Return to the West

11th to 18th May: San Francisco

It's a bit hard to characterize San Francisco II, because 1) we lived in a shitty part of town and 2) the summer warmth made for a different experience than it was with poo in December. Nevertheless I shall try to break it down, as the rappers would say.

Sunday: Touched down, met Tania at the airport, subsequently checked into our hotel which was in the frickin middle of the shady part of San Fran, replete with funny smells, weird people and strange characters. It was... Bothersome, to say the least. The hotel room itself was ok but unless you feel incredibly brave or carry a gun, I'd suggest my friends not to stay in Civic Center Inn.

Tania and I had a stroll along the Embracadero and Fisherman's Wharf, before joining up with the trio for Becky's 21st at McCormick and Kuleto's (after many pronouncements that we were taking her to a burger joint, hurhur). The wait staff was amazing, the mussels in Red Curry was fgood and everything was perfect. And the wine wasn't bad either, though we had too much fun laughing at Kong as he created flavours in the wine as he sniffed. It was a fun night, with good food. :D

We ended off the night playing Texas Hold'em in my room before the trio left for their hostel. Well, not before my BBC America got hassled by a homeless dude who crossed the road with a taxi serendipitiously pulling up before he could do anything more. Heng siah.

Monday: We woke up kinda late - which was fine, since all we'd planned was the SF Giants - Houston Astros baseball game at night. So we decided to go walk walk around Downtown, hit a couple of department stores and watched "What Happens in Vegas" (in lieu of "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay"), a sweet and silly film but not as fantabulous as Iron Man!!!!!!!!

Sorry, Robert Downey Jr. is just a god.

The Giants-Astros game itself was not bad, though it took me 3 innings to fully understand the game. Fun though, especially when the Giants scored a hoome run and Fred Lewis did awesome shit. When we left though, the Astros had taken the lead 4-3. Tris' curse on the home team has not been broken so far (every match i've attended with the sole exception of the Raptors game where Stanley's karma outbid mine has seen the home team lose). Had an early night but...

Tuesday: Because I'm such a champion, we missed the bus to Napa. We rescheduled, at a $25 cost. I sulked for a bit before a Nutella crepe and watching sealions cheered me up somewhat. Tania was worried I would blow up, but I'm not... Always explosive that way. :p

We ended the day visiting Stanford, which Tania thought was a boring white campus but which turned out to be an interesting trip through Spanish colonial architecture. It was nice meeting up with Jesley and Yongfeng, our very gracious hosts who took us around and about.

Got back late into SF city because Tris did not comprehend how the Caltrain tickets worked, while our friends waited for us at an Indonesian restaurant as the train plodded slowly back. The food at the Indon place was not bad, mind you - though a little unfilling. A short trek back and we slept earlier because...

Wednesday + Thursday: We all got our butts up and left early for Yosemite National Park.

at this moment, Tris will issue a travel advisory: DO NOT BOOK ANY TOURS TO YOSEMITE IF YOU CAN DRIVE. We each paid in excess of US$200 each, only to find that what we got was a bus there, a hotel room and a bus back. While they called it a 'tour'. Oh, and a mumbly bus driver who was doubling up as a tour guide. Quote: "mumble mumble armonds mumble mumble pistachios" (Chinese dude - WAH LAU EH BRUDDER MAKE US LOOK BAD) And the latino woman at the tour center was completely incomprehensible when she pointed to me and said "You are Tris" and pointed to Tania "you Havier". I didn't quite get it either.

BBC Americas hereby condemns California Parlor Car Tours and Grey Line. F**k that shit.

Yosemite is nice, but it was... Hm. In my opinion, overhyped. I had 7 mosquito bites on my neck, we walked past heaps of mule dung and it got way too hot way too fast. It wasn't all that it was cracked up to be - though I will concede now I am less averse to nature. Winter seems so much friendlier a time though, less insects and cooler weather.

though without the sun, Tris wouldn't have worn his fantastic looking sunglasses, his Christmas present from poo who he is very grateful for. :D I mean, for her in general, not just the present. -muah-

Our room was really nice, next to the river and where we enjoyed the company and warmth of a fakey fireplace. Romance was not in the air or on the cards, but good company was and I'm glad we went as a big group - much more fun and much more enjoyable. :)

Tania and I left early on Thursday but we missed the mule rides, so we just had a nice long breakfast and stroll to Mirror Lake, where we bumped into 4 Singaporeans. One thing - Singaporeans who meet other Singaporeans overseas just don't say hi to each other, they kinda gravitate and talk loudly so they let the other party know, but they don't do much more than that. Kinda sad yet bizarrely funny.

We left Yosemite at about 4ish, and proceeded to piss off the whole bus by singing loudly and (with the exception of Kong) off-key, along with other racial inflections that would piss off a majority of Americans, being politically correct but globally ignorant and all. We got back about... 10ish, where Kel-Al-Becky proceeded to book out the rest of their tour while Tania fell asleep and I mulled my essay.

Friday: The Napa Trip that was missed Tuesday was made up for here. Much like Yosemite, it was a bit too warm for me, and the sparkly wine made my tummy queasy. Could've been the lack of food or something. We hit 4 wineries, but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you the names now. Still, it was a nice trip through Napa and Sonoma, and the evening was spent in quite reflection and me being a bit tipsy because I didn't spit all my wine out. :p

Saturday: Because Tania owns a license, we were able to rent a car and drive down to Monterey, which Tania had the biggest crush on because there was a lone cypress tree. I'm dead serious about it. But since she was driving it was fine - enjoyable for me as I leant back and just gave directions.

The cypress tree was nice, but I was personally more interested in the golf course - I think Dad and Wendy would like it, it's the friggin' famous Pebble Beach Golf resort! Quite awesome, pretty pebble beaches (incomparable to Nice though, which be the bomb) and strong winds.

Nothing happened Sunday besides my flight - but there, another chapter of Singaporeanhood ended, and it just remains for me to thank Tania, Alan, Becca and Kong for a wonderful week. Hope you guys are having a good time back wherever you are now. :D

As for me, time to go back to work.

Oh and because I'm lazy you can click here for the photo album. Not that many photos, I relied more on my friends. :p