Good day Blogosphere! Wow, I am actually feeling quite tired this morning… must have been the walking, especially the 3 hour one the other day. *massage legs* actually… arms are also a little tired from carrying a 2 kg load everyday. Or is it 5kg? *massage arms and joints*

I tried looking for Chinatown yesterday. Didn’t really get to see much things there, but I did witness something else on my way there. Gay-bashing! Or rather, the result of someone being gay-bashed. I was walking past this medical center when i saw this guy have bruises on his face. Being the kay poh caring Singaporean, I asked if he was ok and helped him along.

He gave a rather resigned look and after some small talk, I found out that he was beaten up by some guys who didn’t like him. I didn’t dig too much into details. Come to think of it, I’m not sure if I got his name, but I hope he’s well. For a place like SF, where I thought the GLBTs are commonplace, it’s quite shocking to find someone the result of a hate crime.

Chinatown was… well, Chinatown. I was greeted with a Macs at somewhere where I assume is the entrance to Chinatown and being the non-adventurous person that I am, I decided to just settle for some fast food before moving on. I was served by a non-Chinese, but I was wondering if they spoke Mandarin or any forms of dialects at all (and it’d be quite a surprise if they did). I figured that one of the common dialects that’s spoken there was Cantonese and most of them seemed to come from Hong Kong.

After lunch, I decided to venture a little into the smaller streets, which are literally small. The path is a more congested than more of the roads I have walked so far in SF and it’s quite a busy place. It’s very much like the Chinatown that you can find in NY, except that this seems to be… somehow different, but I couldn’t put a finger to it. It’s also probably here that you can find Singapore Noodles or Malaysia Kway Teow, but I’d prefer a Hong Kong Dim Sum anytime. Did I mention that fortune cookies are omnipresent?

Besides hearing from K, I also realised that there are indeed 2 Chinatowns - one for the locals and the other to charm the tourists, but I am not sure which is which. K also mentioned that there is a nice Japan-town that I can go to, but that’s the other direction from where I was heading. Maybe tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

After Chinatown, I found some strength to walk up this really steep slope. I’m not sure if there is a name to it, but there’s a hotel at the end of the road. I took some pictures, but don’t have it with me now… probably update later or something. But from the initial looks of the exterior of the building, I doubt it’s anywhere that I’d stay in anytime soon (read: expensive).

Hmm… the rest of the day was spent walking in and out of shopping centres. Feeling a little tired now. Maybe more updates later… Ciao!

Hello Blogosphere! Today’s another cool day… a little too cool for me! Haha…

Guess what? I checked out the iPhone yesterday… it’s a fad! Like what most people say… you take away the bells and whistles and it’s just… another PDA phone, with non-removable battery and memory.

And it’s a fingerprint collector.

Oh well… perhaps I’m not really an Apple person (with regards to iPods and iPhone and variants of those), but a lot of people would like to get their hands on it to use it as a fashion statement. It’s like… I’ve an iPhone and so I’m cool… I heard that there’s a variant statement in China that goes… I’ve an iPhoney and so I’m cool… :S

Anyway, checking out the iPhone was the highlight yesterday. I wanted to check out Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf and do some (window) shopping at the same time… but I think, for some reason, I missed the whart completely and ended up at some ferry terminal that has some service to some other island. Nonetheless, I took the service and ended up somewhere… which seems like a tourist spot to me. It seems as if there was a Mt Faber there, with shops and houses lining the roads leading to the summit.

By then, evening was approaching and I figured that it’d be wise to head back to the mainland. There is an islet between the island and mainland with some building… I think that’s the statue of liberty Alcatraz, but the ferry didn’t stop there… so it’s a straight ride to downtown for me.

Once back safely on land, I decided that I’d do some window shopping. For once, I belonged to the petite section! Woohoo! I wonder where do petite Singaporeans go to when they are here. Haha… there’s quite a fair bit of variety because no one seems to buy those. There are quite a lot of shoes too! But none to my liking… what a pity. Oh well, will be back for more soon.

Late lunch/Early dinner was at Mac, with some dollar burger that was enough to last me through the evening. Here, there’s no chilli sause, no sweet chilli, nor other exotic sauses in Asia. They have ketchup, and lots of it. Instead of presenting it to you in packets, you have to help yourself from some dispenser. Beats having to ask them for it consistently. And oh, if you are dying for something hot, ask for salsa.

Wanted to check out the nightspot here… but I was carrying too many things to be comfy. I’d probably leave behind my stuffs tomorrow. As for now.. it’s gonna be al fresco mexican food by the yard! Woohoo! Yum yum! =P~~~~~~

Good morning Blogosphere! It’s freezing this morning at 14 deg Celsius, which probably is very good weather for the people here, but it’s freezing for a tropical tourist like myself. Sweater, check! Scarf, check! Water, check!

Breakfast was an alfresco dining by the patio today, consisting of a sunny side up, some sausages and bacon, served together with English breakfast tea and some chips. It’s really a different feeling to have your meals while overlooking the (not-so-big) crowd at the roads. From the patio, it is also possible to observe that the roads are not entirely straight and consists of many slopes.

After the morning mail check, I decided to walk round the neighbourhood by foot yesterday. There are lots of interesting shops, from those selling art stuffs to zodiac books that also helps to interpret your dreams. There are also quite a few rainbow shops that sells interesting pins and tags.

Speaking of which, I noticed that some places or shops hang this rainbow flag. A conversation with the locals revealed that this is really called The Rainbow Flag, which is a symbol of GLTB, which usually means the residents or business supports the GLTB cause. I forgot to ask if it necessarily means that the residents or owners are themselves GLTB. Oh well… I guess it doesn’t really matter here.

Another thing that I realised is that while the map depicts downtown to be pretty near where I am staying, it really isn’t so. I spent 3 hours walking towards downtown but didn’t seem to reach it. The only sight of anything commercial is the occasional supermarket or Walmart (or was it K-mart? or both?) The place seems unusually slow, quite unlike the crowd in Singapore, where everyone seems to be rushing every other minute.

Speaking of Walmart, I encountered this subway (the train, not the sandwich bar) track that runs onto the main road (near one of the Walmarts) and into some tunnel again. It’s nothing new but the only place in Singapore that I saw anything close is the Malaysian railway that cuts through Choa Chu Kang Road near Teck Whye, and it’s not somewhere that I frequent.

After 3 hours, I decided that enough is enough and started searching for directions to make sure that I wasn’t walking the wrong way. I chanced upon a US Postal Service mail man and asked him if I was heading the correct way. The good news was that I was heading in the right direction. The bad news was… it’d take me another 2 hours by foot! Argh!

So, it was off to the bus stop. Finding a bus that goes downtown is easy. But deciding where to stop in downtown is the next headache because… I wasn’t sure of where I was heading. Eventually, I alighted somewhere near Montgomery Station and got a little lost. Everywhere was buildings and more buildings. To add to that, the GPS wasn’t receiving any signals and I had to figure my way around.

By then, I was a little hungry and wondered around, looking for food… like a poor kitten. Thankfully, I found this small Japanese sushi shop that offered quite decent food. The food was nice, pretty much like those that you find in Sushi Tei or Sakae Sushi. Just outside the shop were trucks carrying props for some play that was coming to (or going from) town, but by then, I was too exhausted from the 3 hour walk to figure out more. In the end, I grabbed the train back to Church and 24th Street… home sweet home.

Today will consist of more recce and exploration. The weather’s quite nice and it’s probably a good time to talk a trip to the Bay Area. More updates tonight or tomorrow!

Woohoo! Finally landed after an almost 24 hours flight on the plane. My butt never hurt that much and my legs probably hadn’t cramped that much since I last sat at the back of a 7-seater car.

Weather 

The weather is pretty nice at about 18 deg Celsius in the day. It can drop horribly to 12 deg Celsius at night, and keeping the window open (if you dare!) will keep you frozen for the entire night! The weather is nice enough in the day to walk with just a sweater over your shirt, but I’d prefer to have 2.5 layers on… yes, 2.5 cos’ the 0.5 is just a thin t-shirt that probably does nothing to keep the cold air out, but I still wear it anyway. The sun is pretty nice too because it warms your face a little as your walk down the street. Very nice feeling! *shrieking in excitement*

Food

I’m a small eater, but for 4 bucks, you can get a burger the size of 3 Big Macs side by side. I tried one… some club sandwich… and realised that it was too big to be placed into my mouth. So I needed to have it halved, and after finishing 1 half with fries, I was full enough to have the rest packed back for dinner. :P  There’s Mac too (the fast food, not the computer), but it wasn’t as omnipresent as I thought it’d be. Most of the branches are located in the city center but the lack of them in the suburbs is compensated by the presence of many cafes around.

Communication

I couldn’t remember if my phone was tri-band or quad-band, but there’s absolutely no signal. I’d probably have to rent a phone from somewhere or probably get a US number of sort. Internet cafe is scattered everywhere, so it’s just a matter of finding one that you are comfy with. Some coffee places provide free wifi, but I am a little hesitant about bringing out my laptop in a place that I’m not too familiar with.

Navigation and Transportation

The place’s pretty much a grid at the city center. There are maps at bus stops that show you the bus routes and it’s quite hard to get lost in the city center. There’s the Muni and there’s the BART, and there’s me getting a little confused of what is what. I think I need some time. And oh, the GPS doesn’t work in the city center because the buildings are a little too tall. More on this later.

Okie… time to grab another bite soon.