Sightseeing in San Francisco

WE knew this must be one of Nature’s grand schemes the moment my friends and I stepped into Muir Woods, 20km north of San Francisco.

This 222ha national monument is home to the Sequoia Redwoods, which are the tallest trees in the world. It is common to see visitors craning their necks upwards to take in the soaring magnificence of the trees which stretch endlessly into the heavens. It is a place to humble the soul and capture the imagination.

Fresh, fragrant air pumped into our lungs as the leafy canopy above us provided shade like a giant umbrella. Every bud, branch and blossom is part of a living poetry just waiting for an artist to fill his empty canvas with.

Combine the redwoods’ towering majesty with the strong elements of silence and solitude present here and you’d start to understand how powerfully emotive this landscape is.

The Golden Gate Bridge.

Drawing more than 1.5mil visitors yearly, this ecological treasure was named after conservationist John Muir. The redwoods here can grow as high as 112m and are as old as 2,000 years.

Our next stop was Sausalito, a picturesque artist colony nestled on the northern shores of San Francisco Bay. My interest was piqued when I heard that Sharon Stone and Robin Williams were among the town’s 7,500 residents. A candy-seller said he had spotted Williams go past his shop on a bicycle. Although I had no such luck spotting them, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here.

The quaint waterfront shops, the warrens of pricey boutiques and the houses perched behind them on a steep slope draw inevitable comparisons to the Mediterranean villas of the Riviera.

Sausalito was named by 18th century Spanish explorers for the “little willow” (saucelito) trees which were found on the banks of its streams.

Sausalito’s watering holes can be lively but then so is its police force. No mercy is afforded anyone who is stopped for drunk driving

The Temple of Fine Arts.

Leaving the town, we drove across San Francisco’s most famous landmark – the Golden Gate Bridge. Under the night sky, the 2,737m long orange colossus with its 227m art deco towers looked like twin tiaras arching over the inky bayside waters.

It is taboo to refer to the city as “Frisco”. Most locals would sooner hear fingernails scratching across a chalkboard. To them, Frisco sounds too much like Vegas or some other provincial city. It’s best to skip this ignoble nickname unless you’re willing to accept slow service and tables next to toilets.

What’s the secret to navigating the city? Get a map. Even locals keep one in their car because parts of San Francisco seem as though someone on an acid trip laid them out.

Secondly, don’t let a few slopes deter you from one of the city’s greatest pleasures – walking around the neighbourhoods.

Lombard Street.

Hills, schmills. This is a city of stairs and the crème de la crème of steps is on Filbert Street on the way up to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, a famous lookout point which affords fantastic surrounding vistas of land and sea.

Although I felt like I was crawling with every step up the steep terrain, I knew it would be well-worth the effort once I get to the tower. And the view was indeed breathtaking (not that I had much breath left by the time I got there).

Like its population, San Francisco’s shopping scene is incredibly diverse. Every style, era, fetish and financial status is represented here in hundreds of boutiques and second-hand stores scattered throughout the city.

One of the city’s most celebrated neighbourhoods is Chinatown. After all, a billion Chinese can’t be wrong. In fact, it’s the largest Chinese community outside Asia.

Chinatown. — Pictures by NG SU-ANN

As soon as I crossed under the ornate, dragon-crested gateway on Grant Avenue, I felt that I was no longer in the Western world. Street signs were marked in Chinese characters, sounds of mahjong tiles could be heard from a house, and store windows displayed medicinal herbs and animal parts.

I was told that the best time to see this teeming neighbourhood was early in the morning when merchants delivered their wares in pushcarts and mothers rushed down the street toting live chickens and dead armadillos for the night’s dinner.

Shopkeepers here don’t lack marketing skills. Abundant hand-painted signs swear that everybody is going out of business and they must sell everything at incredibly low prices right now.

Another famous icon is the Fisherman's Wharf, a shopping precinct beginning at Pier 39 and ending at Ghirardelli Square. However, peace lovers be warned against venturing here if crowds and shops stocked with souvenirs are not your cup of tea.

The pier is a hive of activity with rides, entertainment, restaurants, shops and lively street entertainers, but I loved the sea-lion colony here best. The sea mammals were sunbathing on the abandoned docks, apparently oblivious to the swarms of visitors peering a short distance away at their lively antics.

We also made a stop at Lombard Street. The zigzags of the world’s most crooked street in the world were negotiated by so many tourists that the bricks finally cracked and popped out of the pavement a few years ago.

But the city would never have let one of the jewels of its tourist trade fall into disrepair for long. The famous block was closed to automobile traffic for about two years while work crews painstakingly repaired or replaced every errant brick before reopening it again.

For a slice of culture, the Palace of Fine Arts which houses the Exploratorium is a must-see. It looks just like an ancient Roman temple complete with a lake filled with swans.

In a nutshell, San Francisco is a city which appeals to the senses. I mean, where else do you hear foghorns, barking sea lions, the ringing of cable car bells and the continuous clackety-clack of the cable car pulleys winding underneath the streets? W

Useful for you to know

What am I supposed to do during an earthquake?

A: In case of a significant shaker, seek cover and don’t run outside into falling debris if you are inside a building. Stand under a doorway or against a wall, and stay away from windows. If you are outside, stay away from bridges, overpasses, telephone poles and power lines.

How long has San Francisco been the gay capital?

A: During the gold rush, “real” women were so scarce that desperate prospectors paid them three ounces of gold for a kiss. No one knows how many enterprising imposters painted their lips to pick up a few extra nuggets back then, but mascara and falsies have rarely seen a sales slump since.

The opening of the Panama Canal at the turn of the 20th century also led countless gay sailors to this port, followed by an influx of gay artists and entertainers during the bohemian era of the 20s and 30s.

Why isn’t the Golden Gate Bridge painted gold?

A: The term Golden Gate refers to the Golden Gate Strait which is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The bridge has always been painted orange vermilion, deemed “International Orange”. Consulting architect Irving Morrow selected the distinctive colour because it blends well with the natural setting of the land, the sky and sea.

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