Mariners beat Oakland

Almost center field
Originally uploaded by jonketo.

I won some sweet tickets behind first base in a raffle at work, so I took Sandra to see tonights game against Oakland. The game looked pretty bad going into the 9th when we were still down, but thanks to some good offensive baseball we tied the score 9-9 before adding another run to win the game in the extra inning win.

Ichiro had five of the mariners 21 hits, so it was only fitting that he got to score the winning run.

Going to the Gunks in New York

Last week Haychoi, Eric and I flew to New York to go bouldering the the gunks. Eric and I flew separate flights over night to New York and met up on the other side. From then the trip was on. Here is how it went.

The first day was all about relaxing and getting some rest from the night before. It was hard to get rest on the over night flight with a cat meowing, yes someone brought one in a carry on. That someone was the person next to me. Not to mention the meowing, but there is always at least one person who has to open their window knowing full well all they are going to see are some bright ass white clouds.

The first day was really nice. We spent the day walking around. We went from Chinatown down towards the Brooklyn Bridge, then west to Tribeca and through Greenwich village. We made our way to midtown on the subway and got off to see Central Park. After some "bouldering" in Central Park we caught the train back north to meet Haychoi's sisters French friends at the The Cloisters. This is an old French abbey built from pieces of abbeys in France that were back to the United States.

For a pre-dinner snack we went to a great Hungarian Bakery. Forget the name, but not the guy we saw next to the church smoking crack as we walked there. Dinner that night consisted of Indian food at Banjara. After drinks were served we were joined by two cockroaches. It was so New York.

On Saturday we were woken up late with traffic and the Frenchies breakfast of crepes and soft boiled eggs. It was delicious. After food and haircuts we went to see the bodies exhibit. The line was long and our time was short, so we took a short walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way home we stopped at the The Dumpling House to get some dumplings and hot and sour soup by recommendation of Choi's sister. We all loved it and I got a chance to speak some Chinese.

Sunday night consisted of more walking and eating. I don't think they should call it traveling, just walking and eating. We went to SOHO where Eric got a sweet ring and then we ate some really great food at Cafe Habana. If you go, you need to get the corn. It is simple, yet tasty.

Our plan in the evening was to go climbing at Chelsea Piers, but decided it was not worth $50, so we went back to Central Park to boulder around in the dark on wet rock. I am glad no one got hurt.

One of the main reasons to go to New York was to boulder at the Gunks. We made it from Friday to Sunday without going, so we decided rain nor shine we would at least go to the Gunks on Monday. Thankfully the rain brought in by Hurricane Ernesto had blown through by Monday, so we had great weather. We made our way up to to Hudson River Valley by way of rental car and we were bouldering by the afternoon. The area had some nice routes, but the bouldering is very under developed compared to the trad climbing, so it was nothing like Squamish, but fun anyways. We met a guy named Booth from Providence Rhode Island who was very intense and psyched about climbing. Sort of all over the map too. I hope we can run into him again if we are in that neck of the woods again.

After a long day of climbing we came home for some home cooked food. Manicotti by Eric and apple pie from Choi's sister. We were zombies making and eating the food, so shortly after eating we all passed out.

Tuesday came along and was supposed to be our last day in New York, but due to some poor time management on our parts and two straight hours of traffic we all missed our flights. I swear we missed ours because Choi jinxed us. I guess he thought it would be funny if we missed our flights too. Yeah $250 funny. The whole car ride was fun even though we all had to make calls to our respective bosses and tell them we were going to be gone for another day. We made a new word, 'sowned' because everyone was 'so owned' by Choi's driving. Eric was giving everyone the bird and it was another New York experience to have a green light, but still see all of the cross traffic cutting you off for multiple cycles of the light.

On our actual final day in New York we checked out the World Trade Center site, Empire State building, a viewpoint for the Statue of Liberty and had a final lunch with Choi's sister. A nice relaxing day. Without big plans and being car free we were certainly going to make our flights. Choi almost missed his again. I thought that would have been hilarious, but luckily for everyone he convinced them to let him on his flight even though he was late getting his boarding pass again.

I had a really fun time in New York. Tuan was great, Kai and his fish were cool. Everyone seemed so fashionable and all the cultures were amazing to see. The Jewish people were awesome, especially their curls, you can see them at B&H photo. No joke, everyone who works there is Jewish. There is some sort of twilight zone where the single women are much more attractive than single men that they want, so the average joe is more likely to find and date an attractive woman. There were rats, lots of them. They would hang out under cars in their rats families having rat parties. Lots of people were selling fake purses. Times Square is bright at night, almost like daytime and you should chat it up with the girls who work in the Element Store at Times Square. Don't commit crimes in or near the subway or you will get arrested. We saw multiple people getting arrested, one of whom was getting his head ground into the pavement. Finally, eat Cuban and Venezuelan food when you are in New York. It is much tastier than what you can find in Seattle.

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge
Originally uploaded by jonketo.

In New York we decided to see the Brooklyn Bridge on a rainy day. More about the actual trip in my next post. There are a few pictures on my flickr account.

The last legs of my China trip

It is a little late, I know, but I cleaned my room and found some scraps of paper with notes to remind me of what to remember from Yichang and Shanghai. I am going to briefly describe the trip and then go through my notes.

Shanghai was the last part of Sandra and I's trip to China. After seeing the Three Rivers Gorge Dam we hopped on a plane to Shanghai. In Shanghai we hit the typical tourist traps like the Bund and Nanjing Lu, a large shopping area flanking a road closed to traffic from the Bund westward. We also made a short day trip to Hangzhou to visit West Lake, a site that inspired many Chinese poets throughout the ages. My geography professor kept saying how he would like to retire in Hangzhou and now I know why. It is big and beautiful. I was reminded of Green Lake, but bigger.

We arrived in Shanghai just in time for all the typhoons that were hitting the Phillipines to make there way north. This meant we had a lot of rain while in Shanghai, but good thing I brought my new wind proof umbrella I got from REI with my membership refund. Whatever, I don't care what kind of umbrella you have, umbrellas are useless in the torrential downpour that typhoons bring. One second we felt drops while walking on the Bund and the next second were were absolutely drenched. That is the worst rain I have ever seen .... worse than New York.

When in Shanghai we found a new passtime. Because of all the rain we got to spend time blowdrying our shoes. The smell of damp shoes that you have walked around is great, but even better when you start to heat it with a blowdryer.

Since Sandra had not taken a train in China I thought it would be nice to take one to Hangzhou to see the lotus flowers bloom. It wasn't anything like taking a hard sleeper for over a day (I have yet to experience this myself), but it was fun anyways. The train ride was nice until we got off in Hangzhou and as we were being shuffled through the undergound exit, which most Chinese train stations seem to have (probably because they were all built at the same time), a girl in front of us thought it would be great to vomit in the huge crowd of people.

After the vomit incident we hopped on a bus to West Lake and started walking around we took the advice of one of our friends and visited the Bamboo Grove. This is definitely a nice peaceful place with fewer tourists. It reminded me of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon ... sorry for bringing up something so cliche. There are fewer tourists here because cab drivers do not like driver so far from West Lake where there are plenty of tourists who will take a cab just a few kilometers. This is much better for their business than driving them all the way to the Bamboo Grove. If you can get a driver to take you out to the Bamboo Grove you should take it. Once you are done at the grove you can catch the bus back to West Lake. Try and catch it heading northwest and not southeast towards the river because the other directions take you back through the hills where you can see a few small tea plantations.

West Lake is large. Give yourself an afternoon if you would like to walk from one end to the other.

Before we went to Hangzhou I needed to get a replacement UV filter for the one I broke when I dropped my bag on the bus in Xi'an. This was certainly an adventure. Now that I think about it, I have never seen a phone book in any of the hotel rooms I have been in. Probably because it would be a nightmare to update as the economy is growing so fast and everything is closing as new businesses are opening. Needless to say, this made it hard for me to find a camera equipment store. I thought I had a good idea by searching Canon's chinese website to find stores in Shanghai, but remember that block that was being demolished on Nanjing Lu? You mean the one we saw the first night? Yeah, that was where the camera store was. While trying to find another store listed on the Canon website, Sandra and I saw a guy who had a sweet EOS 20D, so I showed him my camera and asked where to buy a new UV filter. He told me about this cool store right near the train station. Right on, I knew where it was, but when I asked someone in the area where it was they said it was torn down. Sweet, another victim of the Chinese economic development. Eventually after asking a couple other people and getting directed to a small camera kiosk in clothing store that sold point and shoot cameras we were able to find what we needed. It was perfect. There were two shops next to each, one for Canon supplies and one for Nikon. If you find yourself in Shanghai and need some supplies try out 环龙商场 near the train station.

Enough about cameras, here are some Starbucks stories. Sandra and I thought it would be a good idea to get some coffee, but the Starbucks did not open until 8:00 in the morning. What can't they be more like Seattle?

Another Starbucks story. We got our coffees and sat down when Sandra said, 'what is that smell?'. I replied, 'my pants'. She says, 'that can't be your pants. It smells like the bathroom'. They were my pants, the ones that got soaking wet in Beijing and had to be packed up before fully drying. I just wish I had washed them before Sandra had a chance to say they smelled like a Chinese bathroom.

Lastly, I will have to reminisce about the Chinese restaurant that was bumping a cd by Beyonce. Eating noodles to Bootylicious is something that cannot be forgotten.

Those are all of my interesting notes. The rest are about airports and bathrooms and the signs above urinals that ask you to step forward towards civilization, so you don't pee on the ground. I almost slipped while reading that off the wall.

I had a really great time in China just like I did the first time I went. I can't wait to go back again soon. Unfortunately there are a bunch of other places I would like to go to first.