Lpaw
Lpaw Joined: May 30th 2007
Logged in: February 7th 2012
Logged in: February 7th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
Somewhere in the midwest. Iowa, I guess.
I know it was a road trip, but really we didn't feel that excited about pseudomountains in the east. A gazillion acres of golden corn fields in the midwest, though can be quite attractive in the morning and late afternoon sun, just didn't have enough grip to draw us. Why bother taking pictures then, so we didn't. All you'll see in this entry is Yellowstone. Yes, there were a lot to see there and we didn't even have time to do some real hiking. The greatest extent of hiking we did was hiking down to lower Yellowstone Falls. Distance wasn't an issue, but boy! steepness was a whole different story. One third of the way down, the trail was made of metal staircase leading way down to the canyon. When I got jello legs and knees ... read more
On the way up to Jangfraujoch1
Day 1 The trip to the top of Europe as what Jungfraujoch(young-fro-yuat)'s been named took 2.5 hours and involved connecting to 3 trains. The higher we went, the views became more and more breathtaking. I thought of postcards of Switzerland I'd seen and it's pretty much resembled to what I was witnessing with my own eyes except with a substantially better sense of scale and dramatic panoramic views. The last stretch was through the 9.3-kilometer tunnel. The video showcased the story of how it all began. I was in awe in the Swiss's ingenious engineering. There were 2 view points, Eigerwand at roughly more than 2,000 meters in elevation, and Eismeer at 3,160 meters above sea level. After about half an hour in the tunnel, we arrived at Jungfraujoch reaching 3,454 meters in elevation. Even though, ... read more
Connecting Train in Paris to Gare de Lyon
We left Rennes, France yesterday morning, took TGV back to Paris and another TGV to Berne, Switzerland then took local train to Interlaken(in-ter-laa-ken). It was a long day on the trains. I remember asking a lady at the snack bar on the train from Paris "How do I know when I get into Switzerland?" She jokingly said "you'll see green cows". I paused for a second almost took it seriously. I laughed and smiled at her while thinking to myself "I actually want to see a green cow, it'd be awesome". It took about an hour from the French-Swiss border to Berne and same on the way back through Zurich. We stayed at the studio I found on Interlaken website. It was a steal compared with another place we stayed at after coming back from the ... read more
It was a cold day!
Charles De Galles was not anything like I'd imagined. Not anywhere close to what I'd call luxurious and fashionable as what Paris's portrayed. Old, somewhat dull, and incredibly smokey are adjectives that came to mind when I stepped foot out into the main public area of the airport. As we were waiting in line to get some information on transportation to Montparnasse station, I looked up and saw three armed soldiers talking and monitoring the area. A flashback of Bangkok a few months ago sprang up from my memory. This's not what I expected to see on my first arrival to France. As we were walking to look for our exit, which the French call "gate", to catch the transfer bus, we walked pass a few more armed soldiers. We finally got to gate 2, waited ... read more
Temple of Sinawava Trail
I got lazy- so instead of creating an entry for each day, I combined all 3 days into one entry. May 19, 2009 We drove south and then headed west to Zion which was less than an hour drive away from Bryce. We entered the park from the east side and I was increasingly excited whenever we drove pass prickly pears one after another. They were dangerously gorgeous! Though, I learned later from the park shuttle driver that prickly pear is actually edible and tastes quite good. The winding small two-way reddish asphalt road took us through land of lava-like looking limestone mountains. Certain spots looked as if someone had burnt mountains causing it to melt while others displayed various kinds of artistic patterns. A checker table is definitely one of them and yes it really ... read more
Decending
We hit Hat Shop trail on our last day in Bryce. The weather certainly was nice to us by keeping the clouds scattered all over the sky protecting us from the heat of the sun during the hike. Exactly as described in the trail guide, Hat Shop trail was obviously quiet and less crowded than any other trails. It's not stunning like Navajo trail-but it sure provides you with ample solitude and a good opportunity to observe Clark's Nutcrackers, birds of the high mountains of the American West, in their nature. It was so quiet that even small movements of various animals could be heard. It's the trail that highlighted your auditory skill. Wonder why this trail is named "Hat Shop", walked further down for about 30-40 minutes and let the trail speaks for itself. Hat-shaped ... read more
At the start of Queen's Garden and Navajo Trail
Thank you weather for continuing to behave, so we had an opportunity to enjoy a nice hiking day today. I couldn't wait to get down to the bottom of the canyon and stand among the strange-looking hoodoos. Reading from hiking trails descriptions, Queen's Garden and Navajo trail combo seemed to be the most interesting trails. Starting at Sunset Point where a panoramic view of Bryce can be appreciated, we gradually descended into the canyon. The trail was rocky and gravelly and varied in coloration in different areas. As the sun became stronger and stronger, many hikers found refuge in the shades of the trees that appeared as if someone had thoughtfully placed them in just the right spots. Just when I felt that it was getting hot, I was about to approach another tree. We walked ... read more
Bryce Point
We started our day with food, of course. We stayed at Bryce View Lodge, a motel, owned by Ruby's Inn Best Western located across the street. It seemed as though we crossed the road to the civilization. The motel had, well, a place for you to sleep while the Inn had pretty much what a tourist would want. The biggest disappointment for us at Bryce is availability of good food. The hotel served standard American food either buffet style or regular style; I don't get it. Serving basic American breakfast is not in any way bad, but managing to make basic American breakfast bad is just plain intolerable. The meals got us to talk about how we might improve food quality around here. We're guessing that the basic problem appears to be Byrce high altitude landscape, ... read more
Hoover Dam
Finally, I can say that I've been to Las Vegas. Well, it has never been a preferred destination of mine, but as a gateway to the gems of the South West...sure! We landed just before noon, then headed over to the rental car center via shuttle bus. I think it's not a bad idea to have all rental car companies under one roof. You can never get lost trying to find your rental car company. Since we traveled on budget, we went with one of the cheapest rental car companies I had found online. It took us for a little over half an hour just to pick up the car, much slower than we had anticipated. However, good thing was there was a discount for an upgrade; so we took them up on that because....really it ... read more
Amicalola Falls
Hello Christmas 2008. This year we went to Sean and Pat's condo in Atlanta. My second visit to Atlanta and not a disappointing one compared to my first visit that was so short and so city-confined. Since it's been a few years and I don't feel like recalling the details of our trip, this entry will be quite short. What i want to mention is DeKalb Farmers Market. I really wish we had one here in Northern Virginia. All those spices were so darn cheap and abundant for me to choose from. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures there because I wasn't allowed to and also I was busy looking around getting stuff to take back home with me. It was an enjoyable grocery shopping. We went to Amicalola Falls before Heather, Alx, and Ian arrived, ... read more
