January 30, 2011

When I left for New York, I knew it would take me time to settle in before I could start posting again. However, I never thought it would take me over 6 months before I would finally come around to updating this site again! I know I've made excuses before, but I was blindsided by how much work there was this first semester. Luckily, I've had a few weeks to re-energize and I'm pumped and ready for the last few months of classes. So before diving into school again, I wanted to throw up some new pictures.


A picture of the North Beach posse from the roof of the Beach House apartment! At some point in time, each one of us in this photo lived in North Beach. Whether it be Norbert hanging out on Powell Street by Trader Joe's, John sleeping in my living room or Jean and me waking up to semis driving by on Bay, it was a fun neighborhood that I'll always love!


The Beach House in all it's glory. It was an ugly apartment made of shoddy material, but with such close access to all the important things in life - within two blocks of Trader Joe's, Safeway and 24 Hour Fitness - it was hard not to fall in love with this place! If only this combination occurred more frequently in life!


My Ford Fusion, aka Bandit. Not only did Bandit take me all over California, but he also taught me the fine art of driving stick-shift through the hilly streets of San Francisco. Thank you Bandit for providing me with 4 wonderful years of service. May my father continue to take good care of you as I have and enjoy you the way I did. Drive on!


Jean snacking on some leftover Korean fried chicken. She eats this stuff the way hamsters eat sunflower seeds.


I bought a pair of heavy duty rainboots the day after my first blizzard here and I have since seen two more blizzard pass through the city. This just goes to show why rainboots are so key during this time of year!


One thing that really confuses me about New York City is that people throw their garbage out on the streets rather than throwing it out into a container and taking that container out onto the sidewalk! Not only is it unsanitary, but whenever there's a blizzard the garbage just piles up and late at night you can see families of rats rummaging through them. Gross.


I wanted to try this ice cream place last fall but never had time to do so until today. I really enjoy independent ice cream shops and I love trying new ice cream flavors. I tried the almond cookie here and thought it was pretty good. I probably won't come by again for a while, but it will be worth visiting again in the summer!


Finally, I sat down one night and drew a new subway plan for New York City. It's hard to see, but essentially my recommendations would include 5 North/South lines through Manhattan, a figure 8 line through midtown, and two circle lines, one downtown and another through Harlem. I think in making these changes it would be easier to get across the island from any point within Manhattan and it would better serve the people of New York compared to the haphazardly planned system we have now.

July 20, 2010

After finally settling back into my regular routine, I've finally found time to post pictures from my life post-Asia! Since flying home, I've been pretty busy coordinating the "great move." For those who don't know yet, I'll be leaving San Francisco in August to start business school at NYU. I'm definitely very excited to start my new life in New York, but I also wish I had more time to spend in San Francisco. I'm sure as time winds down, this feeling of wanting to extend my stay here will only grow more apparent, but I'm determined to make the most of what little time I still have left! So as I'm frantically trying to balance the need to secure housing with the need to spend time with family and friends, I'll leave you, my faithful fans (!), with pictures from my recent happenings...


I've never been much of a fan of the Mission. People always talk about the great burritos or the wonderful taco stands, but nothing there has really caught my eye (nor the attention of my stomach). Luckily, however, I went down last weekend (for what may possibly be my last hurrah there) to try the tamales at La Oaxaquena. "Wow," is the only word that can express my satisfaction! They make what was possibly the best tamale ever (at least as far as it comes to tamales I've tried in San Francisco or Los Angeles). If anyone happens to find themselves in the neighborhood, you'll want to get in on the chicken mole tamale wrapped in banana leaf (although, the only vital ingredient is the mole). As for the picture, this is Ziv and Jean just before we placed our orders. Also, take note of Ziv's Sesame Street t-shirt, he's very proud of it.


After having missed a slew of Bulldog Meetups, I made sure to plan for the July event. It's been so long since my last event that I didn't recognize most of the bulldog faces. There were, however, several of the regulars. There was the brindle-brown Max, large-brown-spot Max and a few of the powder white bulldog puppies. Overall though, there were mostly new dogs I haven't seen in the past. This is a picture of two such dogs: Miles and Buster. I call these two the faux brothers because although they're not genetically related, they live together and share similar markings.


This guy was huge and unlike most other bulldogs, he was really affectionate towards strangers. I never caught his name, but the teeth on his bottom jaw stuck out, so I called him Shark Teeth.


One of the faux brothers taking a break from all the fun.


In typical bulldog fashion, they fought viciously for the plush stuff toy. But, when the dust (or sand, in this case) settled, brindle-brown Max won it all!


The weekend I got back from Asia, I decided it would be fun to spend a night in Reno and see Lake Tahoe. Jean's never been to either and I wanted to take her there before we moved. On the way over, we found this Cabela's store. They had dozens of stuffed animals throughout the store and this picture was of their main African display with zebras, lions, elephants and all. In the back, they also had live salmon on display that you could feed!


Here is Jean in front of the infamous "Reno, The Biggest Little City in the World" sign. Until last weekend, I hadn't been to Reno for over 10 years and after visiting, I'd say there's really no reason to go back. For starters, the city is really run down and it's been infiltrated by homeless people and drug addicts. On the other hand, Tahoe was really worth visiting! We spent most of the next day eating ice cream and spending time by the beach. Really worth visiting if you haven't spent time there this summer.


Finally, I had an urge to cook fish the other day and decided to try something new. This is me documenting the event by taking pictures of these red, bubbly-eyed fish before I threw them into the frying pan.

July 8, 2010

Today, I'm leaving Singapore and will be returning home to San Francisco. I've had a wonderful vacation and in all regards, this trip has exceeded my expectations. I've been able to connect, and in some cases, reconnect with so many great people and see so many great things. More importantly, this vacation has provided me time to consider my plans for the future and prepare for this next phase of my life. So although it's sad that this is coming to an end, I'm looking forward to jump-starting my plans when I get home. With this in mind, here are the last of my pictures from Singapore and the last of the pictures from my Asia trip.


I'm so glad I made it to the Singapore Zoo! At the time, my impression of Singapore had started to take the form of different versions of the same thing - one city center followed by another. However, visiting this zoo has prompted me to question whether there were other areas I hadn't seen on the island that could have changed my impression of Singapore earlier. In any case, this place is 3 Star Michelin rated, and for those who know Michelin ratings, that's no joke. To put this into perspective, Michelin is best known for its restaurant ratings and there are no restaurants in San Francisco that have earned a Michelin star. So although San Francisco is a global city and has arguably some of the best culinary experts in the world, it's still not good enough for Michelin. What makes this zoo particularly special is that there are very few caged exhibits. For instance, this feeding area where these monkeys were sitting was part of their exhibit and wasn't fenced off from us in any way. In fact, all it took for them to come visit us on the ground was some food and soon after I took this picture, they had people sitting on a bench right below them taking pictures. It's amazing they don't try to escape!


Clearly, some exhibits have to be fenced off. But of the ones that are, the zoo still provides a great view into the exhibit. In this case, had there not been glass between me and this cheetah, I could have pet him. By the way, he's just stretching!


These two were really excited because people were feeding them carrots. Watching them eat kind of reminded me of my guinea pigs, Boris and Heffer, since they like carrots too!


I forgot to mention this in my other post regarding my trip from KL to Singapore, but this picture reminded me of what I was going to say. Most of Malaysia is made up of lush jungle, similar to the island region across the shore, and it's really quite a sight to see! So although I wasn't initially impressed by KL, seeing even a glimpse of the beautiful Asian Pacific rainforest in Singapore made me reconsider my hasty impression of KL, and Malaysia in general.


This picture was taken at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown. This temple was both the best and the only free temple I've been to during my whole trip. The building was recently completed in 2007 and has now become a popular tourist attraction in Singapore.


These next few night pictures are long exposure shots I took of Clark Quay and the surrounding areas. This particular building was right by my hostel and just along the Singapore River.


This is a picture of the Fullerton Hotel. It is now a 5-star hotel but it once served as the general post office of Singapore. This is also one of the most iconic buildings in Singapore and it is situated along the mouth of the Singapore River.


This is a photo is of Esplanade-Theatres, a building that houses both a concert hall and theater, just along Marina Bay. Some say the structure of the main building resembles that of a durian. Why Singaporeans both love and hate durian, I don't know. But all I can say is that this building is quite nice to see at night!


This is One Fullerton, an area just adjacent to Merloin Park. This area provides the best views of Marina Bay, and arguably the best views of Singapore overall. I was lucky enough to live not too far away from here and visited this area nearly every night I was in Singapore.


Meet Shu, a classmate of mine from UCLA. I haven't seen her since she graduated in 2006, but it was good to catch up with her again and it was fun exploring the Clark Quay area with her. Since college, she's been busy at Credit Suisse and was just recently relocated back to Singapore after a 2 year stint in Hong Kong.


Finally, this is the entrance to Rucksack Inn, the second hostel I stayed at in Singapore. This place got to be a lot more fun after I met people and apparently, it's won a ton of awards including "Top 3 in Asia" by hostelbookers.com and a few other awards from other travel sites. One fun fact is that the owner, Jacqui, has been competing on this Singapore reality TV show called "Can you Serve". It's currently still in its first season and as of this week, Jacqui is one of the top 3 finalists! If you're interested, you can see her profile and some videos of Rucksack in her introduction (2:26) here.

July 5, 2010

Surprisingly, I had the most comfortable ride from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore! I was bracing myself for something similar to my train ride from Beijing to Shanghai, but instead, the bus ride was the complete opposite. The leg room and chairs were similar in dimension to what you would find on a first class domestic flight and it was so comfortable that I slept for most of the trip down. Since then, I've been slowly acclimating myself to Singapore. For those who have never been here, Singapore is likely the cleanest city in the world. The government has done an excellent job maintaining the city and the people here have a genuine interest in keeping things organized and clean. At the same time, it's very Big Brother-ish and in some ways, terribly inefficient. I'll get more into it using pictures to explain, but I'd say these past few days here have been fun and worth visiting.


I initially took this picture to remind me how clean and well maintained Singapore was. However, it turns out it's also a pretty good segue to this next topic. This was the entrance to a public restroom by Marina Bay and it was by far the nicest public restroom I've ever used. When I walked in, I felt as if I were walking into the Omni Hotel - there were tile floors, marble counter tops and automatic sinks and toilets. And in typical Singaporean fashion, it was spotless. I sometimes take for granted what it means to have clean facilities, but after having traveled through China and having seen the worst of the worst, this made me appreciate clean facilities.


On the opposite end of the spectrum, I unfortunately caught myself in the Singapore's mock Independence Day celebration (in preparation for the real parade). Singapore is a small independent city-state and for its size, it has a relatively advanced military force. The government is really proud of this and it enjoys parading its troops around town at any given opportunity. In this case, I found myself stuck on one side of a four lane road for 25 minutes waiting for tanks and other military vehicles to pass by. Mind you, when I actually reached the crosswalk, there wasn't a single vehicle within a mile of the intersection (it took over 10 minutes for the first car to pass). Yet, the traffic officers refused to let anyone cross. This isn't a great example, but it's just one of several instances of inefficiencies/bureaucracy that I felt could be improved.


I loved this sign! Apparently, it's illegal to bring durian onto subways here. Now this begs the question, is durian illegal because of its spiny shell or its strong odor? I imagine it could be either, but something tells me the odor plays a larger role...


This is the Lau Pa Sat hawker market in Singapore's business district. Hawker markets are traditional food markets in Singapore and have been around since the 1800's. This particular market has over 100 vendors and offers dozens of different foods from Chinese to Malay to Indian cuisines. Since getting here, I've made a daily trip to this market to get my fill of local cooking. To give you an idea of just how integral hawker markets are to Singaporean culture, a local told me that "eating in a hawker center in the morning and waiting for the bus in humid weather will give you a good taste of local life." He was obviously half-joking, but it's clear you can't fully experience Singapore cuisine/daily life without making your way to one of these food markets.


It's been a long time since I've read a glamor/fashion magazine, but it was particularly humid one afternoon so I found myself seeking refuge in the lounge reading Juice, a local Singapore magazine. The good news is that I happened to stumble on this article about milkmaid braids. I've never seen milkmaid braids in the US, but it's a really nice look and I wanted to do my part to spread the word! If I were to describe it in words, it looks like a revived retro pigtail. I know that doesn't sound like a terribly attractive description, but it looks great from the picture and I only wish more people at home would carry on the trend. Also, on a separate but related note, Singapore has the prettiest women I've seen of all the cities I've visited. They have the clearest complexions, the straightest teeth and in general, they are the most well put together. I guess that means it makes for a really great city to people-watch!


This is an advertisement for Tiger Beer, Singapore's first locally brewed beer. I'm not a huge fan, but it's cheap and I see it advertised everywhere throughout the city.


I took personal offense to this sign. Clearly, they're saying no pets are allowed... But if you look at just the icon by itself, it looks like they're outlawing French Bulldogs! =O


Finally, this is a picture of the lobby of Checkers Inn, the first hostel I stayed at in Singapore. As you can see, the facilities were top notch and they had this fun design where they hung small action figures and other toys from the ceiling. However, the location was just terrible. It was in the middle of Little India and although I love Indian food, the eateries were awful and unclean. Needless to say, I moved to a new hostel in another part of town known as Clark Quay. I'll post pictures later and give a full review then, but so far so good.

July 2, 2010

So I've spent the past 3 days in Kuala Lumpur and will be leaving for Singapore today. I can't say this place has been particularly great. But, I have been able to visit several regional landmarks, including Petaling Street (Chinatown), the Patronas Towers and the Batu Caves, places I wouldn't have even known about had I not come. Still, I'm very excited to leave for Singapore and I think I'll find more to do there than I have here. But, before I leave, below are pictures I've taken in and around KL!


Meet Nora and her owner. I found this macaque on my way from my hostel to the Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). She was keeping herself company as he worked nearby. I've never seen a monkey outside of a cage, so it was insane being able to pet her. She was pretty cute, and even gave me a love bite on my hand (she just puckered up and didn't even leave a mark). If I were to ever live in KL, I'd definitely consider getting one of these!


Here is a shot of the Petronas Towers at KLCC. These were, at some point, the largest towers in the world, but still remain the largest twin towers in the world. It seems Malays are very proud of this fact and consider it a testament to Malaysia's industrial and economic prowess. It's fairly impressive to see at night, but I have to admit, the buildings were so modern at the time they were designed that it's now somewhat out-of-date. Personally, I would rather have built smaller structures with a more persistent appeal than towering skyscrapers that grow out of date, but that's just my opinion.


A long exposure shot of the Petronas Towers.


On my last day in Malaysia, I woke up at 6:45 AM to make it to the sky bridge viewing. I still had to wait in line for several hours, but it was nice to see the greater part of Kuala Lumpur from this 41st floor view. This picture includes distant parts of the city and a park that is situated right below the towers. One fun fact is that before the city center was built, this area was part of a racetrack.


This is an exterior photo of the Batu Caves, a popular Hindu shrine right outside of Kuala Lumpur. To get into the caves, you need to climb those ridiculous steps while simultaneously fending off groups of aggressive and clever monkeys trying to get food from you. It's definitely a site worth visiting!


A picture of a monkey at Batu that successfully stole a banana from someone.


I have a soft spot for animals, so I found myself at the Kuala Lumpur Zoo. The place wasn't as good at the Beijing Zoo, but I found some really fun animals including this stork that escaped its enclosure and was eating a snake. I also got to pet a porcupine!


Finally, this was my last meal in KL. I found this little restaurant by my hostel and I spent a moment chatting with the owner. When I was finally done eating, the guy offered me the meal for free! Talk about hospitality. Needless to say, I couldn't accept it, but I was impressed by the offer anyway!