Day 1: 20 June 2024 - Chennai → San Francisco
Reached Chennai airport and waited for a friend's relative who works in Chennai immigration to skip the queue. I did skip the queue (check-in), but immigration check was done at the Bangalore airport. Recharged my Jio number with an international data pack for 10 days. Started walking towards the gate. Before hand luggage checking, I spotted Dir. Thiyagarajan Kumararaja but wasn't sure. Reached the gate and confirmed it was him, then approached him and took a selfie, unsure why I did. He boarded a flight to HYD before mine at the same gate.
Boarded MAA→BLR, and everything was on time. Posted an Instagram story of the flight taking off. Got my fruit platter served and watched 2 episodes of Big Bang Theory. Landed on time and started walking for about half a kilo-meter to get to immigration.
Reached Bangalore airport and passed through immigration, thinking I arrived too soon. After immigration, the hand luggage was checked twice: once at the terminal change and again before boarding the flight. I filled my bottle after the terminal change but was asked to pour the water into the plants placed next to the queue for boarding the flight, as the limit is 100ml.
As I settled in, the first question that popped into my mind was why there was no "I" in the seating arrangement. Mine was 49J, which should've been 49I. Then checked Google to understand that the letter I could confuse people with numbers, especially those with dyslexia. Luckily, 49H was not booked, so I was able to sit comfortably without arm wrestling, which is usual in economy class. Used the restroom whenever they started serving food, assuming they at least have an idea of when turbulence happens. Midway through the flight, I started wondering if they had actually transferred my luggage because there wasn't any announcement about it, and I also missed inquiring about it after immigration. Had good meals twice and slept for hardly 3 hours. The neck pillow didn't work for me; didn't use the eye mask as they asked everyone to close the window shutter. Watched "Saand ki Aankh," which has vibes similar to "A League of Their Own" movie. Then watched the first 4 parts of Rocky.
Landed on time and first checked whether the international recharge pack worked or not. Luckily it did, and the moment I turned on the internet, all the time and date got updated instantly, and I received all messages and replies to the Instagram story. Called and informed my parents about landing and headed to the immigration queue, which felt like a Tirupati queue and took around 2 hours to get through. I couldn't spot my luggage and started thinking about where to complain, but the lady handling the luggage said they had kept some luggage on the other side of the belt, so I could check and pick it up there.
Collected my luggage and headed to the BART train, which is San Francisco's version of a metro train. Not all Android phones support Clipper on Google Wallet, which I figured out after multiple attempts to add Clipper to Google Wallet. I got clarity from the BART security, so I had to pay $3 for a plastic card with 30 years validity and recharged it for $22. Boarded the train to Antioch and got off at Powell Street station, then started walking carrying one backpack and 2 suitcases.
Reached the hostel, paid for 10 days, and got to my room. Called my parents to inform them that I had reached the hostel. Unpacked essentials except clothes and put them into the locker below the bunk bed. Took a hot shower and started feeling the temperature. Got a roommate who is Malaysian from Singapore, a freelance product designer and a Webflow developer. Wasn't sleepy, so I completed watching Rocky 5. Did some office work that required clarity on ongoing development. Then tried sleeping.
Day 2: 21 June 2024 - Networking from Day 1
Started the day with a hot shower and looked through the windows of the fifth floor. The city was calm, and the sun wasn't visible due to fog. Had breakfast at the hostel, which was complimentary for the stay. Met a couple of Indians who came there for work and some who study there.
Didn't do much as it was DAY 1 in SF, which I kept as a buffer day due to the exaggeration of friends who said I'd feel jetlag, tired, or sleepy. However, I was doing fine and did some office work. Was having second thoughts about attending a meetup I registered for via meetup.com, hosted by Moonshot Mixers group for founders and investors. Then decided to go there via BART train to 16th Street.
Reached early, and there was no sign of the meetup. Thought of leaving, then they stacked the pizza boxes. Interacted with the community manager of Wellfunders, the venue partner, then met the host Sarah and a couple of other people who came for the meetup. Met Sudha Reddy, co-founder of rava.ai, who was also one of the panelists. Then left the meetup after taking pictures.
Came back to the room and went out for dinner with my roommate. After a regular call with my parents, I went to sleep.
Day 3: 22 June 2024 - North-east San Francisco
My friend Mayumi, a designer from Brazil, told me that she would reach SF by the 22nd night, and we planned our itinerary in such a way that we would start roaming from the 23rd. To her surprise, she got it wrong on her calendar and reached SF on the 23rd night. I got to know this this morning, so I decided to change the itinerary by spending time at places where I could go on my own.
I started the day with breakfast at the hostel, and my roommate suggested taking the free social movement walking tour at the hostel at 9:30. We decided to plan our second half of the day according to our individual preferences. Six to seven folks showed up for the walking tour, and an experienced English teacher who has been doing this for the past 20 years was our host and tour guide. It's a 2-hour walking tour where a lot of history, culture, politics, and economics exclusive to San Francisco were covered. We covered almost 3 to 4 miles, and we paid $20 since the tour host volunteers for such activities on weekends, and it's a pay-as-you-like model for their time.
I walked back to the hostel and decided to have lunch at a nearby diner. As my roommate wanted to do some shopping, I decided to take the cable car with a day pass from Muni. I enjoyed the cable car ride and got off at Lombard Street (the crooked street), experienced the view of the city from the top, and started walking towards Pier 39, expecting that there would be a sea lion show. However, the sea lions were just lying down and rolling. I did some souvenir shopping at Pier 39 and headed to Ghirardelli for chocolate shopping via Fisherman's Wharf.
Unlike in India, the sun sets around 9 or 9:30 PM here, so I again took the cable car to go back to my hostel. The Muni one-day pass was a good deal.
Day 4: 23 June 2024 - East San Francisco
As usual, I woke up, had a shower, ate breakfast, and had a regular call with my parents. I decided to go to places that I could visit on my own without any company. The list had almost 10 places, and I had my Muni 1-day pass active until 3 PM.
I started heading to Chinatown via Union Square and roamed around the streets, passing by Bruce Lee's mural and other artworks. Then I went to the famous Golden Gate Fortune Cookie store, had a free sample, and bought an assorted pack. Afterward, I started towards the Cable Car Museum.
The Cable Car Museum had a good collection of souvenirs in their stores. I got out of the museum after taking pictures and boarded a bus to go to Coit Tower. It was my first time experiencing bus travel, and it was frictionless; I just had to tap the display with my Clipper card.
After getting off the bus, I had to go uphill, which was too steep to hop, but I enjoyed the view after reaching Telegraph Hill. I didn't have enough strength to climb 13 floors to the top of Coit Tower, so I decided to go down and head to the Exploratorium.
The experience at the Exploratorium was fun, but being alone, I couldn't enjoy it as much without company. It was a wrong assumption that I could fully enjoy the visit on my own, and I felt bored after a while. Nevertheless, I tried every experiment and scientific trick placed in all the blocks. Three hours wasn't enough; I wish I could have spent more time, but I decided to go to the Ferry Building.
On my way to the Ferry Building, I witnessed a very American scene: kids practicing skating stunts around the stairs. I entered the Ferry Building, which was also a good place for buying souvenirs.
To wrap up my day with an early dinner, I went straight to have chicken biryani in a nearby Indian restaurant called Little Delhi. They exceeded my expectations by serving masala rice with chicken placed inside. The funny part was that the place was run by a Chinese family.
I returned to the hostel and took a rest. Was supposed to wait till my friend’s arrival but i dozed off early.
Day 5: 24 June 2024 - Apple, Google & Stanford
I woke up to a message from my friend from Brazil, Mayumi, saying she had reached the hostel last night and would be ready at the breakfast area by 8 in the morning. I love the view from the 5th floor, looking at the downtown street starting its day in a very calm manner. A distant siren sound sets the day's start like the opening of American TV series I watch back in India.
I had the usual video call ritual with my parents and got freshened up to see my friend for the first time. I met her, and we exchanged gifts we got from our countries for each other. We had breakfast and talked about the travel for a while, taking a moment to appreciate each other's efforts to meet in person. Then our car rental timer started, so I checked with my roommate whether he could join. Luckily, he also had no plans, so myself, Mayumi, and Kai went straight to the car rental parking and started our day.
We decided to go to the place farthest from all locations and cover all other places on our way back. We went straight to the Cupertino Apple Visitor Center to purchase our iPhones. Kai wasn't interested in Apple stuff, but we were both amazed looking at the store and the staircase design. We went to register for an Apple Vision Pro 30-minute demo, but they said it would start after 11:30 am, so we decided to skip and started our shopping. My friend Mayumi had too many things stored on her phone, so she had to wait to transfer everything from her old phone to the new one. I selected the color for my iPhone and billed it. I had bought my phone case and tempered glass in India, so I decided to put them on right away before using it and started transferring the data from my old phone to the iPhone.
While it was being transferred, I video called my friends in India to see whether they wanted me to buy anything for them. So I purchased Apple t-shirts and a mug. Then I requested someone from the store to put on the tempered glass I bought for my phone. They helped but said that since it's not sold in the Apple store, they are not accountable for any issues. I was okay with it because the tempered glass and case I bought are from dbrand.
Kai and I went upstairs as Mayumi was busy with her phone data transfer. The view from the top was cool as we could see the Apple office from there. It looked like a co-working space without cubicles or just a seating arrangement for the cafe on the ground floor on the other side of the store.
After the purchase, we thought of going to Steve Jobs Theatre, but it was closed. We weren't sure if it was closed for the day or just for the time we went.
We started to go to our next point, which was the Google Visitor Center. We were so afraid of car break-ins that we carried everything we purchased everywhere, like carrying Apple shopping bags into the Google Visitor Center. We enquired at the lounge and started walking to head to the Visitor Center. We had our lunch, and I was surprised to see people eat meat served cold, which I wasn't okay with, so I had to check before placing the order. After lunch, we went to the Visitor Center, experienced the cycles, and took a trip around the Visitor Center before getting back to our car.
We went to Stanford from there, where Kai wanted to leave in the middle as he had some meetup to attend at the Freepik office. After he left, we took a free shuttle to get into the Stanford Oval Park and took a long tour to roam around the campus. Unfortunately, the Stanford Shopping Center was closed, but it had a really good collection of souvenirs. We took the free shuttle to return to our parking.
We then went to Steve Jobs' house and clicked some pictures. As we tried to get closer, someone from a neighbouring house came and said it's not allowed to get inside and to leave the property, so we left.
We then went straight to Best Buy, where I bought AirTags for my friends. We tried to enter Costco, but they didn't let us in because we didn't have the membership, not even guest access or a guest pass we could buy. So we returned to the car rental parking, and on our way back, we had Thai food, which was too good. That's when I realized Thai chicken fried rice is way better than fast food fried rice. All the while during our dinner, we kept an eye on the road for our parking, watching if someone was trying to break into the car. Then we returned the car at the rental and headed back to the hostel.
I had a call with my parents, and I dozed off as it had been a very long day since the beginning of my trip.
Day 6: 25 June 2024 - ConFig’24 Day0 Commons
After speaking to my parents early in the morning, I decided to reach the Figma office early. Myself, my friend Mayumi, and her friends from the Brazil community, who are Figma advocates of our cities, were told that we could collect our badges and goodies from the Figma office with an office tour, skipping the long queue where the other 10,000 people would collect their badges.
We were a bit early, so we decided to go to Ross Dress for Less and Target on our way to the Figma office. There was a line at Ross, so we went to Target to look for a mobile case for Mayumi and then went straight to the Figma office. We collected our VIP badges and special goodies with a magazine. We then joined a group of 20 other folks for the office tour. The office setup was funky and modern at the same time. The office was just above one of my dream companies to work for back then during my first job, which is Flexport, as they both share office space in the Phelan building, which surprisingly looks like a mouse pointer from above.
Then Jordan took us to the Moscone Center, and we were surprised to see how people had been waiting for their badges in the queue. We entered along with Jordan to pick up a badge for one of our friends. After that, we were told we could attend a party in Yerba Buena Gardens called Figma Commons, with food, drinks, activities, music, fabric printing, a photo booth, a swag creation studio, and more. So we met our other friends after the badge pickup and went straight to the gardens, starting with food, fabric printing, and some more swag pickups.
I met a lot of design leaders and content creators while my friends spent time meeting people from their country and networking. After a while, as we had been to all activities and stalls, we decided to roam and come back at the same time. Mayumi and I went to SFMOMA first, then we went to the Dovetail office for a Figma Party hosted there. Then we took a Waymo, a driverless autonomous car, to go back to Yerba Buena Gardens for dinner.
We all then had dinner, met a lot of new people, roamed for a while, and left for the hostel. As usual, after the call with my parents, I dozed off.
Day 7: 26 June 2024 - ConFig’24 Day 1
I started my day with much excitement, as today was the main reason for my trip to SF. I got ready quickly, knowing that if I reached the conference after 8:45 AM, I'd lose the VIP privilege seat allotment and have to wait at the back. After a quick breakfast, I started walking towards the conference with my friends.
I was surprised to see the badge pickup queue was still crowded due to flight delays. We rushed to the main stage, where we only had to show the star on our badges to get to the front, similar to how customs officers use their ID cards at airports. Once settled, the conference began with a bright, colorful motion design presentation intro. After that, I was immersed in the future of design until the opening keynote ended. I had some expectations for the launch, and of course, many plugin founders might have to shut down their companies after this launch, but seeing everything native in Figma was exciting.
My first impression was that UI3 had solely adopted Vision Pro guidelines, preparing for the future of remote work and virtual reality.
I missed my first booked session but thought I'd watch all the sessions on YouTube later. Instead, I networked with fellow attendees and visited all the stalls. To my surprise, the swag and goodies at every stall were abundant, offering wireless chargers, caps, field notes, pins, stickers, and much more.
After networking, I waited for my friends to join me for lunch. We customized our config bags and visited the config store. Then we registered our presence on the physical FigJam board. I took pictures with people I admire and attended the evening closing note session.
Afterward, we went to the Frog office for an after-party hosted by the FoF San Francisco team. There, I got to experience the showcase of the first-ever design Macintosh. I really loved how they hosted the meetup, with good food and engaging activities. Finally, we returned to the hostel.
Day 8: 27 June 2024 - ConFig’24 Day 2
Started the day thinking I'll attend at least a few sessions, but I knew for a fact that Mayumi and I had booked an Apple Vision Pro demo in the afternoon. We would have to sneak out in the middle of the conference day to experience the Vision Pro, and I wanted to purchase the Apple Watch.
We headed out to the conference as the first order of business in the morning. Not wanting to miss the VIP seats, we reached early and were amazed by the visuals before the start. We then attended a few opening keynote sessions, went to network with fellow attendees, and had lunch at the conference. We got an Uber ride, surprisingly a Tesla car, and went to Apple Union Square for the demo. I got mine first, and the experience was surreal as this was my first VR experience and Vision Pro as well. The guided tour was so cool, but except for entertainment and attending meetings, I didn't find any use case to use right now. So I purchased the watch, and we came back to the conference.
My conference experience would have felt incomplete if I had not met Raphael Schaad, and to my surprise, I did. As I was waiting for him and looking everywhere, I couldn't find him. I knew he was tall, but I couldn't spot him. I clicked pictures with design leaders and design influencers like Michael Riddr from Dave podcast and Figma Academy. Then, to my surprise, I spotted Raphael coming down an escalator. I told my friend to get us a picture clicked, and I was so surprised to meet him. I showed my work on my phone to Raphael, and he requested me to click pictures of my work. I showed him how much I love Crown the calendar, which is not in Calendar now. He then asked me to apply for Notion Ambassador and join the Slack channel so that I'll get updated on everything.
After that, we decided to go to the after-party, but it wasn't very engaging, so we decided to get back to the hostel.
Day 9: 28 June 2024 - Golden Gate & West San Francisco
As usual, after my morning call with my parents, my friends and I decided to go to the Golden Gate Bridge, as this is the last day of my Singaporean friend Kai Hua's SF trip before he heads to LA.
We had breakfast at the hostel and took a bus to the Golden Gate information center. The place was so calm, and I was astonished to see the Golden Gate Bridge, which I had only seen in movies. I clicked too many pictures, and we decided to take a walk to the Palace of Fine Arts. We took a small hike down the hill, crossing Crissy Field and Tunnel Tops, and from there, the view of the Golden Gate was even more magnificent.
The Palace of Fine Arts itself looked like a different place altogether, with tall monuments and a pond in the middle. After that, we took a cab to Japantown to try Japanese food, as Mayumi suggested. We went straight to Japantown by taking a Lyft and went to a restaurant. The host's attitude initially made me assume Japanese people were rude, but my friends cleared up my misconception. The host was so busy she wasn't answering properly to anything, which wasn't a pleasant experience. Then we went to a nearby souvenir shop and experienced VR of a crane bird flying around. Unfortunately, I couldn't record it.
After that, we went to a nearby mall to meet Mayumi's friends and decided to have ice cream at a famous shop in town. To my surprise, I met Samudra Gupta from Canada, whom I didn't know was also attending Config. I met him with his family and felt glad about the encounter. Then, Mayumi, Kai Hua's friend Tess, and I decided to go to Costco to give it a last try for some shopping.
Tess found a way to get us in, and we shopped for items requested by my friends in India. We then went to Best Buy again to find a mobile case for Mayumi. We all returned to the hostel. To our surprise, there was a party in the hostel where they were offering Mexican food followed by a fabric printing activity with color inks, so we printed fabrics which we will be collecting tomorrow.
I had to pack and make arrangements for the watch party event happening in India. So I decided to stay at the hostel while others went to Chinatown, and I learned that Chinatown is fun at night.
After packing and ensuring things were set for the event, I dozed off.
Day 10: 29 June 2024 - San Francisco → Chennai
Woke up early in the morning and got on a call with my parents. Then I realized it was my last day of the trip. As I had said goodbye to my roommate-turned-friend from Singapore, Kai Hua, yesterday, I came out of the shower to see a new roommate from France who had completed hotel management and decided to take a trip to the Bay Area. We had a chit-chat, and I started packing again with things I had bought until yesterday.
Started the day with a really great breakfast at Mason Diner, which is right next to my hostel. Myself, Mayumi, and her two other friends had our breakfast. Mayumi and I decided to check out of the hostel and keep our luggage in her friend's hotel room. We took a Muni to go to Golden Gate Park to visit the Japanese Tea Garden and other nearby museums. Later, I got to know from my colleague that he wanted an iPad on my way back to India. So we decided to head back to Union Square to buy an iPad. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, where I had the best pasta so far with some fried chips on top, which added taste to the pasta. Then I packed everything to get ready for the airport.
Arrived at the airport 5 hours early, which I had planned to be 3 hours early, but my flight was delayed by 2 hours. Stood in the Air India economy line to check in my bags, which seemed to take long, but they opened multiple counters as the line grew. Then entered the terminal for immigration check, and we still had 2 hours to pass. My friend Mayumi's flight was at 11:30 PM, one hour after mine, so we decided to go to the lounge. The international lounge that comes with my credit card is in another terminal, which she also had access to, but it was so crowded with a wait time.
She suggested using her card's lounge with a plus-one pass for friends and family, located in the same terminal as our boarding gates. We had an early dinner, and I started charging all my devices. I drank more than half a liter of Coke to stay up late at night to sync my sleep cycle with India. After an hour, we had to say goodbye to each other. She ensured I had my luggage and essentials in place before leaving for her flight. She walked me to my gate, and we had to say a tough goodbye for the day and the trip.
I boarded the flight and got seat 49A. Luckily, no one booked 49B, so there was no arm wrestling on my way back to India either. Started watching Sicario and tried watching Rashomon but couldn't complete it as I began feeling sleepy. Slept for a while and watched movies again. Finally slept late and had meals in between.
Woke up at 6 AM Indian time, and my flight had landed in Mumbai. Freshened up and walked straight to immigration, which is similar to the US but a bit slower, taking almost an hour. Went through the green channel as I had nothing to declare and collected my checked luggage to change terminals for my domestic transfer. As my flight was delayed, I was asked to board a flight with a 4-hour layover in Mumbai. Tried checking at the counter for a flight change to board earlier, but the process was lengthier and would take time similar to the current layover, so I went straight to the lounge, had breakfast, and charged my devices.
Boarded the flight, watched four episodes of The Big Bang Theory, and reached Chennai. Took an Uber and got back home.