San Francisco City - A Travel Guide

Recently I visited San Francisco for a weekend Trip. Here is a quick tip guide.

Lets assume you land in San Francisco Airport which is what I did. First lets go through places to go, followed by Getting around modes & finally some Tips

Places To Go in don't miss order :)

1. Golden Gate Bridge

Probably the best of the city is taking a walk across the Gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge. You can get a MUNI Bus to a spot near the bridge n take a walk and/or take a Blue & Gold Bay Cruise on boat. If you have time and want to make the most of it, go for renting a bike that you can use to ride along the bridge to the other side,VISTA point from where you get a better perspective of the City. Bikes are available for Rent near Pier 39.






2. Coit Tower

This is a nice tall pillar like Tower closer to the city from which you get a great view of the City/the Golden Gate & Bay Bridge. You can also catch view of Crookedest Street,Rocket shaped Building etc.


3. Pier 39/Fishermans Wharf

A very popular shore side area with lots of things to do, there is an aquarium around "Aquarium of the bay", nice chocolate shop full of varieties "Giradhelli Chocolate Shop" & lots of other fun activities. The Bay Cruise start from nearby this spot.

4. Alcatrac Jail

The best way to view this place is via Bay Cruise, its a historic Jail with a proper Holywood Movie style feel to it. Probably not worth enough to drop by and take a tour so a boat ride across it should suffice.











5. Exploratorium


Its a science museum, although I didnt get a chance to go inside for a science freak there might be things to keep u interested. The small pond n dome near it are also nice picnic friendly spot.








6.MOMA - Museum of Modern Art


Another interesting spot in downtown is the Modern art museum, Its a well laid out, non clutering type museum full of art, From Sculptures to Photos to Fun Videos this place can keep a museum/art person engaged easily for an hour or two. Even better, its there right in the centre of the downtown. A park opposite to it in the middle of buildings is also a nice place to relax for a moment.





7. Crookedest Street


This is exactly as the name suggest. Take a walk near the most crookedest street you would have probably seen in ur lifetime. :)













8. Civic Center


Another place to drop by as part of visit would be this Civic Center. Its a nice capitol type building. I didnt visit inside but the view from front is good.

9. Market Street & Rail Road Ride
You will pretty much end up visiting this road somehow or the other. This is a main connection street with a lot of shops/public life & attractions. Just a quick walk few block will give a nice wholesome experience of the people n the culture. Taking a Rail Road trip might be another fun way to cover this place.

10. Aquarium of the bay

This is small but a nice aquarium with two long subway type view of the fishes with a tunnel under water. Not a majestic one but they have some pretty neat fishes giving a good view from within the tunnel. Make it if time permits.

Other Places:
There are few other places in SF which I couldnt make it,but might interest you like the china town, few more museums, Presidentio park, couple of beaches along the coast.

17th Mile Drive is an scenic drive for people with time in their pocket. If you got couple of days make sure to visit Yosemite National Park as well..you wont regret visiting Yosemite for sure.


Getting Around Places
1. BART - To get to city from Airport
2. CalTrain - To go to near by cities
3. Muni - Covers most of downtown with 100s of buses n train routes
4. RailRoad Trains - For Tram ride covers 3 major roads

Other Tips
What I did is pick up a San Francisco City Pass for around 60$ which included entrances to 6 places including Bay Cruise/MOMA & 9 days unlimited bus Ride on Muni Buses/Trains. Would highly recommend this for entrances & mainly getting around city in Buses. No cash change needed & can quickly hop in & hop out of buses.

You also have Bus SightSeeing which should take you around if you are not a "on my own on my legs" type person.

If you have Heavy luggage & want to get rid of it I would suggest dropping it in GreyHound Bus Depot near 1st Street-Market Street junction for 4$ for each 4hours. Quiet safe but ofcourse dont leave any highly valuables in the bag.

If you are traveling directly to City from SFO Airport: Take the Bart Train from Airport(Accessible via connection train from terminal) to Civic Center/Union Square. You should be able to connect to most places from here.

Have a Nice Trip...

Learning Leadership from a Cricket Match... :)

Many a times during cricket commentary we hear so much about the role played by the Captain on field in Leading the team to victory. I used to wonder so much as to how can a captain all by himself play such a huge role with individual players have more to do in it.

Today, I learnt a lot as the Captain of my office team,a lot about Leadership.

We breezed through the first two rounds and were in the quarters today.

We set a target of around 75 to the opposition to be hit in 12 overs.

Over first 5 overs were superb and we had the opponents in the back seat.

It was time to decide for me,whom to give the next over to bowl.And I picked a new guy who hasnt bowled before and that over went for around 24 overs and the match was in their hands with that.

A Very Small incident but I leart a lot of Lessons especially about leadership.

When In doubts, take the safe known option. Risks are very risky :)
The guy I choose bowled well during practice,but didnt have much match experience and crumbled under pressure

Aggression is good, but it can fog your mind if outside the limits
I was my most aggressive self,and I am so only in the Cricket Ground otherwise Am very calm composed and thinking individual. My over aggression costed the match. I did think before asking him to bowl, but I knew I was in doubts and didnt take a calculated decisions.

Risks Are good, but may the risk be taken with enough thought to it.
I knew giving him the ball was a gamble but i never evaluated the match situation, we had enough bowlers doing good and this bowler was never needed to bowl.

Last but not the least,isolate personal feelings during critical moments.
One of the main reason why I choose to let him bowl was because he was left out in both the previous matches even though he wanted to play and bowl. I asked him "Are you confident buddy" before giving him the ball and he didnt sound confident enough and I knew that, but on that split second I choose to let him bowl.

There were comments later "It can happen" "Tough Luck,we had a bad day" "We did very well that one over changed the game" etc etc...I agreed to most of it, but at the back of my mind I felt I played a HUGE ROLE. It was my decision to pick him over another guy to give him a chance, It was my decision to give him a chance to bowl over others. I saw the person and gave him more importance then the team and the match.

On paper we were a far better side the the opponent...by the results was speaking otherwise.

He failed me, in turn I failed the Team....A uncalculated decision proved to be a risky gamble.

"All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players"

How true is this! In life we live a lot of moments, we cross a lot of people;friends, family, relatives, acquiantances. We speak, we speak our heart out, sometimes we listen, listen intently. We hear about some incidents in their lives, we share our relationships.

Sooner then later, we realize how true is the fact that the whole world is just a stage play. There are chapters in this play. Sometimes some people are on for some scenes and move on to a different play. While some stay, they keep coming and going.

Maybe its not many plays, maybe its just one big play, and every person is seeing the play from their point of view.

We could call it a Movie instead, but that doesnt make sense as movies have retakes,change in scenes, scene deletion,sometime even cast change. While a play is real life, live it,live it till the end.

One would wish life is like a circle, if it can start where it all ended. On the retrospect it does :). Life never ends, When one door closes the other opens. Maybe in this round of the circle you meet different set of people but you still get to live life the way you want.

"All the world's a stage,And all the men and women are Actors", Actors who have the license to act. Ability to cry,laugh, make others laugh,sometime make other cry. Act as if they are happy, act as if they are sad, act as if they are acting.

When I realized this, I feel a deep sense of power within me. I realize that life is totally under my control. My happiness, my sorrow, my goals, my hopes n wishes. Its all contained within me. I have the power to write scripts for all new scene. Correct all the mistakes in past scripts. Redefine my life as I go. I decide whom I am going to act with, I decide who has to leave, and who has to stay always. I choose to expect more, and Its me who decides to compromize. I decide to shout aloud and I choose to stay calm.
I LIVE MY LIFE THE WAY I WANT as the Stage is mine and all others are MERE players.

"She's Always a Woman To Me..."

Realizing the Power of a SLR Digital Camera.....

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End --

Saw this movie, recently. First Time I saw it, I probably didn't not enjoy it much since I had prejudice as to how the movie should be and what nature of scenes to expect. Something i created after enjoying the first two parts. But, slowly I realized how well the scene has been woven together leading to the Climax. Decided to watch the movie again , and thoroughly enjoyed all the scenes. Sadly, Jack Sparrow the cunning yet innocently good Pirate didn't have enough scenes to his credit. Poor Jack had to share the screen with Barbosa, Will , Liz, in even ppl like Sao Feng, Theo Dalma , n Cutler. :(. I probably expected more for jack coz enjoyed watching him , his walk n his talks in other parts.
Most Enjoyed Scenes:
Travel to the forbidden Land - Look out for the giant water fall
Jack in Forbidden Land - Mad jack n the stone crabs
How they return back to real world at sunset. Up Is Down - Rocking the ship
Ship Wrek pirates get together - Dialogs n Funny acting n characters
Climax - Awesome Fight between Flyin DutchMan n Pearl

Over all recommend the movie....must watch for all.

Best Friend's Call!!

Not always do you call some one as best friend and end up not hearing his/her voice for a very Long time, by definition it defies the very word Best.On the hindsight, sometime so many things happen in ones life that we never realize that friendship like any other thing in life is bound to change. Probably the friendship itself doesnt but atleast how things are surely does.Coz "Change is the Only Constant thing in Life".
On 19th August 2006 at exactly 5.04pm , when i was at my apartment Party hall celebrating Krishna janmastami my
phone rang. To my surprise, a name which has not appeared on Screen for ages now was displayed as "calling...".
i couldn't believe my good fortune. It was my Best Friend!!!! She stopped speaking with me technically more then a year ago,and literally some months ago.... :).Reasons aplently.!!! Interestingly, two years back , she has wished me for Janmashtami told me I will get lot of Gopikas, and for some reason i ended up getting a few,or maybe not just a few :P.The call was intended to wish me for the recent improvements at my work. Glad that the message had reached her :P. I always wonder how really are we programmed at our mind and what is the role of our heart. It so strangly fascinating
that its our heart that is the Super User of ourselves. How much ever we try to go by mind, we fail to do so. And its really amazing that the ,otherwise monotonously beating heart gets filled with happiness when you hear someone so close.
Whatever it may be, i was a happy and satisfied guy that day. Somehow someone had completed the equation, ascertaining the fact Frienship is indeed a miracle.