Category: Travel

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.

Although I am Lebanese people here in Lebanon when they hear you are coming from Kuwait they think you are fully loaded. It doesn’t matter if you are Lebanese, Kuwaiti or whatever, if you are coming from the Gulf then you have money to spend.

I was supposed to rent a Peugeot 307 from this local rental place here in Lebanon for like $40 a day. So yesterday at 9PM we call the guy to confirm and he is like yeah don’t worry when you come here if we don’t have the 307 you will have a whole range of cars to choose from. i was like cool. So I am now in Lebanon, I call the guy and guess what? He only has a BMW X5 available for $150 a day. Yeah right fucker I am going to rent an X5 from you instead of a Peugeot. Whatever. At least if you are going to rip me off do it gently. Go up 1 level to like $60. Tell me sorry we don’t have a Peugeot but for just $20 more you can get a BMW 1-series. Maybe then I would have considered it but don’t triple my budget up to an X5!

We made a few calls and I just scored a 2007 Renault Megane for $45 a day. Hopefully its the hatchback version and in black.

Me and Nat just got to our Jazeera Airways gate and noticed they were boarding people onto the plane. I thought that was weird since it was like 50 minutes ahead of time. Nat wanted to get coffee I told her we didn’t have time they were boarding the flight.

We checked into our gate, gave them our boarding pass and they then led us into a very tiny over crowded room located just before the door to the plane. I was like WTF? Turns out they weren’t boarding the passengers just making it look like they were boarding to the people who were still outside the gate. We were tricked!

So we are standing in this tiny over crowded room with barely any seating while right outside this door lied the main boarding lounge for the gate. How messed up, they herded us all into this tiny room just so it looks like we are boarding so people would come in. I am really pissed. I told the Jazeera guy I was going to be outside getting coffee, he took my boarding pass and kept it with him. Now they can basically leave without me.

This is really a cheap ass move by Jazeera Airways. Can’t believe they are still shoving more people into that tiny room its really packed!

It’s 6:15AM and I am getting ready to leave my house. Everything is packed just need to shutdown my computer. Will try to post from Lebanon, it might mostly be pictures will see.

Just booked a flight for me and Nat to Beirut. Will be leaving on the 27th and coming back January 1st. I booked with Jazeera Airways and was expecting not to find any places but it seems the current political situation in Lebanon has led to a lot of cancellations. Last time I celebrated New Years in Lebanon was in 2000 so it should be fun.

I love Montreal. Its my favorite place on the planet. Since Christmas is nonexistent in Kuwait and since Nat has never been anywhere other then Lebanon and Kuwait I figured we would spend Christmas and New Years in Montreal. I was looking forward to binging on Labatt Blue while stuffing myself with poutine. Nat on the other hand was looking forward to the Tiesto concert on New Years night. We had everything planned and ready, only thing missing was Nats visa to Canada. I don’t need a visa because I have the Canadian citizenship.

Around a week ago we sent Nats passport and all the forms and papers needed to the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi (local embassy don’t do visas). Visa costs like KD18 while DHL with a return airway bill costs KD55. So thats KD73 for a one time entry visa.

Today Nat got her passport back and guess what? They refused to give her a visa! Their reason was the following:

You have not satisfied me that you meet the requirements of Regulation 179; that you would leave Canada at the end of the temporary period if you were authorized to enter. In reaching this decision I considered your ties to your country of residence/citzenship balanced against factors which might motivate you to stay in Canada.

In summary, they think Nat will basically go to Canada, tear up her passport and request asylum. How did they come up with this conclusion? Its because she is Lebanese. How much more discriminating can they be? No one called her to talk to her, no one called her in for an interview, they didn’t even care that her husband is a Canadian.

I am extremely pissed off now because it basically means I can no longer go to Canada unless I am alone, which isn’t going to happen as long as I am married. Tomorrow I will be calling up the embassy and giving someone there a piece of my mind. No way am I gonna accept the fact that some stranger all the way in the UAE is going to ruin my Christmas!

I found out last minute I had to go down to Dubai for work and since Gitex had just started, finding a room was practically impossible. Finally though the travel agent came through and found me an empty room and booked it. I have to say it was the crappiest hotel I had ever been to. The whole place looked like a bathroom and smelled like one that had just been cleaned. They had these air fresheners that spray perfume automatically located all over the hotel but they just reminded me too much of bathrooms.

If the look of the hotel wasn’t enough to put me off, before we got the room key they made us sign a paper which said if any of our stuff goes missing in the rooms that they wouldn’t be responsible for it. Not only that but inside the room there was a framed photocopy of a similar paper stating the same thing and another A4 sheet located on the table also saying the same thing. As you can imagine I didn’t want to leave anything in the room and I didn’t, I kept my backpack with me the whole time.

Traffic in Dubai because of Gitex was just a disaster. It was always at a complete standstill, a real mess. One cab driver told me things get even worse in February during the shopping festival.

The weather in Dubai was also a lot hotter then Kuwait. Its currently freezing here. Froze my ass off tonight while leaving Maki at Marina, even had a jacket on and it wasn’t enough!

I wanted to visit Gitex but I finished my work around 8PM and Gitex closes at 7. Why can’t they stay open till like 10 or something like exhibitions that are held in Kuwait? Its like people need to take a day off work to pass by them.

I went to Ibn Battuta mall. Its not as big as Mall of the Emirates but its still a lot bigger then Marina Mall and the whole thing felt very Las Vegasishy.

I still can’t believe I was in Dubai and didn’t get to pass by Gitex!

I found this at the Dubai Duty Free. If beer was legal in Kuwait I would definitely setup a draught beer system at home. This one cost only $250.