Category: Travel

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]

Although I’ve been trying out burgers on this trip, I rarely have any when I come to Lebanon since the burgers here aren’t good at all. Instead I usually have other things:

Salads
I think the salads in Lebanon are better than the ones I have in Kuwait. The salads are lighter and taste better, probably because restaurants have access to better produce. I had the one pictured above yesterday and it came with goat cheese, walnuts, baby tomatoes, lettuce and figs for a bit of sweetness. It was great.

Pizza
For some odd reason pizza is extremely popular in Lebanon in the same way burger joints are popular in Kuwait. It seems every place around the corner makes pizza and most of them are pretty good. I end up having pizza maybe every other day and every time at a different place.

The Healthy Alternative
When I’m on vacation I’m off my regular diet but I also don’t like overdoing it since I end up feeling guilty. Other than salads there is one healthy dish that I love having and it’s the one above called the light grilled chicken. It’s delicious and very tender grilled chicken that comes with steamed carrots, mushrooms, broccoli and corn. I also order a side of honey mustard with it and I end up wiping the plate clean since everything on it including the broccoli just tastes amazing.

A few burger places have recently popped up in Lebanon and I decided I would try a new place every day on this trip. So far I’ve tried two places and have ended up with mixed results which you could read about on my Lebanese blog [Here]. Best part is, since I’m on vacation everyday is a cheat day!

I’m going to be posting from here for the next 10 days.