DAY 31 - NYE in NYC - 31st Dec

This was my downtown manhattan escapade. I got up pretty early and walked to and over the brooklyn bridge. It was cold but pretty awesome. So I got on the other side to brooklyn and kind freaked out a little. I mean it was brooklyn. But I ended up have pancakes at a diner near the exit of the bridge. 3 huge pancakes, coffee and 2 sips of orange juice was supposedly $3.95 but add tips and tax it was quickly over $6. That's the problem with this country, sometimes things are deceptively cheap, it tends to fuck with my head.



I got the subway to the financial hub. It was pretty empty since everyone was off for NYE. However once I got to wall st, there were hordes of tourists doing the obligatory of visiting the New York Stock Exchange, I was no exception. But wall street is like any other financial center in the world, hideously dull, so taking a stroll past the harbour I went down to Battery Park.



The lines for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferries stretched for an eternity. Obviously I was not going to get to either today, so I walked to the Staten Island ferries, which go to Staten Island obviously but other than that, they are free, and go straight past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

On the outside of the ferry, the wind chill added to an already chilly day, and it was absolutely FREEZING, but I managed to last long enough to see both sighs. The statue was kind of disappointing really, it's tiny, all the movies and pictures make it out to be this awesome sight right next to Manhattan, but rather it's this tiny thing way in the distance. You can hardly see it from Battery Park.



I got back and managed to make my way up to the Bull near Wall St. I wanted a picture with it, but poor thing was being harrassed by a horde of barbarian tourists whom were climbing on it and everything. So I decided to give it a reprieve of a few days till my fat arse lands on it.

Kept heading north and found the WTC sight. There wasn't much to see other than an obvious construction sight, but it was still a bit emotional standing there. I was in time for the sunset on the Hudson river which was glorious as sunsets always are.



After some soup and a bagel with cream cheese (which is shaping up to be one one of my fav foods ever) I had a nap in prep for NYE at times square. The clan headed to Chinatown for some shanghainese style dinner at around 8. We didn't actually make it to Times Square till about 10pm and thus were penned on 40th St facing the back of the Crystal Ball, meaning we couldn't see jack.



It was well that we only waited 2 hours cause the resulting crappiness had to seen to be believed...no countdown no nothing, 10 seconds worth of fireworks off one building and that was it, everyone either went home or to an after party. Perhaps it was my lack of inebriation but by god that was probably the most sucky NYE I've ever had. I think NYE in Sydney is probably the best in the world now.



We got back to the hotel and ended up watching the South Park movie on telly. I think that was the highlight of my night. I love that movie.

DAY 18 - Downtown San Francisco part II - 18th Dec

Another day in downtown San Fran, I took the BART again, and it was pissing down with rain. I hung around the union square shops for a bit and then went around Yebuena gardens, which were indeed very grey and very wet and cold. I thought about going to museum of modern art which was right next to the gardens but realised would have to take off most of the layers i was wearing and I really couldn't be bothered.

So I made my way to the Powell st cable cars and took a cable car to Lombard street, a bogan aussie family sits next too me..by god, does the aussie accent really sound that bogan? Rain starts pissing down the minute I get off the car on
Lombard street. It's still grey and wet, but i decided to walk down and up anyway. The street supposedly holds the record for being the crookedest road in the world. It's just really a series of zigzags down a hill. Perhaps it's prettier in summer when all the flowers lining the road bloom.

So it pisses down some more and I caught the next cable car to fisherman's wharf. Relieved myself at the restroom in the Del Monte Cannery. Brilliantly hidden public restroom in san fran that I know about due to the fact that the restroom at Starbucks the other day was out and I was directed to this one by the starbucks guy. Oh yeah and it is a working cannery. I don't know what they can but it's probably fish.

I walked out and it was all sunny, wtf? san fran is becoming more like sydney everyday. I hung around the wharf a bit, checked out Hyde Pier which had moored boats you can tour.

Decided weather was good enough to visit the wave organ. But was famished so hopped into In & Out Burger. Last time I had In & Out (A Californian tradition since the burger chain only exists in this state) I didn't get a chance to try the burger, this time I had the works, a burger, fries and a strawberry shake. The shake is still the most awesome shake ever. Right amount of creaminess and not too cold and not overly sweet. The fries are fresh but are not double fried which means they lose their crunchiness very quickly which is disappointing. So by the end of your meal you end up with some very limp fries. The burger although very fresh still felt a bit greasy and the entire slice of raw onion they put in played with the flavour a little too much. I like my onions grilled thanks. But overall a very satisfactory and filling lunch for $6.17. Did I also mention that I was served by Derrell, whose identical twin brother, younger by 22min Terrell was serving the 2nd counter? Only in America.

I hiked (san fran offers a lot of urban hiking) to the bus stop to get a bus to the Palace of Art, a huge grecian column thingymajigmy in the middle of San Fran, built in 1915 for some fair. It's great, it's beautiful but it really doesn't have any other purpose than just sitting there and looking pretty.

Took a detour around Marina park, absolutely stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Beach was full of people and dogs. Took my time getting to the Wave Organ which was at the end of a piece of random land jutting out from the Marina. It was wet going but once I got there, the wave organ was thoroughly disappointing as it was too small and hardly made a sound. Perhaps the tides were too low, however I found something else to occupy my time. Standing there it felt like being in the middle of the ocean. Golden Gate to the east, Alcatraz to the west, Marin County to the North and Downtown San Fran in the South. I was standing in the middle of beauty. A few other people were standing just like me, deep in there own thoughts, in awe of what man and nature have created in this city.

I took the bus back to fisherman's wharf and the light was waning and the seediness of the area became more and more evident. So I hopped on a streetcar down the Embarcadero and caught the BART home in time for my cousins birthday dinner.

pics here

DAY 16 - Downtown San Francisco - 16th Dec

No pictures today because I stupidly left my SD card in my SD card reader, but Megan and Tracey might have some.

I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Which is like a carpeted metro train. Slightly old now but very one time, as opposed to Sydney trains Unluckily I also ran smack bang into an Oakland Raiders fan. Therefore I shared the carriage with multitudes of rabid Raiders fans and what turned out to be the slowest BART train in history. But and old man tried to give me his seat which was really nice but I was like, uh no thanks, usually i'd be giving up my seat for you. The US is weird, if you're female, men will give you a seat no matter how old they are.

I got out at the Montgomery St station, which is in the financial district. Finally my first proper high rise downtown in 3 weeks or so. I took a turn on Grant Ave into Chinatown. It's a very narrow street filled with kitsch souvenier shops. I purchased some cheap postcards which were cool. San Fran shirts were selling for about 2 bucks each, which begged me to make those bad 2 dollar, 2 dollar jokes.

On every cross street I was amazed at the hilliness of San Fran. This city is like an entire rollercoaster ride, steep dips and steep inclines. It's crazy. I turned onto stockton street which has become the main shopping street for chinese people in San Fran. And boy was it like China. Markets, fruits, veges, meat and lots and lots of Chinese people. The pavement was hard to get through and a couple of times I felt like yelling, move it or lose grandma to the tiny old women in front of me who seem to think it's totally fine stop right in the middle of the pavement and have a 5 hour conversation.

I met up with megan's clan and unsuprisingly had Viet for lunch. We were then driven to the Golden Gate bridge. A monolithic feat of construction, it's narrower than I thought but it's beauty is unparalleled. The huge expanse of the pacific on the west, the expanse of the bay on the east, downtown to the south and the north, the hills of Marin County. We ended up walking 1/3 of the bridge before people decided it was too cold to continue. We then decided we wanted to go ride cable cars and thus got dropped off near Fisherman's Wharf.

With my trusty map in two I directed everyone to the Powell Mason line, we bought $11 all you can ride tickets (considering 1 way is already $5, this was probably a good idea). The cable car is an interesting concept, rickety yet sturdy, it's the rollercoaster carriage working on the rails of San Fran. At the end of the line we ended in the crowded and brightly lit shopping district of Union Square, we then boarded the other line, Powell Hyde, which was much more hilly (if that is even possible) and the views were brilliant.

Went to get Starbucks near the Del Monte Cannery for hot chocolate, then I bid goodbye to Megan and family till New York. I walking around the cannery a bit I decided to get back on the cable car to Union Square. Halfway up Hyde street we had to stop because there was a traffic accident up ahead. Unable to get off or go anywhere we just waited. I guess that's the problem with cable cars, it has to share the same road as normal cars, so if anything gets on the rail it stops. On the cable car I had to stand next to drunk Chinese-Russian gangster and his Russian beauty queen girlfriend. Humanity is the same all around the world.

Ended up having a very unpleasant Burger King dinner at Union Square before heading back on the BART. San Fran is awesome, burger king is however not.

DAY 5 - Downtown LA in 1.5 hours - 5th Dec

Downtown LA is like every main tourist destination in big cities. Rundown, dirty and full of homeless and hawkers. I didn't expect it to be much but in reality there really is very little to see around.

We walked to the kodak theatre which looked kind of bland, went through it's shopping centre and found the deck viewing the Hollywood sign, it was so far in the distance it was quite hard to capture on camera. Overall the facade of the Kodak theatre is rather unmajestic. They must sprinkle some serious fairy dust before the awards ceremonies to make it all pretty and nice.



Grauman's Chinese theatre, although steeped in movie history still felt as tacky as the area and people surrounding it. Perhaps it was my mood on the day or the effect of earlier material I've read about downtown LA but even though I've wanted to see the walk of stars and the star prints for as long as I can remember, I felt like I wanted to leave the minute I got there.



In fact I was so disenfranchised I couldn't even be bothered finding the stars of celebs I liked nor did I take any photos of stars. The entire walk just seemed to tacky, fake and unnecessarily full of unworthy celebs like Phil Collins...ha. Perhaps I've become WAY too cynical, or rather I had most of my fun on the Hong Kong Version of the walk of fame in 2005 and thus my excitement was diluted, but it just seemed the more I looked at LA as the movie capital of my dreams the more I didn't want to be here or work here. It's funny how films create a dream reality but once you really look into the substance that's actually there, there isn't much. There is ample reason why LA and hollywood in particular is billed as shallow community. I'm not sure when my LA cynicism started but all those movies and TV shows which previously made everything look so appealing seem to have marginal affect on me now. Of course there are still appealing aspects of Hollywood, but perhaps I'm old and educated enough to realise that I need something more substantial than what this place offers.

It seemed that there were only limited prints outside the Chinese theatre, either very recent ones or very old ones. I think those in the middle get shafted somewhere else. John Woo was the most recent and I happily got a pic with his prints. And he also wrote his name in chinese...yay!!! And of course I got a pic with Spielberg's prints cause he will forever be my hero.



After Grauman's we went for a drive up Sunset Boulevard, through Beverly Hills (aka the suburb of great hedges) and Rodeo Drive. It was dark and I didn't see much other than that Rodeo Drive was insanely sparkly and top end. But rather i was too tired to care. I don't like traveling when I'm tired because I get grouchy and I don't care about the places I'm seeing. It's a pity since I hoped to see downtown and the rich parts of LA on a better note. Perhaps next time.



For Alan and Lam,