We had to be up early this morning because the bus left at 8am. Neither Ants or I were feeling very well, and that was mostly because we were sleep deprived. We didn`t get much sleep on the bus either.

We watched Almost Famous as it was set in San Diego, and they travel around to Tempe.

Most of the scenery was rock, sand dunes, random cactus, and scrub similar to the Desert Road. Occasionally there was a massive high hill in the middle of the flat, almost like a giant had randomly placed down chunks of rock around the countryside.

We stopped in Yuma for lunch, and had an hour to feed our faces and have a look around. There was a store there called Michaels, which had a huge scrapbooking section. I wish we`d had more time, and money! I could have spent hours there, but there was only time to rush to the toilet.

Not long after our stop, we were stopped by Boarder Patrol, as the Mexican boarder wasn`t far from the road. All our passports got checked, and some of the girls got photos with the Patrol man (who was quite buff). Ally was standing at the front of the bus making “˜cut it out` signs, and we found out later that it is actually illegal. The guy didn`t care though, and Ally heard the other guys say “you okay up there?”And the one on the bus said “Yeah, it`s fine”.

On the long trip Ally had a game of sorts for us, which was an introduction of ourselves. The questions were, name, age, where you`re from, why you chose Contiki, what`s your favourite music, what would you do if you had a million dollars, and red light, yellow light, green light. The last question basically referred whether you were single or not. Red = don`t come near me, yellow = kinda with someone but I`m in a different area code/ might consider you, green = anything goes. Some people had pretty witty answers to some of the questions. The Singaporeans were all there because one of the guys (David) organised it. They all answered the question “Why did you choose Contiki”with “Because David told me to”. Ants went before me. To “why did you choose Conitiki”his answer was, “Because David told me to”and he cheekily said he was a green light. I was terribly nervous when I went up. I don`t know why, because I felt comfortable enough with everybody on the bus. I said “I`m a green”¦ I mean a yellow”¦ oh a red light”.

On the way into Phoenix

We reached Tempe, and found out that Phoenix is actually 7 smaller cities that were built close together, and they eventually merged into one big city.

One of the things I may have forgotten to mention, is that we were warned not to use the toilet on the bus. It sits above the motor, so all the “˜contents` of the sewage heats up and stinks out the whole bus. While we were not far from our hotel, Brendan couldn`t hold on any longer, and he went to the loo. So everybody at the back of the bus put a hand on the door so he couldn`t get out for a good couple of minutes. He started to panic a little. Serves him right for using it when we were only 15 minutes from the hotel.

Our hotel room was nice. No fridge, which meant no keeping water cool. We had a bit of time before we went out to dinner, so I had a sleep for an hour before getting ready to go out. We walked the 40 minutes from our hotel to Mill Avenue which is where all the clubs and restaurants are. Anthea, Zoe, Ants, Kathy and I decided we`d go to “˜My Big Fat Greek Restraunt`. It was an absolutely beautiful meal. Everything was cooked to perfection, lots of colour (oh veggies!) and delicious to eat. It was the best meal we had since being in the States.

After stuffing ourselves, we met up with the others who were on their way to a bar down the road. We went into a club with them, but the line to get a drink was far too long, and none of us could be bothered, so we took some photos before going back to the hotel.

While walking back to the hotel, we were treated to this spectacular view of Phoenix from the bridge.

Full size image here
*link now fixed

Back at the hotel, Ants and I made full use of the spa pools. There was a cold swimming pool about 2-3 metres wide, and three spa pools that were hot, warm and cold. We tried all three, and by the end Ants and I were so sleepy and relaxed. I went straight to sleep and had the best sleep I had all trip.

Current Mood: flirty & flirty & flirty

Tags: Phoenix, Tempe, travel