I rely on TripAdvisor alot when researching on hotels. Firstly, the search engine allows you to simultaneously search for room availability on multiple websites, mainly Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia and Hotels.Com. Also, reviews posted by other travellers are a major consideration when choosing a hotel to stay in. Of course, all reviews must be taken with a pinch of salt - you never know if a negative review was submitted by a competing hotel out to slime and shame its neighbours.
There are a few considerations I go by when reading a review:
(1) How long ago it was posted (things could have changed since then)
(2) Profile of the reviewer (parents concerned for their children's welfare, or a couple of senior travellers, would have different lodging needs from us)
(3) Nature of the trip (honeymoon vs backpacking/budget trip)
(4) Amount paid for one night's stay (it can vary, depending how/when you booked the room)
We usually go for the cheapest room available for the dates we need a room for. Most of the time, the cheap rooms get utterly scary reviews on TripAdvisor. We only decide against a hotel if ALL the reviews posted are negative. If it's a general mix of the Good, the Bad and the Average, we will give the hotel a chance.
Travellers take the time and effort to put in review, be it good or bad, and we've been taking advantage of their goodwill in planning our trip. Thus, I've decided to return the favour and write reviews for TripAdvisor as a service to fellow travellers.
Since we're homeless nomads who change hotels more often than we change our clothes (haha, gross but true), I don't write reviews for every single place we spend a night in. I only do so when the hotel has:
(1) Performed exceptionally well - usually good, clean rooms + warm service;
(2) Received a string of poor reviews but turned out to be decent. I would like to think that my review can help salvage its image; or
(3) Given us a less-than-satisfactory experience and doesn't deserve other travellers' money.
My most recent review on Swiss Cottage Inns in Niagara Falls (on the New York side) has been submitted but yet to be posted (TripAdvisor takes a couple of days to scan each post for expletives and whatnot.) I'll post a link to my less-than-sterling review once TripAdvisor puts it online.
Here's my review on Sleep Inn (what a corny name!) in Denver. Since TripAdvisor has yet to upload my photo of the room, I've provided it here. The review sounds rather gushy, but it was really that good, especially since it was just US$38 per night!
We heeded Sleep Inn's advice and slept in ALOT in this room!
One thing that we find interesting about Denver is that nobody bats an eyelid at those who make the parking lots their home. They just carefully avoid them, but no one kicks up a fuss or anything. Pretty cool.
The parking lot for our hotel is home to a large family, origins unidentified. We didn't go too close to take a picture, but here's one of them.
Playboy Bunny
I may be prejudiced against it's type, but it is my firm belief that this resident has been fornicating all over the place without using any protection. That's probably why there are so many of them around!
We saw another resident nearby when we were feeling a little peckish.
Goosey goosey gander, whither shall I wander?
Yup, little guy was so inconsiderate! Taking up two lots! Good thing the place wasn't crowded, so I was quite willing to just park somewhere else.
Oh, this brings to mind a little incident on our 2nd last day in Denver. We were in our car, driving towards Wal-Mart to get something for dinner. All of a sudden, two little figures darted across the road!
Wife: (sees that I was on a collision course with them) Bunny bunny bunnybunnybunnyBUNNYBUNNYBUNNY!!!
Me: (avoids the collision, calms down, then turn to the wife): That was so cute, the way you squealed. But why bunny? Why didn't you call them rabbits?
Wife: Because bunny is easier to repeat! Bunnybunnybunny is easier than rabbitrabbitrabbit!
Me: Oh. Okay, you had so much time to think, huh? (laughs) Hare, hare, hare!
Okay, I know. Super corny, right? But it's still funny! Hare, hare, hare!
WARNING: This entry might make you drool. Be hygienic - put a basin under your chin before you continue reading. After that, carefully dispose of the contents of the basin and wash it thoroughly.
Since we've arrived, we've been really watching our budget for most of our meals. Which means:
1) We are making do with smaller portions by sharing 2) We are spending less on food generally, which in turn means we can sometimes treat ourselves to goodies!
So, here is a small sampling of what we've had during our stay in Colorado.
The budget and unsatisfying meals:
Also known as TV dinners. You just buy these for USD 2 or less at Wal-Mart or Target, pop into the microwave and then eat the bland contents.
A miserly portion of fettucine alfredo with chicken and brocoli
Contains two (sorta) sandwiches. Tasted bleah. But hey, zero trans fat!
The semi-budget but ok-tasty meals:
New York style pizza - The wife says this is one of the top ten things to eat here, recommended by some website.
Then, we had the fortune to be staying right next to an outlet of the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), so here are the...
Slightly above budget but oh-so-damned-orgasmically tasty meals:
IHOP meals generally cost between USD 6.99 and USD 10. Reasonably cheap for their ample servings.
(ADV) IHOP is having 3 special menu items for their Summer Strawberry Festival!
The Sweet Strawberry Crepes do not disappoint!
I stuck to my favorite Butterscotch Rocks pancakes
This was on the dinner menu. Pot roast with mashed potato and garlic toast, smothered in deliciously rich gravy. Yums!
The pot roast was also accompanied by this funky concoction called the Italian Wedding Soup! Cool!
One day, we decided to have brunch at IHOP again. The wife ordered an egg omelette with mushroom (which came with 4 pancakes) and I ordered a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.
Ooh... look at that! Aren't all of them so beautiful?
You are so beautiful. I'm going to put you in my mouth.
Now, I finished what I ordered, since it represents two meals. Reasonable, right?
But the wife - she could only finish half of her omelette and half of her pancakes, and wanted to pack the rest to eat for dinner! How can you pack pancakes and an omelette from brunch for dinner?!?
Very old egg had fungi in it
Seeing the difficulty she was in, and out of the goodness of my heart and at great personal health risks to myself, I helped her finish her food.
How was I rewarded? She forbade me to have dinner!
"Go to bed hungry, husband o' mine! Curl under the blankets and wallow in self-pity! I don't care! You have eaten my food and I forbid you to be hungry any longer!"
@%$^$$%$7^%&%^&#.
But I still love you, baby.
Having learnt my mistake, we were in Boulder the following day, and decided to get a
Way above budget but damn, there's nothing else that's reasonably priced around here meal:
This cost us USD 22, but was worth every cent. You know why?
A Chicago-style deep dish pan pizza with mucho ingredients supported by a thin but firm crust
Because when the wife stopped eating, the husband also stopped eating and declared that he was full too. And the USD 22 pizza was brought back to the hotel where it was resuscitated into dinner. That means USD 5.50 per person per meal! Yay.
Leftovers never tasted so good
Anyway, all this writing about food has started making me hungry again. I'm leaving you with a clip from Animaniacs. Enjoy!
We have become a pair of book traders since embarking on this trip.
We hunt down used book stores in each city we stop in, looking for the opportunity to trade in our read books for fresh reading material. Brand new books in the US (and in Singapore) cost alot, unless you score a US$5 find at Wal-Mart on a lucky day. How the used book stores work is that they assess the books you bring in and assign a value to it, and you get a discount of the same value on any books you buy from the store.
Most used book stores have a good selection of books but are generally nothing to shout about. The exception being Capitol Hill Books in downtown Denver. I didn't do a headcount, but according to their website, they have 30,000 books in stock at any one time, out of which 27,000 are priced less than US$10, and a used book goes for US$6.50 on the average.
Books aside, what I loved about this place was the decor and how the books are neatly categorised according to their content.
There's the Travel section, well-stocked with maps and atlases, as well as travel guides and travel biographies...
And the shelf of books on Religion is marked with a string of Tibetan prayer flags...
A toy wheelbarrow and potted plants mark out the Gardening section...
A purple warty warlord (or an incredibly uglier-than-a-dog's-butt witch) adorns the Metaphysics shelf...
And a plastic vampire bat with papery wings, together with a fake black rat and a rusty can, make visitors recoil in Horror....
Best of all, there are chairs of varying sizes and designs wedged in every book-filled corner so that you can browse in comfort. Here's one in the Fiction section...
...and one amongst the travel books.
This book store doesn't just collect used books for resale, check out the collector's items pinned to this board:
There are scrips and scraps of everything and anything that can be found tucked soundly between the pages of a book. Forgotten. Or maybe just left in there on purpose cos the owner was too lazy to throw it out. Handwritten notes, family photos, doodles, stickers, ticket stubs, postcards, a dried leaf and even a 5-dollar bill.
I thought this poem from 1945 took the cake:
Dear Linda,
Roses are red, violets are blue. Skunks stink but I wouldn't think that of you.
your buddy, sherry. 10/5/45
To date, we have bartered the following titles: - The 19th Wife (David Ebershoff) - Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates) - a bunch of Star Wars books
For: - Little Children (Tom Perrotta) - The Abstinence Teacher (Tom Perrotta) - a bunch of Star Wars books
Sitting at the bottom of my backpack still, all the way from Singapore, is Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup. I haven't read it yet cos I just don't feel like being transported to the world of dead Indian ministers, Bollywood actresses and murder mysteries at the moment. And also the evil offerings of American television seem alot more attractive right now. In particular, back-to-back episodes of The Family Guy, The Office, and reruns of Friends and SATC.
Ah well, but it'll get read sooner or later. Read on!
The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.
- Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"
Look what I found hiding in the corner and managed to get for $6.50!
The 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian promenade cutting one mile across downtown, designed by I.M Pei - that's the guy who designed The Gateway buildings along Beach Road back at home.
I love pedestrian malls for the simple fact that they are closed to private vehicles and are perfect for a daydreaming nincompoop like me. It's not completely car-free though, cos this wonderful 2-way free shuttle service runs down the mall, with buses coming every 90 seconds! (I got tooted at a couple of times for blindly trying to cross in front of an oncoming bus.) And these are hybrid buses too. Score points for being pedestrian- and environmentally-friendly. The buses stop at every street corner, but the mall is very walkable too and can be easily covered on foot.
I think if Orchard Road in Singapore could be converted into a pedestrian mall, similarly with a free shuttle service, the shopping experience would be greatly enhanced. And people won't have to spend so much time traversing an underground labyrinth (especially the stinky pee-smelling Lucky Plaza underpass) just to cross the road. Dan doesn't agree though. Maybe the Land Transport Authority pays him to disagree with me. Humph.
Walking or riding, Dan's always a happy man.
The scenery along the mall changes as you go along. At one end are the super tall, super modern, super shiny commercial buildings.
I think all buildings should be designed to reflect blue skies and fluffy clouds like this.
Then somewhere in the middle, you get the the shorter buildings housing street-side cafes, retail stores, snack shops, fast food outlets, etc. But what caught my eye (because it reminded me of work) were the abundance of wooden benches which provided comfortable rest stops for tired legs, and movable chairs. Basically, the latter are just scattered around the promenade, there for anyone who wants to grab a seat. Or maybe two, so that he can prop his achy feet up too. Or for groups of three, four, six, nine, etc. who want to gather for a chat. Heck, or even have an impromptu game of Musical Chairs! The chairs weren't secured to the ground or to the trees or lamp posts, and yet I didn't see anyone trying to steal a chair.
Musical chairs, anyone?
Further down along the mall, we saw a group of people playing chess. The chessboards are part of a row of stone tables, separated by interesting art pieces. So anyone can just bring their chess set (we even saw some pairs competing using timers - so pro) and sit down for a game.
Checkmate!
At the far end of the mall, the buildings take on a more historical and Victorian feel, with many of them making up Writer's and Larimer Squares. Larimer Square is the oldest street in Denver. And it now houses the chicest and most stylish cafes. Once again, I wonder what type of jobs people in this city have. It's 4pm and the street-side cafes are packed! I want a life like this!
Oh the life!
Some shop selling napkins for every occasion
Then Dannie took to sulking on the sidewalk. I've no idea why...
What's with the long faces?
Banned bears
My first Starbucks coffee on this US trip. I'm not allowed to drink coffee again. Ever. Only decaf.
Streetside parking in Denver is all metered (US$1 per hour) although there are some free parking spots, but most of these are located further away from downtown. The other option is to park at private parking lots, which can consist of simply a sandy, unmarked, fenced-up lot or a multi-storey garage. Parking charges range from US$3 per hour to US$12 for an entire day.
We went for streetside parking as it was more flexible and cheaper for the couple of hours we spent in town each day. So from persistently trying to empty his pockets of jangling coins by giving exact change when paying for items, Dan suddenly morphed into a coin-hoarding maniac so that we could have enough metal to feed these hungry machines. (Or, as so interestingly stated on the meter, so that we could "purchase time". As if precious time could be bought for just a few coins.)
So when we saw this campaign to end homelessness, which involved asking passers-by to drop spare change into a donation box shaped like a parking meter, we thought it wouldn't work. Sure, it was refreshing, interesting and pretty creative. But if the parking system here requires you to have loose change, who's going to let go of their coins? I guess you could always squeeze in a Tenner or Twenty though.
Feed me!
Of course, as with all our shopping trips in the US, no trip is complete without a visit to THE APPLE STORE! We located one at Cherry Creek (what a pretty name!) a distance from the city centre and shelled out US$79 for a power adapter for our MacBooks *Ouch* Mine had conked out before we left for the US and we had been making do with one power cord between us. Unlike what marriage counsellers would like to have you think, some things just cannot be shared in a marriage.
The Apple of his eye (and mine too. Humph)
So our biggest purchase in the States so far is a power cord. Whoop de doo.
Always looking for FOC things to do in all the cities we visit, we went a-strollin' around downtown one fine afternoon. The Visit Denver website and visitor mag is just great. I love the suggested itineraries (especially the Budget one), which included the downtown walking tour. The 'Tenver' section is great too, which basically consists of lists such as 'Ten Free Activities', 'Ten Denver Desserts To Down', etc.
We started off at the civic district, in particular the Denver State Capital.
Denver's State Capitol, as seen from Civic Park
Looking up
Lest we forget. Pity that blue guy on the cell phone just.wouldn't.move.away.
The super shiny dome glinting in the sun makes a good landmark when we're trying to orientate. And it's really covered in 24K gold. All 200 ounces (almost 6kg) of it. All together now: "WAAAAAHHHH!" And all we have at home are a couple of gold taps. Impressive.
Gold is niiiiiice. I like gold.
The geeky touristy thing to do at the State Capital is to go stand on the 13th step on the west side of the building. Here, you are exactly 5,280 feet above sea level - one mile high. Thus the moniker the Mile High City. Denver is the third highest state capital in the United States, pipped only by Santa Fe in New Mexico and Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is said that balls fly faster and eggs take longer to cook in Denver. I don't know. We didn't throw any balls nor cook any eggs.
Welcome to the Mile High Club, er, City.
There was another group of tourists having alot of fun on the step. This geeky guy kept insisting on demonstrating the implications of the step on people's social status:
Guy (stepping onto step): See, now I'm in the Mile High Club! Hur hur hur.
Us (enthusiastic clapping): Yaaay! Congrats to you!
Guy (stepping off step): And now, I'm not in the Mile High Club! Hur hur hur.
Us (mock sadness): Awww....
Guy (stepping back onto step): And now I'm in the Club again! Hehhhhhhh. Hehhhhhhh.
Us (limp clapping): Good for you man!
Guy (stepping off step): And now I'm not! Heehhhh. Hehhhhhh. Guy (stepping onto step): And now I'm in! Hur hur. Guy (stepping off step): And now I'm not! Hehhhh. Hehhhhh.
Us (stare blankly): ......
How long was he going to tap dance on that step? Sesame Street needs a good puppet like him to teach kids about prepositions.
Okay, now he's officially cool.
So yes, we're officially members of the Mile High City. Sorry folks, we're not dishing out any more info here about our membership status in the Mile High associations of the other kind.
View from the 13th step, with the afternoon sun nearly blinding me.
You can tour the interior of the State Capital on your own or join one of their guided tours for free. We just wandered around and did our own thang:
Dannie the Vanillazilla loves canned soup and sardines as well.
There's an option to take a Dome Tour, basically a climb up to the open deck on the dome where you can get a spectacular view of the city skyline against a mountain backdrop. We didn't make it because:
(a) we were too stingy to pay for a ticket (b) we had woken up too late to make it for the last tour (c) we had woken up too late to photograph the westward view in a better light
So we had to be content with shuffling our feet along the marble floors, making our way around the marble columns and leaning against the marble bannisters. Ho hum. Yawn.
Inside the giant dollhouse where the Senator Doll sits. Or is it the Governor Doll.
I wonder if I can jump from the third floor and down into the basement through that oval hole...hmmm.
The "Are you done yet? Can we go now?" face speaks to me.
So that's how interesting (yawn) this building (yawn) was for us (yawn).
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~~ GO ~~
Excerpt from Visa Ad:
"It's one tiny, two-letter word that makes amazing things happen. GO is action. it's the spark that starts the flame that sets everything in motion. GO gets us to try things we've always wanted to try. GO keeps us going no matter what life throws our way. GO reminds us it's a big beautiful world out there, and it's time to make the most of it.... to get out there and play. to get out there and do. to get out there and experience all the incredible things life has to offer."
We heeded Sleep Inn's advice and slept in ALOT in this room!
- Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"
