Day 20 (25/5) - San Francisco
When we exited Oakland airport after a few hours of sleep snatched in the waiting area, we found that it was hideously, horrendously cold - worse than any other day of the trip (and indeed night). To think that it was almost memorial day.
The AirBART (shuttle between the airport and the BART station) driver had a shaved head, except for a tiny tuft of hair at the front. He said another bus driver had been fired for letting passengers stand in front of the yellow line (drawn on the floor just behind his seat). Vinod left us to join his uncle, so we were left with 5 (Guan Zheng went to join his friends at Stanford at night and the next day).
My 4 year old rechargeable batteries were starting to kaput, but it was okay because Canon had given me 4 new ones when I bought my camera, and it used only 2 at a time.
After checking into the hostel, the rest wanted to explore Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge (3 of them had not visited San Francisco with the 12 of us). I ran off to Golden Gate Park.
Seen at Market Street Cinema (a strip joint): "See the beauty, touch the magic". They also had loads of promotions: "Swingers Saturdays" (couples got half off), "White Collar Wednesdays" (you got $5 off admission on showing your business card), "Dirty 30 Thursdays" (men above 30 got $5 off admission) and "Recovery Mondays" (free admission day and night!)
Haight-Ashbury
There was a place called "Pork Store Cafe" (which had won an interesting award: 'Best flirtation with grease'). I couldn't resist and had lunch there. Though the menu was not particularly porky, I zeroed in on a BBQ pork loin sandwich.
The BJ in Haight-Ashbury was ridiculous - $4.20 a scoop (doubtless without tax). This was more than a pint at 7-11 ($3.99).
Nice house in Haight-Ashbury
T-shirt design seen in a shop window: "Super design by some underground artist you've never heard of before because you're not cool". In another shop window: "Hair-models wanted. All types of colours and cuts". I wouldn't volunteered if I'd had more time.
Golden Gate Park
Pond
Bowles Rhododendrons
Conservatory of Flowers
I then went to look at flora.
Breadfruit plant. Unfortunately it had no fruit.
Philodendron Liana
There was a display on the Goldman Environmental Prize. Olya Melen from Ukraine said her efforts to save the Danube Delta caused her to be 'denounced by the corrupt and lawless pre-Orange Revolution government'. Such ethnocentrism and presumptuous cultural imperialism was unseemly in a venue ostensibly dedicated to showcasing flora. They need to close the place down for interfering in other countries' internal affairs.
"Miraculous fruit"
"Double Coconut"
Wardian Case - this is a self-sustaining plant life support unit.
Highland Tropics. This was one of several climate-controlled rooms dedicated to plants growing in different habitats. The weather in here was a pleasure to enjoy, especially compared with the Lowland Tropics room.
In the aquatic plants room, they had rice. Hahahahahahaha. One woman asked me, "how does rice grows?". She had to repeat herself before I realised she was talking to me. I was amused that she thought I'd know about rice - maybe I should have asked her if potatoes were tubers.
Aquatic plants: Amazong Water Lillies, Rice
Pitcher plants (I think)
Me at the Highland Tropics
Red Orchids
Plants in a famous pot
Milk tree
Carnivorous plants
Venus Fly Traps
Flypaper plants
Pitfall pitchers
Hanging from the ceiling
Turtle plant
Another plant on the ceiling
I then went to the AIDS memorial grove.
Next was the Shakespeare Garden, where they had plants mentioned by Shakespeare.
I saw some people letting a dog lap water from a saucepan. Ugh.
Then I wandered over to the Conservatory of Music. The finishing touches were being put on the place; a Verdi memorial was being blowtorched (to seal in the varnish, I suppose).
Beethoven memorial
De Young museum opposite
Although the Beethoven memorial was grand, the Verdi one was even more impressive. Thus, when I saw the largest and most elaborate monument, I was left in no doubt that it was to honour the greatest Composer of all time. Who was it, I wondered? Might it be Bach or Mozart? Perhaps they would choose someone more revolutionary like Shostakovich, contemporary like Philip Glass or controversial like John Cage.
Monument to Francis Scott Key, the man who composed the Star Spangled Banner (... it figures)
Some priest
My final destination in the Golden Gate Park was the Japanese Tea Garden. Admission was $4, but what the hell, I went for it anyway, especially since I wouldn't get to visit Alcatraz and didn't have time to visit the Palace of the Legion of Honour (besides which, I'd gotten enough fake sights in Vegas; why see a replica of a Parisian building?!) If I'd had come between 9-10am on Monday, Wednesday or Friday admission would've been free (wth).
[Addendum: It was designed by Makato Hagiwara, inventor of the fortune cookie.]
Pavilion where you could order a pot of tea for $2.95 (or thereabouts). It also offered 3 types of cookies, including fortune cookies. I hung around for a while and realised that the girls in kimonos were talking to each other in Cantonese.
The shop sold a lot of stuff, but much of it was Chinese, not Japanese. For example they had Chinese cookbooks, zodiac posters, dragons (they looked Japanese to me rather than Chinese; I have since discovered that Chinese dragons had five toes and Japanese dragons three, but am unable to cross-reference back with the store's dragons), traditional silk purses and mock license plates with English names in Simplified Chinese characters (eg David is "Da Wei").
There was a bronze peace lantern from 1953, commemmorating the 1951 peace treaty with the US. Japanese school kids donated money to buy the lanten. I couldn't help but think of parallels with the "donation" the Overseas Chinese Association gave Japan in 1942.
Zen Garden
1790 Buddha from Tajima
I was quite surprised to see this Japanese Jacob's Ladder. At first I thought it was just there for kids to have fun on (you need to *climb* it, rather than walk on it), but one of the 46 prints in "Thirty six views of Mount Fuji",Fukagawa Mannen-bashi, shows a bridge which also has a steep angle (though not as steep as this one).
[Addendum: It's a moon bridge.]
I then met the rest at Castro to have dinner with Daniel.
Wth is gay cleaning?!
Gay pride flag.
It was end May but I saw my breath forming mist in front of my face. Wth.
We ate at Cote Sud, which had great food (and a wonderful free flow of bread had been baked with butter, giving it a great fragrance and slight crumbliness, which made up for the small portions). However, I'm still trying to figure out what "solid gay family travel values" are.
Creepy toilet in Cote Sud. I can just imagine Snow White being offered the apple here.
The tram conductor gave me a ticket which expired half an hour before I got on the tram (instead of 1.5 hours after). Gah.
Quotes:
*Brings word document onscreen* Look at that... Don't look leh, very embarrassing.
[On getting a Mac] I'm sick of Windows, and it looks good. I'm superficial. Looking good and dumb. [Student: At least you look good.] But you can't connect to wireless [networks].
[Random comment while bathing: I'm inside] Okay. We're outside.