Grand Canyon to Mesa Verde

8/14/11

As those who have been there know, the Grand Canyon is pretty indescribable.  Pictures come closer than words, but still fall short.  Here are a few:

As I mentioned, Tun lived here for a few months when she was in college (she got back just a few weeks before we met in Thailand, in fact).  So it was fun for her to be back in a place she once called home and see and experience with new eyes- no longer a resident, but also not like every other tourist (myself included) who just rolls through for a couple days in his or her life.  Tun could’ve been in front of this cart 6 years ago:

Maybe not a glamorous job for a senior in college, but a great experience for her.  It was her first time to come to the States (or anywhere else outside of Thailand/Laos) and when she first arrived her English wasn’t that strong.  She was brave and smart enough to resist the temptation to live in a cabin with 80 other Thai students who came with her program, and instead lived in a dorm with a mix of American and international kids.  She learned the language well, and things about Americans, our culture, and work environment you can’t learn in a classroom in Thailand.

Tun in front of her previous home here.  How crazy is it that the employee housing is a 100 year old historic stone building a 100 feet from the canyon rim?

On our way to Mesa Verde, we chased an incredible storm, enjoying it’s lightning show from a distance.  We never caught it, but we witnessed it’s aftermath.

It slowed us down a couple hours, but we have hours to spare.  The slowly crawling traffic never allowed me to get away from the wheel and forced my first “Tun, find a cup for me to pee in” moment of the trip.  She did.  And I did.  Thanks Tun.

We stopped at the 4 Corners along the way.  The guy in the entrance booth, who was a Navajo, thought Tun was a Navajo also.  You may think that's a funny and perhaps surprising mix up, but it's so much more than that!  It's redemption!  Four years ago or so I was reading a magazine or something that had some old photos of some members of the Navajo tribe in it.  I told Tun that one of the ladies looked a lot like her, and ever since then I occasionally call her my little Navajo.  Cute?  Yes. Culturally insensitive and borderline racist?  Perhaps, until today!  Thank you man in the booth! 

Jokes aside (that is a true story, though) it is surprising how similar Thai, Lao, and Cambodian faces are to Native Americans.  That's not true of other Asian and even SE Asian people.  I often met people in Thailand, who, had I met them in SW America, I would have sworn were American Indian.