All come to look for America

Simon and Garfunkel, anyone...?

So I took a week off, packed the luggage, corralled my family and boarded the plane at JFK for Oakland, CA.

To cut a long story short, we did the following in a week and a bit:-

NYC - Oakland, CA - Sacramento - Lake Tahoe - Reno, NV - Virginia City - Las Vegas - Sedona, AZ - Ludlow, CA (I expired in the middle of night on Interstate 40 crossing Mojave Desert and stopped at a tracker's motel in the middle of nowhere) - Carmel - Napa Valley (Napa - Calistoga - Yountville) - San Francisco - Oakland, CA - NYC

I can do without going on driving for some time now.

Upon our return to Oakland Airport, a lady at Hertz checked the car's mileage and pronounced our trusty Ford Taurus to be retired, to be sold on second-hand market at discount.

Some observations from the trip:-

1. NYC is the friendliest city in America.

People are forced to live in close proximity of each other in NYC. As a result, people communicate with each other with much more ease than Americans from any other places that we have visited (although, for New Yorkers, it may be for the sole purpose of staking their claim to their respective personal spaces).

We went to see rodeo in Reno and managed to spend the entire evening without speaking to strangers. (Perhaps I should have gone to Gay Rodeo, as a colleague suggested.)

I guess they are shy.

And they do not realise that they are being rude when they say

"I don't understand your accent."

Whatcha talkin' 'bout, yer lard-ass hillbillies!

2. Obesity is a big problem in America. It is a bigger problem out there in the Wide Wide West.

I have decided not to show a photo in support of this observation for fear of litigation.

3. Generally speaking, people in casinos rarely look happy.

4. Purpose-built resort establishments, like the one we stayed in Sedona, put too much stress on you to relax and enjoy, ultimately defeating the original purpose.

There is nothing else to do and hotels do not make money unless their guests move from one organised activity to another. Soon, one feels as if he has checked into an institution (which it is, a kind of).

We have come to a conclusion that we do not much care for this kind of resort. We would rather sit by a river, on beach, in forest etc. doing nothing without paying "resort fees".

5. People do not sweat in Arizona.

The strength of sunshine is such that sweat evaporates immediately upon surfacing, leaving salt mark on one's skin.

Whilst on the topic of Arizona climate, it is a mystery that Doc Holliday managed to die of TB wearing wool clothing in Arizona all year round. It may be that he was sleeping in sweat-soaked clothes at cold desert nights.

6. You do not find Starbucks in the places where people do not appreciate and see the point of paying extra dollars for coffee with foreign-sounding names (like "Frappucino" or "Arabica" beans... so foreign... possibly related to terrorists... I mean the name contains the word "Arab"...)

On the other hand, you can find Chinese restaurants/take-aways in the most remote areas.

We had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant, "House of Chan", near Kingman, AZ, Interstate 40/US 93 junction. We were served by a mainland Chinese girl who apologised for the poor quality of food due to certain ingredients being unavailable in the neighbourhood. True to her words, my hot and sour soup had been made with western style vinegar and was horrible. Still, local sheriff was enjoying the buffet lunch on offer there.

7. Only tourists swim at beach at Carmel. Local residents are far too old to engage in such dangerous activities.

8. In Napa Valley, watch out for drink driving. Not just your own but others' , too.

I had a couple of hairy moments.

9. San Francisco's China Town is a tourist trap.

Chinese people got rich and moved to the suburbs.

My wife stopped an elderly Chinese couple on the street and asked for a good restaurants in the area. They replied "We eat at home."

We missed Hong Kong there and then.

10. America is huge.

Like, I didn't know. But I definitely felt it driving across only three of 50 states.

I want to see more. But I would appreciate somebody else driving next time.

Future teamster!

Upstate Cowboys

There was this Greek friend of mine at the university whose sister had married a rich stock dealer or something. My friend said that they had a lovely house in wonderful place upstate New York called Catskill Mountains.

Naturally, I had to check Catskill out whilst I was in NY.

As I did a bit of web research, an event caught my attention.

Meredith Dairy Fest

A dairy farmer's annual fest on the top of hill in Meredith, Delaware County, NY, just north of Catskill Park.

Perfect.

We rented a car and headed north.

Once in Catskill area, we quickly realised that the locals are not reliable when it comes to directions. It appears that they do not move around enough to know what is on the other side of hills. Weekend trekkers from NYC were much more helpful.

We somehow managed to drive through Catskill and reached Meredith and aforementioned "Top of the Hill".

As had been expected, ours were just about the only Asian faces in the crowd. However, somewhat embarrassingly, our son was the one who was most into the swing of things...

An old lady proclaiming to be from a local newspaper took some photos of our son. I wonder if this Oriental Cowboy made it to the press.

Nevertheless, I could not help noticing that there was this lone urbane brotha who was definitely feeling totally out of place amongst hillbillies.

Another discovery: a vintage Datsun Z from the late '70s, made to look like "General Lee".

All in all, a great family day out, although I lost my way on the way back and only managed to get back home at 11:00pm.

As for Catskill, I suppose it is a convenient nature getaway destination for New Yorkers and it is fairly pretty. Still, I would not go out of my way to buy a house there, unless I know that I am tied down to NY for the rest of my life. Come to think of it, my Greek friend's sister did divorce that man. I wonder if he has at least kept his house in Catskill.

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Having spent nearly a month at our temporary accommodation at East 47 St./Tenth Avenue, we are now moving to a posh apartment in the Upper East Side, near Metropolitan Museum.

This is what East 47 Street looked like on the day after my arrival.

Down the street, there is a "gentleman's club", which I have not had a chance to venture into due to my wife's earlier-than-expected arrival. There are many interesting restaurants in the neighbourhood, too. My wife, in the end, however, couldn't take all the yobbos drifting from the Port Authority Bus Terminal area any more.

So it's bye-bye Springsteen and hello Cole Porter for me. Soon, anyway.

Vetting for Mile High Club Membership

Off to New York.

Flying Business Class is sure nice. All the flight attendants call you by your name.

Then it occurs to me. Now that I am a proud member of the Marco Polo Club, Cathay's premier frequent flyer programme, they all know that I am married with a kid from their membership database.

Humanity is on the move

... and it rides Honda

(Saigon 13 December 2006)