Category: Travel

For some reason when I am in Lebanon I have a very bad habit of lying to taxi drivers. I think its because I feel sorry for them or because I don’t want to seem like a tourist in my own country but whatever the reason is, I always lie to them.

I always make it look like I work in Lebanon for one thing. When I get asked what I do for a living I am honest and tell them advertising but then I complain about how there isn’t much work in Lebanon and how I am considering leaving and that I have offers from Qatar and Kuwait. When they ask me if I know how to drive I say yes of course, how many Lebanese do you know that don’t? Then I either say that (a) I had an accident back in October and totaled the car so until I could afford to fix it I take cabs, or (b) I live with my brother so he drops me off where I want so I don’t see a reason to buy a car.

Cab drivers don’t make a lot of money in Lebanon and the expression on their faces and in their eyes just saddens me. I like giving them big tips, I actually leave big tips to a lot of people here in Lebanon since its like everyone has financial difficulties…

Just finished packing my bags and will head out to the airport in a bit. I am not going to post from there (the airport) since I am packing my laptop with my main luggage. I will most probably post again later in the evening. See ya!

I got back from Dubai last night and since I averaged around 5 hours sleep a night I was really exhausted when I got back. Here are s

The Flight
We took the Sri Lanken airlines to Dubai for two reasons, the first was because it was an early flight (before the 2 hour delay) and the second because I was told the Sri Lanken airlines is owned by Emirates they are the same. Well they aren’t. I think all the old Emirates planes get handed down to the Sri Laken airlines. The two planes were old and setup very similarly to the Kuwait Airways ones meaning no entertainment jukebox of the Emirates with over 300 things to watch. If you want to drink water on the plane its not bottled but out of a jug, even Jazeera Airways gives passengers bottled water and for free.

The Hotel
We stayed at the Sapphire Hotel which was located very close to Dubai Media City where the Young Lions Competition was being held and it was also close to the Mall of the Emirates. The hotel felt more like a furnished apartment because I had a small kitchen, large fridge and even a washing machine. The staff weren’t good communicators and they all felt untrained. They have Internet access in all the rooms via Wifi and it costs 15 Dhms per hour. Problem was that even with my very sensitive MacBook I was only able to get a decent signal from inside the closet located near the rooms main entrance. Finally, no cab driver had heard of the hotel so every time we took a cab we had to give the driver directions.

Lina’s Cafe
Had the Turkey Fillet with cheese sandwich on Wednesday for lunch. It was so good we actually went back Thursday to have the exact same thing for lunch again.

The Butcher
Wednesday night we had dinner at The Butcher in the Mall of the Emirates. I had the steak fillet which was above average but nothing special. The restaurants name is cooler then the food.

Chicago
Virgin Megastore in Dubai don’t sell the Arabic book Chicago, which was the book that supposedly shutdown Virgin in Kuwait. Borders on the other hand which was located a few stores away did sell the book. I should have gotten a bunch and sold them here in Kuwait on the black market.

Cabs
We took a lot of cabs in Dubai since it was our only mean of getting around. Cab drivers were mostly friendly and easy to converse with except for one driver who turned out had been in Dubai for just a month and reminded us a lot of Borat. One tip, if you are leaving Mall of the Emirates at 10pm and notice there is a long long long line of people waiting for a cab in a very orderly fashion… don’t wait with them. Just walk 20 meters to the main road and grab a passing cab from there, it will save you at least 30 minutes of waiting. Seriously the line was as long as those at six flags or Disney. I should really have taken a picture! Vallet parking at the mall is 50 Dhms (KD4).

Aï Zone
Found a really cool pair of Prada sneakers at Aï Zone, there was no price tag on them so I figured if I have to ask then I probably can’t afford them.

Passport Covers
One quick question. At the Dubai airport they had a large stand selling passport covers. Now my question is this, can I use a passport cover of a different country on my passport? For example can I buy the Russian passport cover and then use it to cover my Canadian passport?

Just got back from the Double Decker pub here in Dubai. Me and my friend went there after Mall of the Emirartes to watch the AC Milan vs Manchester United match. The place was super packed, like so packed people were backed up all the way to the hallway entrance. I didn’t get to ski tonight because the slope was pretty packed but hopefully tomorrow while everyone is at work it won’t be so crowded. Other then that I have to say I love the Mall of the Emirates, every-time I go there I discover something new. Today for example I discovered two wings I didn’t know about and thats after spending hours previously making sure I saw every part of it!

My flight tomorrow is 5 in the evening so I am hoping to get a good nights sleep now and then go do a bit of shopping before I head out to the airport.

note: the hotel I am in has wifi but the signal is so weak that I am actually standing inside the cupboard near the rooms door typing this post!

Today was the Young Creatives competition in Dubai. Our flight arrived last night at around 1AM to Dubai and by the time we got to the hotel it was 2. Still, we managed to wake up at 7 and headed to Dubai Media City where the Cannes Lions competition was being held.

At 9AM we were briefed by the client which turned out to be WFP (World Food Program) and we had to come up with a campaign that would help promote their Food for Education program. We had until 6PM to come up and execute our ideas which was a surprise because we were told originally to expect 12 hours to work on it.

Anyway we managed to come up with around 19 different ideas which we finally narrowed down to three and then to just two which was the maximum amount of creative work we could present. We are pretty confident one of our ideas should get us in the top 3 but we will have to wait and see.

At the start of the event they introduced me and my partner as the only team that isn’t from Dubai. Turns out this was the first time a team from outside of Dubai participated which put Kuwait in the spotlight. My partner is Kuwaiti and I grew up in Kuwait so we were truly representing Kuwait.

Hopefully one of our directions hits the top 3, we should find out the results by May 8th I believe. I will try to post our favorite direction here but at the moment I am not sure if I am allowed to. I am going to go skiing now so will I post again later on tonight once I come back.

I am at the airport now waiting for a flight to Dubai. Originally we were supposed to leave on the Sri Lanken airlines flight at 7:10 but that got delayed till around 9:30. Problem is there is a soccer match tonight and me and my partner are supposed to watch it at the Double Decker pub in Dubai. We tried getting on the Emirates airline flight which takes off at 6 but it was fully booked and in the end there was only 1 seat left and they gave it to this guy who had like a gold skywards card or something.

I am now sitting in Starbucks just waiting for our late flight. We are going to miss the soccer match which I was looking forward to watching…

The money here in Lebanon is ridiculously huge.

I arrived to Lebanon I think around 1:30PM Lebanon time, left the airport and came straight to the hotel where I just lazed it out. Today is the only day where I can relax and do nothing so I am taking advantage of it. In a bit my brother is coming to pick me up and I will probably go have a drink and a bite to eat with him somewhere.

My rooms view is pretty sweet, I got the sea view this time around which is great. One thing I forgot to pack is a swimsuit, the hotel here has a roof top pool which overlooks Beirut, its an incredible view which makes swimming very tempting. Oh yeah, the weather here is like Kuwait… winter is over.

Best thing about this hotel is the location, its near the American University of Beirut which means there are a lot of things to do here when I have free time. By a lot of things I mostly mean food.

I need to go down to Beirut for a few days to shoot a commercial and I should be back Friday night. My flight leaves at noon so I have to pack everything tonight. I will have Internet access from my hotel room so I will continue to blog from there.

A reader called Steven emailed me his review on the newly added United Airlines direct route, Kuwait to Washington DC. Its kinda long but it might be interesting for people who are considering this route (or airlines even). Here is his take on the flight:

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Hi Mark, I am a frequent traveler from Kuwait and have gold status in the frequent flyer programs of Kuwait Airways, Emirates and British Airways. I decided to try United Airlines new direct flight from Kuwait to Washington DC (14 hours) this weekend and I have to say that the flights there and back on United Airlines were some of the worst I have flown.

The flight UA981 on January 20th from Kuwait was one and a half hours late to fly because of computer problems on the aircraft. They did serve welcoming drinks – water. Once the aircraft flew, the inflight entertainment system was partly bad and the airmap which I like to use to track progress was not working. The business class seats have a very uncomfortable headrest in which the lower part presses onto your shoulders and forces you to sit in an uncomfortable position. The food aboard was very poor and service staff was not very attentive. To make matters worse, the lavatory drainage in business class backed up causing their sinks and floors to fill with foul smelling brown goo. I am sure there was some serious health hazards there.

I was just loading up some pictures into iPhoto when I found these two shots. I took these two pictures up in Faraya, Lebanon on December 31st around 4PM. The weather was freezing cold at around -2 degrees. The ski slopes were also open and if I had known I might have gotten up there earlier in the day to do a bit of skiing.

I am sitting at Dunkin Donuts surfing the web trying to kill time while Nat finishes her shopping spree. Its raining outside which means its snowing in the mountains. We still don’t have plans for tonight, we have a couple of options ranging from clubs to gatherings but for some reason we still haven’t decided what to do.

We come back to Kuwait tomorrow afternoon. I miss Geo.

I hadn’t been out clubbing since I graduated from university back in 2001 until last night. Me and Nat went to this club in Beirut called Basement. Its literally a basement located in a really old building. There was a long line outside but we went with Nats sister who works for Red Bull and she managed to get us some last minute seat reservations at the bar.

We got there at 11PM when the place barely had 30 people. We left at 3AM when we barely were able to pass through the crowd to get to the exit.

It was a lot of fun, I had 6 glasses of vodka with ice and 3 shots of I don’t know what and now I have a really bad hangover. I hate hangovers.

This is a picture of my rental car. Its a Renault Megane, 1.6liter engine with 16 valves. The car has turned out to be a lot cooler then I expected it to be. Although on paper the car specs don’t sound like much out on the streets the car packs a bit of punch. The acceleration is pretty cool and the handling is pretty tight. Best part about the car is you get great mileage. In Lebanon where gas is expensive it really makes a difference.

Other then the gas issue driving in Lebanon is actually pretty relaxing. No rules, no cops, no limits. You can do anything you want and you don’t have to worry about any cops busting you.

Well you can imagine, I am in Lebanon and its my first vacation in a long time so its not like I am going to be hanging around my computer. I have been out of the house all day and I am just back now to change before I go to this club called Basement.