It all came up in a discussion with my friend Ramana when he was in NY that he had never been to the west coast and he wanted to go (I didn't know he had some other reason as well). I had never been to the west coast and thought i should not miss this chance. The destination was going to be San Francisco where Deepu was staying.
Day One:
The flight was at 7.15am from NY and i had to leave my home at around 4.30am as i decided to take the subway. It was quite a bad start to the tour since the 'E' train was not running on that route and i had to take a cab. I used the self service check in for the first time and it was very simple and fast. I was so sleepy by the time i got into the plane and i slept off for about 2 hrs. I was hungry and thought i will get something to eat, but i was wrong. I also noticed that the domestic flights in US charge you for food and for the headphones as well. I got a good view of SF while landing and it looked impressive. The flight was delayed for about an hour by the time I reached SF, I was starving.
My friend Deepu and his girlfriend CJ were at the airport and we waited for some more time for Ramana to arrive. The next step immediately was to have lunch and we closed on a Thai place. Frankly, i could have eaten anything by this time. Then, we checked into the hotel (it was a Patel inn) and went to my friends' home. We were enthralled with XBOX for quite sometime till the evening. We were playing like teenagers who had never seen these games before and the main focus areas were on tennis and football and i was getting thrashed by Deepu especially in tennis, although me and Ramana were in the same league. Their home was really well decorated and had all the gizmo stuff you can imagine. Ramana set up dinner with one of his college friends at San Jose and we all decided to go to a Mexican restaurant. It was a pretty good restaurant and the dinner conversation was mainly around the IT industry, India and US immigration. That's it for day one.
Day Two:
We were all set for the insider's tour of SF called the CJ Tour. I suggest everyone take it, but it is available only for the lucky few though. The four of us set off with CJ driving the tour and the car. We started off with a breakfast stop at a bagel place and it was delicious. The tour moved onto the gay part of town (Castro) and it was quite a sight. I think it is one of those places where women can feel very safe and the men can feel insecure. The whole neighbourhood has a different look and even the ads on the street are very different. The tour moved around downtown and the various sights there. Most of the roads have steep gradients and you would be pretty lucky to find a flat road. If the brakes fail while driving within SF, it is going to really scary. CJ led us thro' a street that is technically more crooked than the famous Lombard Street.
We were all set for the insider's tour of SF called the CJ Tour. I suggest everyone take it, but it is available only for the lucky few though. The four of us set off with CJ driving the tour and the car. We started off with a breakfast stop at a bagel place and it was delicious. The tour moved onto the gay part of town (Castro) and it was quite a sight. I think it is one of those places where women can feel very safe and the men can feel insecure. The whole neighbourhood has a different look and even the ads on the street are very different. The tour moved around downtown and the various sights there. Most of the roads have steep gradients and you would be pretty lucky to find a flat road. If the brakes fail while driving within SF, it is going to really scary. CJ led us thro' a street that is technically more crooked than the famous Lombard Street.
As we travelled within the city, I particularly liked the houses. They were mostly single storied with each house different from the other and has an old world charm about them. It is like going back in time, especially when you go from NY where you have tall buildings everywhere. We moved onto the 'twin peaks' which is one of the higher places where you can get a good view of the city. We reached the tourist part of the town (near the pier) and was lucky to get a peek at a bike race (later found that it was tour de california). I am a big follower of Tour de france and it was great to see the cyclists in full gear. We moved onto the Ghirardelli square (later realized that it can be called the chocolate square) which is kind of a historic place cum a shopping area near the pier. There was pretty view from the square. It is named after Domingo Ghirardelli who started Ghirardelli chocolate company. The hot chocolate fudge was huge and simply out of this world. That was lunch.
We moved onto the most famous landmark 'Golden gate bridge'. The bridge looks and is quite old and is imposing. The location is very scenic and has a kind of aura about it. This bridge connects SF city to Marin county and is about 1.7miles long. There have been more than 1300 suicide attempts and only about 25 people have survived. We had a good view of the bridge from various locations and each of the views was a pretty sight and very different as well. Then, we moved along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean on the famous US highway 101 (California state route 1 within Calif) that runs along the west coast of the United States from north to south. It is very picturesque with the Pacific Ocean on one side and is supposedly dangerous at times (extreme weather conditions like fog and landslides). We went to a couple of beaches in the area and one of them being inhabited by a very few people and it was a beach all for yourself. The water here in the Pacific ocean is very cold and there were a lot of surfers though. It was my birthday that day and we had a nice celebration at Deepu's home in the night.
Day Three:
It was a slow start for the day with a heavy breakfast. Ramana and I decided to explore the 'Patel points' (term coined by Deepu for common places where the tourists go). Main targets for today were Alcatraz (tickets were not available but we wanted to give it a shot), fisheman's wharf and the pier. We took the BART (subway in SF) and it is carpeted with cushioned seats. We took the cable car from downtown and went upto fisherman's wharf. It is a one carriage car wherein you can stand on the foot board (reminded me of the train in Cubbon park in bgl and the days I used to go on footboard in BTS). It passed through China town and other neighbourhoods and it was a fun 20 min ride. As soon as Ramana reached the fisherman's wharf, he noticed the Chinese guy who paints portraits and was immediately attracted to it. His portrait was done in about 10 min and it was very good and he was looking younger too. I also got my portrait done, was motionless for about 10min and it was a strange experience. You have to await with suspense and bated breath to see how it has come out (my portrait came out very well and looked as good as me) and it is torturous to see the expression of the passers by on the road. It reminded me of a gag show where they showed a painter painting a person as an ape and all the passers by used to look at the portrait and laugh like mad. By the time my portrait was done, I had a huge fan following (should I say the painter). We got more business for him with people lined up to get their portraits done.
It was a slow start for the day with a heavy breakfast. Ramana and I decided to explore the 'Patel points' (term coined by Deepu for common places where the tourists go). Main targets for today were Alcatraz (tickets were not available but we wanted to give it a shot), fisheman's wharf and the pier. We took the BART (subway in SF) and it is carpeted with cushioned seats. We took the cable car from downtown and went upto fisherman's wharf. It is a one carriage car wherein you can stand on the foot board (reminded me of the train in Cubbon park in bgl and the days I used to go on footboard in BTS). It passed through China town and other neighbourhoods and it was a fun 20 min ride. As soon as Ramana reached the fisherman's wharf, he noticed the Chinese guy who paints portraits and was immediately attracted to it. His portrait was done in about 10 min and it was very good and he was looking younger too. I also got my portrait done, was motionless for about 10min and it was a strange experience. You have to await with suspense and bated breath to see how it has come out (my portrait came out very well and looked as good as me) and it is torturous to see the expression of the passers by on the road. It reminded me of a gag show where they showed a painter painting a person as an ape and all the passers by used to look at the portrait and laugh like mad. By the time my portrait was done, I had a huge fan following (should I say the painter). We got more business for him with people lined up to get their portraits done.
We walked along the pier and took a lot of interest in the various street shows that were happening (card tricks, juggling, dancing, music and so on). We could not get the tickets to Alcatraz (supposed to be really good) and we were wondering of any way to getting onto it (there has been no reported escape from the Alcatraz prison in its history). We roamed around the pier and returned back by the cable car again and reached home. Ramana left the same night to Phili and I left the next day morning to NY.
It was a trip filled with new experiences, scenic beauty, a bit of cold weather and sunshine, excellent food and spending time with wonderful people.
Note: I will add a few photos once i get them.
No comments:
Post a Comment