my random thoughts
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| BLOGGGGG my random thoughts |
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Monday, July 05, 2004 The last seven days has been a complete blur. I should've written down everything I did on a pad of paper because I am having trouble recalling what I've been doing. Secondly I've never been so tired of theme parks as I am now. They are fun, but should definitely be enjoyed in moderation! Myself, my cousin and a good friend who I stayed with headed down to San Diego (SD) on (Thursday I think, which was also Canada Day)for a two day stay. The Motel 6 that I booked was in downtown SD by the civic centre. Having been to a few American cities (San Franciso, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit) I expected downtown SD to be just like any other US city -- grungy. To my surprise, the area was extremely clean and well kept. It was a very nice first impression. After checking in, we headed down to the SD trolley station to take the blue line down to San Ysidro and walk over to Tijuana, south of the US border. It's really neat to have a local transit station situated literally right beside an international border. Crossing the border to Mexico was so easy. People from the US side simply had to walk through a set of turnstiles and cross the practically non-existant customs checkpoint. Like many developing countries, Mexico has its share of poor and homeless people. As soon as we crossed the border children came up to for money, various street vendors hawking their wares at us. As we approached the main downtown strip(Ave. Revolucion), there were more vendors peddling goods and trying to get us to buy their 99-cent coronas (yes it's true! the beer is cheap!). Most of the locals thought we were Japanese tourists and shouted Japanese phrases at us, hoping to get our attention. It was funny at first but it just got annoying after the third time. I guess there's a big Japanese presence in TJ. Another big attraction in TJ is its many drug stores. Apparently many of the drugs that require prescriptions in the US can be purchased OTC (over the counter) in Mexico. On top of that, they are 30% cheaper as well (probably as a result of price descrimination -- like in the publishing industry with school texts). On our way down to TJ, a local man on the trolley advised us to drink only packaged drinks like bottled water while in TJ. So we drank beer. Lots of it. Beer is cheaper than soft drinks or water. A bottle of Corona is 99 cents in every bar. Coca Cola is also 99 cents. Bottled water costs even more. Go figure. With that in mind we went to a bar and celebrated Canada Day with a bucket of Sol (a lighter tasting version of Corona) and tequila shots. Oh yes, the same man who gave us the drinking advice also assumed we were going there for the strip clubs. We knew that he was...The strip clubs was sketchy to say the least. We didn't go in of course. The 'hosts' soliciting their clubs were so pushy. One offered us 'young 17 year old girls'. WHAT!?! That made me sick to my stomach. On our way back to the American border, I decided to buy some liquor to take home with me. Liquor is cheap in Mexico too. Popular tequila brands, such as Sauza gold sells for about $13 USD for a 750mL bottle. I think the LCBO prices the same product at almost $30 CDN. More rediculous is the prices of Kahlua. A 1.14L sells for $8.50 USD!! LCBO sells for over $30. THe funniest thing happened at the store. I GOT CARDED IN MEXICO! I thought Mexico didn't have a drinking age limit. It was silly *and* embarassing. I'm never going to that store again. posted by Ben | | | 3:08 PM |
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