Flagstaff town roadtrip , Asian night party , Star Party , Plateau Point hike.

3 months is just too short to explore all of grand canyon. I've been trying to use up all my available time to try something new. Last Sunday , my fellow worker , an local Indian(Yin di an ren) has drove us to the town of flagstaff by her truck. I only remember traveling by a truck once , that's when we were in singapore for steamboat , if ya'all remember. The journey from grand canyon to flagstaff took one and a half hour . We drove thru mountains and fields and deserts . that's really fantastic. We sat behind her truck ... she's driving at a speed of 90 km/hour --- luckilly the road is smooth enough... if not we will definately fly out from the truck !!

long long country road.

Optimus prime has been following us all day. Sun is setting too ~

The most famous store in us ? This is our first stop. We grabbed a total of 120 dollar's stuffs !

2nd stop ... CHINESE RESTAURANT !! You have to see our expressions when we saw the food that we longing for ... 8 dollars eat all you can .. i must say that the buffet is really good ! Its taste is beyond my expectation and the selections of food is so great!

The driver of the night. Sometimes it just makes me wonder why a native american who hunts rabbit and deers for food dares not to eat shrimp. She's terribly scared by our chinese food. She said " Chinese eat everything " ... well .. that's kinda true . You should see how she spit the "C-ham" out !

That pretty sums up the flagstaff roadtrip.... next : asian night party !

at home rely parents , at out rely friends , that's so true ! I have bunch of singaporean friends and we took care of each other !( well , they take care of me more than i do for them). last monday , we gathered at their cabin and cook homecook food together and had a small party.

That's their cabin ... much like ours. It is basically a chalet .. like those you see in hutan bandar or pulau redang . There's a porch infront that we use it to for our cook place ,and there's a long log that we can sit on and chat all night + looking at the stars .

I am officially the food-tester .... or ... the laziest person .

The cook ... and the 2 ma-ma . Those 2 are the nicest person on the earth !!!

we have more people coming later that night but they are not in the picture. The food were so awesome !

well , after the sumptous dinner .... its wine time ! The butterwine is special , it taste like butter , with no alchohol's taste , the others are quite normal wine with different flavours like lime , berrys , stawberrys and all that. There 'll be another BBQ party tonight ... and we are going to try barley's coffee wine , and maybe some other wines.

I dont claim credit for this photo ... it is grabbed from http://www.isomedia.com/ by other guys. It was taken in grand canyon tho. The night sky i see is not as clear as this , but is somewhere near. The milky way i see is like clouds of lights. Anyway , there are astronomers gathering at the grand canyon now to promote astronomy. The astronomer assosiation has gathered some 30-40 astronomers and they brought their telescope to the canyon for visitors like us to view the night sky. We get to see quite a number of stars thru some telescopes set-up by the astronomers. Some telescopres are really cool , they have a computer system built-in and they can rotate the telescope automatically to find the correct possition of the stars. We get to see saturns and its 2 moons ( hubber can see 16 moons tho ) and mars and other planets. One more interesting thing is all the astronomers has a laser pen .. that gives out GREEN colour laser beams. Whether you believe it or not , that laser are as bright as those lasers in danga bay. They use the laser to point out the position of the stars .

Lastly , plateau point hike. Today is my off day , i took the chance to challenge the difficult trail to plateu point alone. It was highly dangerous tho , because of the weather condition . It was very hot and dry the whole morning. I woke up at 4.30 this morning and started hiking the 19 KM 's trail. I soaked my hair , shirts and body 6 times during the hike to keep my body temperature low enough . I drank at least 5 L of water truout the hike. It took me 2.5 hours to go down( part running part walking) and 3.5 hours to climb back up.

This is the view when i looked back the way i came. I hiked from the top of the canyon to where i was taking this photo.

The view of plateau point. The panorama view is fantastic . I think the camera's angle only able to capture 1/4 of the view.

Muar trip

Another 3 Atlantiz members had made their trip to the holy city that I was born - Muar. Yea!!!

It was a very hurry decision when we decided to go. I had been planning to go back to my hometown for some time since I've not been back for several month. Those 3 fellas were so steady and accepted my invitation to join me on the trip back. I was honor to have Liang, Wee Ser and Soon Seng to be my companion along the way.

We set off the trip one hour behind schedule because ...the driver over slept. :P
As always, every trip would have a objective and a mission to be completed. The main objective of this trip is to savor all the good food along the way to Muar. And I'm proud to say that we did it!

We first arrived at Batu Pahat which is one of the fast growing area in Northern Johor. Many buildings with the British architecture during the colonization was spotted in the town, adding a lil touch of nostalgia. We reach there during lunch time and to our surprise, most of the eatery actually don't open for lunch service. Four desperate souls end up eating some kinda 'famous' Nasi Briyani recommended by Liang. The verdict - just ok only...

Finally, the holy Muar town center with lots of local delicacy.

This is a small road side stall which serve wanton noodles. The hawkers are really very thoughtful, all the stalls selling different delicacies will approach you for orders once you settle down. Which also mean you do not have to walk under the hot sun to get the food ordered one by one. It will be serve to your table when its ready, altogether. Ain't it nice?



Having dessert at a road side stall.. pretty cool...


Later that day, we walk around in my grandpa's garden and palm oil plantation, seeing different plants.


Palm oil plantation...


Liang working to get down a coconut for himself...


Happy folks with their 'nuts'...


The flower of dragon fruit...


Liang trying to crack an old coconut.. The white coconut flesh is used to feed the chickens.


Wee Ser's obsession with the old bike...


Wee Ser eating rambutan from the tree...


Everyone with their lil bit of fruits...


Soon Seng working his way to get the coconut juice...


Wee Ser don't seems happy with the way soon seng doing it.. and grabs over the knife...look at his expression...


Serious man at work... unnoticed loser kept silent behind.. poor thing..

Supper time!!!

Home-grown durian, any one???


We eat...


Eat..


and eat...


The biggest loser in card games... I've lost count at how many time he had loss... haha


During the trip, we had been eating non-stop all day long. Especially the 2nd day. Omg.. We have breakfast at 10 something, lunch at 12, tea at 2 something.. A really tough test for our stomachs.


Oh no... Liang seems to pick up a fight...haha..
Not exactly, he is asking for direction for some nice fishball noodle in Yong Peng.

The trip is not an eventful one but definitely a 'foodful' one...

Everything seems perfect except for the super heavy rain on our way back...




Merci!!!



Ivan
Atlantiz 6

Random videos...

This is taken when we went to Hopi point to watch sunset . The wind is super strong that time ... can blow people away , no kidding ~

This is the inside of El tovar hotel. One of the most expensive hotel in Grand canyon. It is listed as USA's historical protected building. This is the Presidential suite . I took the video when i was inspecting the room after the guest room attendent cleaned it. I basically just check if all the supplies , all the amendities are properly placed in the room. This luxurious suite cost 450++ USD per person per night.

Wild goat seen at hopi point. It is very common to see wild life in grand canyon . Mostly are deer and elks . This is one cute juvenile goat(I believe?) . It keeps moving at my direction ... quite scary lor ... Since there are so many injury cases happened before. ANyway it looks tame .

This is the bright angel trail , which i ascended from the bottom of the river. This is taken from the grand canyon village at the top . I follow the trail down to the furthest point- plateau point. it is about 4 miles(6-7 KM) from the top to plateau point. After the point , we have to actually walk down another 4 miles to reach the river. The trail is not visible from the top after plateau point.

sunset. The actual setting wont last more than 3 minutes. In just 3 minutes time , the sky will change colour rapidly , so as the canyon. Actually the best condition to watch sunset is when there are many clouds. When they are clouds around , the clouds will add more colour and complexity to the overall view. When i took this video i actually sat alone in one corner far from tourist for 1 hour .. half hour before setting and half hour after setting. Well, i do watch sunset whenever i got chance( not working lor ) .

This is taken while in grand canyon railway.... the operator led us to the platform at the back of the train for awhile.

I watch sunset at different viewpoint in the canyon ... this place is very nice.


that's all folks.

Atlantiz 0 , xu Shen

Half day off ---- Tusayan town trip .

I went to tusayan town by free shuttle bus yesterday hoping to try the air tour. As Xanterra's employee , we are entitled for a 40 minutes air-plane tour around grand canyon for 16 dollar--- on seats avaibility basis. The bad thing is , we are only allow to reserve the seats 15 minutes before the flight ... I went there at 9 oclock , 12 oclock , 2 oclock but i couldn't get a seat. I think i might just pay the full price and try out the 99 dollar helicopter 25 minutes' trip someday .. hmm

That aside , i explore around the small tusayan town while waiting to check the air tour availability. I went to the IMAX theathe for a 40 minutes super big screen "Grand canyon and the secrets within" show . The IMAX is in National geography's complex in tusayan. Normal people would have to pay 12 dollar for the movie but i do get it for free because of my employee status. It was a nice show that truely captures the beauty of grandcanyon. I think the same movie is screening in IMAX singapore and IMAX malaysia too. YOu should try it if you got the chance.

I went to the local famous " We Cook Pizza and Pasta" restaurant to try out their famous pizza and their " World famous hot wings" . It is a nice little restaurant with heavy wild west feel . I get 20% discount and all soda free ( and free refill ) for being an employee .. again ~ .

The famous hot wings. It cost 6.99 before tax . It is considered super hot(spicy) to americans ... but for asians .. hmm hmm .. it is just not hot enough. It is super delicous tho. We ordered one more plate after this and we did ask the cook to do extra hot for us.

The famous pizza. half of it is "we cook" special toppings , and the other half was" shrimp with garlic" . This medium pizza cost 22 dollars. Well .. it is worth the prize because of its taste and its size .

the buliding in the tiny tusayan town.

the other side of the town. there's a steakhouse in front of us .. but one entree is like .. 28 dollars . We can't afford that yet.

I also went to a small gift shop in tusayan. They used to call giftshop trading post in the past. There are some interesting local indians ( yin di an ren ) 's handicrafts and other unique grand canyon souviniers.

A small vase made by the indians.

His name is "joe" . He's a Navajo ( the clan's name ).

a horse made by indians . there are detailed carvings on the horse. 199 dollar

Since i have no fate in trying air plane tour , I went for a train tour instead. I tried the "Coconino train " tour that has just launched for the 2nd day. It was supposed to be 35 dollar for guest but i paid 18 dollar including tax for being an employee ~. The tour is basically a 1.5 hours round trip tour , that brings us into coconino canyon thru a big pine forest. The train is more than 100 yaers old and they tried their best to preserve the hhistorical feeling of the train . The railway was built hundres years ago for mining purposes in grand canyon. It is just a pity that the train was powered by diesel that day .. if i were to join the tour one day later , it would be powered by steam enjine , just like the old time.

the train .

this train station was built together with the railway .. it is one of the historical buildings that can be found in grand canyon.

THe white colour one is the head of the train. It is detachable ... that's runned by diesel .

this is the cabin ... there is a bar selling drinks like sodas , wines and beers.

the views from the train. In grand canyon , it is normal to see sunset on one direction and moon rise in the other direction.

For this picture , we were getting scold by the train coordinator ... coz no body parts are supposed to be outside of the window .. hehe. ANyway , to satisfy us , the coordinator did bring us to the back of the train and open the door for us and let us take photo on the small platform behind the train . It was very cool to see the scenary from there.

Overall the train trip was great. The experience of taking train .. the scenery ( although we didn't see the wild mountain lion that the captain promised ) , the fun time we spend on the train .. it is all worth it .

Oh well , that's all for tonight. I gotta sleep .... tomorrow 5.45 am have to wake up and work... nowadays my boss is giving me lots and lots of pressure ........ damn he's such an obnoxious boss. See ya later !!

p/s : the most challenging 20-30 miles ( greater than 40 km ) North rim to south rim hikes is in planning now !

p/s 2 : 3 days 2 nights las vegas tour is also in planning now !!

One day in Grand Canyon

Sun rose at 4.30 . I can feel the warm ray from the sun shone on my face. I wont wake up untill 6 a.m. 6.30 , the alarm from my handphone rings ,I closed the heater which was turned to mid high because the night was too cold . I washed up and get changed for work. I am wearing red Xanterra's shirt now - i'm an newly-promoted inspector. I took my jacket and walked out from the warm dorm hall with my friends . It is a five minutes walk to the employee cafe which we will have breakfast at. The sun was bright and yet the wind was cold . We walked on the road where the mules will pass everyday ... , leaded by a cowboy-attired park ranger. They are supposed to go to the bright angel trail , where they will bring the tourist down to the river. i passed through pine trees , which we will occasionally see elks and deers grazing for grass here. They are not afraid of people , from afar. They'll get pretty upset when we getting closer. There are lots of "flying" - winged-grasshopper on the ground. Then i saw the old and historically significant railway - that brings countless tourists to witness the grandeur of the canyon since 100 years ago. Then i will see other employees , and we said hi and how are you to each other.
Those are the warm greetings that will brighten up my days .

After some american styled breakfast , it is time to get to work. They are 6 lodges/hotel in grand canyon village. I am working in Maswik south lodge which has 190 quite above average rooms. My job in maswik is to make sure the guest will get the best possible rooms they have when they check-in. We have 10 guest room attendents everyday(which I was one of them before this) . There are 3 inspectors everyday , who will assign dirty rooms to the attendents according to their ability, and we have to make sure every room is clean , and fully supplied with coffees , shampoes , towels etc. Other than that , we have to take care for special projects like preparing VIP rooms or preparing rooms for inspection by national park service. Other than that ,we carry one walkie talkie each , for which it connects all the inspectors , managers and front desk the 6 lodges in the village . The front desk will call us if the guest needs extra services , or something that need us to do - like rushing some rooms first or checking room's status. We have to contact the other departments for special needs like engineering for fixing some major problems , laundry department for clean linens or even porter for extra beds or coffee makers etc. I will normally have 60 rooms to take care .. i will just walk around , checking if any attendents needs some help .. or i have to push them alittle bit so they work faster. Then i will walk into their rooms after they cleaned it , see if it is up to the standard. If not--- i will have to either do it myself , or , scolding time !

Maswik lodge is a special place. there are 12 buildings scattered in a yellow pine forest. I saw squirels and ravens all over the place. Squirel will act cute to beg for food , while ravens will act stupid but to sneak on the rubbish bins to get food everytime. Ravens , when they are on the ground not flying , looks like a black chicken. They are funny .

get back to the work , i have to make sure all the rooms are ready by 4 a.m. By 2 am , i heard the sound and honks produced by the century old steam-powered train coming from afar. The train will normally bring around 100 hundreds tourist to the lodge. then i will occasionally have a walk with my manager before 2 oclock , he will talk about all the experiences he had , and the advices he has for me to improve my management skills .

4 oclock i finished work. the Sun is still strong . I only have an hour to rush to the general store which is 20 minutes by bus away for my 2nd job. I will take shutter bus together with the tourists. Well , they are generally curious about my ability to speak english, but at the same time they are proud to have us here in US. Well , in the general store, it is a crappy job . ALl we have to do is take some stock from the inventory and put them on the shelf . If the shelves are all full , I will do something call "facing"- just arrange the things on the shelves so that the brand faces the front. This is the best place to communicate from tourists tho -- people from france , german , italy , europes , japan and china. Well , malaysians dun speak the lousiest english , france people do. They are too proud and too arrogant to learn english.

At 10 , I walked out from the store and ready to go home. Night is cold and i need to wear few layers. When i walk to the bus stop , i will just raise my head and look at the thousand stars in the sky.Usually there will be no clouds at all on the sky at night. The moon will change every day , and the ever bright north star will outshine every other stars . Well , occasionally i get to see shoting stars too .

When i get back to my hall , i will take a short shower , and then go to the TV room. THis is a crazy place to be in -- where all the employees from all over the world interacts with each other. Normally i will just take my laptop here and online. I watch NBA and see the americans screams when somebody from lakers scores . When NBA is off , they will watch cowboy movies , or other movies. Few of them are frequent drinkers. I should call them alchoholic . They will generously give out beers to anyone who wants it. They will talk about anything , and most of their stories are very interesting and wild.

About 11 at night , i went back to my room. I am thankful that another wonderful day has passed.

Xu SHen atlantiz0
p/s: Having day off tomorrow .. going to hike again !! now we are hiking part desert and unmaintained trail .. wish me all the best !!

Updates from the other side of the planet

Hi everyone. Nowadays i having two jobs in grand canyon. Morning i work in lodges ... well , i was a guest room attendent , tidy up beds , wash the freaking toilets and basins whatever . But guess what ? I think i am getting a promotion real soon. I will be an inspector inspecting the rooms done by the guest room attendents. No more toilets ! At night , i work at general store as a cashier helper ... just help the cashier bag in all the stuffs customer bought. Well , it is a very nice job since it is very relaxing and i got the chance to chat with customers from every corner of the world. I met many from german , french , hong kong , japan , and lots more from europe and other states of US.

I get to know lots of friends ... i know some really cool americans and thailand people. I got some friend from ukraine and dominican replubic. Well , this is hell of a big family here. I hope i can spend more time talk about grand canyon with ya all ! It is so close to nature , so spiritual , and so friendly. haha , now every night i watch NBA with americans , drink beer and wine with my friends . i had one friend from west .. he is real cool, he was raised as a cowboy .. he had hunted deers and other animal on horseback and on jeep. It is real fun hearing his stories ... hopefully someday he can bring us to a hunting trip !

i gotta put some photos here from the past tour i went . For this past week , i went for numeral tours. Desert view tour where we got to see desert from the canyon from afar , moonwalk tour where we hike with rangers in the middle of the full moon night , and a superb hiking from canyon down to the colorado river. The desert view tour was very nice. It cost 35 USD but it is free for employee ... we went for canyon museum , an ancient watchtower that stands tall at the rim of the canyon, and the spectacular view of colorado river from the top of the canyon.

This canyon is very special .. the view , the feel and the amazement it brings will be different from every different viewing angle.

For moonwalk tour , the ranger had told us different stories about the native american that llives in grand canyon. There are basically navajo , hopi and havasupai tribes living in the canyon area. The ranger told us stories about the origin of moon by the tradition of the 3 different tribes . Then the ranger told us about how everything ( animal , plant , human ) react in this full moon. It was a really really interesting tour. The moon is not any bigger than we see in msia, but it is definately brighter , thanks to the light polution control that they have in grand canyon national park.( we have really really super little street lamps at night to reduce light pollution. We actually can see thousand of stars with naked eye at night without moon ) . They ranger also said we are about to see milky way very soon. I also saw meteor that night. It is nice walking in the desert at night .

Lastly , the hiking tour deserves a full post ... let's see some beautiful photos i took during the hike first here. The hike took us 2 days , we walked about 16 miles ( 25 KM ) round trip in 2 days , descending 1.5KM and ascending 1.5 KM.

This is not sunrise ... if sunrise the whole canyon would be golden in colour , including the clouds. this is taken at about 6 oclock. Sun rises at about 5.00 in canyon.

this photo is taken while we were half way down the trail. We took 6 hours to hike down , and 8 hours to hike up. We only had short but frequent rests during the hike.

This is the famous bridge that we'll have to cross.

Seems like i compressed this too much .. it lost some details ...

Alright , i will post when i got offday ... now seems like i dun have offday that soon ..

Till then !!

Atlantiz 0 , Xu SHen