Category: Travel

I never considered New York beautiful until today. After visiting the meat packing district I decided to walk along the High Line which is a former elevated railroad track that was converted into a park in the sky. Not only is it a very cool concept but the execution of the High Line is extremely tasteful and stylish. Below are some pictures I took with my iPhone.

I should be posting about the Turkish airport and the Turkish Airlines Lounge but because I only spent around an hour at the airport I didn’t really have too much time to explore it. Since I’ll be spending more time at the airport on the return flight, I’ll post about the lounge once I get back to Kuwait. So instead, I’m going to post about the flight from Istanbul to New York.

The total travel time from Istanbul to New York is around 10 hours and 50 minutes and we flew in their Boeing 777-300ER V2. The business class setup on this flight was the latest one which is made up of just 4 rows split up as 2-3-2. One of the first people to greet you once you enter the business class is the chef which kinda sets a level of expectation on the kind of food you’ll be served during the flight. There’s obviously a ton of legroom in business class and it’s needed since the chairs turn into 180 degree flat beds. I wasn’t sure at first if they would be true 180 degree “flat beds” or instead be “lie flats” which are seats that turn flat but are slightly angled. I’ve experienced lie flats on two other airlines and they’re not as easy to sleep in and I always feel like I’m going to slide off them. Thankfully, the Turkish Airlines seats were proper flat beds which made sleeping really cozy.

Since the flight was long we were served two meals, one around an hour after take off while the other around 2 hours before arrival. The chef handled everything related to the food including handing out the menus which I noticed were customized with our names. It’s a little thing but gives the meals a very personal touch. The first meal we started off with were light appetizers which they rolled out on a trolley. You just tell the chef what you want and he’ll fill up your dish for you. Once we were done with the appetizers we were served soup which they only had one option called the traditional Turkish wedding soup. I had it and it tasted kinda like the Lebanese dish called “kebbeh bi laban” and that’s probably because think they both involve the same elements, beef and some sort of creamy sauce. After that we were presented with three options for main course, Swordfish Brochette, Grilled Beef Tournedos or Artichoke Ravioli. I went with the beef, Nat with the fish. She didn’t end up liking her fish much but I loved the beef. Once we were done with lunch they rolled out the dessert trolley which had a lot of different goodies. I was pretty full so I just went with ice cream. For my second meal later on in the flight I had a pasta dish and it was also superb.

The flight was very comfortable and I didn’t have any issues falling asleep on the flat bed. I’m actually not sure how I can fly economy knowing how much more comfortable it is in business. On short flights it’s not as important but when you’ve only slept for 3 hours and you get on board a 10 hour flight, the thought of being able to fall asleep comfortably on a cushy bed is priceless. Actually not priceless, just a lot more expensive than economy. We had large screens in front of us with a ton of movies and tv shows to watch. One disappointing thing was the fact internet access wasn’t active yet and was still “coming soon” according to the message I got on the screen when trying to access it. On the other hand they did have live news feeds available. Power sockets and USB sockets were available of course. If you have a USB stick or hard drive loaded up with movies you can watch them on your seats screen via the USB port. Not sure what movie formats their media player handles but I would be safe and not take any 720p or 1080p movies with me.

There’s an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and Elaine’s flights get cancelled and they had to rebook on another flight. They end up finding two seats left, one in first class and the another in economy. Jerry explains to Elaine how she should take the economy seat since she’s never flown first and really wouldn’t miss anything but he on the other hand has and so he could no longer fly economy. Well that’s me right now, next time I fly economy I’m going to be thinking about all the cool things I’m missing from business.

I knew I was going to be using my iPhone a lot on this trip so before I arrived I ordered a battery powered case for my iPhone and had Amazon ship it to my hotel. There were a ton of options available and at first I was leaning towards a $90 Mophie Juice Pack Plus but then I decided I didn’t want to pay that much since I would only be using it on this trip, my London trip in January and then probably never again. So I looked around and finally decided to go with the Lenmar battery-powered case which you can see above and below. The price was just $30 and the reviews were mostly positive.

I’ve been using it for the past 2 days and so far it’s great. Whenever the iPhone’s battery level reaches 20%, I press a button on the back of the case and it automatically starts charging the iPhone back to nearly 100%. So now my phone lasts the full day with heavy use and still have a lot of battery left. Size-wise it just adds a bit of bulk to the phone but it still fits easily into tight jeans pocket with more than enough room to have your hands inside the pocket as well. Overall not bad for just $30.

Here is the battery case on [Amazon]

Last night I went to the Foo Fighters concert here in New York and it kicked ass! I was worried they would only play their new stuff which I am not too familiar with but lucky for me they played for 3 hours and included all my favorite songs from their first and second album. The stadium was packed with around 20,000 fans since it was a sold out concert and you could watch the video I shot above that kinda shows how packed it was. Song kicks in at around 4 minutes. [YouTube]

If you’re interested, I’m tweeting most of my activities while I’m in New York and you could follow my tweets [Here]

My hotel is conveniently located 5 minutes away from the Madison Avenue Shake Shack branch so I passed by last night for dinner. I ordered a double shack, a plain single cheeseburger, fries, a regular sized coke and a bottle of water. The bill came out to around $18 which if I’m not mistaken is cheaper than Kuwait. Taste wise I have to say the NY Shake Shack tastes better than the Kuwait one. The patty tastes less greasy, the veggies taste better (the onions were delicious) and the fries were crunchy crispy which I love.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’m flying Turkish Airlines from Kuwait to New York Business Class courtesy of the airline. The trip is divided into two stages, the first is a short flight from Kuwait to Istanbul while the second is the longer journey, Istanbul to New York. One of the main reasons Turkish Airlines wanted me to review them is because they’ve gotten a brand new plane for the Kuwait – Istanbul leg of the journey which they’ve recently entered into service.

The new plane is an Airbus A321 and I think it was entered into service around a month ago if I’m not mistaken. First thing I noticed once I boarded the flight was the trendy color scheme of the seats which were dark gray and had minimal red accents and bright turquoise pillows. The seats have built in power sockets, USB ports, a large pull out screen and a remote control. Since the flight is a short one the seats don’t fold down flat into beds but they do recline back a good deal with leg supports as well. Since this was business class there was lots of legroom as well.

The trip going to Istanbul is 3 hours and 20 minutes long. One of the advantages flying with Turkish Airline to the States or any other European airline is the fact your journey starts by flying west which results in a quicker overall trip since you don’t waste time backtracking your flight path (if your journey started by going east for example).

Breakfast was served on this trip and even though I was told by some readers the food would be great I actually wasn’t expecting much for this first stage of the trip. I was wrong since the food turned out to be pretty good. They started of breakfast with some cheeses, labneh, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. A light combination which I’ve noticed Turkish Airlines likes a lot since there was a similar setup at different stages of my trip (lounge and Istanbul-NY flight). There was also a bit of turkey, freshly squeezed orange juice, fruits, jam, butter and yogurt. Once I was done with my starter I was served a cheese and tomato omelet which was also very good. The whole meal actually made me look forward to the one I would be having on my next longer flight since there would be a chef on board on that one.

It was a pretty good start to my trip. My only quibble and I’m being picky here is the lack of a phone network on-board. The only planes I’ve been on where I could use my phone while flying to check my email and chat on BBM are the Wataniya Airways ones and I’d like to see other airlines introduce this feature as well. Below are some pictures I took on this trip.

Note: I will be posting about my Istanbul to New York flight as well as the lounge in separate posts.

A couple of months back I got an email from Turkish Airlines asking me if I could try out their service and write about them. At first I figured they wanted me to fly to Turkey Economy Class but then I found out they actually wanted me to try their Business Class and gave me 6 very cool destinations to choose from:

Toronto
New york
Chicago
Los Angeles
Washington DC
São Paulo

I didn’t know much about Turkish Airlines back then other than their TV commercial featuring the football players so I was a bit surprised they actually flew as far as LA or São Paulo. It was pretty hard choosing a destination but in the end it was between LA and NY and since I was already planning a big trip to LA next year I decided to go with New York instead.

I’m leaving tomorrow early morning and will continue to post from New York although my timings will probably be off. This time around I’m staying at The MAve in Manhattan instead of Brooklyn since I’m going to be there for only a week and don’t want to waste any time commuting. The picture above is how my room should look like so will see how close to that it is once I get there.

Now Siri, find me the best burger place in New York!

I’ve heard good things about Muscat but I didn’t think know it was actually so good it came second in the must visit city list for 2012. Pretty cool accomplishment and they’re right next door. Must add it to my to do list.

Top 10 cities
1. London
2. Muscat, Oman
3. Bengaluru (Bangalore), India
4. Cadiz, Spain
5. Stockholm
6. Guimaraes, Portugal
7. Santiago, Chile
8. Hong Kong
9. Orlando, Florida, USA
10. Darwin, Australia

[Source]

Thanks Yousuf
Photo by momentaryawe

A reader who’s currently studying in Italy emailed me some photos of an exhibition called Discover Kuwait that’s currently taking place in the streets of Milan. According to him they’re there for a week promoting Kuwaiti culture with pictures, information and even with music and dance. Below are some pictures he took and you can find out more by visiting the Discover Kuwait website [Here]

Thanks Hadi

The Kuwait Airport has been redesigned and the biggest difference I see right away is a lot less pink. I usually check the website for the arrivals section and they haven’t really changed that page much but the whole website does look better than before. [Link]

The last time their website was redesigned it was back in July 2007 and it looked like the screenshot below.

Thanks Nazem

Architecture of Kuwait got their hands on a ton of renderings of the new airport and have posted them all online. Compared to our current airport the new one is HUGE. I’m still going through all the pictures trying to decide if I like it or not. There are some things I have question marks on like all these steps in the picture below. I think they’re also covering the whole airport roof with solar panels which is a great idea.

The new design is a major and I mean MAJOR improvement over the current airport. Not that the current airport wasn’t as beautiful when it was first designed by the legendary Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. But over time with all the expansions and changes they’ve made the current airport just looks like a mess now. Anyway you can check out the pictures of the new airport [Here]

A reader recently filled an online survey for Jazeera Airways that was all around the topic of them introducing a reward program. I was signed up to the Wataniya Airways rewards program and I’m also signed up to a number of other airlines reward program as well but since I usually fly with Jazeera most of the time it would be great if they started a reward program as well.

Thanks Aidan

Even though I live 5 minutes away from the Jeita caves, for some odd reason I hadn’t been to them until yesterday. The caves are currently nominated as one of the new 7 wonders of nature but I’m still undecided if I like the place or not.

The cave are divided into two parts, the lower grotto and the upper grotto. The lower grotto consists of a ride on a little boat through the caves which sounds cool but out of the 7km depth the journey only takes you to the first 450 meters since the path becomes too tight for the boats. So it’s a really short trip that ends a few minutes after it starts.

The upper grotto is a walking path through the caves and I found it much more impressive than the lower grotto. The height of the ceiling is ridiculously high and the whole place is lit up very nicely. But my problem with the upper grotto is again the fact that it ends too quickly. Not as quickly as the lower caves but still, I just wish it was longer. Now this might sound strange but I honestly wished there was a Starbucks at the end of the path inside the cave. I would have loved to chill out on a couch eating my chocolate muffin while checking out and appreciating the caves around me.

If you’re coming to Lebanon I guess the caves are worth visiting, just don’t expect to spend the day there, the whole experience takes an hour or two. Also a point worth mentioning is that cameras and phones are NOT allowed inside the caves. Tickets for adults costs around KD3.5. Here is a link with more info [Link]