Lijiang Old Town

With approval to kill an extra day in south china, I hopped off of my connection stop at Lijiang and got myself a cab. The cold temperature and the fresh mountain air combine with the view of the mountains made the drive into the city feal like I was arriving at mammoth lakes. After being dropped of on the edge of old town, I hiked to the top of Shizi Shan GuangYuan (Lion Mountain Park) and walked around for a bit trying to find a hotel I liked from agoda.

Since I don't have a cell phone, I just took some photos of the coolest hotel's website before leaving Jinghong, and after failing to find the place where I expected, I practiced Mandarin by asking the Lion Park workers for help. They were nice enough to call the hotels number from the website I'd photo'd and to my luck the hotel workers said I was close enough for them to walk over and guide me back.

I took a bit of time to walk around in the old town after I checked in, what I found was neat yet also disturbing. It was as if an asteroid from planet tourism had come down and exploded right here, leaving a giant smoldering crater of shops, bars, and restaurants all on beautifully decorated walking streets. As the sun went down I saw the light change, and was able to run up the hill in time to catch a photo of the famous Lijiang rainbow.

Lijiang Rainbow

Looking down from my room

Yantai Trip

My one day trip to Yantai was as spontaneous as some of my other trips, the location decided about 3 hours before the flight would be leaving Beijing. My decision was based on what I could find on the coast, that still had tickets available before 2pm.

As my plane descended over the new landscape of Shandong, I found myself reminded of the terrain of central California, the rocky formation specifically rung similar those around San Luis Obispo. The whole ride into town from the airport, the song Ventura Highway stuck in my head as we passed imagery reminiscent of one of my many rides up the coast.

After I got to town and walked around the beach front area in the center of town, I checked into my hotel and did some googling. What I learned made it all click into place, the area surrounding Yantai is considered the 7th best wine making climate in the world.

Rocky hill tops caught my eye

Windmills

Rua Central @ Macau

The cityscape of Macau combines the feelings of China, Portugal and Las Vegas all into one landscape. The historical Portuguese tourist attractions are roughly 500 years old, and there are about 25 of them dotted across the town. It's probably enough to warrant spending the night here in order to fit time for each attraction, however for this trip I was limited to a single day. 

Senado Square

230 Fifth

On the roof of a building near the Flat Iron one can find 230 Fifth, the same place I spotted in my previous post. This place is tricky on the wallet, you've gotta show up early if you want to get a seat, and as it gets later the view of the city makes it difficult not to stay and order another highly marked up drink. That's how over the course of 3 hours I spent 100 bucks on wine and a plate of fish and chips. The view and atmosphere here are well worth a visit, however next time I come here I'm bringing a flask along with me.

view west

Le Bain

On our first night we wanted to check out a rooftop bar, we read that the standard had something of this sort, so we rode the subway west. Upon arriving in the meatpacking district, we witnessed an argument between a chick and her cab driver. The lady was screaming about her change causing a scene in front of the bar she was being dropped of at, but the cab driver acted swiftly to end the commotion by punching her to the ground.

After a block or so of walking we found the Standard and made our way up to the top floor. My dress wasn't up to code, so Mr. J approached first with a little act, chatting up the Hostess. By the time I approached he had won them over and they were lenient about the dress code with me.

We sat down at the bar and had a couple drinks. Mr .J ordered a glass of wine without checking the price and got a $35 bill for it.  This place had a pretty nice view, however what we had read about was an open air rooftop, so we did some investigation and found out we were in "Top Of The Standard", but what we were looking for was "Le Bain".

Journey To Lombard Street (Continued from Haight Ashbury)

After finishing up at Haight Ashbury, I continued to walk east toward Soma. However after about a mile or so, a vision popped into my head, one that told me that I would be be at Lombard street by the end of the night. I reoriented myself northward and soldiered on up and down the hilly landscape. I soon found myself in Alamo Square park, where from the top of a hill, I could look to the east and see the city scape of San Francisco proper.

Baccomatto Osteria

Walking through Darlinghurst the other day I passed a little restaurant with a bar inside called Baccomatto Osteria. I hadn't noticed this place before as it's kind of hidden east of Crown street. Inside I found a great selection of wines and beers all from Italy and ordered myself a Menabrea beer to go along with a squid dish. The beer was a nice change and the Italian's running the place made enjoyable conversation, but when my dish came out disappointment set in. The meal only had a couple of peaces of squid, scattered between some rock looking spongy bread things. I have no idea what this spongy shit was but I'm sure it had zero nutritional value. I won't go back to this place unless I fee like drinking some Italian alcohol.

Baccomatto from the street

Icebergs + Bondi Hotel

On Saturday we had cyclone in Sydney and I decided that maybe Bondi would be worth visiting. I chose to make the trip over via the train to Bondi Junction and then grab a cab from there over to the beach. The ride over was mainly filled with people trying to get to kings cross, because I guess that's the default for most Sydneyans on Saturday night. After I got to The Junction the cab took about 5 minutes to get me over to the beach. The first place I wanted to hit was Icebergs, as the ocean view had been nice last time. This time it was stormy enough that from the walkway you could watch waves crash against the side of the pool area.

Rainy Day at Manly

It was a rainy day which otherwise would have been spent on my computer or at the local bar, however I decided I would venture out anyway and take the ferry ride over to Manly. The place was pretty dead when I got there and my options for food were slim. The only thing opened that looked slightly appealing was this hole in the wall sea food restaurant inappropriately named Watervue. I got the calamari plus fish combo and this filled me up, nothing too special about this place really, well they at least serve beer.

Wollongong

After some googling and studying of the train routes around Sydney I decided to take a day-trip down to Wollongong. The ride by train is about an hour and a half, the view along the way isn't bad. I haven't been outside of Sydney till now so it's the first time I've gotten to see how lush the coastal landscape is. Looking west from the train I could see hills all the way to the horizon covered with trees, and east toward the ocean miniature beach communities sprouted from the greenery.

west

Mr. Wong's

I spent the night last night walking through CBD with Mr. T visiting various pubs and bars when I stumbled across this Mr Wong's. It was quite well hidden, you have to walk into an alley and around the corner to find it. Once you get inside you can see that this place isn't the shithole you might expect at this location, but instead world class Cantonese cuisine.

Main road

Aquaviva's

During my hung-over sunday, I ventured out yet again. I went north with no plan really, the goal was to maybe hit a couple of pubs to wind down the weekend. Somehow I ended up just south of where Oxford Street crossed William Street where I found a block or so of interesting restaurants that were a bit separated from the herd. After checking out the whole street I decided to venture into one called Aquaviva's.

Sydney CBD

I needed to buy a towel today so I decided to walk over to Sydney CBD. I wasn't really sure where to go so I dropped into a bar for a drink at the Westfield and asked the bartender. He directed me over to Myer's and my goal was complete, which left me with hours of time to explore. I was dawn northward by the glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge I could see at the end of the road.

Camping at Big Sur

During the week I decided to try some camping at Big Sur on the coast of California. I started by meeting up with my friend in Hollywood on Wednesday and loading both of our tents into his Volkswagen, by 9:30 am we were well packed and got onto the road. Three hours later we stopped in San Luis Obispo at some place called Firestone Grill, where I was forced into ordering a tri tip sandwich by my friend. I wasn't into the idea at first but someone else in the line told me it was the best tri tip sandwich in California, so I got it and I wasn't disappointed  From there we drove up to Cambria to stock up on our food and beer, and then made the final leg of our journey toward Big Sur. Upon arrival in Big Sur, we selected a campsite on the edge of our campground and put the tents up while the sun disappeared.

The morning broke with strobes of light beaming though the trees, I took the opportunity to take some snapshots of the campsite:

rays of light in the morning

Wine Tasting in California

I'm back in California for a little bit, so I'm taking the time to explore some of California's nicer areas. I've been staying in the town of Lompoc, near Vandenburg air force base in Santa Barbara county.

Last week I ventured out from Lompoc up to San Luis Obispo for some wine tasting and some food with a friend. Our attempt to get to the wineries in Edna Valley failed as we were unable to locate the turnoff from shell beach, so we drove all the way to SLO and then turned south from there and drove passed the airport. The first place we hit was Edna Valley vineyards, the view out the window was awesome as usual and the traffic low. I tasted through the reds, and decided that this was exactly as I remembered these wines from years before, peppery, acidic and smokey.

View From Tasting Room At Edna Valley Vineyards