We flew out of San Francisco approximately 2am on 9 August. Landed in Taipei at 5.05am on 10 August. I just lost a day in my life! A public holiday too! Flight was not bad. I had an emergency exit window seat on a large place with a 3-3-3 configuration. This means there was no seat in front of me so I had space to stretch my legs fully and get up when I wanted. The toilet and galley were right there too so a little noisy but not a problem. Food is not that grea...

Last day! Took it easy. Spent time repackaging my suitcase. Final weight at check in was 22.4kg. I need to lose 2.4kg before I leave Japan as the flight out has a 20kg limit. I am flying on Eva Air and I can see that they are strict. They weighed someone's hand luggage and have a sign scrolling saying hand luggage limit is 7kg. I saw an article on news24 about 2 weeks ago that SFO airport had imposed some restrictions on the way foreign airlines land here after t...

Took it a bit easier since there was no rush for busses etc. Spent the morning going around to buy toiletries like shaving foam. This is my second last day in the USA and I am not sure how easy and expensive it will be to get what I want in Asia. In the afternoon, I managed to watch the semi final race of the Louis Vuitton Cup. It is an international sail boat race with the Americas Cup soon thereafter. There is an entire pier dedicated to this with areas for sp...

Spent the morning on the hop on hop off again. I was much better prepared this morning and more warmly dressed. Went to Sausalito which is on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Also went to Lombard Street. A particular section of it is considered to be the crookedest street in the world. It is a one way downhill but it extremely steep going up and coming down. The road curves to continuously to the left and right for one block, probably because it is too s...

Bought a 48 hour ticket for $50. There are various busses and one needs to be careful which one you choose but 2 of them seem to have more busses than others. Mornings are relatively chilly here. It is even worse sitting on an open top bus where there is extra wind chill factor when the bus is moving. SF has a cold breeze blowing most of the time anyway which just grows exponentially on the top of the bus. By lunchtime, I had enough. Went back to the hotel and pu...