The Many Adventures of an Aussie Disney Honeymooner

[zanzibar138]

Oh, dear... I thought there were 7-11s on every corner there.

Pretty much. Just not at the airport!

Nice bathroom! Tub looks nice and big.

It was nice to have a separate tub and shower too. The tub was lovely for a deep soak!

Love the floor...
...but those columns are fantastic!

We also loved the grand sweeping staircases. It had a grand feeling about it while still being approachable enough for us to feel comfortable.

Oh, how you must have suffered.

I may have bought a few skirts

Interesting. But not overly surprising, I think?

Most places in SE Asia with any kind of religious significance have a similar policy. Many temples also require visitors to remove their shoes before entering. I haven't ever seen anywhere that enforces the policies, and unfortunately many visitors are a little disrespectful. I couldn't believe the number of women at Angkor Wat walking around the temples in shorts and tank tops!

And monkeys! Were they fairly well behaved?

They weren't terrible. With all the monkeys and people there, I only saw one incident where one of the monkeys grabbed onto someone's bag. It's always good practice to keep a close eye on your stuff wherever there are monkeys!

I'm seeing where the priorities lie...

When one is in SE Asia, one does expect to spend at least some time lying by a pool with a cocktail

I would've definitely had that. Loved the shave ice in Hawaii.

I'm not generally the biggest fan of Asian style desserts. There's a lot of exotic (for me) flavours like salty egg, various flavours of tea, durian etc. There's a lot of jelly type textures and everything seems to be covered in those little jelly things you get in bubble tea. The strawberry cheesecake flavour might have been worth a try though!

Really enjoying this TR!

I'm so glad to hear that! I was wondering if anyone would get much out of the non-Disney part of it!

 

[pkondz]

Pretty much. Just not at the airport!

Not helpful!

They need to move the airport.

It was nice to have a separate tub and shower too. The tub was lovely for a deep soak!

I may have bought a few skirts

I couldn't believe the number of women at Angkor Wat walking around the temples in shorts and tank tops!

You have to respect the culture of the place you're traveling.

There's a lot of exotic (for me) flavours like salty egg, various flavours of tea, durian etc. There's a lot of jelly type textures and everything seems to be covered in those little jelly things you get in bubble tea.

Okay, I can see that.

I'm so glad to hear that! I was wondering if anyone would get much out of the non-Disney part of it!

 

[zanzibar138]

Chapter 2: In which we go visiting and get into high places

2.4. Rapunzel for a day​

We started the day with another breakfast feast. This time I tried the freshly made roti bread with beef rendang and noodles. It was all delicious again. There were a number of staffed stations - the roti, pancakes/waffles, omelettes and even juice.



We decided to head to KL Tower after breakfast. It was a decent walk from the nearest monorail station anyway, so we decided to just walk the whole way.



There's a little shuttle from the entrance that runs up the hill to the tower, but Ben was impatient and thought it would be quicker to just walk. We were passed by the shuttle about halfway up lol! It wasn't a long walk, but we were feeling the heat and humidity going up that hill!



We arrived to a fairly long line and joined it, only to find that we needed to get our tickets first, and that was just the security line to go up the tower. Just as we were figuring all this out, one of the staff came over to help us, and offered us a special deal to have lunch at their revolving restaurant. We did some quick sums in our head and it seemed worth it, so we went with him to get our tickets. Turned out that we were able to skip the security line too, which made it all the more worthwhile!

We were escorted to the revolving restaurant, seated at a table on the inside (it was extra cost for a window table) and handed an extensive cocktail menu.



After we'd ordered drinks, we were directed to the extensive buffet.



We didn't really need a buffet lunch after a buffet breakfast, but we'd gotten a pretty good deal, so we weren't concerned about getting the best value out of it. We found a couple of appetizing looking dishes and settled in to enjoy the views from the comfort of our air-conditioned seating while the restaurant did the work for us!



As we were sitting there enjoying our meal, a well-dressed couple (we guessed in their early 30's) arrived and were seated at the window table. We were astounded when the woman took out an ipad and set it up on the table, proceeding to watch a movie with the sound on! After they ordered drinks, they both went up to the buffet and came back with 2 fully loaded plates each. They ate maybe half of what they had brought back, the woman continuing to watch her movie and the man just eating quietly. When they got their drinks, they got up to find the window with the best view (with the Petronas Towers), and the man took about a million photos of the woman posing with her drink. Then he went back to his seat to finish his drink, and she spent another 5 minutes at the window on her own taking selfies with her drink. Then they left. They were there for about half an hour in total. It was one of the most perplexing things I've ever seen!

In the meantime, we'd enjoyed a selection of desserts and were just about ready to move on too. We paid for our drinks and headed up to the open-air observation deck. We were surprised to see that we could only access one side of the deck, and there really wasn't much to it. The view was also somewhat blocked by the very solid balustrade. We felt pretty pleased that we'd paid the bit extra for the lunch experience.



I mentioned before that the KL Tower was at the top of a hill. The hill itself is made up of a large rainforest reserve called Eko Park, featuring a canopy walk. I was keen to do some exploring. Ben was less enthusiastic but was willing to tag along for the canopy walk. Unfortunately (or perhaps luckily for Ben), we hadn't realised entrance was cash only, and we only had enough cash for 1. Ben very happily volunteered to sit in the shade while I explored the park. So I paid my entrance fee and headed for the canopy walk.



The canopy walk was made up of several suspension bridges connected by large towers.



It was a fun little walk, but I did realise as I went that I had gone down a lot of stairs, and was feeling nervous about getting back up to the entry level! It was definitely a hike back up to the top, but I wasn't done yet. There were a couple of other points of interest I wanted to check out - specifically a bamboo grove and something else I can't remember. I took one of the little trails from the entrance point, and found myself going steeply downhill again. It was only when I was nearly at the bottom that I realised I was going in the opposite direction to what I should have been, and soon found myself coming out at...

The bottom of the canopy walk again

I dutifully traipsed back up to the top of the hill again. And took the other little trail to the left. This one was also rather hilly, but did eventually lead to the bamboo grove, which was a disappointing little patch of bamboo with a poorly maintained picnic table in front of it. The trail got more and more... ahem... rustic.



You may have noticed I was wearing a white maxi skirt and rope sandals that day... not exactly the right choice for hiking rustic forest trails!

Eventually I made it back to a more civilised looking trail, which turned into a bit of boardwalk, which turned into the paved trail leading back up to the entrance point. It had been much more of an adventure than I'd expected, and I arrived a hot sweaty mess, very keen to head back to the hotel for a shower and change of clothes.

We re-traced our steps back down the hill from the tower, and to the nearest monorail station. It only saved us 10 minutes of walking, but by that time I was willing to take what I could get! Back at the hotel, we were both pleased to freshen up for our next activity.

Continued in next post...

 

[zanzibar138]

After freshening up, we headed back out on the train, this time to KLCC (KL City Centre). I had booked us tickets for the Petronas Towers in advance. Unfortunately, with the chaos of wedding and Disney planning, I'd kind of forgotten about this one, and missed out on the sunset timeslot, but managed to get in just before sunset instead.

At the base of the towers is a huge shopping centre and a massive park. We were a little early, so we spent a bit of time in the shopping centre, which had some very impressive CNY decorations.



We mostly filled in time at a coffee shop, but not before I picked up these little beauties!



With about half an hour to go, we thought we'd better make a move, as we didn't really know how to get to the entrance or anything. Lucky we'd left plenty of time, as it did take a bit of finding!



Visitors are advised to arrive 15 minutes in advance, and we arrived exactly then. We were waved straight into the line to go up the tower and given a coloured sticker.

We waited in line for a while, and when there was a little group of us (about 8 I think), we were taken through. It was a very involved process. First we were taken around the corner and up a small escalator. Then we were taken through the corporate lobby of the building, where there were no photos allowed. Then we were taken through a security screening point and around the corner to the lift lobby.

The first lift took us to the bridge between the two towers. From there we had amazing views of the park and surrounding buildings.



There were no other groups there when we arrived, and being such a small group, we felt like we had the place to ourselves.



We had been given 10 minutes I think, but also told that our colour group would be called when our time was up. With a few minutes to go, another much larger group arrived (probably double the size of ours). I was pretty chuffed that we got the 'VIP' experience!

We were led around the corner to another lift lobby, and taken up to the top floor (Level 86). Again, we were given a timeframe (15 or maybe 20 minutes), and told to listen out for our colour to be called. Again, there were no other groups there when we arrived, and so we had lots of room to spread out. There were a few interactive exhibits too that were fun to check out.





When our time was up, we were gathered together and taken down to Level 83, where there was a coffee cart, gift shop and some information videos. There was no time limit there, so we took our time while the city started to light up around us.



When we were ready, we headed back to the lift lobby. Once a small group had gathered, we were taken back down. We had to change lifts at the bridge again, but weren't given a chance to get more photos or anything.

Back at the bottom, we checked out KLCC park, where there was a large lake with coloured fountains doing a little dance at the base of the towers, which were lit up in red for CNY.



We found a Dome (Australian cafe chain that has made its way to SE Asia) overlooking the water, where we could enjoy a final dinner and drinks with a view of the fountains. While we were eating, there was an even an actual fountain show that came on!



And with that, we headed back to the hotel for our final night in KL.

 

[pkondz]

This time I tried the freshly made roti bread with beef rendang and noodles. It was all delicious again.

Sounds delicious.

The chef's hat...
Now, he could very well be a full-fledged chef, (I have no way of knowing) but I always wonder if it's just some guy who they hired last week off the street. "Just pour the batter out of the tube and flip em' over after a minute. Oh... and wear this hat."

It was a decent walk from the nearest monorail station anyway, so we decided to just walk the whole way.

Define "decent".
I've had people tell me a long walk is 200m, and others tell me a short walk is 5k.

There's a little shuttle from the entrance that runs up the hill to the tower, but Ben was impatient and thought it would be quicker to just walk.

I hate when that happens!

But love it when you guess right and beat the shuttle (or whatever).

We arrived to a fairly long line and joined it, only to find that we needed to get our tickets first, and that was just the security line to go up the tower. Just as we were figuring all this out, one of the staff came over to help us, and offered us a special deal to have lunch at their revolving restaurant. We did some quick sums in our head and it seemed worth it, so we went with him to get our tickets. Turned out that we were able to skip the security line too, which made it all the more worthwhile!

Good call!

handed an extensive cocktail menu.

directed to the extensive buffet.

Extensive sounds expensive.

We found a couple of appetizing looking dishes and settled in to enjoy the views from the comfort of our air-conditioned seating while the restaurant did the work for us!

Niice.
We had a revolving restaurant here in town and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Unfortunately, a new restaurant replaced the one with the nice buffet and the food was sub-par and now it's closed. Hopefully they'll find a new owner soon.

We were astounded when the woman took out an ipad and set it up on the table, proceeding to watch a movie with the sound on!

How rude! Was she the only person in the restaurant? (Obviously not, but apparently she thought so.)

Just... wow.

They ate maybe half of what they had brought back

the woman continuing to watch her movie and the man just eating quietly.

I presume she has other... qualities... which made him stay with her.

the man took about a million photos of the woman posing with her drink.

Give me a break... brother.

We were surprised to see that we could only access one side of the deck, and there really wasn't much to it. The view was also somewhat blocked by the very solid balustrade. We felt pretty pleased that we'd paid the bit extra for the lunch experience.

Sounds like that call to do the restaurant was even better than you'd first thought.

as cash only, and we only had enough cash for 1. Ben very happily volunteered to sit in the shade while I explored the park.

Oh, poor Ben. How sad he must have been. Forced to relax in comfort while you hiked up and down and up and down and up and...

I did realise as I went that I had gone down a lot of stairs,

There were a couple of other points of interest I wanted to check out - specifically a bamboo grove and something else I can't remember.

Must have been quite memorable.

I took one of the little trails from the entrance point, and found myself going steeply downhill again. It was only when I was nearly at the bottom that I realised I was going in the opposite direction to what I should have been, and soon found myself coming out at...

The bottom of the canopy walk again

I arrived a hot sweaty mess

Meanwhile, Ben is sitting with a relaxed smile on his face...

I had booked us tickets for the Petronas Towers

Cool!!!

which had some very impressive CNY decorations.

Took me an embarrassingly long time to remember what "CNY" stood for.

We mostly filled in time at a coffee shop, but not before I picked up these little beauties!

Betting you're gonna get some compliments on those.

The first lift took us to the bridge between the two towers. From there we had amazing views of the park and surrounding buildings.

Was wondering if you would go to the bridge or the top... it's both!

I see you've changed your footwear.

I was pretty chuffed that we got the 'VIP' experience!

Love that word "chuffed". We don't use it on this continent.

We were led around the corner to another lift lobby, and taken up to the top floor (Level 86).

How did the view compare to the earlier one in the restaurant?

Love this shot.

(And betting Ben didn't have to take a million pictures to get it. )

So cool with the other tower right there.

Great shot!

While we were eating, there was an even an actual fountain show that came on!

Unexpected entertainment is the best.

 

[zanzibar138]

Now, he could very well be a full-fledged chef, (I have no way of knowing) but I always wonder if it's just some guy who they hired last week off the street.

I wouldn't necessarily expect any of them to be any more qualified than their waitstaff. Although I did see a couple of people wandering around who definitely had a 'head chef' look about them.

Define "decent".

Google Maps tells me it was about a 15 minute walk from the monorail station to the entrance area, and then 5 or so more minutes up the hill. Normally that length of walk wouldn't phase me, but in the SE Asian heat and humidity it was slightly uncomfortable.

Extensive sounds expensive.

Haha obviously I do not have an extensive vocabulary

We had a revolving restaurant here in town and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Unfortunately, a new restaurant replaced the one with the nice buffet and the food was sub-par and now it's closed. Hopefully they'll find a new owner soon.

We have a revolving restaurant in Perth too. It's more of a high-end restaurant and is definitely getting built in now (it's only Level 33). We enjoyed the KL experience much more. Hopefully your local one gets revamped!

I presume she has other... qualities... which made him stay with her.

Haha we were wondering that too

Oh, poor Ben. How sad he must have been. Forced to relax in comfort while you hiked up and down and up and down and up and...

Took me an embarrassingly long time to remember what "CNY" stood for.

Oops! I had been typing out 'Lunar New Year' as I understand it's not such a big thing over there, but now I've slipped I may as well stick with it!

I see you've changed your footwear.

I had to change everything lol!

Love that word "chuffed". We don't use it on this continent.

You don't say 'chuffed'? Did not realise that!

How did the view compare to the earlier one in the restaurant?

Honestly the views were quite similar, which is why I was aiming to do them at different times of day. The tower was a little higher being on a hill, and obviously the Petronas Towers were part of the view from there. I did enjoy at the Petronas Towers having the close up view of the other tower, and I think the building itself has more of a novelty factor having been used for movies etc.

Love this shot.
So cool with the other tower right there.
Great shot!

Thank you! I was pretty happy with some of those shots

 

[zanzibar138]

Chapter 2: In which we go visiting and get into high places

2.5. The trip across the pond​

We were excited to be beginning the next chapter of our trip today, starting with about a 4.5 hour flight to Taipei before the 11.5 hour onward flight to Ontario. With such a long flight, we had splurged on business class, again using Qantas points. In fact, this flight was the reason we went via KL. Our arrival at Ontario Airport caused much confusion with our friends and family, who didn't realise that Ontario is also a suburb of LA, and not just a city in Canada. Anyway, I digress.



With a scheduled departure time of 2:35pm, we had plenty of time to enjoy another leisurely breakfast and pack the last of our things before heading to the airport. On our way out, we took a few last photos around the hotel.





We decided to keep things simple and just take a Grab to the airport. The hotel concierge insisted on helping us to hail one via the app, and made sure we booked a slightly bigger one this time around! He then escorted us to the waiting area and made sure there was someone there to help us with our luggage. We enjoyed the nearly hour-long ride to the airport, chatting with the Grab driver about life in KL.

At the airport, we found the check-in desk for China Airlines. We were slightly early, but we just stood around for 10 minutes waiting. Upon checking in, we were advised that the flight was going to be delayed, but reassured that it wouldn't impact our connection in Taipei. And with that, we headed on through. In most of the larger Asian airports, they do a quick ID check and sometimes a minimal security screening to get through to the main area, and then there is a more thorough check as you are entering the gate lounge.

We had plenty of time to go to the lounge first of course. China Airlines don't have their own lounge in KL, so we were directed to the third party Plaza Premium Lounge. It seems this lounge is more of a pay for entry version, and people have to pay extra for drinks. We were given stamps for free drinks at the bar. We were heading through checking it out and looking for somewhere comfy to sit when we noticed someone running up behind us. We had noticed a little roped off section to the side when we first walked in. Apparently that was where we were supposed to go. The roped off section had its own small selection of hot food, cakes and soft drinks.



Plus there was a little section of more private seating.



We still needed to go out to the main area for the bar and the bathrooms, and they also had a bigger selection of food and soft drinks out there, including a noodle bar. I was very disappointed to find our stamp did not entitle us to cocktails at the bar, only wine and beer.



When our flight was called, we made our way down to the gate lounge and through the screening for boarding. We turned left again and headed to our cushy business class seats, where we were given hot towels and welcome drinks. There was even more space than with Malaysia Airlines, with lots of little compartments for our stuff, and we were once again provided with a comfy blanket, pillow and noise cancelling headphones.



This was our favourite flight of the entire trip. It was only a small business class cabin, so the service was great with very attentive cabin staff, the seats were super comfy, food and drinks delicious, and the flight was super smooth. We didn't bother to sleep on this flight, saving that for the next flight!



Coming into Taipei, a small group of us were gathered who were booked on the connecting flight to Ontario. We were let off the plane first, and given stickers that would give us priority access through everything else. It was a LONG walk to get to the other gate! We pretty much power-walked straight through, and even with priority security screening, made it just in time for boarding to start. I was a little sad that we hadn't got to experience the China Airlines lounge in their home airport, which I'm sure would have been great!

It was a much larger plane for the next flight, with a much larger business class cabin. We were right in the back of the business class cabin, which meant we actually still turned right when boarding. It certainly wasn't as much of a premium experience. I couldn't get the overhead locker open, and with the constant stream of people walking through the aisle to board, wasn't really able to get any help with it. We were eventually given welcome hot towels and welcome drinks, but it was rushed and the cabin staff had to squeeze in to let people pass in the aisle. The seats were still comfy and luxurious though, and for the longer flight we were also provided with amenities packs.





The food was a little fancier on this flight... a little too fancy for our taste and we found ourselves tempted to ask for the economy meal lol! I did enjoy my steak though and we got a little fruit and cheese platter with dessert which was nice.

After dinner and a movie, we reclined our seats into the sleeping position and settled in for a few hours of shut-eye. It was actually quite comfortable for sleeping, although we did keep hitting little pockets of bumpiness which was a little unsettling. We woke up to enjoy breakfast upon our approach to Ontario.

We seemed to approach land closer up towards San Francisco, and then come down between the mountain ranges. LA was still experiencing extreme wind (although not as extreme as it had been in the lead up), and as soon as we hit land, we copped it. All the way from the San Francisco area to seconds from landing, the plane was rocking wildly from side to side, with the occasional vertical drop too. My grip on the armrests was getting tighter and tighter, and I was wondering if the couple of Kwells I had taken with breakfast would be enough to keep my breakfast down! The landing itself was actually very smooth, and the relief was so intense that I actually burst into tears. (Those who read my PTR may remember that I am not a good flyer!).

Continued in next post...

 

[zanzibar138]

We landed just on sunset, and I was surprised to see that we would be walking across the tarmac to a teeny tiny airport building. Even though we were within the first few people off the plane, there was a long wait to get through immigration. They only had 1 person servicing foreign arrivals, and each person seemed to be taking such a long time! At least by the time we got through, our luggage was already out.

There didn't seem to be any signage, and we really had no idea where the rental car pickup was or how to get to it. We walked outside, thinking there might be signage out there or we might at least be able to see some sort of sign of which direction to take. Nothing. The most we saw was a bus that seemed to be for the carparks, so we asked and the driver very kindly offered to take us to the rental cars. Along the way, we passed a couple of more major looking terminals - much more like what I was expecting to fly into! Not sure how a major international flight gets to land at some remote sub-terminal lol!

Anyway, the people at the rental car counter were lovely, and we picked out a nice looking RAV 4 for our travels. We set up my phone for directions, took a deep breath, and started driving! It was dark by then and I had absolutely no idea where we were or where we were going, but I managed to get us to the hotel, the Azure Hotel & Suites, in one piece, even managing to remain on the correct side of the road.





We thought the subtle ski lodge type theming was a bit strange for a hotel in LA, and the rooms have definitely seen better days, but it had been handy to get to and was a comfortable place to sleep for the night.



After settling in, we met up with A (Ben's mate), and went for a wander to find some dinner. We ended up at a local Wendy's and both ordered regular combos, forgetting just how big US serving sizes are (the fries and drink were larger than a 'large' serving in Australia!). (Photo included for any non-Americans following!). We decided that we would consider sharing meals going forward.



After wandering back to the hotel, we said goodnight to A and retired to our rooms, hoping to get a decent sleep in preparation for our big drive the next day!

 

[Daphne0890]

Really loving your trip report! Curious about the next part

 

[pkondz]

I wouldn't necessarily expect any of them to be any more qualified than their waitstaff. Although I did see a couple of people wandering around who definitely had a 'head chef' look about them.

That makes sense.

Google Maps tells me it was about a 15 minute walk from the monorail station to the entrance area, and then 5 or so more minutes up the hill. Normally that length of walk wouldn't phase me, but in the SE Asian heat and humidity it was slightly uncomfortable.

Not too long, but… yes, heat & humidity…

Haha obviously I do not have an extensive vocabulary

Haha we were wondering that too

I had to change everything lol!

You don't say 'chuffed'? Did not realise that!

Nope!

Honestly the views were quite similar, which is why I was aiming to do them at different times of day. The tower was a little higher being on a hill, and obviously the Petronas Towers were part of the view from there. I did enjoy at the Petronas Towers having the close up view of the other tower, and I think the building itself has more of a novelty factor having been used for movies etc.

Didn’t think the tower would be higher. Huh!

 

[Steppesister]

Hooo boy! I have a LOT to catch up on!! I will try to binge read it tomorrow, but I'm subbed in now and ready to roll.

 

[zanzibar138]

Really loving your trip report! Curious about the next part

Welcome aboard

Hopefully from here it will be a little more relevant to most readers!

Hooo boy! I have a LOT to catch up on!! I will try to binge read it tomorrow, but I'm subbed in now and ready to roll.

Glad to see you made it Yep, I got a bit of a head start! Trying to plough through as much as I can before I have to get back to work.

 

[zanzibar138]

Chapter 3: In which we go exploring and nearly catch a wild donkey
3.1. On the open road

We woke bright and early to get on the road at a decent hour. We met A for our included breakfast at the hotel. Wasn't too bad for a motel type breakfast. From memory I think they had bacon and scrambled eggs as well as the usual pastries and cereals.

Ben was still a little nervous about driving, and we hadn't been able to add A as a driver without having him there, so I got back in the driver's seat for today's big drive. Ben took on photography duty.



It was very windy but clear skies as we set off from the hotel and basically headed straight into the mountains, so we decided to stick with Plan A of driving into Death Valley via the Trona Pinnacles and the mountain pass. I was getting a little stressed trying to keep within my lane (driving from the other side of the car), get used to thinking in miles instead of kilometres, avoid the other (quite heavy) traffic, not get stuck in an exit lane, AND not get blown off the road lol! But being a major freeway, at least I didn't have to worry about accidentally driving on the wrong side and after a while, I began to feel a little more comfortable with it all.



We were intrigued by the changing landscape as we drove over mountain passes, through outer suburbs, along long flat stretches and through little towns.



The Trona Pinnacles was our first scheduled stop, and we arrived there a bit before lunch time. Unfortunately the main road in was closed, and there was a detour in place. We all decided it wasn't worth continuing without knowing how much longer the detour would take, as we were all getting pretty keen to find somewhere for a bit of food and a rest. So sadly, I just took a photo of the Pinnacles from the main entrance point off the main road, and we continued on.



Ben decided he was happy enough to have a go at driving now that we were out of the city, and I enjoyed the break. I didn't really have any specific lunch destination in mind, but I knew that there was food available just up the road in Trona, so we carried on up that way and stopped at a little petrol station/general store. There was a little picnic table on the veranda where we could enjoy our fried chicken.





We'd stopped for long enough that my phone had gone into auto shut down mode. Which was a bit of a problem as that's where our map was! However, I was comfortable with the general direction of where we were heading, and there really weren't that many roads that we could accidentally take, so we carried on following the main road towards Death Valley. Ben was keen to keep driving, so I took over photography duty.



Driving along a long stretch of straight road, we saw a sign coming up with a donkey statue, so we slowed down to have a look and see if it was anything of interest.

Turned out the donkey wasn't a statue And it also had a friend.



When we stopped to take photos, they came wandering up to the car, very interested in us and keen for pats!



Ben was interested in seeing what the ghost town was, but after driving for several minutes down a very corrugated gravel road, we realised it was going to quite a lengthy detour and decided to just keep going.

I made Ben stop for photos at the national park sign.



Continued in next post...

 

[zanzibar138]

Just after the national park sign, we turned onto the road that would lead us over the mountain pass.



I could not believe how high we climbed in such a short amount of time! We stopped in a couple of places for photos. Sadly, this was one of those cases where the best views were behind us.



In what seemed like just a few minutes, we had reached Towne Pass at 4956 feet. There was no lookout point or anything, just a small sign marking the spot, which I only managed to get a blurry photo of as we drove past.

We very quickly dropped altitude again, and ended up in another valley. Soon, we saw a carpark coming up and realised it was for the Mesquite Sand Dunes. This hadn't really been somewhere I'd been that interested in, but the guys were keen and we were running quite ahead of time, so we decided to check it out.



None of my photos really show it, but the vast expanse of sand dunes was very impressive. We didn't venture far out, but I was glad we stopped for a quick look. We also took the opportunity to make use of the visitor amenities!

As we kept driving, the landscape was getting more and more barren, and there were large mountains of such varying textures and colours. Some looked like large piles of sand. Some had high ridges and deep valleys. Some had prominent layers of different colours. It was all fascinating.



After a long day of driving, we finally made it to our hotel for the night, The Ranch at Death Valley.



It was a sprawling hotel, and our rooms were right at the back of the complex in buildings 8 and 9. We made our way through the maze of internal roads and found a handy parking spot right between the 2 buildings.



We were in an upstairs room, and there didn't seem to be a lift, so we struggled up the stairs with our luggage and into our basic but nice room.



It did come with a view of the golf course.



And a special treat. The card basically just said 'welcome' and didn't mention anything about our honeymoon, but we assume that's what it was for since A didn't get one.



Time was marching on, and we knew the sun would be setting pretty early, so we basically just dropped our luggage and headed straight out again for our sunset activity.

To be continued...

 

[pkondz]

a 4.5 hour flight to Taipei before the 11.5 hour onward flight to Ontario.

Long day!

Our arrival at Ontario Airport caused much confusion with our friends and family, who didn't realise that Ontario is also a suburb of LA, and not just a city in Canada.

Well, I'm from Canada and I've had people confused about that too!

Were the banisters draped like that as part of LNY decorations?

We decided to keep things simple and just take a Grab to the airport. The hotel concierge insisted on helping us to hail one via the app, and made sure we booked a slightly bigger one this time around!

we were advised that the flight was going to be delayed, but reassured that it wouldn't impact our connection in Taipei.

Bet that was a quick little roller coaster of emotions, there.

In most of the larger Asian airports, they do a quick ID check and sometimes a minimal security screening to get through to the main area, and then there is a more thorough check as you are entering the gate lounge.

Interesting. Wonder if that's more efficient? Spreading it out more, maybe?

We were heading through checking it out and looking for somewhere comfy to sit when we noticed someone running up behind us. We had noticed a little roped off section to the side when we first walked in. Apparently that was where we were supposed to go. The roped off section had its own small selection of hot food, cakes and soft drinks.

How dare you mingle amongst the peons???

I was very disappointed to find our stamp did not entitle us to cocktails at the bar, only wine and beer.

Shoot. I'd be disappointed to.
Then again... I'd probably just want a soft drink.

We turned left again and headed to our cushy business class seats

Well la dee da!

we were once again provided with a comfy blanket, pillow and noise cancelling headphones.

Such nice perks.

Quite the spread!

We were let off the plane first, and given stickers that would give us priority access through everything else

That's great! I sure could've used something like that on many an occasion.

So... you don't get to keep the headphones, I presume?
I'm pretty sure of the answer, but want to confirm.

The food was a little fancier on this flight... a little too fancy for our taste and we found ourselves tempted to ask for the economy meal lol!

and as soon as we hit land, we copped it.

What does this mean? "Copped" used in a sentence would be... hmmm... It's really fallen out of use, but it used to be used like this:
"I was on the subway and some creep copped a feel when the lights went out!"

The landing itself was actually very smooth, and the relief was so intense that I actually burst into tears.

At least by the time we got through, our luggage was already out.

Silver lining!

Along the way, we passed a couple of more major looking terminals - much more like what I was expecting to fly into! Not sure how a major international flight gets to land at some remote sub-terminal lol!

Huh. That is odd. I've never been there, but assumed from your previous comments that there was only the one, small terminal. Hmm...

took a deep breath, and started driving!

It wasn't your first time driving on the other side of the road, was it?

It was dark by then and I had absolutely no idea where we were or where we were going,

Oh dear!

We thought the subtle ski lodge type theming was a bit strange for a hotel in LA,

Kinda... yeah. Unless there's some nearby mountains with skiing?

We ended up at a local Wendy's and both ordered regular combos, forgetting just how big US serving sizes are (the fries and drink were larger than a 'large' serving in Australia!). (Photo included for any non-Americans following!).

Ah yes. I've heard that this is something that people from outside North America are often shocked at.

One of the funniest thing I've ever seen was at a burger joint that was known for its massive burgers (much, much bigger than what you'd get at a Wendy's.) A couple brought in a young lady who I think might have been a foreign-exchange student from Japan. The server set her tray down in front of her. The burger was roughly the size of her head. She let out this little tiny squeak of "oh!". The sound was hilarious and it took everything I had not to burst out laughing. I didn't see how much she ate. I assume maybe 1/10th of it.

 

[pkondz]

We woke bright and early to get on the road at a decent hour.

How was the jet-lag?

Wasn't too bad for a motel type breakfast. From memory I think they had bacon and scrambled eggs as well as the usual pastries and cereals.

That sounds pretty typical.
Usually the scrambled eggs are... well... functional.

Fair distance.

I was getting a little stressed trying to keep within my lane (driving from the other side of the car),

I bet! Not sure I'd feel any differently.

get used to thinking in miles instead of kilometres,

I mean... you're driving 100km/hr and it's going to take an hour to go 100km...
But miles?? What do you mean it's going to take about an hour and a half to go 100 miles??
Not only that, but you see a sign saying <destination> 7km, you know you're going to be there really soon. You see a sign saying <destination> 7 miles... it takes forever to get there!

How did this compare to Australia? I mean... both places have vast open areas...

The Trona Pinnacles was our first scheduled stop, and we arrived there a bit before lunch time. Unfortunately the main road in was closed, and there was a detour in place. We all decided it wasn't worth continuing without knowing how much longer the detour would take, as we were all getting pretty keen to find somewhere for a bit of food and a rest. So sadly, I just took a photo of the Pinnacles from the main entrance point off the main road, and we continued on.

Well, shoot! Already, you've had to abandon a planned stop. Hopefully there won't be too many more of those.

a little petrol station/general store. There was a little picnic table on the veranda where we could enjoy our fried chicken.

I gotta know... how was gas station fried chicken?
The thought comes to mind that they'd have plenty of oil to fry it in!

We'd stopped for long enough that my phone had gone into auto shut down mode. Which was a bit of a problem as that's where our map was!

Oh, I get this. I've driven in the US and had the same issue. It's a bit unnerving.

Turned out the donkey wasn't a statue And it also had a friend.

Oh, look! It's the famous donkey statue sign!

When we stopped to take photos, they came wandering up to the car, very interested in us and keen for pats!

And probably looking for treats!

I made Ben stop for photos at the national park sign.

This is a must!

Long pants and long-sleeved shirt... Obviously not overly hot. Remember what the temp was?

Great shot!

As we kept driving, the landscape was getting more and more barren, and there were large mountains of such varying textures and colours. Some looked like large piles of sand. Some had high ridges and deep valleys. Some had prominent layers of different colours. It was all fascinating.

Sounds like a really nice drive.

We were in an upstairs room, and there didn't seem to be a lift, so we struggled up the stairs with our luggage

 

[zanzibar138]

Long day!

You ain't seen nothin' yet

Were the banisters draped like that as part of LNY decorations?

Got it in one

Interesting. Wonder if that's more efficient? Spreading it out more, maybe?

Yeah, we can't figure out why they do it that way either. It certainly doesn't seem to be more efficient from a passenger perspective... We much prefer to get all the formalities out of the way first!

How dare you mingle amongst the peons???

So... you don't get to keep the headphones, I presume?

Sadly not. Although if we did, we would now have half a dozen pairs of noise cancelling headphones each lol!

What does this mean? "Copped" used in a sentence would be... hmmm... It's really fallen out of use, but it used to be used like this:
"I was on the subway and some creep copped a feel when the lights went out!"

Haha yes, it does get used that way over here too. In this context, it's more like 'was heavily impacted by'. Another example might be something like 'the coastal area copped the full force of the storm'.

Huh. That is odd. I've never been there, but assumed from your previous comments that there was only the one, small terminal. Hmm...

That's what I was expecting too! Turned out to be 2 modern small-ish terminals quite close together (not dissimilar to Perth airport), and one tin shed way out the back

It wasn't your first time driving on the other side of the road, was it?

No, I've driven in the US before. Not since 2015 though so it's been a while!

One of the funniest thing I've ever seen was at a burger joint that was known for its massive burgers (much, much bigger than what you'd get at a Wendy's.) A couple brought in a young lady who I think might have been a foreign-exchange student from Japan. The server set her tray down in front of her. The burger was roughly the size of her head. She let out this little tiny squeak of "oh!". The sound was hilarious and it took everything I had not to burst out laughing. I didn't see how much she ate. I assume maybe 1/10th of it.

How was the jet-lag?

Amazingly, I don't really seem to get that affected by jetlag. Ben seemed to do ok too, although he had some trouble falling asleep I think.

Usually the scrambled eggs are... well... functional.

Accurate.

mean... you're driving 100km/hr and it's going to take an hour to go 100km...
But miles?? What do you mean it's going to take about an hour and a half to go 100 miles??
Not only that, but you see a sign saying <destination> 7km, you know you're going to be there really soon. You see a sign saying <destination> 7 miles... it takes forever to get there!

Or, 35mph feels really fast! Because you're expecting 35kph and it's actually closer to 50kph.

How did this compare to Australia? I mean... both places have vast open areas...

Honestly, this photo could have almost been from Australia, except for the Joshua Tree lol!

The biggest difference is probably the mountains. Australia is generally pretty flat, with very few areas that would actually be considered mountainous (as opposed to hilly). There seem to be mountain ranges everywhere in the US! The vegetation is also quite different of course. In the US it seems to be very cactus/succulent based in the desert. Australia doesn't have any native cacti, and very few native succulents.

Well, shoot! Already, you've had to abandon a planned stop. Hopefully there won't be too many more of those.

No, pretty much everything else went to plan!

I gotta know... how was gas station fried chicken?

We didn't think it was too bad, but we have pretty average fried chicken in Australia so it's probably not a high bar.

Long pants and long-sleeved shirt... Obviously not overly hot. Remember what the temp was?

No, definitely not hot. Around Death Valley I think the maximums were around 16°C. Felt warmer though in the full sun.

 

[zanzibar138]

We'd just dropped our luggage off to our room and were headed out for our next adventure. The first thing we had to do was buy our park pass, so we headed to the information centre that was a few metres up the road. I had planned to go to Zabriskie Point for sunset, but we were earlier than I'd expected, and the weather was good, so I enquired how long it would take us to get to Dante's View. Turned out if we got going straight away, we could still just make it! The guys were keen, so we headed off. Ben was getting a bit tired, so I drove.

The road rose steadily from the hotel, somehow gaining 5,575 ft (or 1,699 m) of elevation in the 45 minute drive. It was only the last quarter mile when the road starting zigging and zagging with a 13% incline grade. We made it by about 4:30pm, just in time to see the sun disappear!







Ben was keen to check out the view from slightly higher up, so we hit the trail.



We didn't go very far, acutely aware that once the sun was gone it would be very very dark!



I also loved the view behind us, where the last of the sun was still lighting up the tops of the mountains.





I'd been in too much of a rush to catch the sunset when we arrived, I hadn't even bothered to go to the official lookout point yet lol! We did that before we left and found a map to get our bearings.



There wasn't much light left by that stage, so we headed back to the hotel. Showing just how much of a gradual incline there was along that road, I pretty much did not need to use the accelerator for the entire drive back to the hotel.

There wasn't really much to choose from for dinner, and we were all happy to try the saloon style restaurant at the hotel. It was actually quite good, if a little expensive (which we expected).



After dinner, A treated us to milkshakes at the ice-creamery (also at the hotel).



Then we headed back to our rooms, with a plan to meet bright and early in the morning for the next day of adventure.

 

[zanzibar138]

Chapter 3: In which we go exploring and nearly catch a wild donkey

3.2. Feeling a bit salty​

There was no breakfast included with the Death Valley hotel, and not a lot to choose from. We chose the buffet option. It wasn't cheap, and not the best buffet I've seen either, but there was a decent variety of items to choose from, and we left feeling satiated. While Ben went to get the car, I took a few photos around the little garden square thing.



The 20 minute drive to Badwater Basin felt very desolate and bare. It was along here somewhere that Ben announced that we were getting a little low on petrol, which meant that we would have to backtrack to the hotel before leaving Death Valley. I had been planning to just keep going after our morning of sightseeing, but backtracking would only add an extra 20-30 minutes and we all agreed that it would be well worth the effort to not get caught short on those isolated roads! Just a shame no one noticed that we would need petrol before we set off for the day.



Badwater Basin is famous at the lowest point in North America, at 282 ft (or 85.5 m) below sea level.



The small white sign in the cliff (almost directly above Ben's head) marks sea level.



Badwater Basin is also known for its extensive salt flats (which is what all the white is in the above photos). You can pretty much wander out as far as you want to for photos, and we saw one group of people nearly on the other side of the valley! We went out just far enough to take in the vastness of the salt flats, and took a few photos.





Ben had been hoping to see clearly defined ridges in the salt, like this photo borrowed from National Geographic.



What we saw was a little more wishy-washy.



Once we'd had enough, we headed back to the car to continue on our way.

Continued in next post...

 

[zanzibar138]

I realised I forgot to do an overview photo in the previous post. This was our route for the day.



After Badwater Basin, we headed back towards the hotel, stopping at the other sights along the way. The next one was the Natural Bridge, which was a surprisingly long way up a bumpy old dirt road with a surprisingly steep incline in places. We were pleased to have the RAV!



The Natural Bridge was only about a 10 minute walk along the trail. It was only about a third of the way along, and we just didn't have time to do the whole trail. Nonetheless, we all enjoyed the short walk through the canyon and the impressive Natural Bridge formation.







We also enjoyed the views over the valley coming back down the trail.



I'd read mixed reviews about the Devil's Golf Course, apparently named after someone's exclamation that only the devil would attempt to play golf on the rough terrain. Seems like a weird analogy for a salt flat in a desert but it wasn't far off the main road and looked like a fascinating place, so I directed us there next. Again, it was down a bumpy old dirt road, but not as long or steep as the one we'd just driven!

I was glad we'd made the small effort. There wasn't much to it - no hiking trails or anything, but you could (carefully) walk out among the salt formations.



Ben was also happy to see some 'hexagons' on the way in/out.



Continued in next post...