and here are some photos i took on our way to downtown...

as u can see, the things they sell in downtown are not in shops, but in buildings! every single brand is housed in a hugeass building with superb SUPERB architecture! everytime before me and ching enter a shop (sorry, building) we would juz stand outside for a moment, taking in how huge tat building is before we enter and shop our asses off... haha...

the guys went separate ways from us, coz we had diff agendas and diff shops to look at haha...

and they went to this shop tat has a so-called "mongolian shoe bbq"!

if i'm not wrong, i think there's a machine there that helps u custom made ur shoe...

oh! and to end this whole San Francisco entry...

we managed to get close enough to the scene to take some photos...

me and ching stayed at the same spot for damn long, becoz the police are there and we're qt sure it's safe to be standing there, before we managed enough courage to continue walking along the streets...

when we first heard the gunshots... i was so so so scared for the guys... coz me and ching went separate ways from them and we're supposed to meet up again hours later for dinner.. but at tat time we have no idea where they were... luckily they were busy looking at luggages at tat time, to solve our iminent luggage prob haaz...

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Aside from this shooting incident, San Francisco is probably the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing city i've ever seen... it has the most cooling weather there, even in the summer...

except for at nite! it's totally freezing, at least in my opinion coz i cant stand cold at all...

But u'll be surprised at how many Hong Kong ppl there are in SF... there're so many of them living there, all the billboards and shops have english words WITH chinese translation... so it wasnt tat hard to look like u fit in over in SF...

and at night, all the homeless ppl will come out, sit by the streets and ask for change... San Francs, besides Virginia, prob has the highest rate of homeless ppl we've seen so far in all the cities we visited...

but other than all that, i think SF is a really nice place to live in... =)

it has this lingering effect on u tat stays on even aft u've left the city...

22nd July 07 - San Francisco Day 3


by the time it reached day 3, we were really awed by the beauty of this city... everywhere is aesthetically beautiful, you can juz stand and take in all the beauty around you...

the day started off with Grace Cathedral. yes, another church! but this time for its architecture again, and its AIDS memorial inside...





i really really love the exterior of this church... it looks so ancient and so modern all at the same time... added to that is this really mysterious feeling tat makes u wonder abt the ppl that has passed thru that giant oak door at the entrance...



i tot the interior was as beautiful... as much as i'm not a christian, it doesnt take much for one to be able to appreciate the insides of an American church... i especially like the AIDS memorial chapel... they have this memorial book where u can choose to inscribe names and death dates of AIDS victims for a certain fee which goes to the AIDS association...

next is Coit Tower, which is the tallest building in San Francisco, and truly looked over the whole city... to get there, we've to take this bus that goes round and round up a mountain...






and this! is the most nonsensical thing i've ever seen since i stepped onto USA soil! and trust me, we've seen much weird things there hahah...



it's a pillar up in Coit Tower filled with chewing gum... yes dirty disgusting chewing gum filled with god-knows-whose saliva... all stuck on the same pillar... and u noe wat's worse, ppl actually write on the chewing gum they stick there!!!!!

like, if u look closely at the photo, u can see little scribblings on those lumps of things... u'll see things like "blah and blah forever together" or "blah was here!" or a signature with a date... all written on the chewing gums!

for ur information, tat pillar totally totally SMELLS.
we were soooooo amused!



we made our way to Lombard Street afterwards...




this! is Lombard Street!
which is the WORLD'S MOST CROOKED STREET!



yepz! the positions of the cars in the photos marked out the crookedness of this street... it's amazing how they even tot abt constructing such a street... is it juz an error on the civil engineer's part? or an error on the construction worker's part? or did they do it on purpose juz to create another tourist attraction? haha... who knows...




you know you've reached Italian Town when you see these!!!