Tag: USA

LAS VEGAS

LAS VEGAS, SEPTEMBER 1995 – ‘You have to go to Vegas once in a lifetime’, some say. I agree, but once is enough. This city is just unbelievable, but is it really a city ? It seemed more like a theme park to me, but I must admit, I enjoyed being carried from the one astonishing fact to the other. We came out of the desert, a whole day driving without seeing anyone, then there was suddenly the Hoover dam, and when we arrived into Las Vegas, there were traffic jams ! A big contrast, and this was only the beginning.

Gambling

‘When in Vegas, don’t sleep at night’, another saying. I was determined to try it out. I went from casino to casino, did some gambling (what else would you do ?) and had some free drinks. It was all amazing, there were pyramids and a sphinx, there was Ceasars Palace, a vulcano, … and everything was connected to everything – I often wondered if I would be able to find an exit somewhere… Afterwards, I’ve learnt that exits are on purpose ‘as invisible as possible’, people have to stay in and gamble. It is true that the city has some special attraction at night – neon rules over here. In fact an exiting atmosphere is created, and after a while it becomes hard to resist the slot machines or video poker or blackjack. The first night, I even won some money (the second, I lost it all very quickly). When it was nearly morning I decided to go to the hotel, but I got a bit lost (and had a last free drink too much). I took a cab and the hotel was somewhat further than I had imagined before. Next problem was I didn’t remember my room number… now I was in trouble. Security didn’t trust the situation, and I had a hard time explaining my friends were already there (and asleep) – finally I got into my room escorted by a security guard.

All you can eat

After sleeping in the day after, it was time to go for lunch. I took the free shuttle bus this time, to one of the many restaurants inside the casinos. I went to a place where there were circus artists performing while you were having lunch. The food was cheap and often on a ‘as many as you can eat’ basis. This has of course again the purpose of driving people into gambling; they can save on the food, so they have more money left for gambling.

Besides gambling, I have done some walking into some of the areas aside from the strip. I remember it was very hot (at least to me it was), and I was always happy to reach a casino, because I could drink something there and it was airconditioned. I guess the high temperatures over there are also ‘on purpose’.

And the other stuff

I also went on a city tour in a real limousine, champagne included.
I didn’t get married and I didn’t skydive disguised as Elvis.

June 12, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO, AUGUST 1995 – In the days I spent in San Francisco, several of my travel dreams came true, like walking on the golden gate bridge, riding on the cable cars and going to Alcatraz. At the same time these were the icons that appeared in so many American movies I had seen at home. And it all seemed to be true in reality ! But I also discovered other places that were before unknown to me, and tasted the multicultural aspects of this exiting city. This city ranks high on my list of most beautiful cities in the world.

The hills and the bridge

First thing that struck me in the city : the streets are steep, very steep ! This is because of the 49 hills SF is built on, and some have famous names like Pacific Heights, Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, … Another famous place is Twin Peaks, where the view of the city is fabulous. I remember the big antennas up there, and when some years later I took a flight from SF, they were visible above the mist that is so typical for the city.
Next stop, the Golden Gate bridge – I used a local bus, and the driver said we were unlucky : there was no mist today. I walked over the bridge, which is a nice way to realise what a masterpiece of engineering this bridge is – you may not be afraid of hights and don’t lose your keys here. Near to the bridge, there is the golden gate park, with a lake, a Dutch windmill (!) and a Japanese garden, where I had some Japanese tea. At night, I sailed a catamaran under the bridge. The city lights were bright and beautiful, and made it a romantic setting…

China Town

Other highlights I visited were the piers, where a nautical festival took place at that time, and several other buildings of interest, like the Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower. And China Town. I took a local bus, and it seemed like in China : lots of Chinese getting on the bus, carrying a lot of stuff, the bus driver shouting to calm them down,… I wandered through the streets, and for a while I was in China. I went for lunch to a local restaurant, which was full of Chinese people. I remember I had trouble with the chopsticks at that time, and that the woman next to me told me in Chinese how to handle them.

And then for something completely different : Alcatraz. This is of course a very touristic place now, but somehow it gives you a good impression of how life would have been there when it was still a prison. And again, some movies came true…

June 12, 2021

LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES, AUGUST 1995 – It was my first visit to the North-American continent, and my first encounter with American city life. While the plane was making it’s descent towards LAX airport, I could see plenty of low-rise houses, the suburbs of this enormous city. I was somewhat disappointed not to see high-rise buildings – I had to wait till the next morning for that. I went to the hotel and met some of my fellow travellers before trying to sleep through my jetlag…- which worked wonderfully, against all expectations. The next morning, I took some quick breakfast (muffins and coffee) and I was ready to get into the city !

Hollywood

That day we first visited the Hollywood area. When driving from El Segundo towards Hollywood, we made some sightseeing trip through Beverly Hills. We didn’t meet any of the stars or other famous people, we only saw beautiful cars in the streets and encountered police and security officers, always telling us not to park when we were slowing down. The houses were all fenced and had gardens surrounding them. After a while we arrived in the Hollywood boulevard. I had seen this boulevard numerous times on TV, and finally I was standing there and walked on the so famous pavement. Next, to the Chinese theatre, to admire the foot-and-other-prints of the famous. It was like all the TV series coming true all at once, but this was real, and at the same time this seemed just like an ‘ordinary boulevard’ … a bit of a strange feeling came over me. A feeling that would come back many times during my trip through the USA.

Next, we were driving into the hills of hollywood, stopped several times to see some houses of filmstars (even climbed a fence once), fotographed the Hollywood sign,… to arrive finally on the parking lot of Universal Studios, where the view of LA was great : finally high-rise buildings in all their glory !

Half a day visit to Universal Studios… was like all the movies coming true. After having met Jaws & Frankenstein, after having been in an earthquake and in a fire and almost in space, it was time to return to reality.

We went on for the following days drving on the Pacific Highway, passing in Santa Monica & Santa Barbara (made a little “Bay watch” beach stop) and went on towards Big Sur, with wonderfull vistas all the way. It was also the first time I had seen the Pacific ocean, and of course I couldn’t resist at some point to hike down from the road and feel if the water was any different than anywhere else in the world.

Pacific Coast, Big Sur

June 12, 2021

Grand Canyon , USA

grand canyon, september 1995 – This was one of my dreams coming true : to see the biggest canyon in the world I heard and seen so much about already. I was finally there, so I had to hike it.

Plateau Point hike

Since time was limited, I took one of the classic hikes, the one to the ‘plateau point’, about 2 or 3 hours hike down, from where you can see the Colorado river beneath. The hike starts at the visitor centre, where you can buy a ‘I hiked the Grand Canyon’ T-shirt, even if you only walked the rim… I bought some trail mix over there, and refilled my water bottle. To hike the canyon, you need at least 3 litres of water, but drinking water fountains are available every hour or so, you can refill on the way.

View from the rim after the storm

The hard thing about Grand Canyon is that you start hiking down, hurting your knees in my case, and then have to go all the way up again. This seems obvious, but do not underestimate the canyon : it gets very hot in there, as it already was by the time I started. The vistas are beautiful as you go deeper and deeper into the canyon, there are flowers and cactusses , and squirels. I rested at ‘Indian Gardens‘, a place with pick-nick area. As I arrived there, black clouds were coming in now. It had been clowdy all day but this change was very sudden. I hesitated if I would go further or not. Finally, I decided to go back up as it was clear a thunderstorm was coming in.

About half an hour later, hell broke loose. It started to rain and hail, and soon there was also thunder and lighting. I luckily had my rain gear with me – as I always do when hiking. I had to stop for some time because this hail really hurt on my back and mud streams were coming down, crossing the path. The lighting struck some trees in the distance, there was smoke. This was totally different from what I expected Grand Canyon to be. Moments later, I continued the hike. There was one advantage : it was much less hot. By the time I reached the rim again, the thunderstorm was gone, but the clouds were still there and the views were somewhat misty now.

Next day, the weather was great and I took a helicopter flight above Grand Canyon. Although these flights are really the top of ‘tourist things to do’ ( the campsite I stayed was called by some ‘little Vietnam’…), it was really spectacular and well worth the price.

July 29, 2018

Monument Valley , USA

monument valley, september 1995 – If you like ‘Western’ movies, you’ll surely know the landscapes of Monument Valley NP in Arizona. Most of these movies were filmed over here, and you can even visit some movie set ‘ghost towns’ in the area. It’s a great experience to camp in this desert of red rocks, buttes and mesas. This is Navajo land. The Navajo native Americans still live on this land. While most of them have a way of live like most of us – that is, they wear western clothes and have a ‘regular’ job – they still try to preserve the culture of their ancesters.

It was early in the morning.

Before sunrise. We had an appointment with Tony, our native jeep driver, which would guide us for the day into Monument Valley, show us the land he loved so much , and much more… The first destination was a viewpoint, where according to Tony, the sunrise was the most beautiful. We drove into the dark on the jeep tracks – I wondered all the time how he knew which way to go, because most of the (moonlit) views appeared similar to me. The place was called the ‘Totempole‘ – as all rocks had a name for him, a lot of names were invented just for the tourists, the Navajo had their own names. Sunrise was soon there, and the view of the rising sun next to the ‘totempole’ was indeed spectacular. Minutes later it was full daylight, and another hot day had started.

Arches

Tony took us to many other places, like ‘artist view’ (the most used view in paintings, photographs, and in movies), the ‘moccasin arch’, and numerous others from which I forgot the names. He also showed us several plants growing in the desert and pointed out animal tracks. Next thing to do was to hike to the top of a mesa. Like real spidermen and -women, we used the rope net – Tony didn’t need this, he attached the net for us. On top, the sight was like that of a moonlandscape. It was getting hot already; Tony learned us how to use ‘natural cooling’ by laying down on your back onto the rock. Later we were back on the road and drove into the arches landscape. We stopped by a kind of a cave. Tony now played on a little drum (made of the oil filter of a truck and animal skin) and sung a traditional song. He learned us how to dance like the natives and we all tried this together. It was a nice moment of the trip. To finish the jeep tour, he took us to a traditional hogan, where we could see a woman spinning wool.

The Hogan

Another day in Monument Valley, we all went to go horseback riding. This was the typical ‘tourist thing’ to do, and the horses were very tame. I had never been on a horse before, but this was really easy : the horse just followed the path it knew very well. I guess this was not at all typical for the ‘real wild west’ , as we knew from the movies… It is true that mass tourism over here spoiled the real experience, but what I remember the most were the evenings on the camping site. Camping between the buttes and mesas is really spectacular, and at sunset I watched for hours the ever changing colours of the rocks.