Category: Travel

I got to New York earlier today after a surprisingly comfortable 14 hour flight. The weather is great here and the hotel room turned out to be as big as in the pictures. I’ve got Arby’s, Wendy’s and White Castle just 5 minutes away which is going to prove to be a problem.

Had a large roast beef n’ cheddar from Arby’s today and it was great. Will post more details tomorrow since I’m currently extremely exhausted.

Before I book a hotel at a travel destination I usually use TripAdvisor to find out what hotels are popular in that city and I read up on peoples reviews. It’s helped me make a lot of right decisions and I think I can make even better decisions with the help of another website I just found about called Oyster. One of the great things about Oyster is their photos which they take of the hotel, the room and the hotels surroundings. For example I was checking out pictures for the hotel I am going to be staying at in New York (Nu Hotel) next month and Oyster has around 500 photos of the hotel divided up into sections. The picture above for example is just one of the many pictures of the room I will be staying in. They have pictures of everything in that room from the cable box to the toilet paper roll. It’s a very cool site and can prove very helpful the next time you want to travel. [Link]

Has anyone stayed at Nu Hotel or any other hotel in Brooklyn? I’m looking to spend max $200 a night on a room in New York and all the good places in Manhattan are like $300 and up. How practical is it staying in Brooklyn and taking the subway to Manhattan every day?

Update: How about W Hotel in Hoboken New Jeresey?

Update2: After hours and hours of research and reading I ended up booking at Nu Hotel. I’m going to be staying in NY for 12 days and needed a decently sized room and most of the ones in and around Times Square were pretty tiny. I don’t mind staying in tiny rooms (I love EasyHotel Paddington) but I could never stay in one for 12 days. Subway station is 5 minutes from the hotel and I can get to times square in 20 minutes. Takes me as long to get to work every morning so its no biggie.

Who would have thought having a cast would be a complicated thing when traveling. I’ve been in Beirut for a couple of days now and I am getting back today but for some reason security at the Lebanese airport is being very anal about my cast. Kuwait airport didn’t even bring it up as a problem but here I’m being treated like I am trying to smuggle a machete or surface to air missiles in my cast.

I get to the airport at 6:30am still sleepy and hungover when the first security screening stop me from going through. They’re like wheres your paper? I was like what paper? They’re like for your hand. I was like wtf? They then spent 15 minutes fondling my arm and passing it in and out of the metal detector before letting me through. Then I found out my flight got rescheduled till the afternoon so I left.

Fast forward to around 3:30pm and I get back to the airport and pass through the same security checkpoint and they stopped me again. This time I got bounced from one person to another each asking me if I have a paper for my cast. I was like what paper where do I get it from? He’s like from where you got the cast. I was like I got my cast done in Kuwait you want me to go get a paper and come back?? I don’t think they liked my sarcasm because they then wanted me to remove the cast so they could check if I had hidden anything. I told them I couldn’t remove it and wouldn’t remove it and in the end had to get my arm fondled for 15 minutes again and waved through the metal detector a few times. What a mess, glad I just had my hand in a cast and not my ass or something.

Due to many travelers being stuck all over the world due to the ash clouds from the recent volcano eruption, Lonely Planet is offering their iPhone apps for free. Their regular prices are usually $9.99 to $15.99 for each country app but from now till Thursday the European ones are going to be free. I just got a ton of countries as you can see above. [Link]

Sadly this offer is with Qatar Airways which means you need to stop over in Doha for around an hour and then fly to London from there. British Airways is KD50 more expensive coming in at around KD200. [Link]

Spotted my first twister ever today. I was on a photo shoot when we spotted the twister (pictured above) forming over the sea. The weather here in Lebanon has been extremely chilly and wet which sucks since I came with only t-shirts.

I am leaving to Beirut for a few days and will be back early next week. While there I will be carelessly indulging in an unlimited supply of Cadbury Chocolate Milk while having some of the best Nutella and banana crepes. Posting will continue as normal while I am there.

I should have posted this earlier but completely forgot. Anyway British Airways have a sale until January 19th. Ticket to London is KD157 including taxes and KD254 to New York which is what I am probably going to book for myself. [Link]

Whats the best way to get to New York? I checked out British Airways and Qatar Airways, both are similarly priced. I then figured I would check Kuwait Airways since I assumed they had a direct flight to NY but turns out they don’t. Emirates is like double the price of everything else for some odd reason. So whats the best airlines to get to New York with? Do any offer direct flights from Kuwait?

Since I’m asking, whats a good hotel to stay in? Last time I was there was back in 2003 and I stayed in Milford Plaza which I read isn’t that great now (and it wasn’t great back then).

Blogger Patrick sent me a link to a page on SkiLeb.com with pictures of the Faraya Mzaar ski slope in Lebanon. Whats cool about the pictures is that they were all taken on December 30th but each picture was taken on a different year. 2009 is the worst year with practically no snow. It’s pretty sad. [Link]

Thanks Patrick!

I landed in Beirut today and I am going to stay here until Christmas. First thing I did was pass by the supermarket (actually duty free before that for you know what) and picked up some stuff including Cadbury Chocolate Milk. It was funny to see KDD chocolate milk on the shelves here in Lebanon while they’re out of stock in Kuwait (I heard because of the KDD factory fire).

Last time I mentioned Cadbury Chocolate Milk some of you suggested I try to have Sulten Center order it with “Just Ask”. Well I filled out the form on their website and got a phone call from them a few days later. They can’t order it because it expires. WTF? I told them they order other food products that also expire and the chocolate milk has a 1 year expiry period like some other items they already bring. They wouldn’t listen. Too bad.

This site lists 7 of the world’s most luxurious airlines. My favorite based on the pictures has to be Cathay Pacific which is pictured above. [Link]

9h is a new high end capsule hotel in Kyoto, Japan. The name comes from the idea that you need 1 hour to shower, 7 hours to sleep and 1 hour break which is a total of 9 hours. It looks a lot better than the usual capsule hotel’s I’ve seen and at only KD12 per night (9 hours) its pretty affordable albeit claustrophobic. [Link]

If you’re traveling to Saudi make sure you delete all the porn from your laptop!

The British Embassy in Riyadh received reports in July 2009 that Saudi Arabian Customs officials have authority to screen all electronic devices (laptops, mobile phones, PDAs etc) entering or leaving Saudi Arabia. If requested, all passengers will be submitted to a thorough verification and inspection at international airports. Anyone found to be carrying pirated or explicit materials will have their equipment confiscated. The report adds that refusal to comply with this rule will result in detention and/or deportation. [Source]

Thanks Michael