Day 21 (26/5) - Yosemite
Tong Wei liked to change in the closet. It was very strange. Trying to discover the appeal of doing so, I tried changing in the closet too. It was quite cramped but I managed to do it - the main problem was the coat hanger which was in danger of taking out my eye if I was too reckless in my movements.
Female, if found in male toilet, will be handed over to police
The bus driver gave great commentary but I needed to sleep, having had only 4 hours the night before, 4 hours the night before that (at the airport) and 3 the night before the Grand Canyon, so I missed out on some of it.
The reason why there's a bear problem in Yosemite is because people feed them. That is why there's a $250 fine for feeding animals there, and there's a federal magistrate on duty 24/7.
Most injuries in the park are not from bears but deer, because people think they are like Bambi. The only fatality so far caused by an animal has been caused by a deer:
"A 5 year old boy was gored to death by a deer in Wawona in November, 1977. The boy, Colin Robert Neu, was visiting the park with his parents and having a picnic near the Wawona school. The boy was feeding potato chips to a deer, one by one. He then brought the bag of chips down to the creek and the deer pushed the bag out of his hands. When the boy bent over to pick it up, he startled the deer (a buck) and the deer 'stabbed' the boy under his armpit. Unfortunately, the antler nicked an artery and the boy died." (Santa Clarita Guide - High Sierras - Yosemite National Park)
Coyotes in Yosemite are smart. In late winter, there's no food so they stand in the middle of the road looking miserable and wait to be fed by motorists. If you try to take their picture, they run off.
There was a huge fire 17 years ago, the damage from which is still evident. It came about because they liked to put small fires out but this led the underbrush to build up, increasing the risk of big fires. The area damaged by fire had no tall trees and had mostly small bushes and undergrowth, with some short trees.
It was much warmer than I expected, despite the forecast claiming it'd be colder than San Francisco; "Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
Half-dome and El Capitan (? - I think this is what the bus driver said, but I might've gotten confused, especially about the latter)
There was no highway rest point to view these. There was one at Cascade Creek and the Leaning Tower/Cathedral Rocks, and many cars stopped there but there was no space for the bus. At Cascade waterfall there would've been space but there were 10-11 cars parked there, so. Renting a car is really the best way of viewing the place (but Memorial Day Weekend is probably not the best time to go), though you do lose the commentary so maybe the 2-3 day trips in vans are better (they don't cost much more; transport is probably the major cost).
Fern Spring, the smallest waterfall in the park, was cute.
Finally, at Tunnel View, we got to get off, admire the view properly and take pictures.
El Capitan, Cloud's Rest, Bridal Veil Falls
I wondered why the Grayline tours, with big buses, cost the same as the small vans. We'd actually wanted the latter (which had a Sequoia tour also), but by the time everyone decided on what they were doing both the small van tour recommended by the hostel and another company the first had called up were fully booked, so.
Bridal Veil Falls
El Capitan
Yosemite Falls
River
Yosemite Valley
Our bus driver had gotten married to a girl he met who was working at Yosemite at the Yosemite chapel a few years back. They had recently had his 4th child (his oldest is in his 40s) and her 1st.
The bus driver then let us off to walk around for about 2.5 hrs. Most people went to eat lunch but I wasn't hungry (perhaps I was carsick) and anyway decided I would be better off eating later in case I wanted to spend more time walking about, so I only had a scoop of ice cream from the shop at the swimming pool.
You're in the middle of nature and what do you do? You go to the pool. Also, I don't get the funny gym machine beside the pool.
Yosemite Falls, Upper and Lower
Lower Yosemite Falls
Lots of people were clambering beyond the point warning of danger past it. Hurr hurr.
Spray (I was too close to safely point the camera at the falls)
Me
If I come back in 20 years, I'm not sure that I'll be up to clambering on the rocks and hiking, revolutionary advancements in cybernetic technology notwithstanding.
Valley
Butterflies
Boating
There was an information panel on moonbows (like rainbows except by the light of the moon). Unfortunately the picture of a moonbow was in sepia (!) so it couldn't be seen properly.
Even in Yosemite, a pint of Haagen Dazs cost only $3.95. Meanwhile, the food was only slightly pricey, rather than being hideously expensive, very expensive or just expensive. This was because:
Anti-profiteering regulations for concessionaires. Obviously this didn't apply at the Grand Canyon.
There was a display of tagua nut products - the inside of the nut looks like ivory, so they hope this will save elephants.
I then had lunch (of sorts) which was surprisingly good - a pizza with a great crust (fluffy and chewy at the same time - probably baked with a bit of cheese in it too).
Yosemite Falls
Some rock formation from bus
Opposite El Capitan
Opposite El Capitan
El Capitan - 'the largest granite rockfall in the world'
El Capitan. Yes, I know the stitch is weird.
Me opposite El Capitan
Bridal Veil Falls, Leaning Tower
Sign showing water level in 1997 flood
Valley Point
Me on a log
At this stop point, the bus driver suddenly drove off despite our running after the bus (ie We were only a few seconds late), leaving 5 of us behind (3 in my group and 2 others). At this, my headache immediately became worse.
As the saying goes, "Leave one man behind, shame on him. Leave five people behind, shame on you." Evidently, he hadn't counted the number of people in the bus before driving off, or even done a visual inspection to make sure no one was left behind (then again perhaps he did, but the fact that 4 of us were Singaporean Chinese and 1 Singaporean Indian and there was a group of Japanese tourists there at the same time had something to do with it).
Now, normally I'd accept a modicum of blame for such an untoward occurence, but the fact was that this bus driver never told us what time to return to the bus (not at 5 minute photo stops, anyway). In fact, at the first photo stop of the day I'd asked him when we should come back to the bus and he'd replied unhelpfully, "Just take a few pictures and come back".
And so we were left in the middle of nowhere with no transport, no handphone reception and no passports, with all of us flying the next day. Some of the girls didn't even have their wallets (moral of the story: keep your wallet on you). Coincidentally, none of us remembered the bus's number or the driver's name ("Tom") either. Luckily, the aforementioned Japanese tourists agreed to give us a lift, albeit only to Oakdale.
Fire damage, 17 years on
On the way to Oakdale, I suddenly got mobile phone reception. Coincidentally, my brother-in-law called me so I got him to get me Grayline's number and Tong Wei called them up. However, the lady on the other side ("Mona") was very unhelpful. Their lost and found office closed at 10, but they stopped processing people at 7 (?!), so we would have to go back the next day at 6am. She refused to check which bus it was though they had 1, maybe 2 tours to Yosemite that day at most and refused to call the bus driver for us. When Tong Wei asked to speak to her manager, she said he was on vacation and gave us his email address.
Luckily, just after we got off the bus in Oakdale, our bus pulled into the parking lot. The driver claimed he'd counted but had made a mistake (he missed 5 people?!) To add insult to injury, 2 of the other passengers scolded us for missing the bus. Luckily, the rest were more sympathetic, with some telling us that they'd told the bus driver just after he moved off, pointing out that we were missing. The bus had then gone back but we'd left by then.
As a saving grace, there was an A&W at Oakdale, albeit one combined with a KFC. Neither was labelled as an "Express". Yet, when I walked in, I found that they didn't have Curly Fries either!!! Furthermore, the only way the menu was bigger than in Vegas was with the provision of Onion Rings and a few Kids' options. I asked the counter girl if A&W had stopped selling curly fries, and she said it depended on the outlet. Furthermore, MFTTW has since informed me that she visited 2 A&W outlets on the East Coast and neither had Curly Fries either, so I'll probably have to visit Bolehland for my fix. Although I was very pissed off, I bought an A&W glass mug for $3.99 and a large rootbeer float (which could be refilled! American fast food places rock)
The only "The Golden State" license plates I saw were tourist license plate souvenirs with generic first names on them. Bah.
When we got back to San Francisco we found the fog was even worse than the previous day. When we viewed the city from the Bay Bridge, a giant fog cloud seemed to have descended upon the city.
Fog cloud
We hadn't eaten a proper dinner, so Tong Wei and I went to Chinatown
Chinatown Gate
Some of the shops selling random crap were still open:
'Got rice?'
A family dinner - for one person
Shunning more expensive and tourist-looking places, we went to a crowded, unassuming-looking restaurant whose kitchen greeted our entrance. I had Char Siew Che Cheong Fun. I was expecting something like what we get in dim sum restaurants here, but instead I got a dry version with a lot of stuffing (char siew, cilantro and egg strips).
Effusive sign in Eastern Bakery. We got fried Bow Ties here.
'Eastern Bakery is the oldest bakery in Chinatown! Since 1924! We were here before the Great Depression, the Bay Bridges, World War II, etc... President Bill Clinton came to visit Eastern Bakery on July 23, 1996, from 5:00 PM to 5:30 PM. He shook hands with everybody inside our bakery. All of us, our customers and employees were thrilled, and it was just like a short but big, exciting and memorable party!!!'
Shop windows
We were walking past a shop when we saw a woman sitting in the recessed doorway of a shop with some stuff around her. Presumably she was homeless, but she was in a conversation with an unseen person. Either she was talking on her mobile phone or she'd gone crazy.
Quotes:
[On Jabir and I] Between the diva and the monster, I choose the diva.