San Francisco

Day One
It was New Year's eve, and all of us pretty much reached our hotel (Holiday Inn Golden Gateway) in the afternoon. My shuttle-ride to the hotel was an interesting one. My flight had already been delayed (we were already boarded, and sat inside a stationary flight for an hour before takeoff), reason being: low visibility in the San Francisco Bay area due to heavy fogs. Yup, it was a fogged-up day alright (no pun intended.. haha). As I was driven through the steep streets of San Francisco, I actually saw a Pink Cadillac.. blinding bright pink. I saw two guys holdings hands and walking on 3 different occasions (alright, one of them weren't really hand in hand.. more like holding their pinkies!).. OK OK. Enough with the stereotypes already. So yea, our new hotel room was much better than the LA one plus it had free wi-fi! We were settled in, and after having dinner at a Chinese restaurant close to the hotel, we were off to catch the fireworks by the bridge.

Naturally, our idea of the fireworks had the famed Golden Gate Bridge set against the background. So we took a bus ride to the Exploratorium, which is located within the area that provides one of the most commanding views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Exploratorium was truly a beauty at night. We stopped to take shots, before we pretty much scrammed at the sight of a couple of raccoons! We walked a block up to the oceanfront and witnessed the bridge.. the strange part.. not a single other group of people in sight. Ignorantly, we stayed at the area posing for shots like this..

We kept snapping photos, until Julian receives a call from a friend who had visited San Francisco the previous year and witnessed the fireworks... He practically tells us we should be at Pier 39, and the bridge on the backdrop is... the Bay Bridge! WHOOOPS! It was a couple of hours to midnight, and we weren't to be deterred. Memories of our 'Amazing Race episode' in Anaheim hadn't faded a single bit, and here we were making a run for it once again. Almost an hour later (after a couple of bus rides which were, fortunately for us, running free of charge for New Year's eve), we reached a brightly-lit Pier 39.. we see a big crowd in the area, yet neither was the crowd as big as we had been told it was, nor was there an incredible view of the bridge. The best part... everyone was cramming themselves at a spot watching a huge carousel go round and round, where there was no view of the Bay Bridge whatsoever.

At this point, Julian calls up another group of friends who were in San Francisco at the same time as us and they tell us................... "we're in Pier 1 by the ice-skating rink.. it's so crowded here." Goodness! Half an hour to go, and we were in the wrong spot for the second time in a row! There wasn't much time to think, as we started walking towards Pier 1, thinking even if we didn't make it, at least we'd get as close a view as possible. It was a long, long walk.. and we were looking to settle for a pier where we get at least a proper view of the bridge, bearing in mind the crazy crowds in Pier 1 and the fact that there's no point heading all the way there anyway (my Times Square New Year countdown experience comes to mind..). More than half-a-dozen blocks later, we arrived at Pier 9, which gave us a pretty good view of the bridge, and the crowd wasn't too bad. 15 minutes to midnight, we decided to just stop there and wait for the countdown.. and the fireworks (Sorry I couldn't upload the vid of the actual fireworks because it's too big a file).

Certainly much better than counting down at Times Square TEN BLOCKS away from where I couldn't see a single thing.. However, the fireworks, despite the length were rather average. I've seen better in Malaysia. With that, a long, tiring day drew to an end, and our aching bodies finally reached the hotel for a long, deserved sleep.

Day Two
We stayed in our hotel room for the entire day! Given our rainy weather and our exploits the previous day, it really wasn't too much of a surprise..

Day Three
We start off a little late, and head to Chinatown for lunch. Based on ratings on the internet, we decided to have our meal at a certain Yuet Lee restaurant. The food was pretty bad to begin with, and we were charged on an average of 8 bucks per person (incredibly the dishes were listed around $6 on the menu). Appalled, we left the place without leaving a single cent as tips. Next up was a bus ride to downtown San Francisco. We were pretty much heading to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to grab our City Passes.

Since we were already at the museum, and because it was one of the attractions included in the package, we figured we'd go ahead and check it out. Enter the first floor of exhibits, and we're left staring at the odd paintings... without the slightest clue of what most of them meant, or what they even were. We got through that section pretty fast, and headed over to the next floor, where we saw something we could finally relate to... photography. I was particularly intrigued by the works of Ansel Adams, who revolutionized natural photography. The next floor was a little more... explicit. I guess it is meant to be a crowd-teaser, or something along that line. The highest floor is dedicated to some of the actual work of Henri Matisse.

Interestingly enough, we were done just about when the museum was closing (I was the last person to leave the top floor.. Yay me!). Next we decided to just take a walk around downtown San Francisco, looking for a bus route that would lead us back to... Chinatown. Lol. We were truly disappointed for lunch, so we didn't have too much of an expectation anymore. We stopped at a certain Y Ben House... the food was excellent, and the price was very reasonable. Definitely the top pick for dining in Chinatown San Francisco.

With tummies filled to the limits, we took a slow walk along the streets of Chinatown and Italian Town looking for Coit Tower. The tower's located atop a hill, so we did have to seriously pull our weights (literally!) along the way. Unfortunately, entrance to the tower was closed, so we had to settle for the view of the city from the hilltop, which isn't half bad, except for the fact there are huge trees blocking our view of more than half the city. Once we were done with the photos, it was time for our long descent down an incredible number of steps (seriously, I think this could compare to Batu Caves) all the way down to the piers to board a bus home..

Day Four
We started off with the famous cable-car ride to Chinatown, before heading once again to... Y Ben House. I have to say it was pretty remarkable because we had never returned to the same diner (note that the Mochi shop in LA doesn't count) before, be it in this trip or even the New York trip. This time though, it was for dim sum. Again, great food at a great price. Just when we thought the previous night was bad, this time we were so stuffed we sat in the restaurant for quite a bit before we could even move! What do you expect when you order 23 dishes??!

Next up was a walk to the piers. Along the way, we passed by the Transamerica Pyramid, the Embarcadero and finally, Pier 1.

We boarded a short tram ride to Pier 39 to catch a boat tour. We also got a pretty good view of the sea lions that the pier is famous for. The boat ride (minus the load of crap the recorded voice spews) is all about getting excellent views of Alcatraz island, the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay from a seafarer's point-of-view.


Our next stop was the Aquarium of the Bay (we were obliged to go in just because it was part of our City Pass.. wth) which now definitely ranks as the worst aquarium I've been in. Chicago's Shedd Aquarium is wayyy better. From there it was a walk along Fisherman's Wharf to the famed Ghirardelli Square. They had at least four different Ghirardelli stores within the area, along with a few other stores. The fountain's kinda neat as well..

From there we walked back to Boudin Bistro, which serves up two of San Francisco's most famous dishes - Dungeness crab and clam chowder. The place seemed pretty high-end, though we had coupons from our City Passes with which we redeemed a free appetizer. The crab wasn't all that amazing, but the clam chowder was pretty darn good. A short walk (to the same bus stop in both Day One and Three), and another bus ride back to the Holiday Inn.

Day Five
We started off once again with lunch at Chinatown, this time at a much smaller restaurant. The prices were phenomenally low and they offer big servings, so who cares if the food was a little crappy? We planned to head over to the California Academy of Sciences next. Here comes my most tragic moment in the entire trip..............

As we walked to the bus stop, I suddenly heard a band playing, and a huge procession walking down the street towards us. Excited, I quickly unzipped my bag and flipped out my camera....

... "Shove" ..... Thump!

A couple of thuds and somersaults later... there it laid.. on the concrete walkway before me.

The young lady who bumped into me from the back turns around, glancing at my dear Olympus SP-500 UZ before continuing to walk away. For a moment, I stood still.. everything around me came to a standstill. I heard the band no more... The next moment I swooned for my camera, dusted it off and began a typical damage check. The LCD was fine.. the optical and digital zoom wasn't any different either.. Then I proceeded to take a shot.... And the image was green, with horizontal lines that ran through the image.. It had an eerie look to it. I kept snapping with every possible setting, yet all the images had the same problem. And to compound my misery... It wasn't worth flippin' my camera out in the first place because I soon realized it was a funeral parade!! Such painful irony..

After finally giving up on playing around with the settings, I was dejected for the rest of the day. The California Academy of Sciences wasn't all that great either (especially afterhaving visited New York's Museum of Natural History). We then took a bus through the scenic heights of Presidio to the Golden Gate Bridge, from where we got a remarkable view of the bridge. It was time for dinner, and we headed to... yup, you guessed it.. Chinatown.

We decided to trust the reviews one more time, ending up at Chef Jia's Hunan Restaurant. The food tasted pretty bad to be frank, so again we were left rather displeased.

Day Six
This was to be our last day at San Francisco, so we decided to pull out all the stops and end our trip on a high note. We started off with lunch at Y Ben House (third time!!) for dim sum again, deciding not to take a risk on other restaurants especially after then previous night's dinner. A hefty meal later, we headed over to Fisherman's Wharf, which we hadn't really covered. It was a cold, rainy day.. yet we kept walking without stopping.. until we passed by Ghirardelli Square and I jokingly exclaimed "Let's get a cold drink at Ghirardelli's!" Incredibly, Julian took me up on my word and before we knew it we were inside the Ghirardelli store ordering a couple of Quake Shakes (they're pretty good.. I'd recommend them for sure). We then continued our stroll to Fisherman's Wharf, shivering from the cold yet sipping away from our ice-cold shakes. Heh.

We entered the Boudin Bakery to get a guided tour of the historic bakery, but the tours were cancelled till summer, much to our dismay. From there we hopped over to Musee' Mecanique (stands for Mechanical Museum), a small-scale arcade that displays incredibly old arcade games and machines.. The games were really simple in nature, yet some of them can be tons of fun. We spent more than an hour within the arcade, before heading out to check out a World War II submarine - the USS Pampanito.

The Exploratorium wasn't open on the day, so we decided to finish off our trip with a walk up Russian Hill to visit the Crookedest Street, and San Francisco's steepest slope (if the average San Francisco street ain't steep enough fer ya, you should check this 31 degree slope out!) which lies just a couple of blocks away. The Crookedest Street is a fantastic place for photography, be it during the day or night..

There isn't any signboard or anything that signifies the steepest road, but one look and you'll know it's the one. One done taking some shots, Kwong Hann and I figured what better way to remember our visit to the street than racing from the bottom all the way up by foot! One run to the top took more than half my breath away.. but wait.. we didn't have the cameras rolling! Panting, Kwong Hann says "Let's do it again!" I hesitantly agree, and we walk all the way back down to our marks..

Goodness! I came out tops again, but I could barely breathe (and Julian's voice is really high-pitched end of the clip! Lol!). That wasn't the end of it though..... I was completely done for, and took a seat on the steps along the street. After a while, I crashed to the floor, unable to pull myself back up. I couldn't even speak.. yet I was completely aware of my surroundings, including CK's suggestion to perform CPR!! Lol!

After a little longer, Julian finally managed to get me on my feet as we walked half a block to the cable car stop. Amazingly, Kwong Hann managed to run with Julian to a nearby store to get me some water. I finally managed to get a grip of myself, though my head still hurt like crazy. How's that for a dramatic climax to the trip??

Looking back, I guess I'm always one for dramatic finales. At the end of the last year's New York trip, I was actually detained for half an hour by TSA officials for trying to carry a souvenir knife past the checkpoint! Hahahahaha.. it seriously didn't strike me as a weapon, or anything prohibited for that matter. Talk about moments of aloofness! They let me off the hook though.. perhaps because of my innocent looks? Lol.

And that was it.. our incredible trip to the west finally drew to a close. Truly unforgettable...