Tour Guide

Just got back from California yesterday. Still in holiday mood when I was back home but coming in to the lab did boost my nerdy spirit a little. Refreshed all my cultures to get them going again for experiments I plan this coming week.

Back to my trip to California..the plane ride there wasn't very fun because I was really tired from the night before so I slept all the way. But the moment the plane touch down at San Francisco International Airport and I saw fresh green grass, I was so excited. That's the sad thing about being here in the MidWest - you only get to see fresh greenaries half of the year. From the airport, took the Bart Metro System, which is the subway system in San Francisco Bay Area, to Montgomery Bart Station, which is right in the middle of the town area. Walked from there to Broadway, which is where Green Tortoise Hostel is located. In the afternoon, it's a boring place. Not many of the shops are open so I walked to Grant St., which is the main street of Chinatown. The picture below is the popular arch in Jackie Chan movies. It's at the main entrance into Chinatown section of Grant St.


While walking along Grant St., I feel like I'm in Hong Kong. Everyone speaks in Cantonese and it seems like the Americans there are the foreigners instead of the other way around. There are shops with Chinese characters, shops selling the traditional medicine similar to those in M'sia, shops selling clothes that are really low prices, Asian markets that sells all kind of vegetables - brinjal!! - seafood restaurants, dim sum and shops selling electrical goods like cameras. The electrical shops kinda remind me of HK and the way they con people. I wonder if they do that here too. hehe..

I also saw this little tour guide here. It is called the GoCar. It can sit 2 people and it has a Global Positioning System (GPS) that brings you around the town. J and me were walking around at Golden Gate Park and we heard this GoCar that tells you about the place that you're at. Initially I thought it was a speaker from the park. But J saw the car and we figured it's the car. Isn't it cool? But I'm sure it must be costly to rent that. I also wonder if it is powerful enough to go up the slopes of SF. All the roads there are very hilly - kinda like the road near SM Taman Sea in PJ.



From this picture, you can also see the shop selling traditional chinese costumes. There are lots of shops that sell these costumes and fans, clogs, chinese-themed furnitures and decors.

More to come...