Oct 10th 2005. We probably woke-up around 9AM. Oh I forgot to comment on our hotel's room. It was a clean hotel, despite its old 'classic' furnitures. There was no internet at the hotel (actually, the receptionist didn't even use a computer). The breakfast provided was also just bread, coffee. But hey, all we need was just a place to sleep :-). Another surprising thing was we didn't really feel jet-lagged. Probably because we had lots of sleep while crossing the Pacific Ocean yesterday and also maybe because we were too excited with our new experiences.
After taking our shower, we walked to Union Square to find some breakfast. There were many restaurants serving breakfast packages. Seriously, we had to put in our mind that 1 US$ = Rp. 2.000 before all prices felt normal :-). There were Pizza, Mexican food (Burito, Taco), Thai food, Asian (Chinese) food, and various other breakfast that we had no idea what it was. We kept walking until we reached
San Francisco Shopping Center, 1 block south of Union Square. The shopping center had an interesting curved-shaped elevator. We ended up taking our breakfast at
Panda Express in the food court. It's a fast food of Chinese meal. Oh, we also got our first fortune cookie. Inside the cookie, you'd find a word-of-wisdom. I didn't remember what it was about, but it was something nice (well, customers wouldn't be back if they put something rude).
Around 12PM, I contacted Robert. Apparently he was already around the area. Due to my lack of knowledge, Robert had to actually go around the area several times before we finally met him :-). Our first destination then of course was the famous
Golden Gate Bridge. There were lots of tourists. We also took lots of pictures here. We were really lucky because the weather was so good that we could get a clear view of the whole bridge. It was really cold and windy there, however the air felt so refreshing. The ocean was just so blue and crystal clear. It was simply a breathtaking view. Notice the hill behind the bridge in this picture, you should go there if you want the best view of the bridge. The bridge construction itself was also amazing. Did you believe that the cables are actually made from lots of smaller cables so that they could survive earthquake?
Satisfied, we proceeded crossing the bridge on Robert's car. At the end of the bridge, there was another stop point where you could get another view of the bridge. Here we also had a great view of downtown
San Francisco and
Alcatraz from here. You could also go further down to "Vista Point" get a view of the bridge from the bottom.
 We then went a little bit more to the North, to Sausalito. Sausalito was famous for being home of the rich. It had a great bay view. Couples would also find it a romantic place. Robert told us that Li Ming (a HK actor) had a movie made here. |
Our journey continued to some higher land to get just another view of the Golden Gate Bridge. And I have to tell you that you would get the best view from here. Not only that, you would also get an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean from here. City tour wouldn't normally take you to this spot, so there weren't as many tourists here as down there. Thanks to Robert, our "personal tour guide", we got this amazing opportunity.
OK, we were ready to get back to downtown SF. While we didn't need to pay to cross the bridge to the north, you had to pay for the southward direction into the city. But since there were 3 persons in the car, we got a free pass. Robert then took us to the
Palace of Fine Arts. This place was very beatiful. It was like a heavenly palace with really huge structures. Well, imagine it like the place of god/goddess in Greek mythology. If you've seen
The Rock, you'll remember the dome as the set where Sean Connery met his daughter and got caught by Nicholas Cage.
It was around 5 PM already, we then went to the most "weird" (
crookedest) street in San Francisco, or maybe in the world,
Lombard Street. The neighbourhood was just so creative that you actually had to do a zig-zag passing down the road. Unfortunately it was fall season so the flowers were not all blooming. Now just imagine the challenge faced by the owner of any of the house in this neighbourhood to park their car in their garage.
Our "tour" proceeded to the nearby
Coit Tower. From this spot, you could again get a view of the San Francisco bay and downtown San Francisco. We didn't enter the tower tough. The view from here was spectacular already.
It was almost dark already and thus, it was the best time to then visit the
Twin Peaks. It was located pretty far, about 30 mins, south of San Francisco. During our way there, Lego contacted us and informed us that he'd finished with work. Since he lived somewhere near there, we decided to meet there. Twin Peaks at evening was really cold. This was the first time we felt freezingly cold, you know, your teeth and hands shivering. The downtown view at night was amazing. Notice the brighter straight line of lights in the picture, that was the famous
Market Street. I think it was the main road in SF, like Surabaya's Tunjungan. There were lots of professional photographers taking pictures here (with tripod, of course). This was also the second time I met Lego in face. The first time I met him was briefly at his wedding in Yogyakarta a few months before. Hence I couldn't immediately recognize him again here :-), besides it was pretty dark up there.
All 4 of us were hungry, so we decided to have dinner together. Since I had no idea of any place, Robert and Lego discussed it, and
Thanks God It's Friday's (TGIF) was our choice. I ordered some steak, rib IIRC, and it was nyam nyam yummy. You should try their Jack Daniel's menu. This was our first western meal since we arrived at SF. We had lots of talks during dinner, about work, life in US, visas, competition, etc. Thanks to Lego, he was the one who treated us all. :-)
After dinner, Lego kindly took us back to our hotel. Robert went home on his own since his home was closer to the restaurant. And.. that concluded our day tour. Thanks to Robert who kindly took us all around SF. I'd strongly recommend "Robert SF Personal Tour" as the best way to experience SF. I guarantee it will be the most personalized and customized tour for you, expecially for budget tourist like us :-). The only drawback is it's only available on weekend and if he's free from work. Oh btw, Robert said that he would take us to Monterey at the end of the week. Wow!
After taking our shower, we walked to Union Square to find some breakfast. There were many restaurants serving breakfast packages. Seriously, we had to put in our mind that 1 US$ = Rp. 2.000 before all prices felt normal :-). There were Pizza, Mexican food (Burito, Taco), Thai food, Asian (Chinese) food, and various other breakfast that we had no idea what it was. We kept walking until we reached San Francisco Shopping Center, 1 block south of Union Square. The shopping center had an interesting curved-shaped elevator. We ended up taking our breakfast at Panda Express in the food court. It's a fast food of Chinese meal. Oh, we also got our first fortune cookie. Inside the cookie, you'd find a word-of-wisdom. I didn't remember what it was about, but it was something nice (well, customers wouldn't be back if they put something rude).
Around 12PM, I contacted Robert. Apparently he was already around the area. Due to my lack of knowledge, Robert had to actually go around the area several times before we finally met him :-). Our first destination then of course was the famous Golden Gate Bridge. There were lots of tourists. We also took lots of pictures here. We were really lucky because the weather was so good that we could get a clear view of the whole bridge. It was really cold and windy there, however the air felt so refreshing. The ocean was just so blue and crystal clear. It was simply a breathtaking view. Notice the hill behind the bridge in this picture, you should go there if you want the best view of the bridge. The bridge construction itself was also amazing. Did you believe that the cables are actually made from lots of smaller cables so that they could survive earthquake?
We then went a little bit more to the North, to Sausalito. Sausalito was famous for being home of the rich. It had a great bay view. Couples would also find it a romantic place. Robert told us that Li Ming (a HK actor) had a movie made here.
It was around 5 PM already, we then went to the most "weird" (crookedest) street in San Francisco, or maybe in the world, Lombard Street. The neighbourhood was just so creative that you actually had to do a zig-zag passing down the road. Unfortunately it was fall season so the flowers were not all blooming. Now just imagine the challenge faced by the owner of any of the house in this neighbourhood to park their car in their garage.
It was almost dark already and thus, it was the best time to then visit the Twin Peaks. It was located pretty far, about 30 mins, south of San Francisco. During our way there, Lego contacted us and informed us that he'd finished with work. Since he lived somewhere near there, we decided to meet there. Twin Peaks at evening was really cold. This was the first time we felt freezingly cold, you know, your teeth and hands shivering. The downtown view at night was amazing. Notice the brighter straight line of lights in the picture, that was the famous Market Street. I think it was the main road in SF, like Surabaya's Tunjungan. There were lots of professional photographers taking pictures here (with tripod, of course). This was also the second time I met Lego in face. The first time I met him was briefly at his wedding in Yogyakarta a few months before. Hence I couldn't immediately recognize him again here :-), besides it was pretty dark up there.
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