Alex-Cheryl: San Francisco: Day 1

Checked into Holiday Inn – Market Street – Chinatown – Fisherman’s Wharf at night

We landed in San Francisco at 12noon, found our way to Holiday Inn and checked in. We were very happy to be informed that we were upgraded to a better room. And as Alex puts it...

Booking the San Francisco Hotel: USD 150 per night
Actual room cost: USD 450 per night
Realizing we were upgraded: Priceless

Sounds familiar?
With everything else... there is Mastercard! Hahaha.. Below are the shots of our room.

After a quick appreciation of the room, we decided to explore the streets on foot. The hotel was at Market Street & 8th Street so it was only a short walk to the center of the city. At every corner was a restaurant - Carls Jr, Subway, Burger King, pizza places, taco places and even a shop for Louisiana Fried Chicken! We then walked past shopping centres - Bloomingdales, Westfield, Neiman Marcus... We didn’t do any shopping there though, just window shopping and taking in the atmosphere.

We then decided to walk to Chinatown instead of taking the tram. There were light showers all the time we were in San Francisco. We didn’t think to bring an umbrella with us on our honeymoon so we walked under the wet drops deciding to get an el cheapo umbrella from Chinatown. Chinese shops = surely it must have cheap umbrellas!

The entrance to Chinatown has a gigantic archway. You know you must be in Chinatown after the arch because the shops are crowded with items for sale, spilling onto the walkway just a few feet away from the street. There are also antique shops aplenty, selling sculptures and artefacts. We almost immediately felt at home because everyone around us were speaking Cantonese at the top of their voices. Actually everywhere we went in San Francisco we saw Chinese residents. It was a big change from New York.

By this time we were getting hungry and were really excited to be able to eat Chinese cooking. We were craving the Asian taste pretty badly. New York was mainly burgers, hot dogs, pasta, pizza, soups, bacon... you know, the typical American diet. There were so many shops to choose from so we kinda eeny, meeny, miny, moe-d and picked NEW KING TIN Restaurant!

Oh boy, was the food good. It had the necessary ‘wok hei’ that makes Chinese cooking yum. The portions were gigantic. We had our fill and still had enough to pack away for dinner. Alex and I got really excited when we saw their takeaway boxes. It’s the Chinese paper ones! Just like in American movies!

Stir Fried Beef with flat noodles

Yang Chow Fried Rice

Haha... you must thinking “What la- like that also excited.”

Australia don’t have ok? Takeaway in Aus comes in plastic microwave-able containers. Very boring. It doesn’t complete the Chinese feel.

Anyway, if you do end up in Chinatown, look for New King Tin. Their portions are huge, prices are so much cheaper and its good stuff.

After eating to our brim, we headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf. The sun set at 5.30pm and once it goes down, the chill comes on pretty quickly. So by the time we hit the wharf it was nearly all dark. We took the tram to Pier 39. That’s where the sea lions were! Pier 39 was a brightly lit place with shops and restaurants for tourist shopping.

Pier 39 with many shops

Sea lions on deck

Lone sea lion making 'sea lion' calls... Oo-uk! Oo-uk!

We took the old San Francisco tram on our return trip and it was a nice relaxing ride back. The trams here are still run the old way. At the end of the line, the conductor gets down to pull the tram around a circle for it to head back on the opposite direction on which it came. I thought it was pretty quaint. Great that an old contraption like that can still work effectively in this day and age. Not to mention it’s a great heritage to keep for a city.