“Do you know the way to San Jose, LA has that great big
freeway...dadadadadada” I was singing that song when Southwest Airlines
landed in Las Vegas for a connecting flight to San Jose. A security guard
got suspicious and asked me to go through the metal detector gate twice,
with interrogation. “Did anyone ask you to carry any item for them? Was
your luggage always with you? Will you quit singing that song?”
Downtown
San Jose
I finally got on the connecting plane, one hour delayed
for a one hour flight.
San Jose Airport is one the best I have encountered so
far; clean and not chaotic. Tom Ewing, my host to be, was still stuck in traffic
when I got there. Since I had not seen him in the last 25 years, I intended
to call and ask what he looked like, but of course I forgot and so did he.
Later I found him, looking pretty much the same as he did before. As for me,
useless, he didn’t recognize me at all! He was looking for a small Asian
girl, and that was that. Had he searched for one looking like a lunatic as
well, he would have spotted me right away.
We got to his home just in time
to go out for some Chinese to eat. Food that is, not people. Do I look like
Mike Tyson?
Tom and Vannath have a nice home on Pierce Ave right down
in town.
Beautiful
houses at Half Moon Bay, San Mateo California
When Tom was in Pattaya, he worked as a civilian under
contract for the US Army at Utapao Thai Naval Air Base most of the time and
then worked for a while at Camp Samesan. He was a supervisor running the a
communication site among other things. Now he runs his own construction
company in San Jose.
On a couple of occasions he took me with him to his
work site at Ocean Colony in Half Moon Bay, San Mateo. And man O man did I
like it there. A housing estate with golf courses right by the Pacific
Ocean. The vast blue sea stretches out to the horizon. Looking out it was
like the world was covered in one big sea sheet. Standing on the cliff, you
see the waves breaking at the shore down below. A perfect place for a
mysterious murder. The cold morning breeze enhanced the color of the sea and
my appreciation of the warm cup of coffee I had in my hand. Significant
beyond words. I told Tom to build me a house there and I’ll pay him back
in 20 years. He didn’t agree.
The
golf course overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Half Moon Bay
I passed by a massive construction site by the cliff and
was informed that it was to be the future Ritz Carlton Hotel. I walked
along, appreciating each and every lawn, tree, stone, house and greens, even
the golf balls looked great there.
Tom explained about the house construction to me in
detail; I swear I could build a house by myself from all that description.
Peasant’s construction will be my company’s name. The following Sunday
the whole family, and I’m talking about “the whole family” of about 20
people, jumped in the new Chevy van that Tom just bought and set off to Mt.
Diablo. Tom wanted to test drive the new van and see if the brakes worked
well on the mountain slopes.
The roads that took us there started out to be scenic and
exciting, up and up we went, round and round the mountain, on that long and
winding road. Members of the family started to go quiet half way up when one
by one we started to get road sick. We reached the summit in one sick piece
at the height of only 3849 feet.
That feeling soon disappeared when we got out of the car
to get fresh air and found ourselves surrounded by breath taking views of
low, rolling hills and broad, flat valleys. The best time to come for the
view is in winter and early spring after a storm clears the air. You can
usually see the lights of Sacramento, Stockton, Lodi, and Tracy at night.
When conditions are best, you can see almost two hundred miles. All in all,
you can see over forty thousand square miles, in at least 35 of
California’s 58 counties, from the top of Mount Diablo. Trust me, I
measured it myself.
The legend of Mt. Diablo has it, as was told by the
Spanish, that once in olden times they had a battle with the Indians on the
mountain; it was going bad for the Spaniards when suddenly the Devil came
out of the mountain, helped the Spaniards, and the Indians were vanquished,
thus the story gave the name to the mountain.
The
rolling hills of Mt. Diablo
After a great picnic lunch under the shady trees, Tom
recruited a few volunteers for a walk along the trail. He managed to get 7
years old Shannon, 12 years old Alex, and me...uh...never mind about my age.
There are so many trails on this mountain. Take for instance, the Fire
Interpretive Trail (Summit). You’ll see the incomparable views of the
California landscape far below enhanced by the framing foreground of the
unusual trail side vegetation.
Or the Pine Pond Trail with the graded road crosses an
oak Savannah with fine views of the gentle foothills of Mt. Diablo - a good
place just to lie in the grass to contemplate the sky, dreaming of the days
when you see the clouds turn into weird monstrous shapes. If you take a
sharp left at the next junction from here it drops you down to the banks of
the little lake, a habitat for a myriad of flying, swimming, crawling, and
jumping creatures which constitute an incomparable living museum. The
creepies and crawlies...uh...pass.
Site of Mountain House is interesting too. You are on the
old stagecoach road that went up to Mountain House, a resort and weekend
goal for Bay Area residents some 100 years ago. Today the wide, level site
is used to store park maintenance materials; not a trace is left of the old
hotel. You will have to let your imagination picture the excitement that the
arrival of the stagecoach must have engendered a century ago.
The
summit at Mt. Diablo, San Jose
Other trails include Fossil Ridge, Sentinel Rock, Donner
Creek, and many more. Don’t ask me which one we took, all I knew was it
was pleasant at first, then it got more complicated. I fell down a few times
to be ‘in’ with the nature, and finally we turned back when we lost the
trail and Shannon already gave up on the itchy plants and had Tom carry her
all the way back. Even though Tom wanted to lose some weight, I think he
would go alone next time.
We got home, exhausted but contented to have been so
close to nature and counted our blessings that there were some almost
natural restrooms up there, and not to mention the gift of God as we drove
back home, The Seven Eleven.
The days in San Jose generally were quite adventurous. I
took the light rail around town and saw...the town.
Many people don’t know that San Jose is the largest
city in Northern California, even larger than its famous neighbor to the
north (you know, the one with the bridge and cable cars). The city is an
architectural beauty surrounded by mountains. Modern technology plays a big
part side by side with world class Cultural Arts.
San Jose has topped the list of safest big cities for
five consecutive years. It has been ranked as the fifth best place to live
in America by Money magazine, and Sunset magazine described its downtown as
an “eminently walkable area with level streets, balmy weather and
well-marked attractions.” And if you’re there on business, there are
Convention, Conference and Meeting Centers, centrally located and equipped
with the latest high-tech amenities.
The Silicon Valley, unknown to me, is the valley that
makes silicon chips, not potato chips or plastic surgery silicone sacks for the
you know what part of the body. I once asked Peter Cummins what’s the
difference between these two, silicon and silicone, he said the latter has
an E that goes into a thing that starts with a B and ends with a T, but the
former is more useful.
“Located on the San Francisco, California peninsula, it
radiates outward from Stanford University. It is contained by the San
Francisco Bay on the east, the Santa Cruz Mountains on the west, and the
Coast Range to the southeast. At the turn of the century, when fruit
orchards predominated, the area was known as the Valley of Heart’s
Delight,” as Carolyn E. Tajnai, manager of Stanford computer forum begins
one of her Web-manuscripts that is describing Silicon Valley history from
one of the WWW’s best personal viewpoint.
About 40 years ago, Stanford University had some
financial problems. The authorities of the university tried to solve the
problems by leasing part of the university land to high-tech companies for
99 years. And so the story goes.
Transportation here is a breeze. With an extensive
circuit of buses, Light Rail transit lines, shuttles and historic trolleys,
you’ll find easy access to arts & entertainment, dining, hotels,
galleries, museums, shopping and Sports & Recreation. There are very
high tech facilities for the disabled people so they can get easy access
onto the trains. Then for the longer distances there are highway buses and
hard rails like Caltrain.
I took Caltrain to SF everyday while doing my different
version of a PhD (and I don’t mean phony diploma) course there. The train
runs at the dot of time and is very comfortable.
I was sitting on one of the last two seats on the upper
level when a young man walked over and, seeing there was only one seat, next
to me, he quickly apologized and said he was getting off in just two
stations. “Oh, don’t worry, do sit down.” I threw my homework into my
bag.
That led to our small little talks. Glen Cunliffe is a
senior copy editor for ZDNet News in San Francisco. He is a really nice guy,
too bad we only had a few stations of conversation and he had to get off at
San Mateo. It would have been a morning mist-struck romance if he had a few
more stations to spare.
“I left my heart in San Mateo...” Alone again,
naturally.
Will the Urban Peasant find her prince charming and not
so charming? Stay tuned for the next episode as she takes you to the city by
the bay, San Francisco.
President
Erika Keller presents the winner of the lucky draw with this huge panda as
other Rotarians join in the celebrations.
Lady
eating flowers with Lord Hutchings
Charge
de Presse Peter Malhotra expounds upon the virtues of fine wines
Happy
gastronomes partake in the Chaine’s fine dining experience at Bruno’s
Mr.
& Mrs. Sutham Phantusak, J. W. Heller, Fredi Schaub and Bruno Forrer
pause a moment for posterity
J.
W. Heller presents the staff with a certificate for a job well done
J.
W. Heller presents Head Waiter Somsak with a certificate of thanks
A
satisfied couple basks in the warmth of a good meal and fine wine
The
good Doctor Iain Corness and Murray Hertz - now there’s a fun duo!
Always
the “ham”, Jan Aamlid gets cozy with Mrs. Frei
Host
Bruno entertains Mrs. Piller and Mr. Dietl
Ranjit
enjoys the evening with Bjorn & Mrs. Richardson
