot any stars apparently. And we were too kiam gana to buy the map that shows who (i.e. the celebrities) live where.

One thing worth mentioning is the Kyu-Gyu, a Japanese restaurant. The food is simply heavenly… Is in LA. Worth checking it out.

Monterey Bay
We drove along Highway 1 from LA to Monterey Bay. The view is simply awesome!!! Highly recommended to drive along Highway 1. The drive is very scenic with the ocean view on one side and the mountainous view on the other. We wanted to go to Monterey Bay because of the Independence Day fireworks. The fireworks are good, lasted for a long time, definitely beats NDP timing… but was not fantastic. But fireworks are always nice, aren’t it…

Part 2 of July Trip – LA to Monterey Bay
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Yosemite
We left Monterey Bay for Yosemite. Yosemite is a very scenic place too, is one of the highly recommended national park. There are lot of pines trees or fig trees. And pretty chilly there. There are very pretty waterfalls and beautiful meadows and mountains. We climbed a dome. Kee climbed a dome with us too! I think that was a huge achievement for him. We saw deers, squirrels but we did not see a Yogi bear! At first I was pretty scared to see a bear because I learned from the documentaries that bears attack without reasons and they are attracted by the smell of food and fragrance stuff… We were told to keep all things that have a smell in bear-proof containers and lockers, even toothpaste has to be locked up! However towards the end, we did not get to see a bear… kinda disappointed though… Yosemite is simply B-E-A-Utiful… ahahahah….


I had a little adventure though. We trekked on the less trodden path, actually it was the track for mules or donkeys. There was a man-made path though but we thought the tracks in the woods was the correct one… hahaha. So we took a path which is full of horse sh*t and urine and certain areas really smelled badly… And we realized we had to walk back the same path where we come from as it was a no-through road. We decided to cross the river instead of taking the smelly path back.

What we didn’t realized was the river seemed swallow but the waters went up my chest in the middle of the river. I sorta fell and Yiren had to catch me and protect our cameras at the same time… poor guy… We managed to cross the river but my camera was wet as it does not have a water proof casing. I spent the rest of my trip sun-tanning my camera as some water got into it. Until the very last day of my trip that my camera finally got dried up… phew! I love my camera and thank God for protecting my property.

San Francisco
I like San Francisco the best among the cities we been to… I feel SF is a good place to live… the shops are closer together and one have a place to hang out and to people watch… not that I like to people watch but in Houston, somehow one don’t get to do that and there is more atmosphere in San Francisco than Houston. And one could use the public transport in SF unlike Houston which is dangerous to take public transport especially ladies like us.

And people walk a lot in SF, they are unlike Houstonians who would drive even is across the streets… it is simply not wise to walk in Houston. It is not very dangerous in Houston lah but safer to be in the car than out on the street. Furthermore SF weather is cool all year round not like Houston HOT HOT HOT!!! The challenge in SF however, is to drive the car up and down the hilly streets (some are really STEEP) and to do parallel parking on the slopes.

We had a good dinner (McCormick – recommended by the Lonely Planet) before we set of for Alcatraz. Recommended to do the dinner when you have the time to relax and enjoy the evening. Do not be like us… dodos… we have to race to the Pier to catch the ferry in 5 mins from the restaurant. Thank God we did not miss the ferry. Tickets have to be bought way in advance for Alcatraz. (Alcatraz is a well-known prison (for hard core prisoners) and appeared in the film: THE ROCK.) The prison is amazing and you hear stories of how people tried to escape. There were three very clever guys who make fake human heads to fake the wardens while they escape through the vents I think… the fake human heads look like real thing. And I cant imagine myself living in such an enclosed space for such a long time. It feels terrible even when I stood in one of the cell. Well… this reminded us that don’t get into trouble with the law. Be a good citizen… and I am one.

I have always wanted to visit a winery…so we went to NAPA Valley – the wine country in California. We did wine tasting in V. Sattui Winery. It was good. I am learning to appreciate wine… hehe… doing the fine things in life… and it does help with ZW, the wine expert to teach us…

We went to visit the world most crooked street, Lombard Street. It is a beautiful zigzag street. We did not manage to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge though as there was not enough time and Golden Gate Bridge was made invisible by the heavy fog on that factful day. Oh yeah, we caught the World Cup Final! Little Italy was so vibrant and people were celebrating the Win!

All in all, SF was kinda rush. I wont mind visiting SF again.

Part 3 of July Trip – Yosemite to San Francisco
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posted by Ying @ 6:43:00 PM