Surviving Death Valley

If I have a list of things to do before I die, seeing Death Valley once in my life would be on it. When I told my coworker I was thinking about going to Death Valley, she asked me what there is to see, a whole lot of nothingness, I said, and she gave me this crazy look and our conversation kind of awkwardly ended like that. I'm sure she's not alone. I've been nagging Paul for the last two years to go to Death Valley. I might have been suggested at the wrong time of the year, as it will definitely burn you to death during the summer months. The record high reached 134F (57C), ranked No. 2 in world's record.

It is also the lowest elevation point in USA, 282ft (86m) below sea level. Even more interestingly, it is only 100 miles away from the highest peak in USA (within the 48 contiguous states)--Mt Whitney at 14,494ft (4,418m).

But it was the name that intrigued me the most. And this place truly is as the name suggested. Nothing grows in this place. The combination of its heat, lack of humidity and minerals created this weird place on earth.

Two hours and one speeding ticket (所謂欲速則不達矣) later, we entered into the territory of the National Park. First we stopped at Dante's View. It gave us a panoramic view of Death Valley. From a distance, it almost looked like it was covered in snow. But it was just covered in minerals (although I like to just call it salt, the tour book insisted it was more than salt).

So without further delay, we hit the road to get a closer look. The temperature seemed to rise faster than our car managed to descend. Next stop was Zabriskie Point. While it's still on the hillside, the hot air already starts to accumulate.
Maybe I'm playing favoritism, but I think Death Valley is far more interesting than Grand Canyon. They are not really comparable besides the point most people travel 5 hours from Vegas to see Grand Canyon but who, besides us two morons, wants to go to Death Valley? But the thing with Grand Canyon is, after the 3rd view point you start to wonder what else is around to see, and it takes you all the way until the 8th and the last to realize it's all the same canyon. But with Death Valley, every stop point is something totally different: Dante's View, Zabriskie Point, Artist Pallet, Devils Golf Course and Badwater... it just makes you want to go on and on and wondering what earth's wonder you might be missing.
Speaking of earth's wonder, my travel companion might have something different to say. In Paul's point of view, the thing that made Death Valley so magnificently beautiful is because it is so ugly beyond imagination.
But one thing we definitely would agree with each other, this place is simply impossible for human existence. The rainfall averages about 2 inches around here, but each year it sucks 150 inches of water out of thin air. (How is it mathematically possible I do not know--our guess is the remainder comes from the melted snow)
We didn't go through the whole park as we got a show to catch that night. But I thought to myself maybe I'll take my dad to Devil's Golf Course to play a 18-hole one of these days...

I posted some photos here if you're interested.

No Luck in Vegas

2-night, 4-star hotel stay bid on priceline.com $230
3-day Rental car booked on hotwire.com $50
Gasoline $150
Mix of overpriced and cheap food $290
2 tickets for Ka by Cirque Du Soleil $300
Total money lost on gambling $20
My shopping spree $250
Paul's Speeding ticket $190
(OK, now you all know the punch line....)
Acting like we're spontaneous and wild..... Priceless!

You see, the fact that I'm able to recount every dollar I spent tells you much that there's nothing spontaneous about me, let alone wild. And while jotting the expenses down, I'm already sweating about being judged by my parents who already think I'm the spoiled daughter kidnapped by the greedy demon. My mum already disapproved of us losing $20 on gambling, she's going to faint when she sees this...

But that's the thing about Vegas nowadays. You still end up spending like crazy without hitting the slot machine. But this is what frustrates me: Finding a good restaurant in Vegas is like hitting the jackpot and so far I have had no such luck. I always start by spending a fortune, hoping fortune will finally return its favor to my stomach and taste buds. And then I always wind up in Chinatown, since at least the mediocre Chinese food won't cost me my already dwindling fortune.

But something beyond normal bad luck is worth mentioning about. It's the restaurant by the world famous chef (for those who watches Food Network anyway)--Mario Batali's Enotesa San Marco at the Venetian hotel. Since everything was sort of a last minute decision, we didn't make any reservation for food, figuring there are thousands of restaurants to choose from. Our first choice Bouchon (@ Venetian) was out of the question, Mario gave us only an one-hour wait, the shortest if at all.
And don't let Mario's khaki short, soul warming food on the TV fool you, the food was nothing like that. First it came a bag of burned cold bread, along with some kind of imported bread stick that tasted like its wrapping paper. The bread does not come with any butter or olive oil unless you ask for it specifically. We didn't, the bread is too burned to even bother.

Then the waiter who pronounces perfect Italian came with the menu written mostly in Italian. While the price on the menu seemed reasonable, everything is ala carte so each side cost $9 on top of the entre. I figured I'd survive without the $15 slices of cheese or the $9 fries. But obviously everyone around us couldn't resist to open their wallet and do what's expected in Vegas. We did order some drink and the wine was smooth and the Bloody Orange martini was heavenly, but it was also 50% more than what you expect to pay. Then our food came, I ordered Linguine Vongole, and Paul had duck breast. My Linguine came with 5 tiny tiny little baby vongole, and Paul's dish came with 5 pieces of bite-size duck breast and one tiny tiny little charcoaled carrot. Hmmm, maybe our waiter was extremely hungry, and the person in charge of the oven was obviously on vacation that day.

We spent about 5 minutes to finish the food and the rest of the evening feeling hungry and $100 poorer. What ever happened to cheap food in Vegas?

Taroko--The Park (Part II)

I've been actually struggling on this post about the single most significant highlight of my trip--the Taroko National Park. Because seriously, how do you really describe such a place? I think the same problem runs with anything nature has to offer, other than the "woo" and the "ahh", I'm sure my limited vocabulary is going to help run your imagination wild.

I think one of the few insights I got during this trip was everything is interesting if you are paying attention and know what you're looking at. This has our tour guide Mr. Chiu to thank for. I normally don't like to bundle up with a stranger for a day, but his attention to details made it so much more memorable. Well, that and the poisonous larva head he made me touch as well as all bunch of wild plants he made me eat, including this bloody red wild berry that made my tongue numb for the entire afternoon. I almost didn't survive to tell you all how great a tour guide he was.

Before entering the National Park, Mr Chiu, quite a butterfly geek himself, made a detour and stopped by a butterfly garden owned by Asian Cement next door (cement and butterfly? you got me). Now I'm usually not interested in insects and Paul is even less of a fan. But they have one of the largest butterflies here so if you're there, make a stop by, you might get some nice shots of these butterflies. I myself being quite the hopelessly slow photographer, was only able to capture the larva who was kind enough to let me touch its poisonous head...

Mr. Chiu also showed us all kinds of plants and ferns. I am the kind who never pay attention to such things so it's very different when someone could explain to me what these mosses and fungi were all about. See, once you get acquainted with them, they don't seem so scary no more. We became best buddies I even ate a few of them...

Very quickly on several places we went:

砂卡礑步道--Not so impressive I think, probably most popular because it is the most accessible track.
白楊步道--This is at the back end of Taroko, but definitely worth the time and effort to go to that one. There is a hidden fall at the back that made this place most renown in the international tour book, but unfortunatel it was closed for safety reasons. I'm not sure whether to advise you to bring a flashlight or not, as without it, it makes the flat track rather advanturous.
Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞 Jiuqiu Dong), Swallow's Mouth (燕子口)--these are also very nice walks, but may need another day to complete all aforementioned four.

Eternal Spring Shrine (長春祠 Changchun), Tiansiang (天祥)--Other sites we briefly stopped by.

One thing about the park. Now, this is what amazes me about National Parks in Taiwan--they are free of admission. Being quite the cheap Asian myself (what? I'm not supposed to say that?), I get furious when they try to charge you entrance fee to a public beach (in US) or an open hill (in China). But I understand it's a tough job to maintain a place like that. But Taroko, located at the east end of the Taiwan's Central Cross Island Highway, a highway with so many casualties during its construction, some portion hand carved by the veterans because it is formed with marble. But for reasons I cannot understand, they kept it free. Still the park has very few tourists much to my surprise,

and probably kept the trash away from this natural beauty.

Which got to another question. Throughout the journey, we hardly see any foreigners in Taiwan. Taroko definitely have the most foreigners we see in Taiwan. But it is nothing compared to other Asian countries. It is probably due to very bad marketing. Had we proudly stated we got the best collection of Chinese antiques, or the best exotic food that won't actually harm you, and not to mention Taiwanese people love~ the foreigners (except for the Chinese, but wait until they show you the money), it would have been a great adventure for someone with wants to see the most authentic Chinese culture. (OK, understand not all of us Taiwanese people felt like we're Chinese but I think they meant Communist Chinese). I almost hate to post this (not like anyone but my family and friends will read this) because quite selfishly, I was hoping that this place remains to be the hidden jewel that I can always go back to.