IHOP (that funky blue roofed place) will buy Applebee's (AKA: bland food America). Apparently, bland food breads more bland food. Why do people go to these places when you can visit your neighborhood mom & pop restaurant for much cheaper and much better food? As my friends know, you will rarely hear me suggest a chain restaurant to patron. Why? The food has no flavor.

I'm no food critic, but it seems to me that Americans don't know good food. If they did, they probably wouldn't eat Panda Express, Chilli's, TGIF, or other such prepackaged food restaurants.

I'm going to be a hypocrite within the same blog post, but the occasional Macaroni Grill visit is nice. They still have flavor. :-)

It's official, I'm going on vacation again. Just a mere six months ago I was in the air for 19 hours traveling home from SE Asia, I'm headed to Roma, Italy (Rome for us Americans). A buddy of mine works for a company that owns another company who has charted a cruise ship from yet, another company. I was able to snag a 10 day cruise for an amazing discount, which I probably shouldn't publish. I'll just say that the savings on the cruise more than covers a $1500 round trip air fare to Roma. I couldn't say no.

I leave my house bound for SFO at 4am on Aug 7th. I land in Roma on Aug 8th, at 2pm. The ship leaves Civitavecchia (Roma), Italy on the 9th. From there, we goto the following ports: Naples, Italy; Messina, Sicily; Corfu, Greece; Dubrovnik, Croatial; Venice, Italy (over night); Valetta, Malta; Salerno, Italy; and then back to Civitavecchia.

If you have any suggestions on what to see, please leave a comment. Thanks.

In short, avoid Auburn Nissan of Califonia - just up highway 80 from Sacramento, California.

Middle of last year, I special ordered a brand new Nissan Murano from Auburn Nissan. The sales person, Wendy, is very nice, very helpful, and generally kept on top of things. If a car dealer is ever looking for a new sales lady, she is your gal. After I order my Murano, my blazer started to get pretty sick. I ended up working out a solution with Auburn Nissan: They would put me in a budget loaner car for a few weeks until the Murano arrived.

A few months later, I got the call that my Murano was here. A friend took me to pick up my new toy at the dealer. I looked it over, it's in great shape, clean. While I'm signing the pickup paperwork, my buddy notices some dents/depressions on the roof. The owner of the dealership, the sales lady, and I all go outside to check it out.

Sure enough, there's some dents on the roof. "No problem" the owner proclaims. He proceeds to tell me that it's a minor thing and can be easily fixed. He proceeds to write up a "We Owe" paper as he continues to assure me that they would take care of everything and that it would be "just like new". He even goes on to say how they could probably put me in another Murano while they are fixing mine. After spending this amount of money, the car better look new. It only had 8 miles on it.

Fast forward a few weeks, just before my trip to Asia. I call the service guy and schedule another appointment. Just a reminder, the Auburn Nissan car dealership is just under an hour drive from where I work/live. I manage to get the car up there on an extended lunch. He takes the car in, and reluctantly puts me in a CHEAP rental car. Something 1/4 the price of what I paid for my car. Just before getting off work, I finally call them to check the status. Apparently, their auto body guy can't do it and that I'll have to schedule another appointment so that they can have the car looked at by some one else. Another two hours to return the rental and get my car.

I managed to schedule another appointment while I'm away in Asia. My friends Adam and Travis were nice enough to take my car up there so they could have plenty of time to work on it (a couple of weeks). I told the dealership, specifically, the repair shop manager, that I'll be out of the country, and that my friends will be handling the pickup and drop off. I gave them their names and phone number. He assured me that everything will be fine. A week or so into my trip, I get an email from Adam saying they dropped off the car without any problems.

A few days before returning home, I called Adam to see how things were going and check on the car. Apparently, they were not able to get any information from the dealer, and weren't able to pick up the car. So now, when I get home from Asia (thanks goes to Don for picking me up at SFO) on Saturday, I'd be car less for the weekend. When I get home, sure enough, there were voice mails from the repair manager, saying the car was ready to be picked up, although they couldn't repair the roof.

I called them that day, Saturday, however no one that knew anything was around. I ring them up Monday, and they gave me the line of "Repairing the roof would cause more damage than it would fix." They also told me "Every Murano has those dents on the roof from shipping." I guess they think I'm a moron, telling me two lies. First, it has to be repairable - it probably cost more than they were expecting. Second, if every Murano had roof damage, they should disclaim that during the sales contract or Nissan should change how they ship car.

Instead of getting the roof repaired, they offered me $400 and lifetime oil changes. Great, now I have $400, a dented roof, and a 3 hour free oil change....that costs me more in gas than it does to go to the local quickie lube.

Not having much alternative, I accept the offer. I talk to the shop manager, and he said he'll leave the keys with the sales people since I can't get there until 7pm that night. They assure me that it'll be ready for pickup. Don takes me up there after work - only to find out that we can't pickup the car. Apparently, the shop manager has locked the car in the back repair lot and no one has a way of getting it out - despite me bringing my second set of keys because I'm starting to believe the place is ran by monkeys. We found the car - all dusty and dirty. I just had the car washed the day before I left for my trip - and it's been parked in my garage.

I call them up Tuesday morning around 8am, and told them they had better deliver my car because I'm not spending another 2 hours of my time driving up there, much less, my friends time who has already been so kind. They assure me the car will be here by 10am. By 11:45, I call them in sheer panic because I have to report for jury duty by 1pm downtown. They said the car will be there any minute. It's now 12:15, and i'm sitting on the curb waiting for my car so that I can get to the courthouse by 1. On the plus side, they did wash the outside of the car since it was sitting in their dusty parking lot for 2 weeks.

Things I've learned:
1) Don't refer anyone to Auburn Nissan of California.
2) Never trust the owner Auburn Nissan of California.
3) Never trust the repair manager either.
4) Having jury duty the week after a 23 day vacation sucks. What makes it even worse is having to call in after 11am to find out if you have to report for a "possible" 1pm appearance.

The following pictures are from the Cambodia Album.

I flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia VIA AsiaAir. I'm not kidding in saying this plane must have been an old Southwest Airlines plane. It was a fairly old 737 (727?) and smelling of gasoline and oil - but it got me.

Upon arriving at the terminal and speedily getting through immigration (I filed for an e-Visa online weeks before), I was greeted by my driver who would take me around the temples. He was actually an employee of the hotel I staying at and the car service is a great addition. The airport was about 10 miles from the city center, which only houses a few tens of thousands of people. It's a very small city filled with tourists.

The roads a generally paved for the major streets, and dirt for the smaller ones. Traffic consists of mostly older/smaller motorcycles with a few cars and trucks sprinkled amongst them. Most roads are pretty quiet except for two or three major intersections.

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Driving along the roads, I saw a lot of hotels...a lot that I wouldn't want to stay at. I started to think "oh my god, what am I getting myself into?" More often than not, I would be thankful that a hotel I'd pass wasn't mine. I very happy to see my hotel once I arrived. I stepped out of my car, and the driver got my luggage. I walked past the gate from the street onto the hotel grounds, and it was as if I was immediately transported to another country. The landscaping was very lush, nice palm trees, a little creak, and generally very pleasing - extremely different than the hotels I passed just moments before.

My hotel was really nice. Amazingly nice, granted, I paid alot for it ($45/night), it was worth it. The staff was wonderful, and the grounds were well kept. There was a restaurant on the same grounds, which was very good. I found myself eating there for most meals since it was quiet good. I did try a couple of other places and did not enjoy it.

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After getting checked in, and settled in my room, I ventured out around Siem Reap. Most of the roads were not paved, or paved but covered in a thick dust. I had my trust map with places to eat, and things to do. However, while I was roaming around for 2 hrs, I couldn't find a single street sign telling me the name of the streets. To posts, not on the building, not on the ground...nothing. So, i got completely lost. I was roaming for hours trying to find something good to eat - and most the restaurants were unpatronized, so I didn't risk it.

I eventually found some hole in the wall where a few tourists gathered, the food was edible.

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I got up at 4am the next morning to see the sunrise at Ankow Wat. This place is amazingly huge. There's three main layers. the outer walk way, then the climb to the middle temple, and then a steep climb to the main temple.

I spent a couple of hours here to look around and appreciate the size of this temple.

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The next stop was the tree roots of Ta Prohm. Here, the trees have taken over and have all but destroyed the temple. Due to preservation, most the trees have been cut back or removed. However, some trees could not be taken out for fear of finishing the destruction.

I'm some places, it's pretty scary to walk around as it looks like the stones will collapse any moment. Some sections are marked off so you shouldn't go in - although some people are stupid enough to ignore the signs and rope.

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Preah Khan is another amazing series of temples. These ruins are slightly destroyed from trees, but not nearly as much as Ta Prohm. There are many structures on the grounds of Preah Khan, most of which are traversable. Here, there are many religions reflected in the various carvings.

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Baphuon as Ankor Thom was primarily built upon sand. Over the years, the lower levers failed due to excessive rain and is causing Baphuon to literally crush itself and fall apart. The French are rebuilding, the project will take over 10 years to complete.

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Banyon at Ankor Thom is relatively small place, although by itself is rather large. Banyon is well known for it's carved faces atop towers. This king who had this built wanted those who were there to know that he was watching everyone who was there. No matter where you are, there is at least one face looking at you - usually there were always a few.

The faces were all different, and all beautiful. The size of these faces are simply amazing.

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Random pictures from around Ankor Thom

For budgetary reasons, we primarily used AirAsia for our travels around SE Asia countries. Their main hub is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As such, we had two night long layovers. The first time I was there was with the group. The second time, I was alone traveling from Cambodia to Philippines.


The airport is about a 50 minute taxi ride, or just over an hour by bus. Since there was a group of us, we decided to splurge for a taxi (about 60 ringets). I traveled alone by bus back for only 9 ringets (3USD). The bus service is handled by AirAsia and is air conditioned (very important).

Once at the city, we checked into our hotels. I spent the extra $5 and was in a much nicer hotel (sorry guys). We met up shortly afterwards and grabbed a bite to eat.

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After dinner, we walked around the town snapping random shots. While waiting for the gang outside a 7-Eleven, I saw a group of people. I asked them "If you had 17 hours in Kuala Lumpur, what would you do?" I thought that would be the best way to figure out what to see in the short time. They suggested the Menara Tower (pictured on left). I also asked about some clubs, and they suggested "Club Liquid". I talked to the group, and we headed for Menara Tower.

Of course, on the way there, we took a few moments to take some random photos.

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The Menara tower is a nice looking structure at night, however, the magic is being inside at the top of the structure. Once inside, and perched inside the observation deck, there are amazing views to be had - especially that of the Petronas Towers.

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Perhaps the most amazing club in SE for me was club Liquid. The energy there was amazingly good. The people were friendly, chatty, and not into themselves. They also didn't push themselves onto you like Thailand (Bangkok or Phuket).

The club very nicely appointed - almost bordering posh. However, the people there were very nice and non-snobbish. They were nicely dressed, and conservative. There were two dance floors. A larger one upstairs was more typical big club like, great lights and good sound. They played a great mix of high energy dance music which is English/American diva type dance tunes. It was great to dance and sing along too.

Down stairs had a few seperate areas. The was a nice bar around which has bar stools all around. This is was in it's own separate area that was semi walled off from other areas. There was another large space that had places to sit on sofa like seating. Next to this was a smaller dance floor (think Faces raised area). They played 90's/early 00's dance tunes (think Madonna, Cher, Vengaboys).

On this floor, there was a nice large patio area to relax and get some fresh air.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures from this, but here are a few.

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I'll try to post pictures and full descriptions of my travels through SE Asia. In this series, I'll be referencing the Thailand 2007 pictures; you can go there for plenty more pictures.

Leaving sacramento Friday afternoon on Amtrak. Just outside of Sacramento, we propel rapidly at 70MPH towards SF Bay area, with my ultimate Amtrak destination being Richmond. From there, I'll transfer to BART for SFO Airport, and ultimately end up on a hotel shuttle bound for the first of many hotels of the trip. Having nothing to do near SFO, I head out to the City and head for Club Dragon. I bounce around here for a few hours, and head home early - just before midnight so I can catch BART back to SFO. The next morning, I meet up with Albert and Robert and head into the City for breakfast and relax before our flight; which leaves at 4pm.

On Saturday afternoon, our Boeing 747-400/Combi (half the plane is for people, and the back half is purely for cargo) took off into the pacific ocean, chasing the sun. Despite out valiant efforts, inevitably, we couldn't keep up. It took us 14 hours to travel from 4:30pm to 10:30pm. The sunset lasted a couple of hours, instead of mere minutes. The twilight lasted even longer. For that night, the evening sun was never ending. I sat next to Robart and Albert, while Chris, Alex, and Dave sat a few rows ahead of us.

After our temporary house landed in Taipei, Taiwan, at 10:30PM. We dashed to the next gate to catch out flight to Bangkok, Thailand - only to find out that that plane would be delayed for 4 hours. Another plane which was to connected to Bangkok, Thailand, with us was delayed for four hours from Las Angeles (those darn SoCal People). After a few rounds of UNO, and web surfing using Chris's laptop, we finally board our 737 head for Bangkok. A quick hour flight later, 45 minute taxi ride, I finally walk into my hotel in Bangkok at around 5am.

Twenty-four hours from our departure from San Francisco Airport, and nearly eight thousand miles later, we landed in Bangkok International Airport.

I checked into my hotel at 6am, took a shower, had breakfast - and began to wonder the SMOGGY streets of downtown Bangkok. Let this be a reminder - if you ever think think Sacramento has smog issues, wait until breath some foggy lookin air here in BKK - it's not fog.

The traffic is really bad in Bangkok. To be fair, traffic was pretty much bad everywhere by Malaysia - where it was slightly more tame. It was really hard to to figure out when to cross the street at first as paint on the street we not followed, not to mention that the traffic signals seemed to be a mere suggestion to the drivers. Please see my earlier post about Thailand for more details about the traffic and other events that happened in Thailand.

From here on, I'll comment briefly on pictures.

My room while in in BKK.	Some random pictures of houses while on the boat ride to Chinatown.	Walking through Chinatown - a motorbike tries to get through a crowded walkwayy.
Madness in Chinatown. Very busy area.	Some shopping at the night market just down the street from my hotel.	From the Grand Palace in BKK.
From the Grand Palace in BKK.	From the Grand Palace in BKK.	Me infront of a big statue at the Grand Palace in BKK.
Model of Ankor Wat which is in Cambodia - I'll post pictures from there too.	Me having fun at the Grand Palace in BKK.	From the Grand Palace in BKK.
Neat statues all around the Grand Palace in BKK.	The guards at the GP don't move at all. They are cute too.

I have a few more pictures for Wat Pho (largest reclining buddha in Thailand as well as from Phuket Island. I'll try to get those uploaded soon when I upload the Malaysia and Cambodia pictures.

Financial Advice

Here is some important financial advice:

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, of $1000.00 you would have less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of Beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.........

It's called the 401-Keg Plan.

I've posted a short article within the "Book of Warmy" on the origins of Warmy.

Too funny.

My longest day was Sunday, January 28, 2007. I flew into Bangkok, Thailand, from Manila, Philippines, at 1:30am. After getting through immigration, getting my luggage, through customs, and traveling the 2 miles to my hotel, it was 2:45am. I got to sleep around 3:15, only to wake up at 9:00am so I can catch the second of three flights back home. The second leg of my return trip was from Bangkok to Taipei, Taiwan - a mere 3 hour flight, and 1 time zone. Here, I would have a 2 hour lay over, before my 11 hour flight to San Francisco international airport - crossing over 14 more time zones.

So, my longest day was Jan 8; it lasted 39 hours. I managed to get about 10 hrs of sleep that day - 6 in Bangkok, two on the SFO flight, 1 in the car ride home, and to bed around 11pm. Needless to say, I slept most of Monday away - only to screw with my schedule for Tuesday.