After an interesting week at the seminar, I spent most of the day chilling with some family. Its funny how many people I have seen in Dubai throughout the week. I think a lot of people didn’t leave Dubai since the boat show.

I managed to go check out Dubai Mall during the time I had free and one movie, I wanted to watch other movies but I was too damn tired to do move after a 12 hour day at the seminar. I managed to buy quiet a few books, since I would spend my spare time in the bookstore (Borders or Kinokuniya).

Now packing up and getting ready to head to the airport for the Wataniya flight back home, I’m looking forward to a chill Saturday at home.

Got up early in the morning for this seminar, had a really good breakfast. Spanish omelet to be exact with some labnah on the side. Put on my dishdasha and went to the seminar, for some reason I can’t wear a suit when going to any business event in the Gulf, I always wear a dishdasha.

It has turned into a really interesting financial seminar with live case studies regarding business structures and how they needed to be adjusted for growth in different environments. It is mostly targeting young people, so everyone is relatively young in the seminar and its great meeting new and interesting people from very different fields.

With all this going on I didn’t have a chance to check my email or anything for that matter. Decided to go to a movie after the seminar, and in a day and a half my Google Reader has piled up to 607 articles to read. Now I really have to play catch up.

Most the time I do some financial analysis for projects and have them looked over before going forward or submitting a project or proposal. Usually the courses or events I go to is more oriented to my field of work but this time around its more financial. I’m looking forward to it because it will give me more incite into the financial side of things rather then the operational which I have been into. Its going to be from 8 am to 8pm with lots of team oriented exercises. I have to admit that I really don’t like being teamed up with boring people or the types that like kissing up. The course is about three days long and I’m hoping to watch a few movies and meet up with a few people if possible.

Can we say Nurenberg Ring of Abu Dhabi or the best drive way in the world. 60 corners and 7.3 miles long, this is one fun road to drive up. Fifth gear seemed to enjoy themselves on this road, its strange I have never heard of Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road. At the top there is one Palace belonging to the Royal Family which seems uninhabitated, and a large parking lot for doughnuts and a basic road side cafe at the top. Its the same way to go up and the same way to go down, I wouldn’t mind trying this road out, the next time I’m in Abu Dhabi, too bad we don’t have fun roads like this in Kuwait. Perfectly paved, no turns off, and wide enough to have fun. Check out the youtube video at the link.

Link: Jalopnik

Took the Wataniya Airline flight at 8 am going to Dubai. Drove to the new airport in Sabhan, Sheikh Sa’ad Airport, you can easily get to it and the signs are clear. The best part is not going through all the hassle of the old airport, I walked right through, they asked if I was first or economy. Took me right to the check in counter, and then right into the lounge. The lounge is very large, I preferred sitting at the lounge which had a view on the runway even though the weather was bad.

The Good:

• I like the color scheme of the airlines
• Very large and comfortable lounge
• Very helpful staff, even if they are lacking experience, they do make an effort
• Check-in process was smooth
• Transport from the airport to the plane was through Mercedes Van
• Great Entertainment System
• Good Selection of Games
• Audio Selection (Music, Pop, Arabic, Quran)
• TV Series on demand works but they need a larger selection
• News, Sports, and Documentaries were good too
• Aux Input (iPod)
• A/C Connection (Connecting my laptop for the duration of the flight watching items on the laptop)
• Noise Canceling Headphones
• Great Flight Info
• Over a well designed and clean entertainment system
• Decent Food (Needs some work)
• Friendly Staff on the plane
• Texting (Can be used on flight, but there are still glitches which need to be ironed out)

The Bad:

• Phone booking mix ups, morning flight instead of evening flight, or the other way around
• 118 isn’t always accessible for bookings
• No possible way to upgrade at the counter in Dubai or on the plane, can only be done in Kuwait (Based on interacting with the staff)
• More content is needed for the Entertainment System
• Ground staff needs a little more experience at the check-in

Overall:

I think people are tired of the selection we have at Kuwait Airport, opening a new airport on its own is probably the best move they did. Its a premium airlines for medium to short haul flights which is filling an important gap due to the horrible service of Kuwait Airways, and their decaying fleet of planes. An airlines which has a huge amount of potential if they can keep their service at this level. They are lacking in experience and coherence, but they make for it in effort. There are still a few bumps to iron out, but the it isn’t a complete roll out yet. They will be opening up to the other routes, and at some point in time they will have internet on the plane. The lounge is amazing and very comfortable, the service in the lounge was fantastic, I wasn’t left alone at any point in time and if I was making a phone call they would leave the room to give me privacy. You are greeted by Marhaba service in Dubai which is a nice touch by I think it its unnecessary for the arrival, I think they need it for the departure rather then arrival. I am definitely going to fly Wataniya Airlines on any of the routes they open if I need to, I just hope they have a milage program soon.

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I remember when I first moved to the Bay Area I loved visiting the Metreon. Its a building with everything Sony, a fully technological building. I remember seeing the robotic dog AIBO for the first time there in 2000 and there were lots of them. Now they are closing down the Playstation store, a store which is everything Playstation and you could literally try every game. It is right across from the Sony Store which I hope they don’t close either.

Link: Gizmodo

I went to Dubai for exactly 24 hrs, went to a few meetings on Thursday morning and afternoon. Had a very late lunch, then a late dinner. It was a very short trip and came back the next night on Friday.

Throughout my whole stay I wasn’t able to call anyone on their mobile from Dubai. I thought something was wrong with my line, I remembering paying a hefty bill. I could call Kuwait landlines, any Emirati number, everything except Kuwaiti mobile numbers. I could text people but I couldn’t call them, I kept getting network busy for the full 24 hours. It was extremely annoying, I couldn’t figure out what was the problem. Anyone trying to call me or any of the people with me in Dubai got a network busy tone as well. I met a lot of Kuwaiti people who were in Dubai, and it seems they were suffering the same problem. The problem could be from Zain or Etisalat but there was no other indication of problems. Still it was extremely annoying and nothing that could be done for the whole time there, I hope this gets resolved.

After flying sixteen hours to and from the United States on a new Emirates route. I think that everyone should be flying on this plane since it was such a good experience. I broke it down to give people an idea. The plane was a brand new Boeing 777, they are flying the Airbus 380 to London and New York, I was hoping to get it to San Francisco but not this time around.

Price:
I was looking at three options to fly to San Francisco, and the shorter the stop in between the better. I was looking at British Airways, Lufthansa and Emirates Airlines. I expected Emirates to be the most expensive but I was wrong. For a business class seat Emirates was 22% cheaper then British Airways, but 9% more expensive then Lufthansa. British Airways also had the longest layover and Emirates had the shortest layover. Emirates also had the newest planes. Overall the price was very good for the quality and service I was getting.

Comfort:
The seats are quite wide, wider then British Airways sleeper seats and Lufthansa. You also get a huge screen in front of you, I haven’t seen a bigger screen on any airlines yet. When the seat is completely flat it is angled down slightly but you won’t suffer any back pain, or at least I didn’t. I tend to sleep on my side and some times on BA flights I would wake up feeling a little sore after a long flight. On the Emirates flight both going and coming I was very comfortable.

Food:
The food selection was decent, I always get hungry on the plane and hope for good food. Emirates Airlines had decent food, it was pretty good but I expected it to be better.

Entertainment:
I think Emirates have perfected the best Flight Entertainment System available. They have the ICE system which has a lot of movies for you to choose from and to watch at anytime, and the best part is that you can watch it while you are parked in the terminal, so you can start the movie or show before take off. Sometimes waiting on the plane you get bored to death but not on a long haul Emirates flight. I started the movie the moment I sat down.

Staff:
The ground staff at the new Terminal 3 in Dubai were decently helpful. The ground staff at SFO airport were very helpful, and this is the first time I see an airline who has staff up to the gate to help you when you arrive and when you depart, they were excellent. I was impressed by them and they wanted to make sure my things arrive in Kuwait and out very quickly. On the plane the staff was very nice, and while everyone was passed they kept asking if I wanted anything, and I just asked for a hot chocolate once and so they kept bringing me some, and I have to say that it was pretty good.

Rating:

So been away for a little while, it has been an interesting vacation. I have been in the US for most of the time, and my friend joined me. We were staying at a friends place and visiting different places, the only thing I did online during that time was check my email and reply to those that I needed to. Other then that did a lot of riding, reading, driving, eating, relaxing, Halo 3 & Gears of War 2, and a few other things.

Looking at my Google Reader is nothing short of a disaster, I probably have over 4000+ feeds to read, which I’m probably going to skip, most of them are the major sites, but I know I’m going to read the regular blogs. Other then the online things I have to catch up with, I do have a billion things piled up to take care of, then there is work.

The jet lag is interesting, somehow I managed to adjust myself right away, I slept enough of the 16 hour flight so that I could function when I got here around 10 pm at night, so I woke up 9 am on Saturday.

I’m wearing jeans and the 24 sweatshirt feeling half asleep, since I haven’t been getting much sleep the past couple of days. Flew in around 9 pm into Dubai, slept a few hours, got to the airport by 5:30 am for the 8 am flight to San Francisco. 

 

At 5:30 am there was very little traffic, but as soon as I got into Terminal 3 it was completely packed. There are so many people walking around and a lot of flighties taking off at this time. I am the business class lounge and its full to the point that I sat with a stranger having breakfast, then took 15 minutes to find a couch which has a plug and it wasn’t taken or being slept on.  Now getting mentally prepared for a 16.5 hour flight, I am planning to finish a lot of anime and pass out very soon, and I’m hoping not to miss a meal.