蔣和勳

An early day it was, we woke up at around 4 plus so that we could make it (meeting time was 5:30 a.m.!). Ate the bread we bought. Sweet. Left the hotel room half-awake! On a brighter note, we were going Grand Canyon today! By the way, we had another tour guide for those going to the West entrance. She (I cannot remember her name) is/was a Taiwanese wearing a coach scarf, having a coarse voice due to some throat operation.

It took about 2/3/4 hours to reach the destination. The first part of the journey included the highway whilst the second part was on the bumpy under-developed “roads”. The third part had us changing our vehicle. Anyways, for the first part of the journey, our tour guide was asking us to guess the natural 7 wonders of the world, which was pretty much a failure with so little people being interested. Before the coach was allowed to travel on, the coach had to be checked by cops/federal agents. This was in put place after the 9/11 attacks. Security, Security, Security! We traveled past the Hoover Dam which was really huge. Alighted minutes later after passing the dam, somewhere where there were filthy toilet and a souvenir shop. Didn’t use the portable toilets, took some pictures and traveled on (We saw Lynn and Tony there too!). Long way to go.

Eventually, as we were approaching the 2nd part, the tour guide gave us a paper which had the “map” of each location we were suppose to go and how. Well… it was hand drawn so the lack of certain details. She explained to us the drawings. By now, the “roads” we were traveling on were actually soil, there were cactus and houses which was a total surprise to me since I didn’t expect people to still live in such location. Oh, they had their letter boxes arranged along the “roads”, might be convenient for the postman but still sucks for him to travel there! We reached the terminal where we had to change bus which was part of the Grand Canyon’s tour team. Luckily, I manage to use the loo before we left again (there was no flush and no running water!!)! Many of us needed to use the loo but they were asked not to.

A Caucasian drove us towards the west of the Grand Canyon and it was a long and bumpy ride there. We were traveling upwards, through/over the terrains. A loooonnnnggg ride for those who needed to use the toilet. On the way there, we saw horses, Native American’s houses and more cactus.

Upon reaching the destination, we were ushered through the souvenir shop to the registration counter for the helicopter and boat ride. Weighted all of us and I suppose it was for the helicopter ride. We were the second group. Waited for a while at the helicopter bay area, couldn’t even hear myself talk with those noisy/loud engine motor! The ride included a magnificent sigh-seeing of the Grand Canyon and a boat ride along the Colorado Rive (which cuts/erodes the Grand Canyon). During the boat ride, we were able to see the different colored rock, representing the different era of the water level. Pretty awesome! On our way back, while waiting for our helicopter ride, we picked up some small sized rocks.

Back at our initial location, we took a bus with a female driver (it had Singapore notes pasted on the front area, maybe Singapore dollar’s special looking to them! ha ha.) where it took us to two location. The first location was where the Skywalk and Eagle looking rock is located. We had lunch there as well, ate some dry western meal (chicken strips, fries and corn). By the ways, there were 3 crows around us while we were eating. They were frigging huge (1.5 to 2 times the Singapore-type of crows!). We were suppose to catch a dance performance by the Native American but apparently missed the time slot. We walked down to an area displaying the houses that the Native Indians stayed in in the past. After which, we took a bus down to our last destination for a short visit. There were pitched-tent stalls selling jewelry related stuff like necklace,etc.. Didn’t buy anything though! Took a picture and went back to our original location. By the way, there wasn’t any barrier blocking us from going nearer to the cliff compared to the first bus destination! Also, there’s an area where people could climb all the way up! Kinda dangerous from my location!

We collected our certificate from the counter and then took a bus (same one as before, with the guy driver) back! A long, long journey to Rivera. It was surprisingly hot in the bus, at the back in the evening time.

Back at the hotel, we went for a dinner in the lobby where we had western food again! That ended the long day. My eyes were very tired!

P.S. Will blog more when I return from NS, Pardon me!
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