Arizona, USA

16 Aug 2014 (Sat)

Lodging: Super 8 Flagstaff I-40 Ex 198 Lucky Lane



1 of 7, fortnight USA trip
Arizona ✈ Las Vegas ✈ Mammoth Lakes ✈ Yosemite ✈ San Francisco ✈ Coastal California ✈ Los Angeles

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Star Gazing from U.S. Route 93

We chose the hard way, by taking Spirit Airlines at 10:30pm on 15 Aug right after our plant tour in Houston and arriving in Las Vegas at 11:30pm local time. Doesn't sound hard? Well, we didn't book a hotel in Las Vegas, and it's gonna be a 6-hour drive from Las Vegas to Grand Canyon after collecting our Chrysler minivan from National Car Rental at the airport. We knew it's gonna be shagged, and I tried hard to fall asleep on the plane though I hardly could.

Everyone took turns to drive, every hour. We stopped at the Nevada-Arizona border for a short rest, the complete dark surroundings make star gazing clearer and more possible.

We're heading towards Flagstaff where our hotel is located, we filled our car with petrol at a gas station in Flagstaff before depositing our luggage in the morning. I was at the driver seat at that point of time, I stepped out of the car, OH MY GOODNESS WHY IS IT SO COLD?!?! We didn't know that before sunset it's really cold, and for once I thought that's gonna be the end, as none of us brought winter clothing... erm... ha.ha...

But when the sun is up there, it's really dry and warm (or should I say, hot).

Grand Canyon

Sun has risen. Having our luggage deposited in the luggage room of our hotel, we drove to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center.

Let the photos do the rest of my essay.

Antelope Canyon

Lower Antelope Canyon

Having known that we're visiting the Grand Canyon, I requested to add Antelope Canyon into our itinerary back in Singapore, due to its wondrous looking rocks which I've known long ago.

We visited the Lower Antelope Canyon, located in the city of Page (same pronunciation as the common word 'page'), paying an entrance fee of $28 (Ken's Tour). You are allowed to take photos, but no flash photography.

It's a guided tour, and it requires you to climb the pre-installed ladders down to the canyon. The stairways are so steep that I saw someone (probably with acrophobia) fled as she was unable to make her way through.

Little Colorado River Gorge

Little Colorado River Gorge

When we're driving from Grand Canyon to Antelope Canyon, we came across a magnificent view on our left along Arizona State Route 64. We decided to visit that place again after Antelope Canyon.

That viewpoint is the Little Colorado River Gorge, located near a district, coincidentally, called Cameron (as 'Cameron' is also the name of the company I'm currently working for).

There's an entrance kiosk and we're 'not really' asked for entrance fee but for donation, 'any amount', said the lady at the kiosk. I was like, "erm... 5 dollars?" and she accepted.

The gorge is very deep that an acrophobia sufferer might want to avoid. The Little Colorado River runs between the valley down below.

It was past 5 in the afternoon and that's definitely not a very good time for sightseeing here, as the shadow from one side of the gorge is cast onto the other side, same applies to those depressions from the protrusions.

That's the end of our day trip. It's seriously time to rest as we haven't been really sleeping in the past 24 hours.

Double rainbow (from Super 8 Flagstaff)

Good night!

49 Seats @ Kreta Ayer Road

Every gathering with them is a reminiscence of our unforgettable student exchange days in Sweden.

We kind of 'promised' to have a bi-monthly meetup, which obviously failed simply because we are working adults now.

Like every other gathering, we talked about our fruitful trips in Europe and the funny moments we had in Lund University, the cool breeze that swept us over as Min Khai and I made our periodic return cycling trips from Sparta to Östra Torn, where Phoebe and Yiting stayed, for a dinner, for a movie screening, or just anything.

Seafood Marinara Pasta @ $13.90


Chicken Chop @ $13.90


Pan Fried Fish with Al Scampi Sauce @ $16.90


Tom Yum Seafood Pasta @ $14.90
This seems to be their signature dish, but too bad my taste bud isn't catered for Thai food

And, I wonder when will our next meetup be...

49 Seats
49 Kreta Ayer Road
Singapore 089007

Perth, Australia

29th May (Thu) - 02 Jun (Mon) 2014

Lodging: University Hall, University of Western Australia

University Hall, UWA

3 months ago, back in March, when I was having my birthday lunch with Yumi at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard, I asked if I could visit her in Perth since she's now studying there in the University of Western Australia (UWA). "Sure!", with her firm reply, the straightforward me immediately had my calendar set for my first trip to Australia, the 4th continent which I'm gonna first step on.

Thanks to the identical time zone, I didn't have to change my camera time setting.

My acquaintance with Yumi dates back to when we're in high school, through the Chinese orchestra community, though we're from different high school with different orchestra conductor. Back then, I couldn't stress enough how pretty I think she is. :D

My flight details
29 May 2014 (Thu)
Changi Airport Terminal 2 - Perth Airport Terminal 1
Flight No: TZ 8 (Scoot)
12:30PM ­- 5:15PM

02 Jun 2014 (Mon)
Perth Airport Terminal 1 - Changi Airport Terminal 2
Flight No: TZ 7 (Scoot)
6:25PM ­- 11:45PM

Fare: S$426.22 (I added luggage check in a few days before my flight and S$90 was added to the original fare of S$336.22)

AUD20 was also spent on the Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) application.

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Day 1

Thanks to Yumi, I was informed earlier that I needed to get to Terminal 2 or 3 via the airport shuttle bus to board bus 37 or 40 towards the city. The pickup point is right in front of the arrival exit, and I thought the airport terminals should be near to each other, so I totally didn't expect that shuttle bus ride took more than 10 minutes - so much further than I thought!

Bus ride without a bus pass in Perth is painful - A$4.20 to get to Esplanade Busport from Terminal 2 or 3. I prepared 5 one dollar coins so I still need an $0.80 change, and the Asian-looking bus driver is kind and friendly, "yes, I have plenty of change for you...".

Trà Vinh Vietnamese & Chinese Special Noodles House

Picked up by someone with a familiar face at the busport, I kind of wanted to ask, "Yumi, don't you feel cold wearing a skirt?"

We took a bus from there to Northbridge, and had our dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant along William Street.

I should have expected an average eating out in Perth to be more expensive, as a bowl of noodles costs around A$12. And random enough, that's when Yumi learnt that I don't eat celery due to it's awful tastes and smell - how can vegetable with such disgusting taste be used for culinary purpose?!

Well, soup and spring rolls were great, and there goes my 1st day in Perth.

Yumi's hostel room

My accommodation was settled in the very beginning - Yumi's studio apartment hostel room in University Hall of UWA along Winthrop Ave (it pretty much made me recall Leong Chye's former hostel room in Portsmouth, UK).

It was so thoughtful of her that she borrowed me an electrically powered air mattress from her friend so that I didn't have to sleep on the floor (which was her initial plan XD).

Claimed by Yumi, unfortunately, that the air mattress was deflated overnight due to my weight. Certainly there's a leakage somewhere in the mattress that we couldn't locate, and I have to say that I had a pretty bad sleep the 1st night.

She offered to sleep on the air mattress instead while I sleep on her own bed. But don't get fooled by her kindness (she just loves the air mattress and using my weight as an excuse).

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Day 2

York, Australia

Great Eastern Highway

This post is a sequel of Perth, Australia.
Read more.

Thanks to Yumi's friend, Aaron who lent us his red Holden car. It's a 1.5 hour drive from Perth to York, situated 97 km eastwards.

York Town Hall

York Town Hall

You may get yourself a handy York Town Map from the town hall, or download a PDF copy from their website.

Penny Farthing Sweets 5/125 Avon Terrace

Avon Park Lowe Street

Swing Bridge across Avon River Pool Street

and here comes the lead attraction of York...

Mount Brown

Mount Brown Lookout

If you'll ever visit York, Mount Brown is definitely somewhere you have to go!!

I did see someone who walked up there, but, it's really much much time and energy saving to drive up to the top.

This is taken by Yumi's iPhone 4S without gimmick editing. Guess how we did that.

Then we drove down the mountain and chilled for a while at Nguyen's Bakery Cafe along Avon Terrace.

Tipperary School

Tipperary School used to be one of the single-teacher schoolhouses in the district, not anymore now.

A clay moulder nearby offered to unlock the school and tell us the history of it for a few dollar donation.

The school has two rooms (as you can see there're two chimneys), the classroom on the left and the teacher's bedroom on the right.

It makes me feel the sacredness of the teacher's job, living in such shoddy abode. The teacher must have been having a hard time sleeping due to cold weather.

That's basically all for York, nothing really much. Initially we planned to visit the Piano Graveyard there but we were told that it is closed down when we called few days before visiting York.

After finding that there're not much places left for visiting, we headed back to Mount Brown which we visited earlier in the afternoon to embrace my second beautiful sunset in Australia (same goes to the chit chatting part while enjoying the view).

夕陽無限好，只是近黃昏

Bye York! And we headed back to Perth for dinner with one of my primary school mate.
Read more about from day 4 onwards here.