A Side of Sweet

Flying from the US to Thailand

Pat and I had a series of three flights to get to Bangkok. We took Spirit Air from Chicago to New York and then Eastern China Airlines from New York to Shanghai to Bangkok. The longest leg was NY to Shanghai of course, at about 14 hours. We decided we were going to be smart about jet lag and planned to immediately start sleeping like it was 13 hours ahead. As soon as we got on the flight at 3:00 in the afternoon (4:00am in Bangkok) we took some natural sleep aids (thanks Ambien!) and slept about 6 hours. We forced ourselves to stay awake when it would be the middle of the night in Wisconsin by watching Bridesmaids and the Hangover 2 on our laptop. Hangover 2 is set in Thailand, so it was pretty much travel research. “One night in Bangkok…” Thanks Mike Tyson, I still have that number in my head.

As strange as it sounds, I was looking forward to the meals on the airplane. In my experience, the amenities are always better when you aren’t flying a US-based airline. Plus, we had ordered special vegetarian meals, which meant they would be filling and healthy, right? Rookie mistake. A vegetarian meal on Eastern China Air consists of either mushy brown rice with overcooked carrots and broccoli or pieces of bread with alternating cucumbers, lettuce and tomato formed into a double-decker sandwich. Luckily we had granola bars and chex mix along to help fill the nutritional gaps. Chinese beer rounded out our diet.

We also enjoyed a little stretching and aerobics to keep the blood flowing – no DVTs for us!

As we were going through customs in China on our layover, I heard someone say my name. I turned around to see Erika, a girl I’m in med school with, in line with her husband. Somehow we had ended up on the same flight to the same country on our holiday break. This makes me two for two, given that I ran into a fellow med student last winter break on my flight to Panama (the country, not the crappy spring break destination in Florida). Small world?

We had a little time in the Shaighai airport to explore. I contemplated buying some fresh crab.

Pat and I landed in Bangkok at 2:30am. We gathered our backpacks that had thankfully arrived and caught a cab to Hotel Rafael Mansion. Despite being at the end of a dusty alley in the middle of nowhere, it broke the bank at about $30 a night. We were told to enjoy all the things in the mini fridge, as they were included in the price of the room. This turned out to be two cans of coke and a bottle of water. Jackpot!

Despite Pat’s protests about it being 4:00 in the morning, I was determined to keep us on a strict sleep schedule and set the alarm for 9:00am.

San Francisco, CA, Part II

There were tons of great places to eat in San Fran. Luckily I had a few Groupons, which helped narrow down our choices and keep us on a budget. We had sushi at Blue Fin. Not only was the sushi inventive and amazing, our hostess was entirely in the 4th of July spirit!

We also met a group of friends out another night for more sushi!

On the way home, we stopped at Genki, an asian mart and crepe place.

There were tons of snacks for sale:

However, we decided on a huge crepe topped with ice cream instead! Unfortunately, I was so busy eating it, I forgot to take a picture!!!

Castro District, San Francisco, CA

One of our favorite parts of San Francisco was the Castro district. This is a historic part of town that was featured in the movie “Milk”, about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office. The neighborhood has long been an LGBT hotspot in San Francisco and there was a ton to see.

Our first stop was talking to one of the friendly Castro district ambassadors:

There was also tons of shopping on Castro Street. I found the perfect outfit for Pat!

There were also volunteers promoting safe sex:

San Francisco, California

Pat and I rolled into San Francisco for the last few days of my portion of Road Trip 2011. Alas, I had to get back to Wisconsin to start my surgery rotation.

There was a lot to see in San Francisco, but we took our time and didn’t stress out about missing things. We definitely didn’t do this:

Instead we checked out the cablecars:

and of course the Golden Gate bridge:

There is a sweet surf spot right under the bridge. The locals are pretty territorial though, and the waves crash right on the rocks so it wasn’t a good place for us the surf ourselves:

We also contemplated adopting this little guy from a group of puppies being given away:

Napa Valley, California

Our stop in Napa Valley was quite a change of scenery. We switched from tents and couches to one of the nicest hotels in the Valley! I managed to snag us a free hotel room, courtesy of SniqueAway. We bunked at the Vintage Inn, in Yountsville. For what should have cost $450, we were treated to spa access, a bottle of wine waiting for us in our room, and a champagne brunch, plus a night on the most comfortable beds you can imagine. We also had a nice view of the Napa landscape from our balcony.

Someone called Napa, “Disneyland for Adults,” and that’s definitely true. We did a few wine tastings, but I must say, I enjoyed the vibes in Santa Rosa much better. It’s less pretentious and more affordable. I would definitely pick staying there over Napa when we return to California wine country.

We had a nice dinner out and then checked out what the spa had to offer. I wondered how Pat would handle to luxury and pampering of the spa, but I think he ended up enjoying it more than I did! It was pretty funny to hear him talk about lemongrass steam rooms and custom body butter. We enjoyed it so much we stopped in again in the morning before we hit the road to San Francisco!

The brunch in the morning was fantastic and had everything from an omelet bar to huevos rancheros.

Bodega Bay, California

Bodega Bay had a reputation as a great surf spot. On our way down Highway 101 we stopped to check it out. Bodega Bay is a tiny, touristy town a few hours north of San Francisco. The on the days we were there weren’t as awesome as we’d hoped, but it was still nice to be in the water. When we weren’t surfing, it was nice to relax. We stopped at a seafood shack to get some fresh caught oysters:

We also spent a good portion of the evening looking for a place to poach a campsite. Unfortunately, most of the roads around Bodega Bay go up into the hills and are used for ranching. This means barbed wire fencing and gated driveways. We finally stopped in a nearby town and asked a local if he knew a place where we could pitch a tent. He immediately invited us to camp on his land. He was quite a character, a bachelor who drove around a big old Open Road camper. He had a beautiful spot up a steep road almost in the tree tops.

Since it was raining, he offered us the fold out bed in his camper van. He also said we would feel safer there since there is a mountain lion that likes to prowl around at night. Luckily, the only disturbance we had was when his curious pet cat decided to jump on the roof of the van!

We appreciated the “California Hospitality” that our host showed us, and it was a relief to find a place to stay!