Walking Ixus

Waaaah!
Let me clarify last week’s entry about US airports and rail links.
SFO does have a rail link to the City. That’s technically correct. But the experience still sucks.
Verrry eariy this AM, I awoke at 0615 to get out of the house by 0715 to wait for MUNI to get to the BART station.
In case you’re new here, MUNI is hell on earth. MUNI sucks. MUNI is our local “Transit” system that always stops for red lights. Even if they’re green. And it will wait at that green light until it turns red.
They also run at their own leisure. I waited 25 minutes for an overcrowded, filthy bus with the majority of people on it the kind I wouldn’t want to associate freely with in ANY way. And it ran SLOW! Slower than a UA “flight attendant” responding to the attendant call button in steerage.
Then (of course), the basi finally gets downtown. After 35 minutes of timing every red light on Geary Boulevard and stopping at practically every block.
You can make the transfer to a BART train to SFO IF you have no baggage and run like-a hell. Of course, no mere mortal could do this. Except Superman, but if you were Kal-El, son of Jor-El, you would fly yourself to LA instead of trying to catch a train.
Long story short is that once I entered the bowels of the Powell Street BART station, my mobile worked (Cingular) but I had to wait 18 minutes (remember, just missed the train?) for another SFO bound train.
It took 30 minutes for the BART train to travel 14 miles, including the train coming to a dead stop and waiting for several minutes after Daly City station. Twice.
Sooo, using my public school math, the BART train goes 28 miles an hour. Sooo fast!
The BART link drops you off inside the International Terminal. If you are flying UA domestic, it’s a 6 minute walk through the International Terminal before you get to Terminal 3. Coming off the horrible BART/MUNI experience, entering the Int’l Terminal is like walking onto another planet.
It’s clean. Pleasant. And NO BUMS.
Then you make your way to Terminal 3. It’s crowded. Not quite
as nice. But better than the journey you made to get here.
I’m hungry. Wonder what’s there to eat?

…but not to Asia yet.
Trip to LA this weekend to help some frens out with their ground ops.
I expect to lose at least three pounds (by trudging up and down hills) and my voice (cuz it’s not just a lit drop). Hope we can get it all done by Tuesday…

As I promised, here’s a night shot of the view. The ribbon of lights in the background is the Queensboro Bridge…

twinkle-ly!
And as I promised, here’s some silly movies. Right-Click on the links and save the little movie to your computer.
Here’s the basi trying to back up into the “bus station”. And the driver slurping down dinner.

I expect connections between town and airport to be seemless and stress free.
When I do make it to da airport, I dun wanna be harrassed or forced to strip when I go through security.
Once inside, it would be nice to have some amenities such as a laptop corner with free broadband (Singapore Changi) or decent food (HK Airport, Tokyo Narita) and not to have to take basi to my gate, but instead to take a simple train.
In other words, the airport and getting to the airport should be part of the journey. And it should be enjoyable. And stress free.
Which flying into or outta Dulles ain’t!
Come to think of it, none of the US airports have a good direct airlink. Or food. Ironically, SFO has decent food and the BART link is the closest thing to direct rail. At least at SFO, it goes DIRECTLY into the terminal. Heh.
Six hours later…am packed into an air bart basi. Either there is just one basi or the driver gets paid by the head, but I get on da basi…and wait, and wait, and wait and wait.

Here’s how crowded it was about 10 minutes before we finally left OAK to the BART station. And still more people were piling in because chances were that this was probably the ONLY bus running at this time of night (1900 hours). I would have taken a pic of that but you wouldn’t be able to see anything except some person’s unattractive butt, so I will spare you that.
After 13 minutes, the basi finally lumbers to the BART stop. Of course, it will be just in time to watch the train leave us on the platform for another 20 minutes. This sucks.
The positive thing: I found an In & Out near OAK! So that’s a positive thing, I guess. Actually, finding an In & Out in a place where u dun expect it is always a good thing!
Home now, yay.