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Ignoring their spelling mistake but what exactly do they mean by surveillance cameras? Are these the regular speed cameras or have they installed something new?

Thanks Karim

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.

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.

Teenager dies in Salmiya mall gang fight
A 19-year-old Iranian died of chest wounds and two other youths, including an Egyptian expatriate were severely injured in a bloody fight among some 80 individuals at a famous shopping complex in Salmiya area.

The youths are said to have used batons, knives and other sharp objects to attack each other and the injured people were left behind, bleeding profusely, while other members of the feuding party managed to escape at the sight of police. Even so, about 20 of them were taken into custody when paramedics referred the three injured people to the Mubarak Hospital for medical care. Later on, the Iranian died of internal bleeding. A case has since been registered for investigation.

Meanwhile, another group of youths engaged in a quarrel at the same commercial complex over a girl, resulting in severe injuries to a citizen of Kazakhstan and a Jordanian. The injured people were taken to the Mubarak Hospital by paramedics arriving at the scene with security operatives. A case was registered.

In yet another incident, two Kuwaiti juveniles suffered injuries in different places of their bodies, as they fought with six other juveniles at a public garden in Rumaithiya. Paramedics sent the injured citizens to the Mubarak Hospital, while securitymen referred the other juveniles to Juvenile Prosecution for investigation. [Source]

Rowdy youths harass, strip 3 girls naked in Hawalli mall
The Nugra police have arrested two youths, both believed to be criminals, for eve-teasing and tearing the clothes of three Arab girls because they did not give in to their mischief, at a shopping mall, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.

According to eyewitness reports the youths were constantly harassing the victims and the latter criticized them in front of the people. The youths got annoyed and allegedly tore off the clothes of the girls, following which they screamed for help when they were left with only undergarments on. Someone called the police and the suspects have been taken into custody. [Source]

If these two horrifying incidents aren’t enough to have malls rethink their security then I’m not sure what is.

XRAY 808E from Mark on Vimeo.

I wasn’t planning on shooting a video, it just came to me while playing on the track so I didn’t have a tripod or a second hand to help me out. It’s not a great video but it still should give you a rough idea of what it’s like to race an RC car around the track. For some odd reason my edit turned out to be just 35 seconds so I repeated the lap twice in the video (it actually takes over a minute to race around the track without mistakes). If this track doesn’t convince you to get a race buggy then I’m not sure what would.

Now this is an organization that needs all the support they can get. Their mission: Make Kuwait Green.

This group is for an environmental project which calls on people who go camping during the winter time to plant 10 trees of certain type and irrigate it during the winter season. By the end of the season this tree will be able to survive and year after year our deserts will be our kid’s oasis.

Doesn’t sound very difficult and you can buy the small trees for really cheap from the nurseries on the 4th Ring Road. Imagine how beautiful the desert would be all green. Check out the Kuwait Oasis Facebook page [Here]

Halloween is coming up and Dean & Deluca have some amazing looking pumpkins if you’re into pumpkin carving. But, it might be a good idea to sketch your designs first since at KD12 a pumpkin, any mistake is going to be an expensive one.

I have a post from back in 2005 where I mention that shipping 4lbs with Aramex’s Shop & Ship would cost KD7. Today the same weight according to their online rates calculator would cost KD11 not including the KD2 customs tax. The total with the customs tax is KD13 which is nearly double what we used to pay back in 2005.

I miss the old Aramex. Back when I joined in 2001 it would literally take 2 days from the time the package shipped from the States for it to be in your hands here in Kuwait and they were much much cheaper.

A documentary on Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, the Kuwaiti psychologist who created The 99 comic books is going to premier in the States on PBS next Thursday October 13th. This is the description of the documentary taken from the Wham! Bam! Islam! website:

WHAM! BAM! ISLAM! tells the story of Naif Al-Mutawa and his venture to create the first team of superheroes from the Muslim world called THE 99. Following the tumultuous journey of THE 99 from concept to reality, from acclaim to censure by Islam’s cultural gatekeepers, from the edge of bankruptcy to plans for theme parks and an animation series, Al-Mutawa dodges cultural minefields and tries to tackle the harsh realities of the global marketplace while doggedly pursuing his vision to bring new heroes to Muslim children while re-introducing Islam to the West.

I’m not sure if the documentary will be available to download after the release or if it will even be available as a stream online. Once I find out how we can watch it I’ll update this post with more information. For now, here is the link to the Wham! Bam! Islam! website [Link]

I finally got to pass by Payless over the weekend. Payless is the X-Cite Electronics outlet and they’ve been open for a couple of years now (I think) but never really had a reason to pass by until now. I was looking for some Alpine components for my car sound system and I was told I would find some models at Payless. I didn’t end up finding what I was looking for but I still found the place interesting. They had a lot of random stuff all over this large warehouse and some looked like great deals while others didn’t seem discounted at all. They had a lot of laptops, phone accessories and I even spotted a bunch of Sonos devices. They’re located in Shuwaikh near the main Alghanim head quarters opposite City Center. It should be easy to spot since the warehouse has a large yellow sign on top.

Since we’re on the subject of good deals I managed to get my hands on an Alpine PDX-4.150 car stereo amp for just KD21! The retail price for this Amp was $399 in the US before it was discontinued and that’s without tax or shipping cost to Kuwait so KD21 is ridiculously cheap. For some reason X-Cite is getting rid of all their Alpine stock so you can find some really good deals.

If you’re interested in the PDX-4.150 I took a snapshot from their point of sale system showing all the available locations where they might still have them. I passed by the Hawalli and Marina branch but they both didn’t have them even though the computer says they did so I marked them both out. The Rai branch is where I got mine (it was the last piece) and the Baitak Tower branch has one on display but missing some accessories. That leaves 3 other branches which I didn’t pass by but they should have a piece each left so good luck finding one.

I passed by the junkyards earlier today to take some pictures and while I was there I noticed there were a ton of dogs. It’s not the first time I spot wild dogs at the junkyards but today I counted over 60 roaming around either alone or in packs. I started stalking a few and found them interesting to watch so I decided take pictures of many of them as I could so I could share on the blog

It wasn’t easy finding all the dogs and I’m positive I missed a lot since the whole area is full of streets and alleyways and unless I was planning to spend the whole day there I couldn’t go through each and everyone of them. I also only took pictures of the dogs that were on the streets but there must be a lot more in the actual junkyards or hiding in the cracks and crevices of old abandoned containers and cars.

I spent 2 hours driving around the junkyards looking for dogs and none of the ones I spotted seemed aggressive. Some looked sad and depressed while others seemed happy roaming around. One thing I noticed is the fact that none of the people in the area were afraid of the dogs. I spoke to a bunch of workers and from what they told me the dogs live and survive on their own without any help from humans. The workers in the area don’t feed or take care of the dogs but they also don’t mind them and none are afraid of them. It’s really sad but so interesting at the same time. Check out some pictures below.

This is very odd. On the front page of Al Rai newspaper there is a notice from Avenues saying that we can no longer mention Avenues, talk about Avenues or post pictures of Avenues without getting written permission first. That includes, newspapers, magazines, blogs etc…

I’m not sure why they would release something like this. I guess from now on I’ll refer to Avenues as Alshaya Mall?

Thanks Salah

Update: The Avenues have responded [Link]

I don’t miss the weather, but I do miss my internet *hugs modem*

9ura.com is a Kuwait-based group that was created to showcase talents and educate people about the Middle East through photography.

They just launched a few days ago and they’re holding their first photography competition with the theme “Environments in the GCC”. There will be three categories: Culture, Nature, and Urban and I think I already have a photograph that I will be submitting.

If you want to take part in this competition you need to upload your photo to their website some time between August 15th and October 15th, 2011.

Here is a link to their website [Link]

Photo above taken by Bader Al-Ajeel

IMPORTANT: I just read the fine print and there is an important point that I previously missed. According to their fine print, by submitting your photographs to 6ura.com each of your submissions becomes THEIR property. They will have free, permanent, non-exclusive, and royalty-free rights to use, reproduce, and/or display your photos in any format they please. Personally, this means I won’t be submitting anything to them since I want to remain the owner of my photographs.