Ekushey Celebrations and Slumdog Millionaire

February 21 is an important day for Bengalis - we mark this day in celebration of our language and the Language Movement. The UN also celebrates this day in honor of Bangla as International Mother Language Day [source]. Bengalis have a deep pride in their language and February 21 is often marked with passionate events about language, culture and 1971.

In Toronto, the Bangladeshi community is very strong and mostly educated. I attended one event "Liberation 1971" in Scarborough on Friday. Bengali readers of this blog know I have a soft spot for university Bangladesh student associations and usually attend their cultural shows. This show was held by Bangladeshi Students Association-Scarborough (BSAS) and focused on Bangladeshi's struggle for independence.

[Photo Credit:Shahryer Ahmed]

The skits were fabulous. The whole show was mind blowing. The actress pictured above played a mother who receives a letter from her son who went to fight the war. She starts reading the letter, and starts to break down into tears as she reads on. At the end of her skit, she falls down to the ground in tears, and there was not a dry eye in the audience. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant acting.

[Photo Credit:Sharihan Bhuiyan]

There were songs, all brilliantly placed and sung. These are revolutionary songs and evoke strong emotions, and the participants who sang the songs, particularly the singer pictured above, did full justice. Again, they were just superb and the show was fully worth a lot more than the $5 admission they charged.

The Oscars often inaugurate the cultural show season by the BSAs here in the Greater Toronto Area, and this year the bar has been set very high by the BSAS. The downtown St. George BSA usually has the best show, but they would be highly challenged to surpass BSAS's content and performance this year.

There was another event at the Danforth (the hub of the Bengali community here) and they even had their own Shohid Minar!

[Photo Credit:Spriha]

Again, there was singing, dancing, and all-in-all a good celebration of Bangla. The real Shohid Minar is of course in Dhaka.

All this celebration of Bangla underlines the fact how important our language, culture and music is to us! I in fact know of couples where the girl was non-Bengali and the first questions people ask the guy is "Does she know Bengali? Will she learn? Make sure she learns!" Not your "what does her father do?" or "how did you guys meet?" for us! You will find in Bangladesh even religious people send their daughters off to classes for music and singing. Preserving the Bengali identity is a very big thing.

* * *

Speaking of the Oscars, yesterday was perhaps the first Oscar I watched almost, almost, in its entirety. And no, it was not for Hugh Jackman as some girls seem to be doing!

I was cheering for Slumdog Millionaire and it won big time, especially Best Director and Best Picture awards. It truly is a good movie. I attended this movie long before it was released widely and long before it became a "big thing" so in some sense (strange, I know!) I have a special fondness for this movie and am glad to see it do so well. And of course, a Muslim brown man winning TWO awards for music AND invoking God on Hollywood's big stage was just a bonus!

It's actually funny (not to mention strange) to see some Indians' reactions to this movie.

On one hand are all those proud of the movie and glad that "they" made it. Well, it's not an Indian movie! It's made by a British director, written by a British writer, and produced by a Hollywood studio. Granted it has some Indian actors (even the leads are British) and set in India but in the end - it's a Hollywood movie. But, you know, I am happy for them and understand their pride.

And then there are the other Indians who hate the movie and think it promotes cliches and doesn't show the "real" India. That's a stupid debate and this movie not only shows how MOST Indians live but raises poverty on the big screen - a subject many Indians would rather not talk about.

In the end, it's best not to take it so seriously and just enjoy it as a good tale and yarn. It may also be the first time a movie that has cricket in it (the children playing in the airport and one of the questions on the game show) as Best Picture at the Oscars so that's something!

JAI HO!

OMG! OMG! OMG! OBAMA ... is.. HERE!!! *faint*

Today, on my drive to work, finally I heard something else on the news other than Barack Obama. Even if it was about the stock market going down by another 200 points. Frankly, the Obamania frenzy is getting a little sickening.


I have nothing against the guy. I think what he did and how he achieved it - is awesome. But .. wtf.. he just started the job!!! Give him some time, and judge him on his actions.

I admit he is doing all he has promised to do, and he seems sincere. But what really cooked my goose was hearing on the radio about a lady who woke up and went to freezing, snowy Parliament Hill at 4.30 AM to get a good spot so she could PERHAPS see the President!!!

Now that's really crazy.

And to everyone who reads this story "the President made an unscheduled stop at an Ottawa Bakery to buy some cookies" and goes "AAWWW... how cute!" I have this piece of news for you.

Nothing is unscheduled. NOTHING. They scoped out the market and bakery long before hand. How did Obama know this bakery is the one to go to, not its neighbour? They just didn't publish it on the itinerary.


Again, in the words of Thomas Walkom, enough with Obamamania already!

Obama may be a fine chap who has a good way with words. But in the end, he's their guy not ours.

OK I Admit, Star Trek = Geek

I recently realized why a Star Trek fan is held as the ultimate geek. I was watching TV with a female Indian friend and suddenly Voyager came on. Being a Trekkie - I naturally switched to that channel.

"Uffo, what is this? Is that Obama?"

"Er, no." I replied. "That's Tuvok. He's a Vulcan."

"A what? And why is that... my God! A talking fish!"

"That's not a talking fish." I tried to explain. "It's a Talaxian."

I then launched into a "history" lesson.

"Vulcans are a race of intelligent aliens who control their emotions, while Talaxians are a group of another aliens in the Delta Quadrant."

"I see." Probably did not. "And that man with the triangle on his forehead?"

"That's Chakotay. He's an Indian."

"A what?"

"Aboriginal Indian." I hastened to explain. "Not your Indian Indian." I did not add that I have yet to meet a native Indian who had a triangle tattoo on his forehead.

"What's happening here?"

"Oh," I was recalling the episode. "It's a time warp field. Their ship has encounter a, er, anomaly in the, er, space-time continuum ..."

"You know, if they are going back in time, why are they going back to Earth? You said they are 75,000 miles from Earth...."

Not miles dear, I thought, light years.

"Er, I don't know!" (cheaper to shoot episode in LA I guess).

You know what, Bidaii now sounds much more interesting.

Why Are We Bad?

It was a rare rainy day in a small sheikdom in the Middle East when I trooped into the mosque to pray Isha. After prayers, I met an older uncle who asked me about my future plans.

"I am going to Canada". I told him.

"Good," he replied. "Go, study and then come back. Don't stay there. It's not a good place for young Muslim men."

I have mused over that for sometime. Even when I go back to Bangladesh, I have seen that attitude from people that somehow, people in Bangladesh are better Muslims then people who live in Canada (or USA). When I went to the UAE, I met people who snobbishly told me, "Why do anyone live in Canada, that too, a Muslim?"

Here are my reasons why I think we Canadians (and the West) are not only better Muslims, but better human beings that those living in "Muslim" lands.

In Canada our buses have spaces for the handicapped.
In Bangladesh you are lucky to make it to the bus stop if you are handicapped.

In Canada we say "Excuse me" when someone steps on our toes.
In Bangladesh we push people out of the way.

In Canada we live respectfully with the Jews and while we disagree on many things, we treat them as our friends and neighbors.
In Bangladesh Jews are the cause of all problems and the reason why there is so much war all around the world and after all, everything is Israel's fault and part of a conspiracy.

In Canada I can pray and fast on my own terms.
In Saudi I am beaten if I am outside on the streets during prayer times.

In Canada we elect our leaders the way Muslims elected Abu Bakr as their first leader.
In the Arab lands ... well, never mind.

In Canada when it is illegal to discriminate against a person based on his skin color.
In Muslim lands it's all about Fair and Lovely.

In Canada I can run my own business and not take interest if I have to.
In Bangladesh I have to pay bribes at every level and not to mention protection money to local hoodlums for every business.

In Canada molesting a women is against the law.
In some Muslim lands molesting a women IS the law.

In Canada we treat work as noble. A labourer at a construction site (work that the Prophet did) is as much a person as a doctor.
In Bangladesh, "they" are second class citizens and not even worth a mention.

We are open minded. We don't think it's a religious duty to beat our women. We don't believe in forced marriages. We don't believe in killing a woman because she doesn't cover her hair or describe them as "meat".

We pay our workers and sue those who don't. We read, discover and broaden our knowledge. We keep an open mind and don't pretend to act on God's behalf. We live peacefully with our neighbors even if they follow a different religion. Or even a different sect of our religion.

So, to reply to that uncle, "you are wrong. It's a great place to be a Muslim."

West Coast Diaries - 4. San Diego and Las Vegas

I am going to do two cities in one post to get this series out of the way.

San Diego

San Diego is a bland and active city at the same time. We were here for three days, and the weather ruined one of them.

I found San Diego to be a really rah-rah-American patriotism kind of city. There is an American military base nearby and the city catered to them in a big way. Wherever we went, whether Sea World or Point Loma lighthouse, or even bumper stickers on cars, there were loud and proud signs proclaiming "We Support Our Troops".

Even at Sea World, the hostess would announce, prior to each show, "We would like to reiterate our support for our troops. Sea World supports our troops. If you are a family with a serviceman or in our forces, please stand up and everyone please give a round of applause."

Such in-your-face patriotism gets to you after a while. I am a tourist, I have come to see stuff, keep your troops and your war cries out of sight!

Sea World was pretty good.

It's just amazing how trained those huge orcas and killer whales can be. They would flop around, execute synchronized jumps, twirls and backflips, all at instant signal from the trainers.


And the dolphins, wow! They could jump 16 feet high!


I didn't know if it was safe to buy food (even French Fries) though, given this sign.


Even seals got into the act. The finishing was a night time Christmas special show with Sea World's flagship killer whale, Shamu.


It was in San Diego I met Haleem and his lovely wife Mona, who live in Mississuaga, and were visiting San Diego at the same time as us, as well as my friend Suparna and her family who used to live in the Middle East before moving to the US. It's amazing sometimes you live in the same city and never meet up, and then run into each other in some other part of the world!

Las Vegas

Las Vegas was just a mind blowing city. It's one place I wouldn't mind going back to, again. The drive from San Diego to Vegas took about 6 hours and the scenary changed from brilliant green farm land to stark dry desert to mountain peaks filled with ice and snow, and then, as we approached the State of Nevada, back to dry desert again.


The famous Strip was everything I imagined it to be. Loud, gary, with flashing neon lights, music, busy with people, and even guys hanging around street corners, handing out cards with a number and a promise "Girls to your room in 30 minutes".


One famous aspect of the Strip are the themed hotels. Of those, I found the New York New York hotel to be truly huge. It replicated several of the famous New York buildings, and even had a coaster around the hotel/casino resort.


Right next to the Paris Hotel was the Bellagio Hotel. One of the big attractions of Vegas are the Fountains of Bellagio, shown in the movie Ocean's 11. We got a perfect spot by following some Indians who were chatting "Eha se dekho sab dikhta hai" and got the whole show on tape.

A different music was played for each show and those would be repeated every 15 minutes or 30, depending on the time of the day.


The waters would shoot 30 feet up into the air!



They say the Eiffel tower at Hotel Paris is really 1/3 the size of the real one.


We stayed at the Luxor hotel and resort, which is really a good location on the Strip, as well as having the uniqueness of living in a Pyramid!


Here's a picture of it during the day.

The famous Las Vegas sign wasn't too far from our hotel.

A bus runs along the Strip (it's called Duece) and costs only $5 for 24 hours of unlimited travel. The traffic on this road as well as the construction around reminded me of Sheikh Zayed road in Dubai.

Here's the "Eiffel tower" again in the morning.


I did one silly thing - went to the Stratosphere tower in the morning. It would have been better to go in the evening (but then the lines are LOOOONG) so you get a view of the Strip at night.


I was just amazed at the detail of the themed hotels - the Venetian had the Bridge of Sighs, gondolas and even the arches of the Piazzas all proper!


We went to the Criss Angels show and saw him live! All in all Las Vegas was one truly great touristy city. Lots to do, even if you didn't gamble.

Lessons from Gaza 2008

• If you are poking a bee's nest with a stick, better be sure to have protection for when they come out. One has to question the tactical necessity of firing rockets at residential areas in Israel. What objective, military or otherwise, did they achieve?
  
  
• "Only 13 Israelis dead, is it justice?" is not what one should be asking. While it may be sadistically stimulating on some base human emotional level to see thousands of dead Israelis that does not accomplish anything nor does it offer long lasting peace or even justice. Same is true for the dead on the Gaza side. Killing thousands of Gaza residents will not give Israel peace for any notable duration of time.
  
  
• Words can only take you so far. The Hamas had thousands of good words but Israel is still the superior military power. Hezbollah 2006 was an anomaly. This time, they did not hesitate to kill civilians. This is actually how war is supposed to be if you want to achieve your military objectives. Hamas stupidly gambled on the war being "nice". War is never nice and innocent civilians die. Question is - who cares? Neither side, it seems.
  
  
• Israel clearly has the support of the world's only superpower. Gaza does not even have the support of fellow Palestinians. Abbas criticized the Hamas while the Gulf Arab dictators would clearly prefer Israel demolish Hamas. A populist, democratic movement in Arabia? Allah forbid!
  
  
• Women leaders clearly have three balls. In an attempt to prove they are tougher than the men they replaced, they are often more militaristic, aggressive and eager to project power. Whether it's wise to do so is another question. Think Golda Meir, Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and now Tzipi Livni. Clearly, Sheikh Haseena and Benazir Bhutto are exceptions.

So what should the Muslim community world wide (and the Arabs) do to prevent another round of genocide?

First, short term ceasefires achieve nothing. You want peace, stability and economic prosperity. Even thought of emulating the Prophet? The Hudaibiya treaty, signed with terms very unfavourable to the Muslims, changed the game forever. Go to the Israelis and ask for a 20 year peace treaty.

Yes, it would have been nice to go to them BEFORE they pummeled you black and blue but still, 20 years of peace is not something they will ignore. Technically they are not talking to you but er, you also are committed to wiping them off the face of the earth. Both should moderate their tones a bit.

Think about it. 20 years of peace. No economic or naval blockade. Israel would have to dismantle all checkpoints. They can't build settlements (get international UN soldiers to see this). 20 years to build up yourself economically, politically, militarily and peacefully. Have what other people around the world take for granted.

Second, accept the fact that Israel is going to be around for sometime. How about competing with them on education? On knowledge? On achievements?

In the entire Muslim world, there are only 500 universities (none of them make the top 500 in the world). In USA alone there are 5,758. Literacy in the West is 90%. Israel has 100%. Muslim world - 40%. Arabs - 20%. Gaza - 5%.

Export of high technological products from Pakistan is 0.9% of its exports. In Saudi Arabia it's 0.2%. Singapore's exports comprise 68% of high-tech products. In the UK, the average number of books published per million residents is 2000. Egypt, leading the Muslim world, comes up with 17.

"Read" is the first revealed word of Quran. "Ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr" said the Prophet. The Muslim world has a surplus of martyrs and a deficit of scholars.

Third, and final, think for a moment.

All of Israel's tanks, planes, Jeeps and ships need fuel. Oil.

Where are they getting it from?

Music and Its Power

It might sound strange that on a post to deal with music and its power I can't exactly pen how I feel about it.

I like it. I like a good piece of music.

Music has power, of which there is no doubt. And anyone who denies it is denying the truth. Music has the power to move the souls of men.

I find it strange when people barricade themselves against this basic truth. I once met someone who told me "Music is haraam (forbidden) and nothing haram is good."

To me it seems that these people like to seek out anything that is fun and forbid it. They very much seek to enforce the ideology that we have not come into this world to have fun. Their mantra seems "Enjoin what is good and forbid what is fun"!

It is these same people however who have taken hero worship to a new level, especially at nasheed singers! I used to attended RIS until two years ago, and then could not due to schedule conflicts, but one factor used to rile me during RIS - the way some girls believed during the time nasheed singers would come.

These singers were singing devotional songs about the Creator and the Prophet, yet girls were screaming and somehow it was all 'halal'. Same behaviour, replace Outlandish with Junoor or Sami Yousef with Shah Rukh Khan, and the behaviour is suddenly 'haram'!

I appreciate a good piece of music, despite sometimes not even understanding the language. I can appreciate good talent and the hard work that goes into composing. As a blogger and writer I can understand creativity and applaud it.

Currently I am listening to one song in loop-de-loop mode. It's Bandeya Ho from the Pakistani movie Khuda Ke Liye.

In the movie, our hero is attending a music class and the class is given the assignment of partnering with someone of a different culture and language and come up with a composition that is the reflection of both. Bandeya Ho is the result.

I don't understand the lyrics, but the song is great.



Any discussion on music in Islam cannot be complete without mentioning this movie. The arguments at the climax of the movie, presented by the character played by Nasiruddin Shah, cannot be easily refuted.

Yet I have met many people who blanket ban music, despite lots of evidences to the contrary. During one Zakir Naik event I attended, someone from the audience asked him, "Is music haram?"

The scholar replied, "In my opinion anything other than daff music is haram."

Why daff? It's an Arabic drum that the Prophet permitted to be used in his presence.

I immediately thought why is no one asking, the Prophet IS Arab, so obviously his people will use Arabic instruments. What about musical instruments from MY culture? So am I to be subservient to the Arabic culture now?

But this is reality (and is a main reason why I don't respect Zakir Naik a lot). Muslims all over seem to have a cultural inferiority complex to the Arab culture (some of which is not even Islamic!). The most weird "Islamic" song I found posted on one Muslimah's blog was by an Egyptian singer. He was singing a love song to his beloved in Arabic.

One of the girls commented, "This song is so good but Astakfirullah. I am going to pretend the girl and boy in the video are married."

This is the sort of disconnect with reality syndrome that is prevalent amongst many in our community.

West Coast Diaries - 3. Los Angeles

Where San Francisco was beautiful, Los Angeles was dirty. Where San Francisco was small, Los Angeles was huge. There is a highway called Pacific Highway One that leads from San Francisco to Los Angeles and hugs the coast of the Pacific Ocean and passes through picturesque towns. I rented a car in San Francisco, and we drove partly through this highway, before switching to the faster interstate to head down to LA. With traffic, the total drive was about 8 hours. My uncle lives in LA, so we bunked at his place, ready to explore the three big attractions of LA.

Hollywood

I already knew Hollywood was dirty but even then I was unprepared for how dirty it really was. The weather was a bit gloomy, rainy at times, and the whole area had a run down look to it. It was hard to imagine, standing next to the Kodak Theatre, that this was where the Oscars take place. Just opposite the road was a hobo urinating against the wall. Some tourists passing by took a picture, I don't know why.

There are some famous buildings and monuments in Hollywood, such as the Capitol Records building above, and of course the Kodak Theatre.

It's fun to walk along the Walk of Fame and see the numerous stars and trying to find your favourite actor or actress, but that soon gets tiring after a while. The only fun thing in Hollywood is the Hollywood Museum (where they have the set of USS Enterprise with the Captain's chair!) and the tour of the Kodak Theatre.

The famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre (above) is right next to the Kodak Theatre, and you can see this building when a famous movie premiers on Hollywood.

Universal Studios
Now this is the fun thing to do in LA! I honestly had a really great day at Universal Studios, and not just due to the weather which the day before had been gloomy but on this day the sun came out in full force!

What we in our group did was to upgrade to "Front-of-line" passes when we purchased our tickets online, back in November. It was marginally more expensive as we purchased online and it allowed us to skip ahead to the front of every line at every ride or show, as well as get preferred seating at the shows. A fabulous buy, especially when the weather is great and the lines are long! Oh, for a whole day we were VIPs.
The beautiful San Pedro valley, as seen from the tram ride at Universal Studios.

They have a tram ride (which shuts way earlier than the park) that takes you on a studio tour. The ride is not just a sight of the buildings however. For example, when they take you to a bridge that broke in the movie King Kong, you are ON THE BRIDGE as the driver is narrating this and then the bridge breaks! When they are explaining how they create flash floods in movies, suddenly a flash flood erupts right AROUND THE TRAM (see below).


The best, however, is when the tram passes through the plane crash set used in the War of the Worlds.

They destroyed a whole Boeing 747 for this movie!

Then they take you around Wisteria Lane (the sets for Desperate Housewives) as well as other famous studio sets. Other than the studio tour, there's lots of rides and shows that keep one occupied. I really enjoyed the Terminator 4-D show, where the Terminator actually shows up in front of you in a person and takes you INSIDE the movie.

They also have a show involving lots of sounds, special effects and oh, explosions.

Again, the lines were huge, but we cut everyone across and got the best seats in the house!

Disneyland
What can I say about this place that has not been said! Truly, the Happiest Place on Earth. The employees were literally smiling all day. Everyone was super eager to go out of their way to help us in case we needed anything.

Mostly though, we stumbled upon a secret. December 24 may be the best day to go to Disneyland if you want to avoid crowds. Seriously, rides that have 2 hour waits, we just waltzed through and went on again if we liked it! We covered both the parks and had a great time. After Disneyland, Wonderland does not even compare!

An African boat cruise that featured elephants and tigers and cannibals!

Elephants taking bath. You don't want to get too close!


A spook at the haunted house.


Pirates of the Caribbean


High School Musical 3's cast performing


Mrs Incredible during a parade


Pinocchio waves us goodbye

The "Muslim" World is Praying for Gaza

Saudi Arabia is praying for Gaza. Whenever the residents get some free time from debating on laws about women driving and punishing rape victims, they pray for Gaza. Even some of the Princes took out time from their busy schedule of partying in Monaco to pray for the Gaza victims.

People in the Emirates are also praying for Gaza. The small country may be facing hard times due to the financial crisis and borrowing too much, but they are still praying for Gaza. Even the labourers, some of whom haven't been paid in months, take time out from cleaning their leaking septic systems to pray for Gaza. Some of the locals have even stopped going every day to the bars and nightlife in sympathy for Gaza.

Bangladeshis are also praying for Gaza. They may have elected one of the most corrupt ladies to power, who is busy literally killing her opponents off, but they are still praying for Gaza. The average person feels their pain through their own, every time they are paying a bribe to get a phone line connected or the policeman when caught driving without a license. Even in these hard times they are praying for Gaza.

The average Pakistani also feels for Gaza. Despite raping a woman every nine minutes or passing laws that get women gang raped, they are enraged every time Israel kills another woman or child from Gaza. Even their President has stopped drinking wine apple juice and prays for Gaza.

Qataris feel strongly about Gaza - and Iraq. Every time they supply food to the American military base near Doha, they get angry about Iraq. Every time they invite an Israeli representative to party in the capital after some conference on interest, they get angry about Gaza.

Egyptians too feel strongly about Gaza. They are angry at the inhumane way Israel has butchered the Palestinians. Of course they will fire rockets, they say, look how Israel has blockaded their tiny country! When reminded it is Egypt that is helping Israel enforce the blockade, it is still a Zionist conspiracy.

All in all, the "Muslim" world is very angry, and are ready to pray again.

... Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts. But when (once) Allah willeth a people's punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will they find, besides Him, any to protect (13:11)

West Coast Diaries - 2. San Francisco

San Francisco is possibly the most beautiful city in the United States. I was there for 3 days and it remains my favourite city of the tour. San Francisco is a nice, scenic, beautiful, and very friendly city. Second, we met Baraka and Muse!

Our group stayed downtown, near Union Square (sort of like our Nathan Phillips). Surrounding this area is a bunch of designer shops (Prada, Fifth Avenue, Saks, etc.) - supposedly where Sarah Palin went on her shopping spree.



One thing you have to be prepared to do is to walk a lot on your first day.
The best route to take is to walk north Grant Street (right next to Union Square) all the way, taking in Chinatown, Cable Car Museum, Lombard Street, Ghiradelli Square, and finally Fisherman's Wharf on the way.


As our group started to walk, the first area we crossed through was the famous Chinatown of San Francisco. I was amazed at the scale of this Chinatown. Our own Toronto's Chinatown does not even compare. What's more, it was really authentic Chinese stuff that stores were selling, not just cheap Dollar Store stuff.

Note: don't bring women on this route as they will shop crazy.


One of the icons of San Francisco is the cable car. These cable cars are part of the only existing ground cable car system in the world. San Francisco kept theirs as other cities moved to electric transportation and it is now a tourist attraction in its own right.



A few blocks west on Grant and up north from Chinatown is San Francisco's cable car museum, which is also the place from where the cables that run the cable car system are operated. You can actually see the gears and motors and pulleys and engineers working on them! I was amazed to see they still use the same instruments for the last hundred years!



After finishing the museum, it's a bit of a walk to Lombard street - also known as the world's crookedest street.



The view from the top of Lombard street is simply fantastic, you can see the Bay in one direction, north to Alcatraz in another, and down to the city in the third direction! I also ran into a tourist couple there, from Israel, who simply were taking pictures after every 5 steps. They asked me to take a picture of them, where they pretended to hold up the Alcatraz Island!

For chocolate lovers, there is a small plaza close to Lombard Street called Ghiradelli Square. They used to have a chocolate factory there, but now they sell their brand of chocolate there (and trust me it is super tasty). If you visit during the day, they even give free samples!



A short walk away is the Fisherman's Wharf. This is a famous area where piers jut out into the Bay area (and Pacific), fishermen return with their boats and you can sample fresh seafood (crabs too!) right at the dock. It's a pretty touristy area. I had crab legs there, fried, and very tasty.

Right at Fisherman's Wharf is a World War II submarine.



Entrance is cheap and it's quite interesting, especially for those that have never been abroad one, to see just how congested a life submariners lived - and this is a famous one, having seen action against the Germans.



Ever seen the movie The Rock? It was primarily after seeing that movie that I had always wanted to visit Alcatraz Island, the site of America's most notorious prison, where they once held famous prisoners such as Al Capone.



We took a ferry from Pier 33. It takes about 10 minutes to get to the Rock.



As I got closer, I could feel the air getting colder, the sea a little rougher. It was easy to see why prisoners here felt isolated from the rest of the world. We took an audio-guided prison tour, and one of the best ways to see the prison.



Pictures can't do justice to the gloom that is Alcatraz, and similarly, the magnificence that is the Golden Gate bridge!



If you watched Roger Moore in A View To A Kill battle the villain atop the Golden Gate bridge, you would know the thrill I felt when I was actually walking on this bridge. It's massive!

San Francisco will hold many memories for me. It was in many ways the most pristine American city. Alas within the city we still saw signs of Americanism (a guy was beaten by some thugs on the street while we ate inside, hobos everywhere), but in many other ways, a city I loved visiting.