After about five hours of driving, we knew Las Vegas, Nevada was visibly ahead, as hotels, casinos and huge billboards flashed before our eyes. We arrived at around 9pm, just as the city's lights were in full swing. After checking in at a very affordable inn considering the city's standards, we began the walk down "the Strip". The colossal monuments, fascinating lighting, and riveting atmosphere blew me away.
Traffic was crazy, to the extent that there were no crossings allowed at many large intersections. Escalators would take pedestrians up to a level which would stretch over the intersection. Each of the many hotels had an associated theme, with an impressive facade that must have cost millions to make. I couldn't help but imagine that power consumption in this area must be phenomenally excessive. As we walked, I noticed that carrying open vessels and drinking outdoors was legal in Las Vegas. Although the legal age for gambling is 21, we were permitted to walk through the casinos. The smell of cigarettes was unavoidable in these casinos and it remained on our clothes afterwards. It was interesting to see the contrast between the rich in limos and casinos, and the poor giving out cards and flyers on the streets. The disturbing part was that some of these poor were very young children and very old folk, many of Mexican descent, giving out advertisements for strippers and adult shows. Passing through themes such as "New York" and "Paris", we reached "Venice" to have dinner at the affordable Grand Lux Cafe, where I had a delicious IndoChinese dish, a waiter's favourite, and one of the best drinks I've had in my life, the "Island Cooler" (a blend of many fruits, squeezed and balanced to perfection). We had a good laugh at a hugh neon "Kimchi" sign that caught our eye. The night was still much alive until 3am, when we reached Luxor hotel, which was for me the most impressive themed hotel. The theme was "Egypt", where there was a replica of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid. The pyramid at its apex beamed out light vertically up towards the stars.
Later that morning, we left for the Grand Canyon. We briefly stopped by at the Hoover Dam on the way, but needed to get to the natural wonder of the world as quick as we could in order to do some decent hiking before dark. The five hour ride from Las Vegas took us into the Grand Canyon, Arizona.
The view was amazing at the platform. The rock formations carved out by the dynamics of the Colorado river over the many years was why this is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. We saw cars with license plates from all over the country - even Georgia, which is a state on the southeast of the US. We began hiking down the South Kaibab trail on the South rim of the Grand Canyon, which offered the best views. On the way down, I briefly talked to a guy who had gone all the way down to the bottom of the canyon and back up since the morning...with a broken leg! A variety of coloured rock layers and desert-like vegetation surrounded us. After stopping by at the "ooh-ahh" point, we reached the halfway point down the canyon (Skeleton Point, 3 miles down from the rim) with a feeling of accomplishment as the Colorado river was finally in sight. The California condor is supposed to be the most endangered bird of prey species on Earth. On our way back up to the rim, one of these rare condors, possessing a wingspan of up to 3 metres flew just a few feet past my head! I sure hoped our singing and shouting "U-C-S-D!" and "Whose house? I-House!" (and of course the resulting echo that reverberated far, far away) wasn't the reason why. I had not caught a glimpse of a rattlesnake nor a scorpion, but the condor experience made my day. We hiked up and reached the rim just as the sun completely set on us. At the top, we saw a night photographer with a flashlight attached to his head just on his way down. He was probably a photographer for National Geographic or similar...a sweet job that could be. Although we were too late to reach the bottom, the splendid panoramas made it more than fulfilling to have hiked halfway down.
My trainers were pretty much orange once once we got to the rim, due to the soft outer soil layer of the canyon. We had some typical Arizona-like food for dinner to reenergize ourselves from the hard day. A big, solid, protein rich steak did it for me that night.
We then roamed around in circles in our car for quite a while, attempting to find our campsite, before managing to finally turn on our spatial intelligence. We put up a large tent, made it comfy, and also made a campfire. The Grand Canyon's desert-like climate got very cold (below zero) at night. I experienced a traditional American campfire treat for dessert. "S'mores" (short for "some more"s) they were called. It was heated marshmallow and a piece of block chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. It was fun heating the marshmallows over the fire (skewered onto the end of a stick) just enough so that it didn't sizzle away and burn. This is me burning them (a diagrammatic example of how not to do it, lol).
It was delicious, and definitely made me crave s'more. There was a little bit of tension between the sexes as our (Mohit and my) bittersweet male attempt at a "scare tactic" that night, was followed by the failed female attempt at tipping over the tent while us dudes were still sleeping in the morning. We headed back to California that morning, saying goodbye to the geological showcase that I fell in love with. The drive back was a soothing reflection of the most full on week I've had in my life. So much seen, so much done, so much learned.
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