03 May, 2006 (Wednesday) San Francisco

San Francisco Driving
Driving in San Francisco scares me; cyclists everywhere, lots of four-way stops, rolling hills and crazy drivers. We at least managed to park the car safely in a residential zone which means we only have to move it once a week to allow for street cleaning. Scott warned us to take out all valuables, so I'm making sure that all my underwear is out of the car and safely stowed away. Clean underwear is priceless. Used underwear is just soiled. (Picture: World's windiest road)


Walking the Streets
Spent the day walking the streets. We walked from the Fillmore district to Downtown (Virgin Megastore, Union Square), through China Town and up to Fisherman's Wharf. By the end of it we were pretty tired. Lots of hills. Good for the legs? I'm yet to get any compliments.


Union Square
Central downtown, surrounded by major department stores and specialty shops. Relatively empty, but it's midweek: one big screen, a neat square of chairs, some punters out eating lunch.


China Town
San Francisco's China Town is famous, and as we walked through we could understand why - it was like being in a mini-Hong Kong, except it smelt better and there were more cars. The place was bustling and the variety was phenomenal - bakeries, eateries, groceries, noodle houses, restaurants, fashion, accessories, services, more eateries. We walked through and dodged the human traffic. Why do Asian people move so slowly and habitually block walkways? One of the best things about having some Asian ancestry is that I can say things like that.(Picture: Feel those San Fran hills)


Fisherman's Wharf
One of the major tourist attractions, the place is filled with gift shops and chowder vendors. Clam chowder goes for between $4.00 to $5.00. Neither Sean nor I wanted to give them the satisfaction of ripping us off with their canned soup. Pier 39 has a lot of specialty shops, but we couldn't find anything too inspiring. The puppet shop freaked me out. Bubba Gump's Shrimp Bar was just disturbing.

On the way to catching a cable car back to Union Square ($5 one-way) I was accosted by a coloured gentleman in sloppy denim and a baseball cap. Initially I ignored him as he yelled at me to stop, but then he claimed that he could tell me where my shoes were from and how long I'd had them. I stopped, a wry smile on my lips, figuring that I'd at least humour the poor soul. Poor soul turned to shyster as he deftly inspected my shoes and in the process wiped shoe wax on them. He then started rhyming to me that I'd been had and this was how he made his living. One shoe wiped, Sean watched on amused. Second shoe wiped he finished his performance and asked me for cash. $5 a shoe, that's $10? Dazed from the last few days and long walk I dumbly handed over the cash. Taken, like that. Lesson learnt:

1) Don't stop for street people
2) If they hassle tell them you've already been ripped off so go hassle some other poor sap
3) If they persist get back in their face and tell them that you've only got $5 to your name, it's supposed to last you another 2 days and that they should hit some other dupe cos you're about to yell for the local constabulary for harassment if they don't give up.

Yeah, not a happy camper.

The cable car line was too long, so we walked it instead. On the way we climbed the world's windiest road and window shopped the funky shop strip of Cow Hollow.(Pier 39 Sea Lion colony)


Scott Scoots
Scott had a quick dinner with us at a local Thai restaurant before dashing for his plane. Along the way he accused me of being a Cadbury and asked about living with Nick and his allegedly womanising ways. I denied any knowledge of Nick womanising. He certainly didn't seem to get much action when he was out with me! Scott left the keys with us and said we were welcome to stay for as long as we like. We promised that we would.