Just took off for about week with family for medical reasons. The flight overall was 6 hours in one direction and we had a connection on our way to the destination which was a 2 hour lay over then 2 hour flight. At least during this flight I managed to finish what I had left from a tv show, a movie, and an anime series. I just watched one after the other nonstop, it was good and I think my eyes were bloodshot after the whole thing but I did enjoy myself on the flight. One thing is for sure as soon as I got to the hotel I passed out completely.Â
It seems that Atlantis is now officially all booked up, so many people wanted to check this place out that the rooms are all gone. The place is almost finished, I think the staff are all getting familiarized with it, and there are about 1500 rooms in the hotel.
Now this is an interesting development, this hotel’s open is planned for the 24th of September. There has been a lot of interest regarding this hotel and they just had a fire just in the middle at the central dome. It looks pretty bad but they made an immediate anouncement that the opening will remain on the 24th of September. Now the interesting part is that as of now, the hotel is at 100% occupancy and 40% of the hotel is booked by some Saudi big hitters.Â
Â
Link: Timesonline
Link: KhaleejTimes
While in San Francisco I was helping a friend with his new home since I was staying there during my minor vacation. He would go to work while I would pick up a few things to accessorize the house, plus I would run a few errands. The other day me and friend drove up to the city to pick some items from Crate and Barrel, and I really didn’t mind the drive. There was an art exhibition in Union Square which was really nice to see, we decided on Cheese Cake Factory since it was close by and I parked the truck in commercial parking since I have those plates, and it is a big truck that won’t fit in normal parking. I wanted to go riding in the city but I didn’t have a chance, its just so nice with an amazing cool breeze. Its a little chilly but fantastic sunny weather which is the best part of San Francisco.
If you thought traveling in the US was annoying before then this will be interesting to know. The have new “guidelines” applying to the type of laptop bag you should use to make it “scanner friendly”. And another note on top of that is that they have the right to go through the data on your laptop to make sure its “safe”. So you have pretty much lost all your privacy for the sake of security. If they do find copied data such as movies or tv or anything else they decided it is dangerous. They just keep making more and more rules that are nothing short of ridiculous, they will just take your laptop out of the bag in the first place.
(Thanks nibaq)
Link: TSA
I was in London for about 36 hours getting a few things done and coming back it was a bit hectic. I started off the day as soon as I landed trying to finish off the tasks at hand, and after finishing up the work I walked around London for a bit, I always enjoy walking around London on my free time and I had some.
I visited a few family members while I was there and while stopping at a few hotels during that visit I saw so many nice cars parked out front. And those cars had license plates from UAE and Qatar. I haven’t seen this many people from the Qatar and UAE in one area before, the Grovesnor House in London was like the middle of Abu Dhabi, and other areas were Qatar parking lots. Different years and different people go to different areas as their travel destinations. And this year France and London has become UAE and Qatar destinations.
Still it was very nice to walk around the city, it was warm weather one day and cool the next. The second day was chilly and I only had t-shirts so that day I walked into the theater when it was really chilly. The one thing I always enjoy are those black cabs.
I have been tired form the last few quick trips over the last couple of weeks. It was a quick stop in London then back again, so I was flying through a few times. The best thing I like to do is sit next to the Window and watch the planes come and go. British Airways have not been the best airlines over the past couple of years but they are still pretty good, everyone seems to have a horror story these days flying on an airline and I can’t blame them. Going through terminal 5 was very confusing, it was built to be like a maze with a million escalators, I have never went up and down so many times just to find the way out of the airport. And Terminal 1 looks like an after thought, I was just happy they had some food since I was hungry. Still seeing the colors of British Airways on those planes just feels very nice, I love taking pictures of them, but one time I would like to take pictures directly from the runway if I could to get the majestic look of these planes.
Now this has been a long awaited hotel since the anouncement of the Palms being built. A huge hotel on the seaside at the peak of the Palm property. Its going to open on the 24th of September and the hotel is all booked up. There is going to be a huge rush for this hotel after Ramadan and its probably going to be filled for a while, an attraction on its own with the huge water park next to it and dolphin filled pool.
- Atlantis Room – 45 sqm – 201 KD
- Imperial Club – 45 sqm on VIP Floor – 262 KD
- Executive Suite – 101 sqm Corner of Each Tower Wing – 343 KD
- Terrace Suite – 94 sqm and 30 sqm Balcony – 421 KD
- Regal Suite – 164 sqm on Floors 4 – 21 – Private Pantry, Living Room, Dining Room – 511 KD
Link: Atlantis
It seems for the summer deal Qatar Airways made a deal for its first class passengers. I’m not really aware since I don’t fly Qatar Airways that much. It turns out they had a summer deal that if you buy two or three first class passenger seats to London or Paris they would ship your car for free. Never really gave it much thought until I saw how many cars there were in those places and I was only there for a few days.
Over the past couple of days I had to return due to an emergency and my return ticket was through Lufthansa. When I came to make the booking, they found me a seat, but within 15 minutes I get a call notifying me that both flights out of San Francisco were canceled. It was due to the strikes taking place in Frankfurt, this is the first time that I have seen Lufthansa strike, I would expect from the British, Italian, and French but not the Germans. Never thought Lufthansa would strike and such bad timing. It was supposed to be a four day strike but took a little longer then expected, it seems they need to clean house or do something to solve this. I had to take another route to get back home to Kuwait, and it seems I was lucky to even get a seat since flights to Kuwait are pretty much booked up.