Journey to the West: June 2006

Friday, June 30, 2006

Ghost Town

After staying 2 nights in Fredonia, I'm finally back in Grand Canyon North Rim. Suddenly realised I miss this place so much! There are so many things I wanna blog about, but I can't possibly note down every single incident that happened in Fredonia. In short, I would say the experience in Fredonia was unforgettable one...cos it's something that I would never experience in my entire life if I wasn't there. Everthing was so unpredictable and unusual ...sometimes I even wondered if I'm in the States cos things were so different from what I expected before I came.

On Wednesday, which was the evacuation day, I woke up at 5.45am to get everything ready. My company, Xanterra, decided to evacuate in the morning cos fire usually grows more rapidly in the afternoon. After loading all our baggages into April's car, we headed to the lodge carpark to form a line (all vehicles were to leave in sigle file). We waited at the carpark for about 1.5 hours for Route 67 to be reopened. We weren’t just sitting waiting...everyone was so well equipped. Some brought frisbee, some brought badminton rackets, there were even ppl who brought juggling equipment...interesting….

@ Lodge Carpark
From left: Cindy, Zeliang, Joey, Seek Yin, Monica, Da Jie, Hongwei, Weiming, and me

Marinza Juggling

Badminton session

Ready to go....April and me!

Thank God Route 67 was reopened at 8.30am. (else we gotta take an alternative route called Route 22, which is dirty, bumpy, partilally paved and it takes so much longer to get to our destination). We had a great time riding on April's car. After 1.5 hours, we arrived at the "ghost" town, Fredonia. The town is so small and dead. There's absolutely nothing in the town except a gas station, a fire station and a library. I wondered how we gonna survive there if we oughta stay there for long period of time!!!

Initially we decided to go to Las Vegas with the rest in the car, but the problem is Lina, Manting and I will be going to Las vegas after we end work. If I go without them this time, I might need to go there with them again...sigh…that’s the reason we scrapped the plan. I came out with another plan which was to Grand Canyon South Rim with Jakub, Bertha, Joanne and April....but it failed again cos Jakub already promised his Czech frens to stay in a nearby motel...Fated to stay in Fredonia.

Actually the condition in the Red Cross camp wasn't as bad as we thought. Everything was well taken care of...we were given free food, free accomodation (just that the bed was stretcher kind)....also we had all kinda games to play....basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball etc….not that bad lar…but everyday play sports can be boring too!

@ Fredonia Red Cross Camp

I decided to move to the nearby motel with Bertha, Jakub, Joanne, Dorota, Tom and Martin cos there was nice bed there and we could stay up as late as we want to play! Guess how much it was......haha....it was only USD6 per person per night...damn cheap!

Our room!

We spent our first day playing volleyball, hanging out at a playground, chit-chattig with frens of cos....It was boring but everyone tired teir best to make it fun!

The "Ghost" town...Fredonia!

Our first meal in "refugee" camp

What's wrong?

Me with Bill's bike

Bertha and me @ pool

Jakub, bertha, Joanne and me with Czech flag!

Second day, woke up early to have breakfast...the rest of the ppl couldn't wake up for breakfast so only me and Jakub...We brought back the food to motel and had a long chat outside the motel. We talked bout anything under the sun, somehow I felt that Czech culture is way different from ours in many aspects! But that’s the whole point of coming for this programme... To see different things and experience different culture! Rested the whole day till dinner time. Weiming they all went to Kanab to find some chinese food. He bought us a packet of chinese beef fried rice...It tasted so good….maybe we haven’t been having chinese food for so long! After dinner, we played at the playground with some local kids. Hmmm....we could tell their upbringings are very different from ours.....hmmm....cos they were really really rough when they played...haha maybe I’m stereotyping! There was this strange girl who kept bugging me to run with her....she kept saying I'm cool cos I'm SHORT! Diao...dunno if I should be happy!! Played some softball at the playground till dusk and after that went to gasoline station to buy some beers. Beer here is really cheap...USD2 for one big bottle (32oz or 900ml)...Prepared to get drunk in motel room but we didn't...We just looked thru all the pictures we took for the day and watched tv....wat a relaxing day in Fredonia, the ghost town.

Jakub and me outside our motel

Lunch time!

Drinking session with Bertha, Jakub, and Martin

It's time to go home after spending 2 days in Fredonia...Yeah!! Fredonia is small and boring but we had a great time day. This place gives us a lot of unforgettable memory...!

Me with South Americans

Last picture in Red Cross camp

Ready to go home!

Forest Fire

Seddar (our driver) and me

Dedicated to Sha Da Jie....You're the dancing queen!

My buddy and me outside Sha Da Jie's room

Monday, June 26, 2006

Forest Fire in Arizona

Hi everybody...I gonna be MIA for a couple days cos there's forest fire going on in Arizona. The fire is about 22 miles away from the place I stay. It's pretty near but dun worry about it, I'll be fine...everything is safe here. Kinda excited to be evacuated...like drama! Everyone is forced to evacuate cos the only road to Grand Canyon North Rim will be closed to give way to fire fighting. So fun! We'll be evcuated to a town called Fredonia. Accomodation and food will be provided for free. Also I heard we'll get paid for these few days...but I doubt we'll be getting the full amount...**cross my fingers**! I need money for travelling!

The business at the restaurant today was damn slow cos most tourists have already left Grand Canyon North Rim due to forest fire. We spent lots of time waiting of order to come in. Most of the time we din even get 1 order in one hour. That's good for us...we could just slack since our pay is independent of the restaurant's business...Really hope everyday is like that! Now I realised how fragile tourism business is.

Went to Deli to chit-chat with Jakub, Weiming and April to kill some time! Packed some nice restaurant food for them...luckily the idiotic manager din see! Hmmm....I think it'll be much more fun if I could work in the Deli.

I gonna make these few days as fun as possible. Just treat them like my day-offs. April will probably drive us to Las vegas if the evacuation gonna last for a couple of days...Maybe it could even last for a couple of weeks...Nobody knows. Hiking might be a good choice as well...yeah Zion is quite near Fredonia! I'm sure we'll have tonnes of things to do during these few days! YEAH!!!

My life here is really full of uncertainty. I can never predict wat's gonna happen in next few days. So I've decided not to think bout it. Just live my everyday to the max!

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Zion Trip

I would say the trip to Zion Natinal Park was the best trip I ever had here in the States. I dunno why i felt so much for the trip...maybe Zion is just very different from Grand Canyon North Rim(the place where I stay). Oh ya....this is my first time stepping out of Grand Canyon North Rim since the day I came!!!

Both of these places have their strong points. Grand Canyon is one the 7 Natural Wonders in the world so of cos you would expect more majestic and grand scenery here. Its visitor lodge is located on the top of the canyon so visitors can enjoy overlooking the canyon at high altitude. It's cold even during summer. In contrast, Zion is located at the bottom of the canyon, totally opposite of Grand Canyon. Visitors have to look up to see the beautiful canyon. It has the lowest point in the whole United States which is about 25 feet below the sea level. Low also means that the place is hot and dry throughout the year! The temperature can shoot up to 110 Fahrenheit, which is about 40 plus degree celcius during the summer. The best time to visit Zion is during the winter cos the weather will be pretty good....not too cold...and not too warm as well!! I really love Zion so much!

We set off from Grand Canyon at 7.30am and arrived there 2.5 hours later. We had a short trail to the place where the Indianas used to stay, to check out all the carvings which were left behind by the Indianas. After that, we headed straight to Zion employee dining room to have lunch. The lunch there was so much better than the one we always have in Grand Canyon but I still prefer our dining room cos is much more cosier than theirs.

The carvings by the Indianas

@ Zion Visitor Centre

@ Zion Visitor shuttle stop

After lucnh, we took a shuttle bus to the starting point of Riverside Walk. The shuttle bus is pretty similar to the one we have in Sentosa. It's so convenient to get around in Zion cos the shuttle will stop at every hiking point. Gigi went for a hike alone at The Grotto cos she has been to Riverside Walk.

Me and Bertha on shuttle bus

The Riverside Walk is basically a river with canyon on both sides. What we did was just walking against the river heading towards the ending point. It's about 16 miles from the starting point to the end but we din go all the way in due to time constraint. The feeling is completely different at the bottom of the canyon. It's freaking hot down there but you can dip into the freezing cold river!! It was so damn fun!!

We divided ourselves into 2 groups, one group would try to go as far as they can and the other one will slowly enjoy their time taking nice pictures...haha...of cos we were the one who ent slow cos we are all photo sluts....always! We enjoyed it...who cares!

Bertha and me @ Riverside

Washing hands

From left: Hongwei, Sha Da Jie, Zeliang, Jing Jing, Zhou Zheng, Bertha, Lina and me!

The water level could rise up to ur chest when the canyon gets narrower...(for my case is neck level). It was fun walking with your body submerged under the water and u gotta carry ur bags high up in order to kep them dry!!!! It was nothing but fun!!!

Oh gosh...almost to my shoulder...not the deepest yet!

We took about 2 hours to walk as far as possible in and made a U-TURN back to the starting point. Along the way back, I climbed up to a small cave on the canyon to take pictures. The cave was pretty high, unfortunately I slid on the way down and got myself a deep cut on my body. Haha...it hurt but I had fun. The whole trail took us about 4 hours!! It was a great trail!

Lying down on freezing cold water

Me and Micheal in small tiny cave

This is how I got my cut!

Chipmunk...looks like Chwanz!

Headed back to EDR for dinner @ 4.20pm. After dinner, we had our last minute shoppings at the gift shop. After shopping, we quickly hopped on to the van and had safe ride back to Grand Canyon North Rim. Thanks Micheal for being such a great driver! I guess everyone had a great time in Zion! Bye Zion...I'll be back for sure one day!

Bye Zion...I'll be back!

Sunset on the way back

I was still very energetic when I came back. Went to play ball with my volleyball buddy Jakub and some other frens. After the game, had a quick shower and headed to EDR pub for a special event called International Night. The pub played all kinda of international music on that night such as Turkish, Czech, Slovakia, Ecuador and not forgetting our chinese music. Haha...my fren passed the the bartender the song "One Night in Beijing" and he played it....damn off la! You would be surprised if you were there. Ppl could be so wild when the drink! I'm sure lots of ppl made up after the party on that night. I was more mild kind...I played pool...haha...managed to beat most of the ppl I played with but lost terribly to Marinza...she's way too good than me...!

From left: Oscar, Joanne, Bertha, Jakub and me!

I also learnt a special "stun" from Jakub...it was cool....maybe can show u guys next time!! We hang out there until 2plus and lots of ppl gotta work at 6 or 7am the next day...I wondered how they gonna survive man!