Then, I found out three mistakes, fortunately one of them did not really that bad. The first was after I booked the hotel, I decided to check other travellers' comments about this hotel and it was really bad.
I never discuss about hotels in this blog, since I rarely have problems with them. Most of the hotels that I took in this trip are "Best Western." The price is pretty good with good room and quite comfortable environment. In short, pretty reliable. The only problem with Best Western I had was back in Livingston, where, as I noted several days ago, the internet sucks and I had to write my blog in the swimming pool area. Plus the room is musty due to age and with the hotel is attached to a bar, sometimes cigarette smoke wafts to the lobby and the common area.
(Memo: avoid room 202 or whatever the number is, which is at the end of the hallway, that area is where all the bad rooms located. You know that you are messed up when your connection number is like something40s. Working connection numbers are 20s. Not surprisingly, I found people on the hallway near the lobby trying to connect to the internet).
Still, it was not as bad as it sounds, since I actually returned to the same hotel after my trip to the Glacier Park. This time, they assigned me a room with working internet connection and no smell at all, located on the second floor and close to the lobby. Plus, the receptionists are all nice, so frankly, should I have the opportunity to return to that area, I may even take the same hotel. So, like I said, I am not particularly picky with hotels.
So, imagine my horror when I read on the reviews that this hotel that I just booked was pretty horrible, with rude male manager and one reviewer even found blood and hair in his (or her) bed - even though this is a "Best Western" hotel. Well, since I can't cancel that, I decided to go to the hotel anyway. Yea, the male manager is very brusque, though, his receptionist (a black female) is actually pretty nice and polite. When I asked about wireless connection, the female receptionist remembered that it was not working well, and he suddenly said that he would lend me a cable, but if I took it away, he would charge me $10. Well, for some people, it might be a turn off, though for me, he is actually pretty tolerable - I have met worse students with horrible behaviors. Still he really reminds me of that Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, though without moustache. I think this guy is from India or that area, though I may be wrong.
Of course, the first thing I did in this room is to open the bedsheet. Luckily, no blood, though, the white cover seems to have some wrinkle. I hazard to guess that the quality of the cleaning lady is not that great in this hotel. But, well, compared of sleeping under the star, this is fine, I guess. So, the first "mistake" is not that bad afterall.
The second "mistake" is actually I forgot to charge my camera battery, so right after I took around 100+ pictures, the camera stopped working. Considering the fact that it would be a waste of time if I continue travelling without camera, I went to the hotel straight away. So, I entered my hotel at 5 PM, which was too early for my taste, since I prefer to use all the time I got. Once I went to hotel, I fell asleep and now it is pretty late to look around.
The third mistake is the location. I booked a hotel too close to Salt Lake City, which will make tomorrow's journey to be pretty painful if I want to reach San Francisco by Monday evening. So, I think I will stay somewhere halfway between of San Francisco and Salt Lake city and arrive in San Francisco on Tuesday evening. Well, considering I went into hotel pretty early, I guess I should wake up early tomorrow and try to catch up with things I miss here. I may want to visit the Salt Lake area before I leave Salt Lake.
Anyway, let's move on. Today's map:
I am not sure why, but Idaho does not really appeal to me as other states. Probably due to the effect of yesterday's traffic mess. Still, I just don't feel the need or the desire to explore this state, unlike other states that I had visited in this entire journey. So, here are some of the last pictures I took on Idaho then come the border between Idaho and Utah.
Salt Lake City
The State Capitol
Of course, if you visit Salt Lake City, you have to visit the Mormon Church Headquarter. I find the Church to be interesting and nicely built. Still, somehow, I couldn't help smiling there. There were so many missionaries, which I used to avoid like plague back in Columbus. Now, they are the tour guides and unlike our regular toor guides, they peppered the tour with quotations from the Book of Mormon. God, it sounds more like prostelizing than guiding.... To be honest, you can actually skip the tours in the main area, but you really should take tour of the Conference Center. I will get back on this point in a bit.
Personally, aside of their missionaries, I don't have problem with Mormons in general. I used to have several Mormon students and all I care about them was whether they performed well in class, and they did. They also never cause problem, though I find it curious that they believe that coffee, tea, alcohol, and several other things are bad for your health. Dunno, as a tea drinker, this may not be the religion for me.... I may want to check the local McD though, see if they actually serve coffee.... (Actually, there is coffee maker in my room).
Anyway, some pictures:
Model of Jerusalem in their North Visitor Center. This may give some ideas to those people back in Jakarta who want to build church-disguised-as-cultural center or the "Tower of Prayer" or whatever other nonsense. I would suggest them to visit the Mormon temple for some great inspirations.
Though the missionaries are talking about their Book of Mormon, they also stress the Biblical prophets, with addition that their prophet, Joseph Smith, is the last of the Great Prophets. Apparently this guy first questioned many things about the Bible back when he was 14 year old. I want to add something funny here, about the danger of overactive imagination combined with Bible, but I am afraid that Mormons may read it and find it offensive.... Oops....
This may give that guy who wants to build a planetarium in church an idea....
Ideas for the "Tower of Prayer"
Main temple: you can't get in there unless you are prepared, because God is there. I guess, everyone will reject me for sure, considering the fact that I visited there with my hair uncombed, T-Shirt, shorts, and sandals. This reminds me of a girl lacrosse team from Chicago who visited the White House in sandals. The brother of one of these girls wrote in his e-mail to her after he received her picture with President Bush: "YOU WORE FLIP-FLOPS TO THE WHITE HOUSE?!!!" I guess that what my brother will say if he saw me in that temple in sandals, though come to think about it, didn't Jesus wear sandals?
Jokes aside, they said that the Mormons go to their regular church on Sunday and only the prepared few are allowed to go to the main temple. Well, at least they are not as freaky as those Scientologists. If they believe that those aliens from planet whatever reside in that church, it will be far more disturbing.
I forgot what building this is, but it is used to be chapel I think.
Nowadays this building is used by the choir some of the time to practice. Interestingly, all the pillars and seats are made from white pine, but they painted and drew lines on it, making them looked like made from oak back in the 19th century. So these stuffs were made back when the Mormon first settled the area.
Seagull monument: symbol of God's grace on Mormons. Apparently in their second year in Salt Lake City, their harvest was threatened by locusts. After they fasted and prayed, God sent seagulls to eat all the locusts, so they built the statue to commemorate that event.
The calling of the new apostles or whatever.
Family matters: another thing to hijack for those people in Jakarta
The main temple. With me writing like this in my blog, I think the possibility of me getting admitted is very slim now.
The famous Tabernacle Choir practices here. Frankly, I consider this choir as one of the best in the United States.
Mormon Convention Center. You can only see these things through guided tour, so that's why I recommend you to take guided tour here. Try not to take it with a rowdy bunch of hyper teenage girls, who love to jump inside elevator, and when they were asked not to jump, they said "who's jumping?" They should apply for Darwin Award as soon as possible. Try to jump like that in the OSU dormitory elevators, they would love several stories fall.... Hopefully they fixed it already. I believe two years ago someone died because of it. Okay, back to business:
My camera showed the sign of "low battery" at this point, and refused to shoot. Though I was able to coax it to operate once in a while, this unfortunately meant that I could not get as many pictures as I wanted.
The conference room. Apparently they could move the organ pipes, which would give a huge space behind it for any use. Plus, the podium could be lowered and raised depending on the need. This room is the largest of its type in the United States.
Garden and fountain on the roof of the convention center. The size of the garden is two acre, filled with desert wild plants. When I asked the guide why they put garden on top, she replied that it was due to the vision of Brigham Young, the Second Prophet and the leader of the Salt Lake community. Basically, God told him to do it. You can't miss this garden. It is beautiful.
Back to the temple.
Brigham Young's house
Finally, for NBA fans out there, the Utah Jazz's stadium (hopefully, I am not wrong)
Check out the names of the streets, though the second one may be hard to read
That's it for now. Tomorrow, I may go around the Salt Lake before going to Nevada.
