When we were making the plane reservations through our AirTreks travel planner, we had the choice of stopping over in San Francisco for a couple days or just making a connecting flight and going on directly to San Salvador, changing planes again and flying on the Guatemala the following morning. That seemed like a lot of travel for our first flight and I had live in San Francisco during my twenties so we decided to take the opportunity to revisit the city, which turned out to be a fantastic choice.
On our first day in San Francisco we walked to Chinatown. I remembered it as a vibrant area filled with Chinese grocers and herbal stores, imported carvings and art, along with the ubiquitous tourist trap shops. However, as we walked through the beautifully carved entrance gate and down the first few blocks, I started to feel disappointment at the changes I saw.
It was 10 am and there was none of the bustle and activity that I remembered. No store owners stocking their storefronts, no old men chatting and smoking on the street corner. Instead, nearly all the stores had been taken over by cheap souvenirs. We were nearly ready to abandon this excursion when a familiar sight caught my eye.
Lining one of the side streets were hanging lanterns that piqued our interest and so we forged on to find a sign above one of the shops that said "Free Tea Tasting". I was ready for a nice hot cup of tea so I dragged David in through the front door. I told the proprietor that we weren't likely to buy anything but were curious and wanted to look around. He ushered us in and eagerly began to share his vast wealth of knowledge.
Though not Chinese himself, the owner of this little shop had been studying tea in China for 14 years and proudly proclaimed that he had only had four cups of coffee in his entire life. A true tea nut indeed!
Visit their website at vitaltealeaf.net to learn more about their story and the many varieties of tea they sell and ship around the world.
After our wonderful education in tea, we returned to the street where we were handed a leaflet for a nearby dim-sum restaurant and I do love my dim-sum so we promptly made a bee-line for the place. Around a corner and down another side street and we found it, a slightly dingy hole-in-the-wall cafe with a wonderful smell wafting through the front door. Inside we finally found some of the old Chinatown I remembered. A group of elderly gentlemen took up a couple tables and carts of delicious looking dishes were wheeled around the small dining area.
I wanted to share this story with you as a reminder to leave expectations behind when exploring. We almost gave up on this little adventure before it even began but we chose to go on just a little further and that perseverance was rewarded with a set of wonderful experiences that we would have missed otherwise!
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