I traveled to Tokyo two months ago for vacation. I loved it, and will post pictures from the trip at a later date, but for now I will just post one picture that shows that Tarzan is an international phenomenon and not limited to Kuwait!

Enjoy -

Talk about working overtime!!

I just got back from Dubai.

I had a long looooong loooooooooong post written complaining about Kuwait Airways, but its useless, they are absolute crap as everyone agrees, basically everything expected happened, the plane was delayed, the staff was rude, when we got back the staff were eating McDonalds and had no idea about a flight, another delay, inside the TVs dont work, the light doesnt work, the usual stuff.

But its not just Kuwait airways, the airline is just a reflection of Kuwait as a country.

The difference between Kuwait airport and Dubai airport is half the difference between the staff here and the staff there! All the rudeness and carelessness here (the staff yelling at the Indians to move back, the guy taking my boarding pass and then taking the longest slowest sip of his 7up being very very rude at just taking his sweet ass time and basically throwing it back) compared to the professionalism and friendliness at Dubai airport, and how the staff were very friendly, and when an Indonesian woman passed everything without getting stamped (seems like her first time in an airport) the Emirati guy was very polite in calling her back and leading her to the right area.

The whole trip was like traveling from the middle ages to the Jetsons time and back! I know its a cliche and we talk about Dubai all the time, but it is all true, not because Dubai is so awsome, its alot more about how crap we have become!! When we got back, we landed in a zoo of unorganization! There were some renovations being done and the travelers were left clueless as to where to go and it took 10 minutes to squeeze through 5 meters to get to the luggage area! It felt like landing in some very poor uneducated 3rd world country, not one of the richest countries in the world with one of the highest levels of literacy!!

Anyway, its depressing to see how large the gap has grown between the two cities, and sadly …. it will only continue to grow!

So we got back 3 days go from Beirut, but Ive been sleeping since then so didn’t feel like posting.

Anyway, here are some pics of my trips -

The cliche picture that everyone has to take when there

This picture is taken from where the demonstrators are camped out, they are behind us, for some reason I didn’t take a pic.

This is a view of where AlHariri was assassinated. You can see the huge crater left from the blast!

The rest of the trip was partying and food. LOTS of both.
Comments -

1. I love Beirut.
2. Lebanese people know how to have fun. We were there from the 27th to the 30th, you had thousands of people in tents demonstrating against the government, but at night you can barely find reservations anywhere! People love to party and have a good time! And unlike Dubai, almost everyone is local (very few tourists bcz of demonstrations)!
3. I love the mix of the old and and the new. You walk into alleys that look extremely shady, only to find a restaurant or bar that could be in New York.
4. I feel like an idiot for never going to Beirut before this trip.
5. I love Beirut.

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On a side note, when we got back, we arrived at around 8 pm I think, the temperature was around 7 degrees, and the wind chill factor was freezing! Since I parked at the long term parking, we took the little golfcart/trolley things, and both my wife and myself had the scarf covering our faces. The poor driver was wearing a white shirt and very thick gloves, with one hand on the wheel and the other covering his left ear! So I asked him why the hell isn’t he wearing a jacket in this freezing weather…he said the company doesn’t allow them to wear anything over their uniform!!!

Thats just incredible and inhumane! I hope whoever made that decision at United Projects Company (a subsidiary of KIPCO) gets stuck inside a fridge without a jacket! Seriously, if anyone knows someone at that company, please tell them about this…

When I wrote about my experience at the Kempinski Kuwait this past weekend, I was obviously very angry, but more than being angry, I was very disappointed because of the high expectations I had.

These high expectation don’t come out of nowhere. The reason for the high expectations is because of the good reputation that the place has built up in such a little time and because all I ever heard from people was great feedback!

If I went to a 3 star hotel and recieved that service, I wouldnt have complained because it should be in line with my expectations.

One of the most important factors in the success of any organization is its management, and earlier today, I got calls
from the hotel’s management and owners.

There were five main messages that I got from the phone call -

1. They apologized more than once for any inconvenience I have encountered during my stay.
2. They are very pleased that they got to read about this from a customer, since it was an honest review (no bias, and no reason to be biased) by someone with a bad experience.
3. They promised that this was probably a one-off and that they will do their best so that this does not get repeated with anyone else and that their high standards need to be met at all time even if they were at full occupancy.
4. The manager of the resort said he wanted to meet with me in person to get more details about my experience and discuss the problems.
5. They offered me some sort compensation for my weekend.

As a person who works in PR and marketing, I don’t think there was a better way to handle this situation. You couldn’t ask for more in such a short time!

An email with an apology would’ve been good, a phone call personally from the hotel wouldve been better, a call from the top manager and requesting a meeting to apologize is excellent!

Im a sucker for customer service, if a place treats me well, I’m loyal regardless of any competition or anything and spread the good word, if a place treats me as a customer in a bad way and doesnt care, I obviously avoid that place and I also spread the word! If a place treats me bad, but then apologizes and goes out of its way to try and win me back, obviously the bad service is still on my mind, but I respect the place alot more and would definitely give them another shot.

Overall, Im very pleased with the response and the speed of it and Im glad that companies like that realize the importance of word of mouth and want to keep their good image as it is.

Will update more after the meeting sometime this week.

Since its summer, and I have no travel plans at the moment but getting bored, I booked a room at the Kempinski hotel this past weekend, from Wednesday to Friday, for me and my wife.

To make a long story short, it was the worst weekend possible!!!

And now for the details…

We arrived late, around 10:30 pm on Wednesday, and earlier in the day they asked if we still coming, and I confirmed to the person on the phone. Anyway, before we arrived, I called to ask if the room service is available at that hour (I was starving and was considering just grabbing anything from outside if no room service), it took the person on the phone around 5 mins to understand my question, then he asked me if I have a room, and I said Im on my way to check in, he said no more checkins today, everybody already came!! After a small argument, and me telling him that Im less than 5 mins away, he said ooh ok yes we found ur reservation…..not the best start!

It was both my first and my wife’s first visit to the Kempinski. As soon as we arrived, all we could see is shabaab, and the small road they have inside the resort barely fits one car, and it was actually a two side road!! So we get down and go to the reception for check in, I ask if we get a parking spot, he said no, so I told him ok where is the valet guy, he said we dont have one! Ok, what am I supposed to do? The guy explains to me that I have to drive my car and leave the resort, and park it outside there and walk back…. 5 star hotel?!?

Not only that, but then another guy who works there said that they do valet, so I said good, why say you didnt have that service?? So the first guy looks at the second guy and says “what? you’re going to drive the car?” and laughs!! I swear its like a small baqaala! So I get pissed off, but still remain calm because im hungry and need food! So he gives me the key and room number and thats it! Again, its my first time there, so I ask him where the room is, he says its on the right (which basically means it could be anywhere on the right half of the place), so I tell him I want someone to take us to the room and show us the way, he says we dont have anybody and its easy! Im starting to get more pissed off….I walk around trying to find the room, two rounds later without finding the room, I find a person who works there and ask him where the room is, and he just points in a general direction….I get real angry, scream at him, and tell him to come and take me to the room!

We got there, the room number is seen only once u actually reach the door, which is annoying. Anyway, we get in, put our stuff in the room, and then take our car outside. By now Im really not liking this place! My idea of a relaxing weekend is going down the drain, so I decide that since they have shown me 0 respect since coming in, why should I show any respect? So instead of parking outside the room or outside the resort, I find a reserved parking place which is covered, inside the resort, so I go in and park, at least my car wont be boiling!

We walk back to the room, and by now the number of kids cycling around and running around are also bothering me, all I want is food and quiet! We reach the room and I order a club sandwich, a bottle of water and an orange juice, very simple! 30 mins later I call them and ask how much longer it will take, the response I get is “we’re busy, it will be late”!! Now I stopped getting annoyed and its all starting to be funny! No “sorry for the delay sir”, no “we’ll get there as soon as we can”, only a “we’re busy, it will be late”!! And they weren’t kidding! An HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES later, I get my food, and the forgot the water!!

I heard so much about the Kempinski, I had high expectations, the service is sooo bad its incredible that they are even above a 2 star hotel! The room from the inside was really really nice! Its a shame everything else ruined it!

After that day, I decided to avoid the resort on Thursday, but I did call to ask them to deliver a coffee from Second Cup (they have flyers inside every room that says that they deliver coffee to all rooms), I got the exact same response, we’re busy, come and get it yourself. This obviously isnt the hotel’s fault, its a seperate thing, but it is still part of the whole experience! Anyway, we get our coffee and try to waste time, thank God we had plans for the evening! The pool and the beach are absolutely full of people, not a place you feel comfortable in at all. Anyway, we decided that since we’re bored, we want to at least play cards or something, so I go to the reception and ask them where their gift shop or grocery place is, the lady there tells me that I have to leave the resort, go to the next resort and ill find a grocery shop there!! I shouldve expected it actually and I wasnt surprised….

Anyway, we leave for the evening and come back late at night, around 1AM after going to a friend’s shalaih, and the key for our room doesnt work. So I call them and tell them that my key isnt working, so plz send someone to open the door for us. The guy says “come to reception to get a key!!”, I told him again (calmly) that I want someone to come and open, he says, “we’re busy there’s noone to come”, by now I lose my temper and start yelling at him telling him thats its 1AM, how can everyone be busy at 1AM??? Its HOT, the room is far from the reception, and the key not working is your fault and not mine, so send someone!! ….. what did he respond? “maybe the key was next to a phone so it wont work!” LOL!! I start yelling more and telling him that i dont give a shit why its not working, and that both keys were not working even though neither was near a phone! Finally I just told him im waiting, send someone now, and closed the phone. Guess what? less than 2 mins later, someone came in their little golf cart and opened the door! I realized that this is the only way to get any kind of service in this place!
Checkout is at 12, but since I had no respect left for that place anymore, I overslept on purpose, I got a call from them at 1 telling me that checkout is at 12 and we need to leave, and that they will send someone over now to check the room. I wait, and wait, and wait….nobody came, so we carried our stuff ourselves to the reception to checkout, and its a zoo! Sooo many people waiting at the reception area! So I get to the lady and tell her I want to check out, she says ok but we’re waiting for the person to check the room! I tell her I took 2 bottles of water from the minibar, and she says ok but we still need to wait, which basically means they think everyone is lying!! 45 mins later, I get really angry and start yelling, and people start joining in the yelling at the reception, they tell us the system is down!! What the hell does the system have to do with waiting for the person to check the rooms?!?!?! They printed our reciept quickly, so the system is definitely not down! I tell the guy at the recpetion that I have NEVER been to a hotel that keeps the guests waiting to check if they’re saying the truth or lying about the freakin minibar!! His response, “we are not a hotel”!! LOL! I explain to them the idea of having my credit card info, which means that if I was lying, they can deduct anything they want from it later….I really start making a fuss and getting loud and causing problems, so they finished me without checking the room just to stop me from causing a riot! I checked out 1 hour later!!

Again, the lesson was, screaming and yelling gets your work done at the Kempinski Kuwait, being polite doesn’t!

WORST experience ever!!

Never again!

And the excuse that they were full because of summer is not good enough, they should be prepared to serve their customers at full capacity!

Following Zaydoun’s funny post using a picture from his trip, I will do the same since its Friday and there’s nothing that comes to mind for a post -

This was taken in Berlin near our hotel -

With a country with a capital named Bangkok, this name sounds very appropriate for a restaurant!

No point in this post, just wanted to post my first post ever from high in the skies!

Lufthansa has wireless internet on their flight, so its cool using my laptop to waste the time…

This is a pictorial of today’s action -

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Beautiful Berlin -

The holy grail!

Ready for action!!

They’re ready too all over the city!

On our way to the stadium, patriotism in all its forms!

The battlefield -

The man mountain sitting (mostly standing) exactly in the seat in front of me!

This is very cool …. you can tell the score and the progress of the game in the next few pictures -

After the Germany - Argentina, my wife and I headed straight to the Sony Center to watch the second game here …. a bit better than the diwaniya I think ;P

Went to Dubai for valentines and the weekend, it was great! Some random snippets from my trip there -

• Going to Dubai is like visiting a brand new city everytime you go! I was there not long ago, and still there were enough new places open in new venues to make you think you’ve been away for so long!

• The ski slope in Mall of the Emriates is a beautiful scary thing!

• I was happy to see many more local Emirati couples going out together. I always complain about not seeing enough couples, its always a group of guys and a group of girls, even at an older age, but this trip Im happy to announce an increase in the number of couples!

• Buddha Bar is ultra cool! The food is great and the atmosphere is even better! One funny thing there was that they sold the famous Buddha Bar CDs but had a big black sticker covering the Buddha on the cover because of local religious beliefs according to the women selling them, but then when you enter the restaurant, there is a HUGE statue of a Buddha, and by HUGE I mean about 2 or 3 storeys tall! Funny, no?

• (If you’re not into football, skip this one) I saw Junichi Inamoto at Buddha Bar, and thought that it was someone who looked just like him, but then read in the newspaper that the Fulham team is on break in Dubai!

• On Wednesday, we went to a ballet! “Romeo and Juliet” performed by The Russian Festival Ballet, it was my first ballet, and it was really great! Its alot more beautiful than I expected, and it really goes to the basics of human emotions if that makes any sense! Sitting there and hearing that an opera is coming next month, and Swan Lake in May, from the same people who brought the Nutcracker last year, I couldnt stop comparing this to what we have on offer in terms of theater and culture here in Kuwait ….. supers6ar o ab6al il digital o ghaira min il cultural miracles that we have here….

• I know I mentioned the positive about Emirati couples and how great it is to see that, I have to mention now something I else I noticed that was very negative. There was a large number of Emirati young men walking with foriegn women, most of whom seem to be east European and dress like they charge per hour! Ive seen that before but to a much lesser extent, this time it was alot more, and its a worrying sight!

• The amount of construction happening all over Dubai is incredible! Its like a sci-fi movie! They have to have one of the highest number of cranes per meter squared in the world!

Hmm….thats all I can remember for now, its late, but better late than never!

Is it just me or does this sound weird to anyone else??

Saw this in a bathroom in the airport in Istanbul from my last trip. I have a feeling I’m missing something….?!