Stayed: Pacific Tradewinds Backpacker Hostel, San Francisco review

Pacific Tradewinds Hostel was my second hostel in San Francisco but I booked it a lot earlier than I did San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Hostel.

I spent seven nights there and loved the location. It’s between Chinatown and the Financial District. Plus, Union Square and Market Street is within walking distance. For the facilities and location, the less-than-US$30 rate is darn cheap.

The area’s also safe for a solo woman traveller since I didn’t see many shady characters hanging around at night.

The rooms

I was given the Haigh Ashbury bed in one of the two rooms on the fourth floor. There are six beds in each room. I believe the third floor has extra rooms (and showers) as well.

The room is not tiny as there’s still space for everyone of us in the room to open our luggage. There’s also storage underneath the bed. Remember to bring your lock.

My bed was comfortable. The room is nice and toasty at night if we keep the windows shut. Sheets were clean. Two mirrors in the room, in case you are a mirror person.

There were two power outlets which were shared among six girls who probably each have 2 devices. Other power source is available in the hangout area.

Hostel folks

If you are a people person who LOVEa making new friends, this is the perfect place for you. You’ll make lots of friends with the guests and staff in the kitchen/hangout area.

Unfortunately for me, I’m not that much of a people person so I kept to myself most of the time. (The hostel actually inspired my ealier post on ISFPs and hostels.)

The fourth floor is the hangout area. Unfortunately, the hangout area is the thing between me and the bathroom. So most of the time, I have to not-so-discreetly walk to the bathroom while everyone’s chatting about. (Psst, the shower next to the toilet has hotter water than the other one.)

If you are a light sleeper, the hostel has lights out at 12 midnight (hurray!) and most people leave the hangout area for some place else. Just in case, bring earplugs for snory roomies. I got mine from Daiso which has a branch right on Market Street.

Overall, the Pacific Tradewinds Hostel is a great place to stay. Do remember to make advanced bookings because they had to turn down a lot of people while I was there.

Pacific Tradewinds Hostel

Pro: Great location, cheap (<US$30), safe area, near good food
Cons: More power points please.

Heading to San Francisco? Here are some money saving tips for SF.

Stayed: San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Hostel review

During my San Francisco trip, I had the chance to stay at two different hostel. Well, “chance” doesn’t really describe my situation. I had to book separate places because I misinterpreted my work schedule.

Since I had already booked Pacific Tradewinds Hostel for seven nights so I thought that I should give San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Hostel a try for my first night in San Francisco.

This is the Fort Mason branch of Hostelling International’s three hostels in the city. I didn’t pick the other two because they seem to be in shady locations. For a solo woman traveler, safety is always a priority.

I got off one bus stop too early and had to drag my luggage up an extra slope. (I should have stopped at Van Ness instead of Polk.)

After I reached the Fort Mason entrance, there was another slope to conquer. The slope’s not too bad and there’s a beautiful community garden along the way to distract me.

The hostel front desk is on top of the hill. There’s plenty of parking space around.

I lived in this building. The stairs leads to the breakfast room.

The front desk person is curt but I don’t expect hostel staff to fawn over me so it was the right amount of civility. She used a marker to write that day’s date on my receipt for use as an entrance pass and my breakfast slip.

Room

I was lucky enough to get one of the smaller dorm rooms. There was only six beds instead of some other’s 10 to 12. There’s a radiator in the room for those cold San Franciscan nights.

I had the lower bunk which is good because there’s no ladder to climb up the upper bunk. You’ll have to step on the rungs (which were quite high). Under the bed is a luggage space which I locked with my padlock. I couldn’t find a power point in the room.

Room access is with an electronic card. My Room 13 was right outside the bathroom so it was convenient for showers. The bathroom was bright with three showers with three toilets.

There’s a theater and a large kitchen. I did a bit of blogging in the kitchen since there was Internet connection there.

Hostel with a view

The view from the hostel itself is not too fantastic as it’s covered up by trees. But if you stand at the edge of the hill, you’ll get a great faraway look of the Golden Gate Bridge (if the weather is gracious with low fog).

In the mornings, cyclists will ride past the hostel since it’s along the way to the bridge.

Breakfast was great. I had a bagel with peanut butter, a fruit (which I forgot to take away), unlimited coffee and juice. The breakfast lasted me from 11am to 3pm.

One thing cool about Fort Mason on Friday is Off the Grid. At least there was one the Friday I was there.

The event brings the street cards and food trucks around the city in a central location. Head banging music and crowd expected. I had the chance to try out the Creme Brulee Cart there.

Fisherman’s Wharf Hostel

Pro: Good view, great breakfast, space, cheap (US$29.99), safe area
Cons: Far from most sights, a bit of a trek from nearest bus stop, slopes, no power point in room

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Mobile app review: FlightLover

FlightLover is an Apple iOS app that checks for cheap air tickets of budget airlines. It’s available for different countries of origin–Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan.

There’s one thing you need to know about me. I am very stingy and it is very rare that I will pay for an app unless it is really useful.

I downloaded the app a long long time ago, hoping it would help me score cheap flights. Unfortunately, I haven’t bought any cheap flights using the app but I do have other purposes for it.

I use it mainly to check how low flights can go. I also use it to help friends double check if there are cheap flights around the period they want to travel.

The app will be useful for the casual bargain air ticket hunter (I’m among a semi-hardcore bargain hunter while a friend of mine is Level-999 in cheap airticket hunting.)

How it’s like

When you open the app, it gives a list of the destinations in its database as well as the cheapest flights. I love how the cover photos are changed from time to time, for example, the highlighted destination today is Sydney.

For this demo, I chose Kuala Lumpur as my destination as it’s one of the cheapest destinations.

I’m able to slide the slider (duh) to indicate how many days I want to travel. Please note that it includes the day you fly. For example, if a flight leaves the airport at 11pm, it counts as a day.

The return time is actually the hour you return to your country of origin. That is helpful for those who don’t want to guess when they reach home. For me, I would prefer the timing of the flight back instead so I can see how many hours I can still have fun.

You can also select the date range you want which is helpful to zoom in the long weekend dates. The little red triangle on the upper right of the price shows that the trip involves a weekend–super!

After you’ve selected the best price, head into the date and it’ll show you the details of the flight as well as the checkin time (so considerate of them!)

The “Book” button only helps you call the airline while the “Share with friends” lets you tweet/Facebook/e-mail others about the cheap price.

The app also has a neat “Beep” mode which will alert you of deals that have dropped below the price you’ve indicated.

Everyday, around 9am, it will deliver a message alert if the tickets have fallen below the price you like.

Even thought I’ve switched this function on, I always feel annoyed when it reminds me of a cheap flight because I can’t go on a holiday now

The design of the interface is really clean and beautiful. There is an airplane flying in circles when it loads a page. A sad emoticon appears when there is no connection.

The companion Web site has the same functionality but with limited travel dates. The app can be found on the App Store.

Ratings

“Borrowing”148apps.com’s review format:

FlightLover Singapore
Developer: Handstand (The folks who brought you gothere.sg)
Price: S$2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.27
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4
iPhone Integration Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (Not integrated into Twitter–iOS 5 functionality)
User Interface Rating: 4 out of 5
Re-use Value Rating: 5 out of 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

Read: Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Phew, that was a mouthful of a book title.

I forgot how I came across this book online. The title, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, was interesting enough for me to request the library to send a copy to my nearest library.

It was S$1.55 reservation fee and took about one month’s wait for it to reach me because there are only 2 copies in the library. (In contrast to The Hunger Games which I was #27 and received it in a week.)

https://twitter.com/#!/yqtravelling/status/170382163643072513

I finished the book in a day and didn’t feel that satisfied. Maybe it’s because I’ve already made up my mind about long-term travel so his persuasions did not move me much.

I guess another problem with printed copies of books is that I can’t “click” on the links in the book for follow up reading.

There are plenty of offline and online reading recommendation–a bit too much–scattered in the book, which can be useful but not really what I want to see in a book.

What’s cool about the book is its companion Web site: www.vagabonding.net, especially the blog, which I feel is a lot more useful than the book itself.

I’d recommend getting this from the library or just read the blog for all you need to know.

Other more interesting travel materials I’ve read:

Read: The Great Railway Bazaar

I was introduced to Paul Theroux’s by a travel writer on Twitter. The tweet wasn’t directed at me and I’m not even too sure who it was.

The tweet made Paul Theroux sound like The Best Travel Writer in the World™. I then decided to check out The Great Railway Bazaar from the library.

Synopsis: Writer takes train after train after train from London all the way to Japan (with some flights in between), passing by Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and back through Russia.
Continue reading “Read: The Great Railway Bazaar” →

Hotel review: Riverview Hotel, Muar, Johor

Went to Muar during the Christmas weekend without making any hotel bookings (nor bus ticket bookings). I’ve only skimmed through the first page of Google Search and found this place’s Web site. It looked nice enough but I didn’t jot down the address.

We reached Muar around 8pm, and it was raining. Good thing the hotel sign is high up the building because we saw it while our bus drove pass.

The hotel is just a less than 10 minute walk away from the bus terminal, thank goodness.

I think our room was the last one in the hotel that night because the concierge told someone on the phone that there is no more room available.

Our room had a queen-sized bed, bathroom with hot shower, TV and plastic kettle. It was RM85 per night, the walk-in rate, I suppose.

Extra pillows for watching TV.

When we got into the room, there was a puddle near the curtains. It seems that rain seeped through the windows.

We called room service and a man came in to mop and put a towel at the bottom of the window to keep water from coming in.

D thought the bathroom smelled of urine so she washed it up. I guess most bathroom smell of urine from people peeing in the shower.

Something funny about the hotel is that it has ads for a particular chicken processed food.

Our keycard

Best chicken

The stay was nice, we extended an extra night. The bed was so comfortable that I sang and talked in my sleep, it seems. haha

Internet: There is Wi-Fi in the room, remember to ask for the code from the concierge.

Another good thing about this place is that it is next to a dimsum coffee shop (breakfast!) and a Chinese food court (dinner, supper!). You know how much I love my food.

I would return here again, just because it is near the bus terminal. (But then there’s a Hotel D’99 also near the terminal. Maybe I’ll check that place out next time.)

Website: http://www.riverviewhotel.com.my/index.php?page=aboutus.php

Location: 29 Jalan Bentayan, Muar 84000, Malaysia
Price: RM85 per night
Pros: Cheap. comfy beds, strategic location.
Cons: Smelly bathroom, wet floor–which were all fixed

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Stayed: Capsule Ryokan Kyoto

My mom and I stayed at Capsule Ryokan Kyoto for 7 nights during our 10-day trip to Japan in late-October.

This is my second time in Kyoto, during the last trip, my friends and I stayed at a hostel where the sheets smelled like the last occupant. I decided to switch accomodation this time.

After trusting my guts, I booked the Ryokan Ensuite at Capsule Ryokan Kyoto. The room includes two futon, a fancy space shower and a toilet cubicle right next to the entrance. It is really amazing how they manage to save space.

Mom and I stuffed our luggage under our bed. We kept the futon rolled up when not sleeping to watch TV, do book keeping, eat rice balls.

We reached Kyoto at 6am as we came on a night bus. The hotel officially opens at 10am so we hung around the station. While it opens at 10am, we could only shift in at 3pm so we kept our luggage and went off.

The lady at the counter spoke perfect English, in case anyone is worried.

Nishi Honwanji (西本願寺) is just around the corner of the ryokan so that makes it a great first place to go.

Price
7,980yen per night for two persons. Not a bad price for Kyoto.

Location
The ryokan is indeed within walking distance to Kyoto Station but I would rather take the bus. If you bought the 500yen Kyoto bus pass, take the buses that stop at Shichi-jo-Horikawa (七条堀川), the ryokan is just nearby.

The location is good for sightseeing sites and there’s a direct bus to Gion area.

Internet
Internet connection is one of the most important criteria for me when choosing a hotel. This place does have Internet, but Wi-Fi connection is limited to the ground floor. Inside our room, we have a LAN socket (they have LAN cables).

While I brought a netbook, there are things that felt better on the phone. During the nights when I update Facebook/mobile blog/check my horoscope on my iPhone, there was a family of what I guess are Brazilian-Japanese folks having dinner, being merry. I’m not the sort to mingle quickly with people so I kept to myself all the time.

Laundry
There is also some washing machines and one dryer at the fire escape landing. If all machines are full, there is a self-service launderette opposite the ryokan which charges a few hundred yen more.

If I go back to Kyoto, I would like to stay there again. But since the New York Times covered it, I seriously doubt whether I can get a room.