Web 2.0 Expo 2007

Not much has changed since the last time I visited San Francisco.  I remembered staying at the Grand Hyatt, just a few blocks away from where the Hilton is.  That was the MIT field trip.  Iraq war was starting and there was lots of demonstrators marching past the Hyatt’s entrance towards Union Square.

Comparatively, SFO today seems quieter.  My 19th floor room at the Hilton looks down to Chinatown, which is just across the street.  My large room windows welcome the sun and the roottops of many of the short buildings surrounding the hotel.

I felt quite awake, so I went out to explore.  I walked mostly southwards towards Market Street around 2:30pm.  Went to see Union Square, the Apple store at Stockton, and the Sony Metreon.  The Sony occupancy of the Metreon has scaled down drastically.  They used to occupy mostly 3 floors exhibiting the latest Sony products and other interested electronics gadgetry.  Now, Sony just occupies the 1st floor, with the focus on Playstation displays and SonyStyle.  The cinema is still there – I was tempted to watch a show, but on second thought, I’d rather walk around the city to see the sights.

I got rather tired at around 4:30pm – my body says it’s 7:30am in the morning Singapore time.  The good thing was that I had slept through the flight, it wasn’t that bad.  But I decided to head back to the hotel for a rest.

From 5:30pm to 7pm I slept.  The sun sets around 7:30pm here,  so it was still bright when I left the room again looking a bite.

Since Chinatown is so near, I walked across and skimmed along the knick-knack shops selling Chinese trinkets.  Interesting — very nicely printed 100% cotton SFO souvenir T-shirts are a steal at US$3 each.  I bought 3 right away, but I’ll come back for more.

Rensing forgot to pack in my night shorts, so I was hunting for them along Chinatown’s main Grant street, but found none.  One shop lady told me in Cantonese to try Market Street, so there I went – about 15 minutes walk.  Good thing the road in that direction was quite flat.

Ah, Old Navy was still open.  It’s a 4 storey mega clothing store.  I got 3 boxer shots with nice patterns on them for US$18 promotional price.  Rather pricey still I think, but I need them.

Walked back to Chinatown and found a quaint little restaurant.  Ate Wanton Mee Soup.  Satisfied with the US$6 meal and came back to my room.  It’s 9:40pm.

Tomorrow’s day will start at 8:30am.  Moscone West, the venue of the conference, is about 20 minutes walk from here.  I look forward to the workshop sessions.

After the sessions at 5pm, I will be taking a train to MountainView to meet up with Phil and Mindy Nemec, friends of CMU days, for dinner.  It will be good to catch up after all these years.