Day 13 (18/5) - San Francisco
After about a week, the ends of my hair were starting to stick together a lot. Someone's theory was that it was because of the static, which is discharged in Singapore due to the humidity.
While hiking the previous Saturday, I was not the only one to damage my shoes - Tong Wei's got a hole.
We were supposed to go to Monterey today, but it fell through because we couldn't get a bus in time. Originally, Aileen, Weiwei and I were going to go to San Francisco, but the first was tempted by free lunch and so stayed behind with the rest, who did things like laundry, going for more talks in Stanford and watching a hiphop (?) concert.
Mission Dolores, the oldest building in San Francisco (founded 1776)
Chapel
Altar
One of the side carvings
Basilica
Altar
Water
Madonna and Child
Madonna mosaic
Guillermo Granzio. Mural about the Spanish arrival
Early 19th c. Spanish Colonial picture on paper with silk embroidery showing the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity
Indian hunting stuff
Cemetery
Mission
We wanted to get down to Fisherman's Wharf, and I asked one bus driver if his bus went to the sea (the bus didn't quite go to the wharf). He claimed it didn't. Later we found out, after trying the bus in the other direction, that his bus did. Mexican
busboys should learn to speak goddamn English.
We wanted to go to Alcatraz, but it was fully booked for the next 21 hours. Nearby, a scalper was hawking tickets for $30 (original price: $21.75). He claimed he was selling them on behalf of a timeshare. Right. My companion was inclined to buy tickets, but I wasn't hot about the idea - maybe I should've gone for it.
Pier 39
After lunch we went to Lombard Street, specifically the stretch dubbed "the world's crookedest street" (supposedly it's only the crookedest in the US, but I can't find information on which is the crookedest in the world).
Steep road in vicinity. It's so steep they have 90 degree parking, and tour buses and vans with a capacity of more than 8 people are banned from the vicinity.
View from top
Cable Car
Pizza ad: "Pizza Orgasmica. 'We never fake it.'" Seems they had pizzas like "ménage a trois," "doggie style," and "Latin Lover."
After that we proceeded to the Golden Gate Bridge, to walk it.
Sign on the bridge: "No U-turn". What moron would make a U-turn there?!
At one point, some of my batteries fell out from my camera pouch. Though I picked up what I could find, 1 disposable battery seemed to have rolled into the water.
Bay
Anti-suicide signs. My favourite is: "Crisis Counselling: There is hope. Make the call. The consequences of jumping from this bridge are fatal and tragic."
Rough halfway mark
Near the end
Cove on the other side
Heading back
The BART is convenient (if expensive) but the annoying thing is that it misses out large chunks of San Francisco - you need to transfer to the metro, which is annoying.
Ad at a bus stop about human trafficking: "Is someone you know being FORCED to work?" The bus driver was very amused and said: "Yeah, me!"
I don't know how people can get so upset about other people using cell phones, say, in the train. Carrying on a conversation on a cell phone really isn't very different from talking to someone beside you. Hell, since the other person isn't there it's even better since you get half the noise. If you want to ban cell phone usage, you might as well ban conversation.
I can't figure out how sales tax works. Some suggested that items below a certain price wouldn't get sales tax, but it doesn't work that way, as in these examples: $1 for 4 small chocolates (sales tax levied), $1.99 for cashew nuts at Safeway (no sales tax), $2 for 6 stink bombs in Chinatonw (sales tax levied), $4.99 + $1 for a sandwich plus a meal deal at Safeway (sales tax levied on the meal deal bit, not the sandwich, for $6.08 overall). It's seems arbitrary and bizarre.
[Someone: Sales tax probably works by classification. Basic food and non basic or non essentials. Just like Australia's GST.
The government or some 'independant body', of course, is the sole arbitrator of what is a basic food and what is not.]
The Safeway in San Francisco we went to had a coin dispenser at the end of the checkout counter which shot out the coins part of your change. This was very smart, not only because it saved labour but because some people would inevitably forget to collect their change or not bother, and they would be able to pocket it.
When I got back, I found that the guys didn't do laundry for me - they forgot, though I'd lent them my soap. Boo hoo. This messed up my clothes schedule for the week ahead.