Category: Domestic Travel

The things we do to save money…
I get to leave my house (that contains my bed!) at 0430 tomorrow. Yes, that’s frackin’ early!
I have to take public transit (ugh) to OAK, where my flight to IAD leaves from. Now, if you’ve read this blog in the past, you will find that I’m an avid fan of transit, PROVIDED IT’S DONE RIGHT! Like it is in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, New York City, etc etc. It ain’t done right here. Period!
Here’s why I’m whining (even though the ticket was US$218, a good deal). I have to wake up and grab the bus. That’s a 30 minute bus ride to go a bit less than 4 miles. BLEAGH! Then I have to transfer to the BART train which gets me to the Coliseum station in about another 30 minutes. That’s about 20 odd miles or so. THEN, I have to wait for an “AirBart” shuttle that may (or may not) show up for another 20 minute (2 mile) ride to OAK so I can check in at least an hour early for my flight that leaves at 0740.
Keep in mind that driving takes 40 minutes or so (with traffic), but since I’m going to be on the East Coast for a week, it’s not cost effective to park the car at the airport. That would basically negate the “deal” I got on the ticket because flights from SFO are US$80-90 more to IAD.
Urban planners call the distance between your house (or destination) and the train station/stop the “transit gap”. Tomorrow, I’m going to be spanning a lotta gaps!
And the worst thing is that this is a domestic flight so that means no food! Yup, cut food and raise the fares. That’s a gRRRRREeat business model. And since this is OAK, there’s no food in the airport either! No McDonald’s in the terminal. Nada. No food! Nothing!
Grrrrr. A Sausage McMuffin on the plane ain’t a bad breakfast!!! It’s pretty good!

During my recent trip to Southern Californa (AKA “heaven on earth”), I had the opportunity to satisfy an obsession that I’ve not been able to satisfy for three years…
I dragged two friends to Roscoe’s! The home of (fried) chicken and waffles!!! Yumyumyumyumyum! That’s my review.
Here’s a more mainstream, kinda boring review “Eggo quality waffles”, huh? Hmph! These are buckwheat waffles. Works of art!! Stupid mainstream reviewer…

So that’s my “succulent breast (!) and waffle” along with a cheese and onion egg scramble on the side. That’s my Diet Coke too.
The Diet Coke is a bit of an afterthought. Like that’s going to help after THIS meal.
My review? Yumyumyumyumyumyum! That’s it.

Blah.
But the flight back was as it should be. Almost.
Even though we had a flawless flight (no airsick this time!) and we landed (wheels touching the tarmac) early, we still had to wait at the gate for 10 minutes, thus negating the “early arrival”.
What’s the frakkin’ point of announcing to the plane “we are here early” when passengers kanna take advantage of it by getting off the damn cattle car?
Anyhoo, the weekend in Southern California was fun. Ate a lot, stayed up late and smoked many cigars. One of the more enjoyable weekends I’ve had that doesn’t require a passport.
Wheee.

Sooo this weekend finds me in smoggy, slightly hazy Anaheim, land o’ Disney and the 55 freeway.
Since a wise person once said, “Frequent Flyer miles dun accrue interest” and I waited until the last minute to come down here, I burned 15K miles for a free trip here. It’s nice because this flight would have cost US$300+ to leave on Friday and come back Monday from SNA.
But enough with the travel logistics. On this short hopper flight (on an Airbasi 320, I might add!), the “pilot” was soooooo bad, I got airsick. For the first time in at LEAST 15 years.
Me.
The guy who actually sorta likes flying. The one who flies low fare airlines in Asia based on their website, stewardesses and price. Who actually flies domestic in da PRC for god’s sake! Airsick.
Anyhoo, our “pilot” must have either been a rookie or drunk. But she was sooo into rocking the plane from port to starboard soooo much that the plane got spookily quiet, because ppl were sick. And then, when we landed, we landed lopsided. First the left side of the jet hit the tarmac, then after a few seconds, the right, followed by a loud BAM.
A landing worthy of China Airlines.
And, if you’re a regular victim of this blog, you can guess which airline I was on today….if not, click here.

Yup, that IS the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in “summer”. I went out on a Sunday ride and saw that I was heading into that, so it was worth a snap.

Summer here means bone chilling wind and the sun disappearing around noon. That ain’t haze or smoke (for all of you in SE Asia), it’s just plain fog!
I live IN that fogbank, BTW…

There are hawkers all over the sidewalks handing out business cards advertising “services” (heh heh heh, nudge nudge, wink wink).

They used to loiter in front of the hotels until the hotels went legit and wanted them gone.
But they are entitled to hawk their wares on the sidewalk, as long as they don’t block it.
Walking down the strip at night, you collect a lot of these.
One creative way to dispose of them…

Seen at the Bellagio last week…

High stakes gambling. High carb food. Put the two together…
DANGER!! =P

I walked all the way from New York New Yourk to Paris via Monte Carlo!
And boy are my feet tired! Yeah, weak attempt at humour…
Granted these are casinos on the strip, but they’re still a looong ways apart!
So I was walking through the Bellagio and saw this.

Now what is it you ask? Well,
Apparently, it’s the worlds biggest chocolate fountain. That’s the weirdest thing I’ve seen out here so far…
Can you imagine being smothered in that stuff? Waaaah! Just thinking calorie-filled thoughts here…

Well, that’s kind of misleading…
It’s more of a “redux” kind of tour. Follow:
I had Tommy’s for dinner. Mmmmm, Tommy’s breath!
I went to Manny’s (AKA Chano’s) for lunch. Hot sauce!
And yesterday, I had to do the obligatory In n’Out run since I AM in Southern California now.
This is gonna blow my diet out of the water. Thankfully, I’ve been having light breakfasts to compensate…

Yup, I’m “itchy scratchy” and I’m down in Southern California for a few days.
Actually, I’m in LA for a few days and then I’m hightailing it to Las Vegas for a few days more.
And naturally, since I’m going to be down here longer than a weekend, I decided to drive down (since it’s great to have a car down here).
Normally, I wouldn’t do the drive if I was staying here for just a weekend. Any period of time longer than that would be prohibitively expensive, since I gotta rent a car and all that.
It’s not too hot down here so far. They’re still going through “June gloom” down here. However, the weather in Vegas is extremely hot!
40+ degrees!!! But thankfully no humidity like BKK. It’s still hot though.