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Published: January 21st 2008
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We had an early start to leave Bangkok and were soon on the flight to Hong Kong. Despite there being no leg room seats (we always ask due to Hugh´s size!), this was a reasonably new plane and a comfortable flight so we had our fingers crossed for the next and much longer one. We managed to spend all of the Hong Kong dollars I had found in my pile of foreign money before we left during our couple of hours at Hong Kong airport (on chocolate!) and then onto the 11 hour flight to San Francisco. Sadly, this was a much older plane with very badly designed seats and we still had no leg room. The flight was also badly timed, effectively flying through the day according to Bangkok time but arriving into San Francisco at around 10am. Hugh managed a little sleep but I had almost none until I managed to drop off during the last couple of hours when, of course, they woke us up for breakfast!
Arriving into San Francisco was quite a shock for many reasons, a large one being the cost. A cup of coffee cost more than we had been paying for an
evening meal in Asia! We were surrounded by huge buildings but everything seemed very clean and, for a large city (& compared with Bangkok), little pollution.
We were staying in an slightly alternative hotel - Hotel des Arts - which has most rooms painted by a different artist. Ours was quite subtle, in just turquoise and white gloss, a bit like clouds in the sky, and we weren´t absolutely sure if this was really an artist´s work. The pictures online show some really over the top ones and I´m not sure I´d be able to sleep in some of them! Apart from that, it was very small and a little down at heel but ok.....all for 3 times what we had paid for a much better room in Bangkok.
The first day was a real struggle for us due to jet lag (14 hours difference from Bangkok) - we couldn´t sit down for too long as both of us were nearly asleep but doing anything was a real effort. We managed to feed ourselves and do a few essential admin things (shopping mainly) but when I had to make a phone call to our hotel in Guatemala I
really thought I was not going to be able to make it with my fogged brain. Still we sorted that one out and finally at 8pm allowed ourselves to go to bed. To our suprise and delight we slept through till nearly 8 o´clock and thought we had the whole jet lag thing cracked. We woke to a beautiful sunny day, around 15 degs) and set off to sort out a few things and see the sights.
The 3 remaining days we had there were all beautiful although from what we can gather we were rather lucky as it can often be very foggy. For those of you that don´t know, the city is built around a large bay and there seems to be water on all sides. It really is a fantastic setting and I thought it was a wonderful place. In the city area where we were staying, there seemed to be little traffic and not that many people either so it seemed a very calm and ordered place though I´m sure not all of it is like that.
We did a lot of walking around though managed not to have to walk up too many
of the huge steep hills - while they look great it must be a tiring area to live in! Much of our walking was around the water with the sun glinting off a very blue sea filled with sea lions and a variety of birds. Again, it seems like the gods were shining on us as apparently there are not usually that many sea lions but we saw lots, just bobbing around near the beach.
Sadly the second night I was hit by a jet lag nightmare and had very little sleep, dropping off just as the rubbish truck came around early in the morning. So another fogged brain day made another beautiful day rather difficult but we did manage to take a trip out to Alcatraz. This involves taking a ferry to the infamous island where there is an audio tour made by ex-inmates and staff from the prison which is fascinating. While the prison itself is pretty grim, the views of the bay and the city are spectacular and, in the sun, you can imagine there must have been times when it was not such a bad place to be. Still, many people tried, and failed, to
escape though there are 3 who left the island but have never been heard of since....of course it is presumed that they drowned as the waters around the island have very strong currents.
We also saw many sea lions on the boards by pier 39 where they have been visiting for nearly 20 years - they seemed to be putting on a show for their audience, fighting with each other and splashing about but they are completely wild.
We also had a few trips on the cable cars despite having to queue - just glad we weren´t there in peak season. They are great fun and give lovely views of the city without having to hike up to the top of the big hills. Saw a beautiful sunset across the city on one trip.
Even more wonderful views came from the Coit Tower, which has a rather scary lift (again, not a place for me during busy times!) but amazing views in all direction from the city to the sea. The base of the tower has murals of ´workers´ by Diego Rivera (husband of Frida Kahlo for those who know/saw the film....) which are excellent though interesting
in a place where I wouldn´t immediately expect much about worker´s rights.
On our last day we did a long walk from the end of the cable car to the Golden Gate Bridge in beautiful sunshine - this was the day we saw all the wildlife including a large heron which posed for us for a while. We even had a picnic lunch overlooking the sea - we both agreed it must be a fantastic place to live if it was like that in January as apparently it doesn´t get too hot in Summer either. We, of course, know that it is actually often foggy and damp but then so is Leeds......
The last evening we managed the half price entry to the SF MOMA where there was an excellent exhibition by the man who did the sun installation at Tate Modern (whose name temporarily escapes me!) which had all sorts of whacky things with light as you might expect most of which were interactive. There were also some interesting portrait photographs including one by Martin Chambi. For those that remember my last big trip, he was one of the photographers we were working on when I volunteered
on the project to catalogue old glass negatives of pictures taken by photographers in Cusco in the 19th Century.
So, we were quite sad to leave San Francisco (though our bank account was probably quite pleased!). We left early for the airport as we needed to try to change some later flights at the American Airlines desk. Of course, it turned out that this all has to be done by phone with the check in desks just issuing tickets if necessary and in the end we decided that the cost was prohibitive.
Unfortunately neither flights provided food so we had to pay extortionate amounts at the airports for uninspiring grub. Apart from that the flights (2 each of around 3 hours with a stopover in Dallas) were OK (apart from the large, loud Americans on them) and we arrived into Guatemala City tired and hungry....but more of that next time.
Hope you´re all ok.
Lots of love
H + S xxx
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