May 2004 Archives

So this weekend has turned into the "LA Farewell Tour", sorta.

My friends who are still in LA tend to live on opposite ends of the LA area.

Friend 1 is in Diamond Bar.
Friend 2 is in Agoura Hills.
Friend 3 is in Seal Beach
Friend 4 is in South Pas.

This is just the order I visited them this time around. If you map it out, you'll see that each of these cities is on the fringes of Los Angeles. Weird how that works.

3 out of 4 are LTR'd or married. That makes hanging out or visiting a bit awkward. That and the distance changes things. And time too.

But I know that this is the LAST time that I do a "road trip" like this one. Tiring.

On the plus side, there's a wittle puppy here!

Yesterday, a friend of mine called and said, "I've got a free place to crash in Las Vegas, what are you doing?"

And like a crazy person, I jumped on the road.

Crazy because it takes 8 hours to get to Las Vegas from my house (for those of you that are interested, the route from my house is I-280 S, SR85 S, US-101 S, SR152 E, I-5 S, SR58 E, I-15 N).

Crazy because gas is US$2.50+ a gallon.

Crazy because I got asked at 1100 and I was doing laundry and didn't leave until 1500.

Well, the 20 or so hours I spent in Vegas was neat. It's like an adult Disneyland with strippers, hookers, booze and gambling. And you can smoke cigars inside too!

What was absolutely nuts were the other drivers on the road on Thursday. The dual concepts of road courtesy and lane discipline are foreign to most drivers out there. Urban Assault Vehicles (AKA SUVs) driven quickly give the impression to other drivers of a 3 ton truck out of control. Did I mention the video screens?

I saw a lot of cars with video screens being used. Either laptops or portable DVD players. The drivers as well of the passengers were watching...or at least it seemed like it. Their cars were driving with the inattentiveness normally reserved for bad drivers who insist on talking on the phone while their road speed drops or increases, depending on the tempo of the conversation.

I saw three flipped cars in the past 24 hours, one on a Las Vegas street.

It's dangerous out there...

Yes, I'm already planning for the next trip.

Thinking...Kyushu.

Southernmost island of the Japanese "mainland".

They have a new Shinkansen, hot sands, onsen and tonkotsu ramen.

Hmmmmm. Wonder how Hakata is in late November?

Or "put to bed" or whatever.

All the entries for this past trip have been made and the Gallery has captions on most of the pictures that need it.

I think that's it. I've been a bit jet lagged for the past few days. I've been passing out around 2100 each night since I got back and waking up at 0500 because that's when the sun gets up in London!

But I think I'm getting back to Pacific time. For instance, I slept to 1100 today!

I hate taking Super Shuttle.

They always give last priority to Richmond District residents. Meaning we get dropped off last. It took an hour to get home from SFO.

Even though I was waiting in line first, the driver decided to drop someone off in Pacifica first. You have to drive down SR1 and through Devil's Slide. Down the hill and past the Taco Bell. Then you make a left and go into the hills where the roads turn into potholes.

In short a 40 minute detour, 20 in and 20 out.

Pain in the Ass. But at least I made it back home.

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One of the benefits of Premier Exec is that you get free access to ANY Star Alliance club when you are flying international that day. Here's my capsule reviews of the Star Alliance clubs at LHR.

Red Carpet Club (UAL). Mickey mouse. No food. No internet. And a big sign on the outside that says "No outside food". Inside, just some beverages and biscuits. And rooms and wireless internet is sometimes available for a fee. A fee. Nice.

Silver Kris (SIN). Nice. Decor is plain but has a waterfall in reception that adds to the tranquility of the place. Free internet terminals but no wireless. Food! Along with bottled water (both kinds), Coke and related soft drinks in cans and Tiger Beer! Tiger Time!

SAS/Air Canada/Thai. Neat. Modern design that looks more like a trendy hipster bar. Fountain drinks like Red Carpet Club. Didn't get to poke around here much because this is where I discovered the "Last Call" on the monitor here. Has potential though.

So try to guess which one I prefer. Clue: it has FOOD!

I flew out of Heathrow today. My flight went doors closed at 1005.

I thought it would be easy. Drag the red monster and roller bag to Paddington Station, jump on the Heathrow Express and chill in the Silver Kris lounge with some breakfast before my flight.

My good mood sank as I arrived in Paddington and saw that the Star Alliance had in town check in at the station. Why did my mood sink? Because United doesn't do this. They suck.

The train ride to LHR was uneventful, meaning it was fine. Then I got to Heathrow. There's one stop for Terminals 1-3 and a further for Terminal 4.

Signage is crap, meaning that you really need to hunt for a sign or ask someone. I found that UAL was in Terminal 3. Thus began the "Heathrow Death March". 1/4 mile later, I made it into the Terminal and checked in.

Then it's another hike through Passport Control and their HUGE Duty Free shopping area. Since these are UK prices still despite claiming they're "TAX FREE", I passed through to get to the Club.

By the time I got there it was about 0900. Check in on my Boarding Pass said 0920 so i wolfed down the fastest bowl of Honey Corn Flakes in my life and stuck my nose into the other lounges (future entry) before I saw on an monitor:

"Last Call". WTF??

So I'm outta there, heading for Gate 17. It's pretty far and the UA people said "you need to be in the gate area 45 minutes before departure" and another said "we set the time early like that so everyone will get here". Which story is it?

Long story short, even though I woke up at 0600 and budgeted enough time, the poor design of Heathrow which was "designed by a bunch of chimps" according to some nameless airline staffers, sucked what free time I had budgeted.

The chimps need to be hit with a shoe.

is the name of the new Montecristo cigar, the first since 1971.

It's a 52 gauge and just slightly longer than a robusto.

It was released in London today as it's "birth" to the world. I was at the release party at Dunhill London. How did I wind up there?

If you read yesterday's entries, you'll know today was shopping day. I completed my tasks and decided to check out St. James' st. This street is one end of Jermyn Street, a three block street that has awesome cigar shops and the local stores of Davidoff and Dunhill.

I ducked into Dunhill, wanting to see the humidor room. I was invited into the launch party where they had bigshots from H. Upmann (Montecristos are made in their factories in Cuba) and a roller (who was in reality, the deputy production manager), the London distributors for Montecristo and one woefully underdressed tourist (me).

There was free champagne and coffee but you still had to purchase a stick to smoke it. Which I did. I figured, I haven't gone out since I've been in London so this is OK. �14 for a Montecristo Eduardo. Do the conversion yourself.

I hung out, drank several flutes of champagne and had an expresso afterwards. Heard some history about the brand and it's relationship with Dunhill. Did you know that Montecristo was initially created for Dunhill shops and that they used to have that on the bands and boxes until the early 70s? Or that pre-70s boxes were twice as thick? Etc etc.

The UK has some stupid law that says you cannot promote a tobacco event because it would "encourage" people to smoke. Likewise for promotional events. Usually if there was a roller making cigars like at this event, they would be free with a purchase, etc etc. Now they have to charge, but usually a small amount. Here it was �5 for a freshly rolled Cuban leaf cigar.

Got one!

No pix though. It was an event, to take snaps would have been incredibly tacky considering the big shots there and I was told media was there eariler. Bummer!

So now it's 36 hours until I head back to the land of the limousine liberal. I'm got all my dirty laundry packed away and sealed, not to be reopened until I'm dragging it up my staircase.

Tomorrow is the big shopping day. I've got requests ranging from candle sconces to Burberry dog raincoats (don't ask) as well as assorted omiyage.

Small omiyage since purchasing power here is 1/2 what it is back home. Even Tokyo is cheaper in most ways!

And Asia has all the stuff I like and can afford...

It's a big college town, since much of the town (I mean City) is made up of the 20 something individual colleges that Oxford University is.

The best way to look at it is the University sets certain guidelines and protocols and the colleges execute them in the best way they see fit. They all have their own admissions policies and are in essence, 20 something independent schools. Kinda like the Federalist system of government that we have in the States.

Oxford is what college towns such as Davis or Cambridge (MA) or even Berkeley want to be compared to.

Davis doesn't count because it's not walkable. If it was, what's the point of bringing your tricked out Honduh Accord or Toyota Camry (TRD special type) to school if you don't need to drive it? I'd guess that they'd lose a lot of their student body if that were the case.

Berkeley and Cambridge (MA), they're too crowded, the neighborhood isn't consistent with the sprawl of university facilities and Oxford is way too clean and not too crowded. I didn't see one bum, the walls were free of grafitti, I didn't smell any pot or have to walk around anything or anyone.

What I did see were some very nice girls (younger) and some really old old old old old (way older) buildings.

The canal is pretty neat too. They landscaped part of it to look like a riverbank and there's some history about it. Seems that the canal was dug back in the 1800s to help move coal down to London. When the railways made it here, the canal was redundant but they kept it for recreation.

Green water.

Did I mention that I think we passed a big Nuclear Power Plant on the way here? I'm researching...

Oxford. Legendary town of learning. Well, actually a city since I was told by one of the people here that since they have their own cathedral, they are considered a city.

Didn't know that.

I took the National Rail to Oxford from Paddington Station, 5 minutes from Grim's place. Verrrrry convenient. The ride was just about over an hour. Within 15 minutes I was asleep and within 45 minutes, the Conductor woke me up to do a ticket check.

Embarassing. But at least the mighty roar of diesel engines masked the quiet hum of my sleeping. Yes, you read right. National Rail still uses diesels just like China Railways. Except (train geek stuff coming!) that China Rail uses an engine and tows the passenger cars along, no differently than a freight train. National Rail cars have no engine, but are self contained. Imagine a Tube (or MTR or BART ) car except it runs on diesel instead of electricity. Mighty locomotive sounds like a really big MUNI bus.

Once we got out of Reading, it instantly turned into countryside. England is very green. Green trees. Green meadows (with the occasional yellow patch, what ARE those plants?). Green water. Green sky.

Ok, not green sky. Just seeing if you're awake.

I wandered back to Picadilly and puttered about. Eventually I found my way back to St. James' Park.

The entire park is closed off to cars on Sunday so I was able to walk from Admiralty Gate to Buckingham Palace on a road festooned with Union Jacks and people out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather.

There was still a healthy crowd at Queen Victoria's monument directly in front of the Palace. A MetroCop told me that that's the best place to watch the changing of the guard that happens each morning.

It was still a warm evening so I made my way to Mayfair going through the parks. Had dinner at a pub, the King's Arms and had a proper meat pie cooked in ale (note to chef, ease off the spuds!) and a pint of London's Finest.

And since I had all those carbs and beer in me, I thought, how about I walk back to Grim's place? So I walked through Hyde Park and Green Park (what a redundant name, eh?) and wound up at Kensington Gardens and boy did my feet hurt.

I need new custom made boots. I'm getting too many blisters on my little right toe....

I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum today.

It's a museum about the decorative arts. Iron works, jewelry, interior design, furniture, statues, body armor, katanas and the like.

It has exhibits covering Chinese, British, Japanese, South Asian, Indian, Italian, various European and even American items.

But the museum is confusing because not all the staircases reach all the floors so you need to follow your map.

They used to have an exhibit on arms and weapons but that's been taken down in favor of expanding the miniatures exhibit.

Political Correctness? Who knows?

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Before the museum, I had a snack at Oriental Canteen, the closest thing I've had to hawker food. Red chopsticks and red spoons? Basic decor? Sounds like Maxwell's to me!

But, �3.5 for wontonmein? That's not Maxwell's prices!

After escaping the V&A (as they like to call it), I went to Cafe Creperie de Hampstead for a Ham & Cheese crepe snack. It was pretty good.

And you'll have no trouble finding it, it's on the road to the Museum from the Tube and they're next door to each other. (!)

Today is Sunday, a verrry lazy day for me. I got out of the house around 1300 and decided to take the bus to Citibank via Oxford Street.

Half of the basi was filled with Filipino amahs on Sunday holiday. They had their kids with them and they looked like they just got out of church and they were talking a lot (gossiping?).

Then they reached their stop and they all got off.

I had a Hong Kong flashback for a minute. Just a minute though.

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Some words of advice for those who are reading this and contemplating a visit to London. Learn these words.

Tesco
Sainsbury's
Marks and Spencer

These are grocery stores, cheepest to not so cheep. They also have daily made ready to eat wraps and salads and sandwiches. Since you're taking it to go, there's no VAT, unlike eating in a restaurant. Remember VAT is 14.5% plus usually a 10-12% service charge. Bleech!

If you're going to be here (Dean) and want to watch your spending, this is the best way short of being at a place with a proper stove and oven.

And I've not seen a lot of instant noodles here either...

Aaack.

72 hours before I return to "the world".

That means I have to write down everything that I'd like to do before I leave.

And run all the errands I promised friends I'd do (all shopping).

72 hours! And then a non stop UA flight back to SFO. EASTBOUND (it takes longer)! And in steerage (self explainatory). And it's not that kind of fun steerage like in Titanic, the movie.

Ohhhh the horror

Well, I finally made it to the Tate Modern.

I got there about 1800. Left at 2200. Yes, 4 hours in a museum/power station.

Conceptual art. Not too crazy about it. Here's some of the more "conceptual" exhibits:

Yoko Ono coughing (I am NOT making this up)

A big empty room with 20 coats of white paint and a dead sparrow between double paned glass

An old telephone with a lobster glued to the receiver with its genitals where the mouth goes to the mouthpiece.

That last exhibit was a Salvador Dali piece so in that context, it actually makes sense.

However, they did have some Monets, Matisses, Warhols and the like. Even some photography from Henri Cartier-Bresson.

And that building! The scale of it! The architect was said to have designed cathedrals. In its past life, the Tate Modern, according to the tour, was a cathedral of power.

The building itself is art. Beats an upside down toilet and a bicycle wheel.

If you have time to putter, take the Tube to Hampstead. It's off the Northern Line in Zone 2. Budget about 4 hours for puttering.

It's very old school village-like. Very small and very quaint. Whatever you see in your mind's eye when you hear the words "small English town", this is pretty much it.

It's real nice and real quiet, unlike, saaay, the rest of London! And the Heath, which is open space and lawns and paths on the top of a hill.

I went looking for a pub at the top and found out it was closed for two years and the building has been converted into condos. Nice condos though.

Grimley says that Hampstead is hella expensive. Figures.

I'll post the pix in a couple of days.

...and NOT that asanine movie.

When I had my bus adventure earlier in the week, the Greek Grad Student who knew her Night Buses recommended I visit Notting Hill's street market on Saturday.

Grimley said the same thing and when I mentioned something about the Tube, he said "walk". So I walked. Through Kensington Gardens to the end and down Bayside Street for a bit.

It was sunny and warm (23C) so the walk wasn't too bad. Then I found the market.

It's called the Portobello Market and it goes for about 20 blocks. The first thing you see is the antiques dealers. They go on for about 8 blocks. There's all kinds of stuff. Silver. Old wood and old posters. Lots of stuff I'm sure I missed. Even old china serving dishes and silverware off Concorde. Antiques!

Then it decends into a common flea market, with the last few blocks resembling a market in mainland China. Kinda sad really.

There were a lot of people there. Mostly for the antiques because as soon as that and the food section ended, the crowd thinned considerably.

If I need old stuff for the house, I know where to go now...

my battery pack in my camera dies. So no pix. Still looking forward to art at the Tate.

I cross the Millennium Bridge, come down to ground level and see the gates are down.

Thought that was art.

Then I look through the gates and it says 2200. Closed.

I need to learn how to tell time. I'm coming back tomorrow night.

So there's a part of London called Convent Garden. It's a big shopping/touristy part of London.

According to the locals, it's usually choked with tourists (usually American) during the high season. So it's best I'm here now because there's not quite so many.

Besides the two open air markets that sell questionable (taste-wise) souvenirs, there's the London Transport Museum with a shop that sells all kinds of books relating to subways and books. They also sell a lot of logo merchandise.

Imagine people liking MUNI so much that they'd by a T-shirt or a door magnet with the MUNI logo on it. That's how it is here except people actually like the Tube, in an odd way. It's also big with tourists.

Remember, voice of God booming from above, "MIND THE GAP". That's the Tube.

I found a little part of Convent Garden called Neil's Yard. It has a couple of cafes and a haircut place and some offices. Cute. But next to it is Neil's Yard Dairy with all kinds of fancy fresh cheeses you can sample. Thanks Duker. You know I can't bring any of this back, right? But I can eat it on the plane...(evil grin on face).

Found a place for black Kenyan coffee called Monmouth Coffee. It was on Monmouth Street. Imagine that! My first strong coffee since I left Paris. Deeeelish!

Found a MUJI here! I needed T-shirts so I got some. The markup here on some of the merchandise is ridicilous. Guess MUJI is trendy here as opposed to just a store to buy stuff from like it is in Japan. More on this later.

Watched the dismount and inspection of the Royal Horse Guards and got lost inside Harrod's for 2 hours. Big store with a kids' section AND a pet store in it. Sheesh.

And did I mention the 60% tobacco tax on cigars AND the 14% VAT? Sheesh. The lady there said that HK is a good place to purchase Habanos cuz of the current lack of tax. Yay! Ahead of the curve again...

It's amazing how concentrated the major spots are in London. For example: Trafalgar Square borders Whitehall. You can walk from the Halls of Parliament to Trafalgar in 10 minutes.

I had lunch at a pub directly across the street from the Royal Horse Troops. One block up was that overpriced pizza buffet from the other day. Wah! Cod and chips and a pint of chilled Guinness. Neat. But �9.74? Sheesh.

Convent Garden and the Royal Opera House are also nearby. A 5 minute stroll. Why does it look so far on the map?

So I strolled over and checked out the Opera House. Nice. But sold out for tonight's performance. Bummer. They even sell the standing room tix as regular assigned seating. So no rush. And the prices! �100 for a single seat? And that's not even in the expensive section!!

No chance in catching these guys in rehearsal...

The Tube is pretty comprehensive; it covers most places in London that you'd like to visit.

After my Unplanned Art Day, I went to Greenwich which is in the SE corner of London.

It's a small town that's nautical in tradition but also has the Royal Observatory where the Prime Meridian is and a Maritime Museum which is pretty cool.
I arrived in Greenwich around 1600 or so. The Observatory was already closing down and the Maritime Museum was preparing to close at 1630. Bummer.

The town itself is cute. A little touristed out as a "waterfront town" but it was nice in a theme park kind of way. This is also drydocked in their waterfront area. Not much relation to this besides the logo and name though. I looked.

Then, in a refreshing change from constant Tube travel, I took a boat down the River Thames to the London Eye across from Westminster. It took about 40 minutes and was very leisurely.

A nice walk down the South Bank, looped up past St. Paul's Cathedral and headed back to Lancaster Gate. I'm going to sample some local Indian food tonght.

Maybe even some pix of the food too!

Today was a day with no plan.

Holidays can't be totally regimented and all planned out. OTW they become stressful. Let the unplanned vacation begin! =P

I went to the National Gallery (they have a lot of Monets and Manets there). Art is good. And Free!

Then after that, I went to the St. Martin's in the Fields Church to check out the place and to purchase tickets for a performance tonight. Inside the church were the musicians practicing for the show. I stayed there for an hour or so and then left. Free! Saved �16 right there!

I should have continued the theme of "unplanned art day" by heading to Tate Modern but I was getting arted out already. So I jumped on the Tube.

After the visit to the Cabinet War Rooms and an overpriced lunch (at least it was a buffet), I wandered through St. James Park before heading over to Westminster Abbey and the Halls of Parliament.

Now if you know me, you know I hate queueing. Or waiting for that matter. However, the Parliament was in Session and there was a queue to watch from the "Strangers' Gallery".

So I waited with a bunch of other Americans (they stuck out, especially the lawyer couple who went to Hah-vahd) and other people for a hour to get inside.

The building is magnificient. It looks like a really fancy gothic church. It's still considered a Royal Palace, but to find out why, you'll have to google that on your own. Got to see both the Houses of Commons and Lords debate. Aside from some verbal jabs at each side, it seemed very similar to what happens in the Assembly or in the Congress. In other words, same BS, different building. I was inside for about an hour and a half and got outta there.

While we were waiting, someone collasped inside and required Paramedic services. Now this was really cool, the service delivery that is.

Traffic is really awful here so (this is what I figured out from what I saw) they have an ambulance and a rider on a BMW K1100RS bike that rides ahead. He goes in and stabilizes the patient. Then the ambulance finally shows up and assists and transports if necessary. The bike looks cool too (in the Int'l Travel/London section of the gallery). That seems soooo more efficient than what we have in San Fran, an ambulance AND an engine company. Yeah, like they can cut through traffic faster than a skillfully ridden motorcycle...

The weather was on the chilly side today, but it looks like it will get warmer for the rest of the week. 19 degrees! As opposed to 14 today. Oh well.

Today was a continuation of the "History Tour". I went down to the Cabinet War Rooms near the Halls of Parliament. These were the rooms that Churchill and his Cabinet ran the British part of WWII until three weeks after VE-Day. Non stop from the beginning of the Blitz through the buzz bombs and then the end of the European war.

Then the last people who were on duty there simply turned off the lights and locked up. Parts of the complex were stripped out and used for storage and the like, but the truly historic parts such as the map room where convoys were tracked and battle statistics were kept were left as they were in 1945 when that afforementioned fellow turned out the lights and locked the door.

One sad testament if you're British; the maps still showed the extent of Empire, which no longer exists except in the mind of those who miss it.

So after getting my dose of wars from the past century, I thought that doing some sightseeing with live people around would be a good thing.

The weather has been socked in all day, but at least it's not raining.

First visit was to Trafalgar Square. There's a statue of Lord Nelson on top of a tower surrounded by four lions. The National Galleries are there as is the St. Martins in the Fields Church. If you're a classical music fan, that name means something to you. I'm contemplating catching a concert there before I leave.

I was getting hungry and needed to get something to eat. That wouldn't cost an arm or a leg. Things are more expensive there than in Tokyo.

Anyway, I alighted at Picadilly Circus and puttered around a bit. It's their big touristy shopping area with lots of international chains and some neon. It's not Shibuya or Shinjuku, not by any means.

I walked over to Chinatown through the theatre district. They've got a LOT of theatres for stage plays and musicals. Then I got close to Chinatown. I could tell because the signs were in Chinese, I heard Cantonese and that other mainlander dialect being spoken and it smelled bad. What IS it with Chinatowns and bad smells???

I found a small restaurant that didn't have white tablecloths and ordered my comfort food, wontonmein. That plus a Coke = �5 = $9.00!!

I mean, the wontonmein was okay and all, but definitely not worth THAT much. And that's cheap!!

You should see how much McDonald's costs for breakfast...I stopped off at the Supermarket and picked up some yoghurt for breakfast. Definitely cheaper!

So what IS it with the London Underground?

On paper it looks very comprehensive. It goes to a lot of places. That's good. However...it's not air conditioned (since I guess it doesn't get that hot here) and the cars are cramped (I'll take a pic before I leave to show just how) and it seems to always have things happening to it.

Let's see, just in the past 24 hours, there has been the following incidents:

Person under tracks (last night)
Line shut down because of signal failure (today)

and the most disturbing...

Train derailed on Central line.

And don't even get me started on how bloody expensive the Tube is!

There's a lot of recent history here in London.

After a fun-filled day of transportation yesterday getting back to London from Paris, I'm now going into tourist mode here in earnest.

I spent much of the day at the Imperial War Museum. All the events that affect our world today get traced back to the last two World Wars that the museum showcases.

There are also exhibits on the Cold War and Britain's various engagements in its ex-colonies and about the Troubles.

Before I went inside (for five hours!) there was a photo op happening in front of the Museum. Seems it's Black History Week here and the mayor of Sussex (?) was at the Museum along with some Black UK WWII vets.

I was chatting with one of the people who work there while the photo op was happening. He was formerly of the British Army from India many years back.

We both spoke of rememberance and how a lot of people view WWII as something unimportant or something that they see in the movies. Because many of these people think appeasement will work.

Learn from history! It didn't work in 1937 and it won't work now! Remember, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance...

Pretty deep for this travelogue, eh? =)

I got in this evening and had a "London Underground" adventure.

The Underground was shut down for 9 stops going into London from Heathrow. Seems someone jumped and got caught under the tracks. So they shut down service.

After some back and forth between the Underground people and the Heathrow Express people, the Underground arranged free taxis to get us all to Northfields so we could catch the last train into London (there were five of us stranded that chose this option).

The problem was that I needed to get to either Paddington or Lancaster Gate tube stops and that meant transferring to different lines that have already shut down for the night.

That meant an adventure with a Greek Masters student (who knew which buses to take) and the London Bus System (late night).

Long story short, it took 2 hours to leave LHR to get back. An hour longer then it would have by Tube. Grimley says that I've experienced the worst of London Transit. I hope so.

Oh yah, updates coming later in the week about my week in Paris. It was surprising, doing laundry is expensive and the weather sucked big time.

Goin' to LHR via Heathrow Express.

Why would I do that since it costs �13 one way?

Cuz Yumi-chan is here! Yay!

This is her last day in London, helping out some friends. And she's staying out at Heathrow.

So I'm goin'!

The trains look familiar. That's because they're versions of the HK Airport Express trains except they're about 10 years older...

So unlike my trip outbound where I had a nice empty seat next to me, this train had more passengers on it going to London Waterloo. And naturally I got seated next to some guy with really really really bad B.O. I mean it was the kind of BO that works its way up your nose like the pain you get when your nosehairs get pulled out. THAT bad.

Because of that, I spent much of the trip hanging out in the dining car with 8 Koreans who proceeded to drink all the beer that was for sale.

So I guess it was half an UA nightmare #2, cuz you don't get a place to hang out on a UA flight!

Some things here are surprisingly cheap. You ask for water, non bubbly and you get Evian. Except over here, since it�s made here, it�s just simply �water� as opposed to some fancy imported French water that spelled backwards is "naive".

Pain Chocolat is just an Euro, great way to have a fast breakfast. Coffee is good and reasonably priced as long as it's not Starchuck's.

The Metro has a tourist pass that�s not a bad deal too.

Some things here are surprisingly expensive, such as doing two loads of laundry. You see, I had this plan to get up early (which I did at 0700), go to the laverie nearby my hotel (I did) and do my laundry (I did not, at least right away).

The laveria had a machine that dispensed detergent. I wrote that in the past tense because the machine was not working. The coin thingy was bolted up and there were no other vending machines in any of the three laverias nearby.

I had to wait until 0900 to go to the Marche to get detergent. Then I did laundry.

A medium sized box of detergent cost about 2 Euro.

It cost 4 Euro to run the washing machine. Since I did two loads, that�s 8 Euro.

Then it took 20 minutes for one load and 30 minutes for the other to dry. That�s 1 Euro for every 10 minutes. Total for dry clothes: 5 Euro.

Add that all up and it cost 15 Euro for two loads of laundry. That�s close to US$20!

Chi Sin!

This Paris trip was fun! Here's how it really began:

So I just did the Paris leg at the beginning of my trip instead of at the end. Which makes sence since I'm flying back to CA from LHR instead of CDG, get it?

Now by an incredible coincidence, Meghan is also here in Paris for a couple of weeks, staying with friends. We exchanged emails and phone calls and voila, she's at the Orsay with me!

But since you can overdo appreciation of art, we ducked out and visited the Eiffel Tower. The weather didn't get any better so we passed on going up. That goes on my list of "things to do next time I'm in Paris". However, we walked around a lot and caught up.

We wound up in the Latin Quarter, having coffee at a famous Cafe (Meghan, if you're reading this, what was that cafe's name again?) and dinner at a reasonable French chain restaurant. The mussels were good and the main plates were pretty filling.

Then it was time to go home...tired again!

Ellen and Andrew flew back to LAX this AM via SFO from CDG so I slept in! I didn't realize how much running around we did here because I slept hard until 1000. And then realized that it wasn't raining.

I finally visited the Arc d'Triomphe. It's in the middle of a traffic circle but you can access it via a tunnel that runs underneath it. They wanted 7 Euro to go up to the top and since it wasn't wet BUT it was windy and cold, I put that on my "do it next time I'm in Paris" list right below "visit the Dupont store" because they were closed for remodeling all this past week.

Since yesterday was the 59th Anniversary of VE-Day, there have been observances all over the city. On many of the buildings, there are plaques that remember those from the Maquis or the Underground who fought the Nazis throughout the Occupation.

There was a humongous tricolour hanging the height of the Arc and their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was immediately below. There were a lot of visitors.

After a brief snack (which is one of the things you do a lot in Paris because the food is good and good priced), I headed up to the Musee d'Orsay which houses art from the 1800s to the present.

The Orsay is located in an old train station that was built for the 1900 Paris Exposition but fell into disuse and disrepair over the years. When they created the Musee, they took all the "modern" art from the Louvre (they didn't want it anyway) and began a gallery that is more accessible (not as much fire and brimstone religious art) and for many people, more enjoyable.

After about an hour there, I met Meghan, a former SMWMer/co-worker there and we puttered in the Musee for a few more hours.

Art!

Since we've spent so much time in Tulieres and the Opera District (because that's where their hotel is), we all thought it would be neat to explore Montmartre.

And that's fine with me because I've not see much of this district besides all the places I walk past (closed) at 0100 when I've been getting home for the past few nights.

It's an interesting district. I'm apparently in the nice neighbourhoody part of it because when you go to the other side of the hill that Sacre-Coeur sits on you hit...

Massive Hom-Suppyness!!!

After getting disoriented (very hard to do since we're all Asian, ha ha!) and walking in the wrong direction, past the pet store (puppies!), the hospital and around the cemetary, we finally found the way to go after a local guy, seeing three Asians clustered around a map in a book, one with a beeeeg backpack (not me) on, offered in english, "are you lost"?

Sweeeet! Anyway, we were sent in the direction of Sacre-Coeur. That direction took us past the Moulin Rouge where we took pix and scared a bunch of mainlanders who were in line to see the show with a growl of "puuuutonggghuaaaaa?" They were totally freaked out.

After Moulin Rouge, we continued our search, passing such places as the Sex-a-Torium and the Sex Museum. We actually took a brief look in the Sex Museum. Then we saw that they wanted 7 Euro for admission and they were open until 0200. This is an actual museum with stuff from the 1700s and 1800s in the front. Just not up for it so close to dinner....yeah, that's it.

This stretch of barely legal businesses went on for about 5 blocks. Then 20 minutes after that, we find Sacre-Coeur. Since we're all hungry, we take our pix and we leave. Visiting inside and watching the sunset from the big hill goes on the "next time I'm in Paris" list. Now time for dinner near the Bastille district.

Montmartre, district of artists, has a big church in the middle. On the back side of the hill is a nice neighborhood. And on the front side is the sex trade. Fun!

It does get better!

There's a Metro stop that coincides with a district called Madeline. If you like food in any way, shape or form, this is the place to visit. Foodie heaven.

We first went to a place called Fauchon that puts Dean and Deluca to shame.

Shame shame on you Dean and Deluca! And not just because you don't have the Egg Cream outside of New York!

Well, I shouldn't be too harsh, after all they're not in the Madeline district. But they ARE from New York which food wise, is the closest thing. They should be able to compete...

But there's NO WAY they can! I mean, I gained about 5 pounds just looking at all the food they had there! Custom chocolates, cookies and the like. All kinds of jam and spreads. Spices and coffee galore! And that's just the main floor. They have wine and related stuff downstairs and really fancy teas and a tea room upstairs.

Since I possibly couldn't bring back everything I wanted to, I settled on a small jar of Vanilla Milk (?) Jam and a small Strawberry Jam. I think that one is going as omayage for Yumi-chan on Monday.

Then we went next door to the Chocolate shop!!! The chocolate was really good, we met a gent from Oregon who is out here with his niece on an exchange program who shops here all the time. He gave us a lot of tips about the chocolate and because he was a regular, the owner(?) knew exactly what to get for him.

And she is used to people having the reaction to her shop that the three of us had (utter amazement and shock). After we bought a lot of stuff there, she gave each of us a 1 Euro chocolate coin.

That was sooo cool. I felt like I was 6 again.

That whole chocolate search was for a mythical chocolate shop that is made with 70% less sugar than typical fine chocolate and is supposed to be excellent. Andrew's not a big sweets person so Ellen and I were leading the charge for this one.

heh.

Today is Andrew and Ellen's last day in Paris. They fly out early in the morning tomorrow. Yeech.

Ellen still has some things she wants to do so the morning was for them to do stuff while I woke up and located where the Musee de la Police was. We decided to meet up for lunch near the Pompideau Center. While we were working this out on the phone via texting, I run out of credit on my SIM while on the Metro.

No problemo, right? Drop into a Tabac shop and get a recharge voucher. Follow the prompts, right? Easy, right? Nod your head violently.

Ha ha ha young bison. As if it were going to be THAT easy...

First of all, all the documentation is in Francais. Second of all, when you activate the SIM, you only get one choice of language, Francais. And when you go into the service menu, it's all in le feu-rapide Francais. Which renders me useless (my Francais skills being high school French many many years ago).

Please keep in mind my experience in Asia with prepaid SIM cards. First of all they are multilingual. Second, it's not as expensive and Third, English is one of the options! So the way they do it in France was a bit of a cold water shower.

Eventually the lady who runs the place was able to help me reload, but not until 20 minutes passed. Now I'm late for lunch and by the time I find them, they're ready to leave because I couldn't respond to their SMS/VMs because I had no credit.

And to top it off, it started to rain in ernest AND the food was so-so for lunch.
It does get better after this though, right? Of course it does...this is Paris you know!

After a late start (because it's hard to wake up sometimes), we staggered onto the RER for the short trip to Versailles.

That's a big house.

For one guy and all of his support staff and his concubines. And his wife too I think.

It's very impressive. I liked the Opera House and the reception rooms. Wasn't too crazy about the bedrooms, though they were impressive. Do the guided tour. You'll see much more than the unguided tour and it'll be explained to you. Get a combined ticket so you'll have access to the gardens and the grand canal. Wah! I'd guess that the entire complex is as big as the Richmond District back home.

The Hall of Mirrors, where the peace treaty that ended WWI was signed was being refurbished. It'll take several years to do, but imagine the history in this room. Most of the problems we face today in the world stem from what was done in this very room.

Makes ya think, huh?

Today was an all day trip. To Normandy. Where the second front in the fight against the Nazis was opened. Where Europe was saved by American, British, Commonwealth and Free French troops. Sixty years ago.

Where the 1st Rangers climbed rocks at Point du Hoc only to find out the big guns they were supposed to silence were gone, stripped out to fight the Soviets on the Eastern Front.

And lots of other stories of heroism and sacrifice abound.

We went to Omaha, Utah and Sword beaches. Sword Beach is near a small resort town that's kinda fun looking. Point du Hoc is still in the same condition that the Army and Navy left it in. Lots of craters still. We also visited the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.. Very moving.

We started the tour at the D-Day museum in Caen with a catered lunch and time to muse the museum.

You need to do the basi tour to see Normandy Beach unless you are planning to rent a car. Just cough up the dough to take the tour. It's easier that way. Bring your AAA card though. If you buy it there in person you get 10% off.

It was a 3 hour or so bus ride to Normandy. The three of us got seats in the front. It was on the upper deck of the basi and it had a good view to fall asleep with.

On the ride back, though, I was faced with UA Nightmare #2. Some baat poh decided that I was too comfortable with an empty seat next to me and declared that she got carsick if she sat in the middle of the bus and said that her needs were more important than ours and plopped her fat ass next to me.

Now, for those of you who know me, I snore pretty loud. To the point that there are only two others who sleep louder than I do. But since this baat poh was next to me, that meant no sleep for me.

Guess what she did? She popped some pills and promptly passed out. Couldn't she have done that where she was??? And because of that, I couldn't sleep. No space. Too cramped.

Did I mention that I had to wake up at 0500 to get to the tour office by 0645 to be on the basi by 0700? I was a cranky dude man.

We got back around 0930. But we found a ramen shop for dinner. Then we found a souffle place for dessert. So the day ended on a nice note.

Off to the Bastille district for dinner.

The Bastille used to be a prison for Political Prisoners that was stormed by the common people in the Revolution of 1789. You'd figure that it would be preserved or something like that.

Nope. There's a memorial. On an island. In a traffic circle (big). So much for my idea of "storming the gates". If I tried to storm the statue, I'd get hit by a car but not before being pinched for jaywalking by all the cops around...

Bastille is also a district that's has decent restaurants. We went to one of the recommendations in the DK Paris guide. The food was excellent, the service was good and the average age of the staff/manager was 28 or so. We wound up eating a LOT and talking a lot and hanging around a lot even after we finished our meal. Just like everyone else in the restaurant.

The coolest thing was, as we were leaving, the manager asks us, "Do you live in Paris? Because we're having a customer appreciation party on the 19th, can you attend?"

Sounds like one helluva party, according to the flyer.

After we escaped Notre Dame, it rained. A lot. Like my Grandpa used to say, "rainlikeaheeeellll". Since it was after 6, getting into the Louvre is discounted on Wednesdays.

So off we went. And wouldn't you know it, the weather cleared up. By the time we got to the Pyramid, the sun was poking through. Since we had dinner plans (but no reservations), we visited the smiling chick (AKA Mona Lisa) and the goddess with no arms (Venus de Milo, AKA Aphrodite). Saw some of the art inbetween (mostly bibical and part of the fire and brimstone genre) but since we didn't have the 5 weeks experts determined that it would take to see the Louvre properly, we bugged out for dinner in the Bastille district.

First thing we heard was "Do you have a reservation?". Hearts sank when we were told to come back in an hour. But we puttered about for an hour and got seated. The place looks pretty fun...

Not that school in Indiana with the pathetic football team!

It's big, old and impressive.

You can walk to the top and you get a fantastic view of the city with the gargoyles and other things up there. You can hang out in the bell tower.

Did I mention that you can WALK? Cuz there ain't no lift!

So after about a gazillion steps and 20 minutes total of climbing the stairs, we were treated to a kick ass view.

Until it started to rain. Again. Rain...

Andrew and Ellen have been to Paris many times. They usually do the shopping deal and not a lot of sightseeing. My being here is an excuse to do some sightseeing.

So last night at supper, we worked out a list of things to do/see on this trip.
In no particular order:

Sacre Coeur
Louvre
Arc de Triomphe
Notre Dame
Versialles
Normandy
Seine Cruise
Catacombs

They did the Tower the first day they arrived, on the one day this week it was clear (!) and had dinner in the Jules Verne restaurant in the Tower. They have two kinds of menus, one for the guy and one for the gal. The difference? The hommes' menu has the prices (!) and the femme's menu doesn't .

With the prices they charge that makes a BIG BIG difference...

We finally arrive at Gare du Nord close to 1700. It's wet and rainy and cold.

First thing I do is make my way to the hotel and dump off my bags. There's a lotta stairs between the street and the hotel. Just by asking, I got an upgraded room for the price of the cheap room I booked. Yay.

My room is on the top floor of the hotel but since it's an older traditional style European hotel, it's got stairs. Lots of stairs. With baggage. Nice.

Being in Paris, I need Euro. So it's down to the only Citibank in France, on Champs Elysees near the Arc de Triomphe. Since I 'm here and it's dinner time, I wander up and down the avenues.

This is their big high ticket shopping district. Example: The LV store is closed for remodeling but the scaffolding looks like two giant LV bags. It's so big that there are lots of Asian tourists (girls mostly but some with very reluctant boyfriends) taking pictures with the LV "bags" in the background.

Like they could afford those.

I pick up a SIM card for my mobile, pick up dinner for me and walk over to the Opera district. I'm supposed to give Andrew and Ellen a call but since I've not recieved their mobile number, I figured that leaving a message at their hotel will work.

So I'm chatting up the desk clerk to leave the message and they spot me as they were coming out of the lift for supper. Neat! We go to a Vietnamese place for late night supper and planning.

Did I mention that it gets dark here around 2200? Wow.

So we are about 30 minutes outside of Paris.

Just sitting here in a tunnel for 10 minutes and then going slow (MUNI slow) for another 10.

This ain't High Speed!

2 TGVs go by at Warp 9. We creep along. What a pain.

Eurostar is a high speed train that connects London Waterloo with Paris Gare du Nord.

Waterloo Station is a bit run down except for the new part that the Eurostar arrives/leaves from.

3 hours or so between cities. Nice. But not exactly high speed all the way.

Leaving London, the train is running on batteries since there's no overhead wires on these tracks. So for the first 20 minutes or so, you're creeping along slower than a Tube train. Once you reach Ashford, the new tracks and new lines are there and then you whooosh along at over 100 MPH.

Unlike the Shinkansen, the Eurostar has a club car where you can purchase snacks or microwave sandwiches. The service is at best, leisurely. The prices expensive (many people brought their own food) but at least they serve beer!

There was a break in the weather, but it was just that, a break. On the 35 minute trip on the Tube to Waterloo, it was clear but it's raining again.

Finally met up with the agent guy and picked up the key to the flat.

Dropped off my bags and got money at the Citibank in Oxford Circus. That�s a shopping district with stores typical of the Third Street Prominade. I mean, they have two Starbucks and a Gap and other stalwarts of American capitalism. Good bird watching too.

Wi-fi is a bit hard to find out here so updates will probably be weekly since T-Mobile charges 5 pounds per hour (that�s US$10 folks!).

But after I got settled in, the rain stopped and the skies cleared. Grimley told me that this is a RARE RARE thing.

About that price thing: candy bars are 50 pence and drinks like iced tea are 1 pound. That�s US$2.00 man!

So now I�m going to get a briefing from Grimley about places to check out in Paris. And Meghan, a former SMWMer like moi will be meeting me at Paris Nord tomorrow when my train arrives.

Almost like a bad movie, but it IS Paris...

Delayed into London! My flight, unusually, had a stopover. SFO-JFK-LHR.

The flight to JFK was no problem. Until we had to land via autopilot because JFK was foggy. That�s unusual according to the fei poh UA flight attendants.

Eeeerrrrrrwhiiiiineeeee THUD. "Welcome to New York".

Because of the fog, my Heathrow flight was delayed two hours!

The food was mediocre. Beef or pasta on both flights. The domestic flight beef was salty. The potatoes had no character and the spinach was pale. The international pasta was better. It was a tortelinni dish.

I should have given into my darker self and gotten Chicken McNuggets before I got on the LHR flight.

There's a lot of weather over the Atlantic. I was rocked to slumber by turbulence. Couldn�t get much sleep otherwise.

Once we landed, the plane was shunted to the part of LHR where planes get parked.

That meant airstairs and than a basi.

Took the Tube to Lancaster Gate, that took an hour. (note to self: take Heathrow Express when leaving).

Then the agent that was supposed to meet me with the keys left.

I still don�t have a SIM card (they aren�t as available as they are in HKG or SIN).

And on top of it all, it�s cold (San Francisco cold) and it�s raining!!!

The one saving grace is that there�s a pub nearby that serves lunch. So I�m waiting for an order of Fish and Chips with a pint of John Smith�s Extra Smooth bitters.

Then I get to call the agent guy back.

Oh yeah, stuff is expensive here. Makes Tokyo look like a bargain.

Well, here I am in the SFO Domestic Red Carpet Club waiting for my flight to JFK where I will connect to LHR.

It's exciting. I packed for most of last night because on this trip, I had to bring a sleeping bag (crashing in friend's studio in London) and because of the awful exchange rate, I thought it prudent to bring what I need. Unlike my trips to Asia, I can't just buy what I forgot out of forgetfulness because, unlike Asia, stuff in Europe is hella pricey.

And that exchange rate thingie too.

Some of my friends have asked why I'm obsessive with mileage points. One of the perks of Premier Exec is that you can use any Star Alliance lounge if you have an international ticket.

That means mediocre coffee, snacks and sodas free, a place to set up the PowerBook and wi-fi. Some people may not agree, but this helps me relax. The international Red Carpet Clubs also have showers, a godsend after flying overseas.

Well, next entry comes when I'm on the other side of the pond...