West Coast travel part 1

This is no doubt my longest trip ever, 6 states, 9 cities in 2 weeks. My traveling companions? My university beties =) it seemed just a while ago that Huiling and I were planning the trip and it’s the trip has already ended. But the memories are really here to stay.

Gwen arrived in NY to meet Huiling on 9 july and for the next 2 days, they did lots of shopping and sightseeing. Having been to New York and is limited by the number of leave I am entitled to, I only joined them on 11july. The Pacific Hotel at Chinatown is simply amazingly value for money. For just $67 per night, we get a queen sized bed in a 2m by 2m room. But a small hotel in NY would fetch usually $200 a night. We departed at 7am the next day to catch the Niagara Falls bus and the hilarious error we committed was to take taxi to go down 5 streets. It is different here compared to Philly, when the streets run in sequence. As the hotel is at 100 something street, one would expect 60 streets in between the position of the tour bus which is at 42rd street but apparently, we’re wrong.

Soon we embarked on our journey to Buffalo, Niagara. After sitting on the bus for 3hours. It seemed that the bus would never arrive at the destination. It was already evening time by the time we arrived. A light drizzle began to fall but nothing could restrain our excitement to see the much awaited Niagara fall. The falls were actually noticeable from a distance, as there were some mysteriously large clouds of mist. Niagara got its name from its thundering sound of the falling water and no other name could have more aptly described it. We wore our poncho and stepped onto the maiden of the mists and almost as soon as it began to sail, the majestic view of the falls came into view. The falls are nothing like those I have ever seen in my life. The sight of the pure glistening water pouring down from heights was simply incredible. It looked so beautiful, like a painting, so surreal. We were soon drenched by the drizzle and the gushing sprays of water from the shore but even if it means risking our camera to take photos of the falls, it was worth it.
The rest of the trip didn’t occur as smoothly but it was a unique experience together. While I returned to Philly to work, Huiling and Gwen stayed on to go Woodbury to shop the next day.
For the next 2 days, I could hardly concentrate on my work, as there were so many things to settle for the west coast trip. The juniors had also just arrived on Mon and all the memories what I experienced in the first few weeks in Philly came rushing back to me again. All too quickly, 6 months had gone by and we’re seniors already.

Before I knew it, Wednesday arrived. At 4pm, gwen and I practically raced to the 30th street with our luggages and all. In retrospect, maybe it was an omen that we’d always be rushing for our flights and to meet deadlines for our trip. I was sweating profusely by the time we boarded the regional rail to the Philadelphia airport. It was in the nick of time that we reached the platform actually. Phew…
Everything else very much occurred smoothly after that. At the Las Vegas airport, we rented a Toyota Prius, which is supposed to run on only one gallon per 45 miles, which is simply amazing. As we drove down the strip, the sights around us were amazing. Even from the airplane, we could see the dazzling lights of vegas, the city that never sleeps. We recognized the hotels as our car crawled along the road, as there were so many cars on the narrow road. The famous pyramidal Luxor hotel, the grand Bellagio hotel that hosts fountain shows, the Paris hotel with its Eiffel tower lookalike. Circus circus was the conventional kind of hotel but it was nevertheless an enjoyable experience staying there. The room was clean and spacious, just what we needed after a horrible experience at the Fallside inn at Niagara Falls.
Our regret is that we could only stay one night there and a short one for that, as we had to set off at 7am for grand canyon the next day. If I am given the chance to change our itinerary, maybe we would have missed going to LA altogether.
There would be no argument for which why Grand Canyon is recognized as one of the 7 wonders of the world. It took a gruesome 5 hours to drive there, passing over 3 different terrains along the way, the desert, the savanna areas and the green hilly regions. But as we set our eyes upon the place, all our fatigue just melted away. The scene was just so breathtaking. The canyon looks different at every angle and nothing can certainly battle this piece of natural avante garde in front of us. We could only spend hour there but it would take a lifetime to forget the wonderful sight of Grand Canyon.