Day 3
30th December, Friday
We got up very early by 5:30 am as we had to see sunrise in the Grand Canyon. People said it’s a sight to watch. Sun rises at 7:30 there and so even after 1 hr drive we reached there dot on time. There are some 10-15 view points on the Grand Canyon. We got into the one nearest to us. There was tremendous rush there but a little later only we knew why. As the sun rose, the shadows fainted and each rock slowly started showing its true colors. It was an awesome sight. One of the best landscapes I have seen in my life. Far below we could see only a peck of the Colorado river flowing. It was very deep. Let me not go into the statistics and the name jargons of the places because simply you have to come here to feel what Grand Canyon is. As the sun came up fully and more and more rocks got bright, we clicked individual pics. The crowd mainly consisted of the chapti aankh (chinki) people not necessarily all Chinese. I always wondered that all these chinkis look so similar. So I just cracked a joke “ why do all of them click pics when all of them look just the same?” J Anyway, there were lots and lots of desis too. Rather I should specifically say I heard telugu, gujju, marathi and benagli. And a huge part of the crowd was Hispanics too.
There are minimum two day hiking trips to the bottom and back but we didn’t have the time or gears to do that. Frankly, I didn’t have the enthusiasm also of adventure also. Zindagi jitni saadi ho, utni hi achchi hoti hai. Whatever, I bet not even 10% of the people with agree with me.
So next we went to see the points on west side and then east side. All the points had different stretches of river showing but the maximum was at pima point.
Then we went to the east side and there the end point was dessert view. It was an awesome point with a huge watch tower and telescopes and mirrors to have a grander view of the Grand Canyon. There was also a shopping place to get some souvenirs but I took nothing. On the way beack, we saw some dears on the road and we went to usayan Indian Ruin and Museum and saw a small 12th-century ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) pueblo. This was some ancient civilization (merely 800 years old). What was most funny about it was that the people used a ladder to the roof to get out of the houses instead of building the doors.
Finally by 3:15 we were back to our original point in grand canyon but we waited for the sunset. Everybody fell asleep. Me and Nikhil took a long trail along the grand canyon. It refreshed our minds and we got wonderful view. But the most funny part of that was a group of 5-6 desi girls were just behind us and they were no different. Constantly chattering and gossiping like the girls back there in India. I found it real funny. And they were discussing the same thing of seeing too many desis in the place. Later we were joined by Harsha, Chetan And D. we went for a trail on the other side and took beautiful pictures of changing colours of canyon with sunset. It was really cold. I forgot to mention, in the morning, the temperature was 16 degree Fahrenheit when we came.
Now the best part. When we came back, we saw angry mugdha waiting for us as she and parag were searching for us the whole time. Finally we all got together and just when we were about to go back, into the cars, one of the cars was locked accidentally and the key was inside. We could absolutely do nothing. There was no signal to call for help and all the tourist centers were closed to make some landline calls. So D, chetan and parag went away to the maingate 7 miles away to call for help. Meanwhile we 4 were stranded and it was getting real dark and lonely. Within 10 minutes it was pitch dark and absolutely lonely. Everybody was a bit scared. But I knew atleast this won’t continue till next day morning as we were in so called USA. For the first time I believed in USA. A car came in sometime, we thought for help. But they just asked some directions and went back. In another 2-3 minutes, the cops arrived. Two cops who were very very helpful. They called a towing company for us which would open the lock for us and then stayed with us in the pitch dark till the other people came back. They were really great help. Finally it was all done. All I wanted now was some hot steaming coffee and pizzas.
And my wish was granted. Back in Williams, we went to a wonderful pizza parlour called Pizza Factory. It was awesome and awesome ambience. Then we went for local sightseeing in 1 road Williams town. It had a wonderfully decorated Vintage railway station, chariots with huge horses and a skating rink.
I skated for the first time. Don’t know whether I was standing most of the time or was falling down. But it was worth an experience. Somehow I am not fed up of it even after no results. For that matter, that was the maximum time I gave to learn any sports/games, be it cricket, football, hockey or pool, bowling or TT, Badminton or even chess or for that matter. I didn’t even like loosing in NFS, AOE, or even
minesweeper. That’s why I am so good at all of them. ;-)
That was the end of day 3.
We got up very early by 5:30 am as we had to see sunrise in the Grand Canyon. People said it’s a sight to watch. Sun rises at 7:30 there and so even after 1 hr drive we reached there dot on time. There are some 10-15 view points on the Grand Canyon. We got into the one nearest to us. There was tremendous rush there but a little later only we knew why. As the sun rose, the shadows fainted and each rock slowly started showing its true colors. It was an awesome sight. One of the best landscapes I have seen in my life. Far below we could see only a peck of the Colorado river flowing. It was very deep. Let me not go into the statistics and the name jargons of the places because simply you have to come here to feel what Grand Canyon is. As the sun came up fully and more and more rocks got bright, we clicked individual pics. The crowd mainly consisted of the chapti aankh (chinki) people not necessarily all Chinese. I always wondered that all these chinkis look so similar. So I just cracked a joke “ why do all of them click pics when all of them look just the same?” J Anyway, there were lots and lots of desis too. Rather I should specifically say I heard telugu, gujju, marathi and benagli. And a huge part of the crowd was Hispanics too.
There are minimum two day hiking trips to the bottom and back but we didn’t have the time or gears to do that. Frankly, I didn’t have the enthusiasm also of adventure also. Zindagi jitni saadi ho, utni hi achchi hoti hai. Whatever, I bet not even 10% of the people with agree with me.
So next we went to see the points on west side and then east side. All the points had different stretches of river showing but the maximum was at pima point.
Then we went to the east side and there the end point was dessert view. It was an awesome point with a huge watch tower and telescopes and mirrors to have a grander view of the Grand Canyon. There was also a shopping place to get some souvenirs but I took nothing. On the way beack, we saw some dears on the road and we went to usayan Indian Ruin and Museum and saw a small 12th-century ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) pueblo. This was some ancient civilization (merely 800 years old). What was most funny about it was that the people used a ladder to the roof to get out of the houses instead of building the doors.
Finally by 3:15 we were back to our original point in grand canyon but we waited for the sunset. Everybody fell asleep. Me and Nikhil took a long trail along the grand canyon. It refreshed our minds and we got wonderful view. But the most funny part of that was a group of 5-6 desi girls were just behind us and they were no different. Constantly chattering and gossiping like the girls back there in India. I found it real funny. And they were discussing the same thing of seeing too many desis in the place. Later we were joined by Harsha, Chetan And D. we went for a trail on the other side and took beautiful pictures of changing colours of canyon with sunset. It was really cold. I forgot to mention, in the morning, the temperature was 16 degree Fahrenheit when we came.
Now the best part. When we came back, we saw angry mugdha waiting for us as she and parag were searching for us the whole time. Finally we all got together and just when we were about to go back, into the cars, one of the cars was locked accidentally and the key was inside. We could absolutely do nothing. There was no signal to call for help and all the tourist centers were closed to make some landline calls. So D, chetan and parag went away to the maingate 7 miles away to call for help. Meanwhile we 4 were stranded and it was getting real dark and lonely. Within 10 minutes it was pitch dark and absolutely lonely. Everybody was a bit scared. But I knew atleast this won’t continue till next day morning as we were in so called USA. For the first time I believed in USA. A car came in sometime, we thought for help. But they just asked some directions and went back. In another 2-3 minutes, the cops arrived. Two cops who were very very helpful. They called a towing company for us which would open the lock for us and then stayed with us in the pitch dark till the other people came back. They were really great help. Finally it was all done. All I wanted now was some hot steaming coffee and pizzas.
And my wish was granted. Back in Williams, we went to a wonderful pizza parlour called Pizza Factory. It was awesome and awesome ambience. Then we went for local sightseeing in 1 road Williams town. It had a wonderfully decorated Vintage railway station, chariots with huge horses and a skating rink.
I skated for the first time. Don’t know whether I was standing most of the time or was falling down. But it was worth an experience. Somehow I am not fed up of it even after no results. For that matter, that was the maximum time I gave to learn any sports/games, be it cricket, football, hockey or pool, bowling or TT, Badminton or even chess or for that matter. I didn’t even like loosing in NFS, AOE, or even
minesweeper. That’s why I am so good at all of them. ;-)
That was the end of day 3.
posted by Sandipan Mitra | 6:20 PM
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