hotels | Jason Around the World

Dushanbe to Istanbul on Turkish in business, and the W Istanbul

Airports, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, Tajikistan, Tajikistan Moscow Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey No Responses »

Dec 102013

This will be a relatively short one, since I griped a few posts back about how miserable Turkish A321 business class is. Got to the airport approximately two hours before my flight, which was about right, as check-in took nearly 30 minutes. There was only one line, for all passengers, forget about any priority or business class. Immigration and security were completely painless, and soon we were in the departure room. I say room, because it was one big room, with a tiny snack bar, and that was it. Almost every seat was occupied.

This morning’s 5am entertainment was provided by a group of around 10 soldiers in uniform, getting completely trashed throwing back vodka shots. Fortunately, they weren’t on the flight, but makes me wonder what they were doing on that side of security. Maybe I’m better off not knowing.

Bus gate (no jetbridges in Dushanbe, which was hella fun in the pouring rain. That meant when the bus doors opened, it was a mad dash to the stairs…and of course the first people on the plane jammed the aisles so everyone else got soaking wet. It was a great way to start a long flight in Turkish’s craptastic Euro business class! 😉

Turkish Airlines flight 255
Dushanbe, Tajikistan (DYU) to Istanbul, Turkey (IST)
Depart 6:00, Arrive 9:00, Flight Time 6:00
Airbus A321-200 Registration TC-JRB, Manufactured 2006, Seat 2D

Once again, our friendly young man in the chef costume presented orange juice and a few other fruity drinks right before takeoff, along with some Turkish delight, and soon we were off into the rainy skies. Flight was completely full this morning, with every seat taken. Literally five minutes off the ground the crew sprang into action, impressive since they’d just worked the inbound from Istanbul. Yes, they’d be pulling a 13-14 hour day…don’t think that would fly with the FAA.

Very soon it was hot towels and the meal service. So, to start we were promised:

Fresh Fruits

Yoghurt with Honey

Chicken and Turkey Breasts

Assorted Cheese

Pretty tasty for an appetizer/starter, and I will admit that the food is one thing Turkish really manages to get right.

Then, we had a choice of:

Turkey Ham & Cheese Toast (Turkish style spinach puff pastry, chicken sausage / herbed mushrooms)

Gratined Crepe with Scrambled Eggs

I asked the “chef” which he recommended, and he said definitely the crepe, the other one is not at all good. I’d say he was right on the crepe, but can’t really speak to the other choice.

About an hour before landing, only 2.5 hours after the main meal, we were offered a snack. A bowl of hazelnuts, and a “cheese sandwich and sour cherry cake.” Skipped the sandwich because I was still full, but had the nuts and the delicious cherry cake with a couple of coke zeros in an attempt to wake up.

Landed in Istanbul right on time, no line at all for visa on arrival, and I still ended up waiting nearly 30 minutes for bags to be delivered. Not a huge deal, but I was anxious to get to my hotel and get seeing the city! I had a 24 hour rest stop, and wanted to see as much as I could, having only been to Istanbul once briefly before.

Bags came about 45 minutes after deplaning, no line for a cab, and it was off to the city in Istanbul’s terrible traffic. Was a surprisingly expensive taxi, over $40 due to traffic, and soon we were at the W. I had the choice of a standard room available right away, or waiting an hour for a suite. Easy choice. Dropped my bags with the concierge, and headed out to refuel with some coffee. Felt much better, and it was off to the W.

I’ll talk about my wander around Istanbul in the next post, but I’ll give a quick review of the W here.

Staff: absolutely fantastic. Warm greetings, genuinely seemed interested in helping, and were extremely friendly. The only small drawback were the staff in the restaurant, who I’m sure were trying their best, but I’ve seen turtles that moved faster.

Room: awesome upgrade to a studio suite, which had a fantastic rain shower in it. Well, it would have been fantastic if there weren’t oddly placed pieces of furniture everywhere which caused me to break my toe when I stubbed it in the middle of the night. Not real thrilled with that. Oh, and since I always complain about it, the AC worked wonderfully, and kept the room nice and cool.

Restaurant and bar: food and drink were good, but prices were absolutely outrageous. Service was also, as I mentioned above, insanely slow. I wanted turkish food, but not fast-food takeout, and after a day of wandering I was too tired to go far, and everyone I talked to seemed to agree there was really nothing good in the neighbourhood which met that description. I mean, food was tasty, but an appetizer, some kebabs, and two glasses of wine should not cost $70 in Istanbul. Highway robberly.

Location: everything you need in walking distance, but not a great selection of restaurants. Also, it’s about a 15 minute walk to the tram to old town, or 15 minutes uphill to the cable car to the metro. So, it takes a while to get to sites, but I really didn’t mind. Gave me a chance to see things along the way.

In summary, I love this hotel, well, maybe not love but really like. This was a rest stop in between intense work stops for me, and it was relaxing and comfortable, which was just what I was looking for.

Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Attractions, hotels, Restaurants, Tajikistan, Tajikistan Moscow Serbia and Montenegro No Responses »

Dec 092013

So, I had a weekend in Dushanbe, and the good fortune to have a seasonably unusual heatwave….highs reached 22-24C which for late November was way above normal. The one bad thing about the Hyatt as a hotel is location. It’s a good mile out of the edge of the main city, which means you’re more or less trapped there in the evenings. I’ll get to the hotel a bit more later, but on Saturday I got up relatively early and ended up walking 14 miles all around Dushanbe. It was a great day for walking, even though the sites…well not a ton to see. I’m going to give the highlights, mainly in photo form:

Statue outside the national museum:

Entrance of the National Museum:

Another statue outside the National Museum:

Day in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Attractions, Cote d'Ivoire, hotels, Restaurants, West Africa 2012 5 Responses »

Nov 172013

Slept in a slight bit, but not too much thanks to what was rapidly becoming a very, very warm hotel room. 24C in the morning. Enjoyed a couple pain au chocolate for my last day in Africa, and then headed down to grab a mid-morning taxi to the centre city to walk around and explore a bit. It was a short, 10-15 minute ride, and then it was time to explore. With no plans of how to get back, this promised to be an adventure. When I’d shared plans for this trip with people I knew who’d traveled west Africa recently, Abidjan was the one place they cautioned to be a little careful. The recovery from the recent war is still somewhat fragile, and there’s a bit of tension.

I had the taxi drop me off at the Place de la Republique, where I snapped a couple of shots:

Ouagadougu, Burkina Faso to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and first day in Abidjan

Airports, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Flights, hotels, Restaurants, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Nov 152013

Got up relatively early thanks to being early to bed, and decided to explore the hotel grounds a bit more. Breakfast was included in my rate, and it turned out to be extremely good. The Laico Ouaga 2000 put on quite a good spread. Super fresh baguettes, lots of nutella, fruits, omlettes made to order and fresh-squeezed juices. I was quite impressed.

Walked around a bit, and then caught the hotel shuttle back to the airport. I can’t say enough good things about this hotel. Reviews online were pretty mixed, but the rooms were comfortable, clean, and cool, fastish WiFi, free airport shuttle, nice grounds, etc etc etc. The only negative at all was that it was a hike into downtown, but that was honestly a plus in this case. I can’t recommend this hotel enough!

So, back to the airport, and time to try and find my passport, lolz. My driver was kind enough to try and assist because “I know how things work in Ouaga” but I decided to brave it alone.

Inside the airport, and walked towards the door where you exit from immigration. There were two guards there, and I told them they have my passport inside for a visa and I need to get it. That worked, and they let me in. Walked past the immigration booths, and straight to the counter from yesterday. Told them I was there for my passport, gave them my name, and voila…got it back. Did a quick check of it, and there was no visa inside. I asked where the visa was, and they told me I didn’t need one for a one day transit. You may go. Back out the door, and into the departures hall. It couldn’t be this easy…and cheap…could it?

Over to the Air Burkina counter, and no trouble checking in. Then, it was off to official immigration to leave Burkina…with stamps in my passport, but no visa. This is where it got entertaining. “Ou est votre visa?” “J’ai pas besoin d’un visa….chu en transit.” Um, yeah, that went over about as well as a lead brick. I tried to explain. See, the lady inside the arrivals area kept my passport last night, because I had an overnight transit. She gave it back to me 10 minutes ago, and told me I didn’t need a visa. “Ok, so you leave Burkina Faso now?” “Yes.” Ok. Stamp stamp, and that was it. One hurdle down!

Then, it was security. They, surprise surprise, wanted my passport…and started hunting for a visa. Not finding one, they asked for it. Time to tell the whole story again. “Oh, American. Barack Obama!” Great, that again. “Ouais, chu Americain, mais j’ai pas besoin d’un visa pour transit.” They were a bit thrown off. I continued to explain to them. They’d never heard of someone getting in…and out past immigration…without a visa. They tried a different strategy. “Vous avez un petit cadeau pour nous?” Um, no, no gifts for you. Bags on the xray belt, and I walked through the metal detector. They all just laughed, handed my passport back, and wished me a good journey.

This stop completely validated the biggest lesson my 2013 travel has taught me. When confronted with “officials” who smell blood and want a gift or bribe, the best strategy is to stay happy, joke with them, be nice, but not give in. Almost every time they end up respecting you, and you get out of it without paying anything.

Then…it was time to find the lounge. Up the stairs, and look, there’s a sign!

Before you get too excited, however, let’s talk about the lounge.

On the positive side, bathrooms were clean. Free water and Coke Zero…but working Wifi? Hahahahah, um, no. The chairs were pretty awesome, big overstuffed leather chairs, and the AC worked nicely. It was overall, 75% of what a lounge needs to be in my opinion. Only serious downside was the total lack of functional WiFi. I waited out the last 15 minutes before boarding in the gate area, which also wasn’t too bad at this time of day. Then, it was time to board!

Air Burkina flight 515
Ouagadougu, Burkina Faso (OUA) to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (ABJ)
Depart 12:25, Arrive 13:55, Flight Time 1:30
Canadair CRJ-200, Registration TZ-RCA, Manufactured 2000, Seat 2A

Yup, it was the same plane that brought me into Ouaga the day before. I was curious to see if service would be any different on a slightly longer flight. Business class was only booked to three people again, so time would tell.

Shortly after takeoff, the crew sprang into action, delivering a cold meal along with choice of drinks. Champagne? Of course! Now that was quite the pleasant surprise. For a flight that was just over an hour, I was quite impressed how Air Burkina performed!

Soon, it was time to land. Parking, we exited the plane onto a bus, where I had a chance to snap a picture as we headed to the terminal.

Niamey, Niger to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Attractions, Burkina Faso, hotels, West Africa 2012 3 Responses »

Nov 142013

Woke up relatively early, because although things had gone smoothly until this point, I was still convinced that airports and flights in Africa could be seriously unpredictable, so wanted to get there in plenty of time. Check out at the hotel yielded a lower than expected bill – when I put my company’s name on the bill, they reduced it to the corporate rate which I hadn’t expected. Saved me over 15,000 CFA – $30+ and still a free shuttle to the airport. Can’t really beat that!

I was excited for this part of the trip. Ever since I had heard about it when I was young, I thought Ouagadougou had to be the coolest city name ever. I just hoped it would live up to the hype!

Got to the airport about 1.5 hours before the flight, and check-in wasn’t even open. There were some chairs in a covered area of the airport, and just a few minutes later they opened the check-in hall. We were the only flight leaving, and it appeared only about half full, so there would only be about 25 people checking in for the flight. Check-in was super easy, no problems, and 5 minutes later I was clearing immigration and security which were both also a complete non-event.

The waiting room for the flight was completely empty, but there was also a “VIP” room. It was nothing more than a couple of overstuffed chairs and sofas – nothing special, and I’d call it a nice quiet place to wait, but the regular hall was pretty quiet itself. I suppose it was probably a bit different when the Air France flight left, but today it was nice and quiet. A shot of the waiting hall:

An ancient Government of Niger 737 right outside on the tarmac:

Lomé, Togo to Niamey, Niger and Hotel Terminus in Niamey

Airports, Flights, hotels, Niger, Restaurants, Togo, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Nov 012013

My driver showed up right on time in the morning, and soon we were off to the airport. About one or two miles into the drive, the car started going slower and slower…and slower…until it completely stopped. I asked what the problem was, and the driver said he didn’t know…but it seemed pretty clear to me that this had happened to him before. He just pulled over to the side of the rode, and flagged down a passing taxi.

He loaded my bags into the new taxi, and said we would go together to the airport. I am guessing since I was paying him a good rate, he wanted to settle at a lower rate with the replacement driver, so he came along. Clearly, the new driver was pro-America:

No problems at all, and soon we were at the airport post office to mail my post cards. After I got them mailed, the original driver walked me over to the terminal so I could check in. I settled the bill, got a passport check by a security guy, x-ray of my bags, and was in the check-in area. While I was waiting to check in, there was a very loud (and apparently drunk) man yelling at the security officers. It seemed, he was claiming, that someone had planted drugs on him and security found them. Of course, they were asking him to pay a fine on the spot or turn him over to the police…

Finally got to the front of the check-in line, and they said the flight had some problems, and was not open for check-in. Please step aside for 15 minutes. ut oh…are we going to cancel? I went back up to the counter 15 minutes later, and checked in no problem. Who knows what the original drama was about.

Accra, Ghana to Lomé, Togo overland + touring Lomé

Attractions, Ghana, hotels, Restaurants, Togo, West Africa 2012 6 Responses »

Oct 312013

Originally, I had planned to take a shared taxi from Accra to Lomé, but when I found out my friend’s driver wouldn’t be doing anything during the day while he worked, I asked if he might be willing to drive me to the border…of course he would. He was paid by the day, so as long as we paid the gas he would be happy to. Certainly more comfortable than a couple of hours squished into a small space!

We got on the road just before 9am, and traffic really wasn’t all that bad. We stopped around an hour in at a toll, and I snapped this picture of a street vendor working the toll plaza:

About 30 minutes before the border, we stopped at the bridge over the lower Volta river to get some pictures:

Cotonou, Benin to Accra, Ghana on Air Cote d’Ivoire

Airports, Benin, Flights, Ghana, hotels, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Oct 182013

Up nice and early to get to the airport well in advance of our flight. In most places, I don’t take airlines’ recommended check-in times too seriously, but in Africa I definitely do. Corrupt immigration officials are often looking for any excuse to “fine” you, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

One last word about the Novotel hotel, since I realised I haven’t mentioned the breakfast yet. We had asked the night before and they told us it opened at 6am, but when we got down there around 6:45 it wasn’t yet open. Turns out it was 7am on weekends, but the helpful staff member just told us to be seated and help ourselves – they were still bringing food but we were welcome to get started. Very nice! Lots of fruits, breads, cold cuts, etc, and made to order eggs – quite a decent breakfast spread. More than enough to get fueled for the day.

Got to the airport roughly two hours before scheduled departure time, which turned out to be more than enough. There was a bit of a line for check in, but approximately 15 minutes later we had checked one bag each, and were walking around the corner to immigration. No questions at all from immigration, a quick stamp, and we were at security. There was a small business lounge before security, and according to the Priority Pass app they would accept it…we decided to try. No problem at all, and John was able to access with a Canadian AmEx card for some reason. Unlimited booze in the lounge and a few tiny munchies, but more importantly an air-conditioned comfy place to wait for the flight.

30 minutes or so later, it was downstairs, through a quick security check, and time to walk out to the plane:

It wasn’t reassuring that this plane was parked right next to ours, LOL!

…and this ancient L1011 was parked just a short way away!

DCA to Cotonou, Benin on United, Lufthansa, and Brussels Airlines in First

Airports, Belgium, Germany, hotels, West Africa 2012 No Responses »

Oct 142013

I know there’s been lots of discussion of Lufthansa First on the internet before, so I’m not going to go into painful details here, but lots of folks still like to see meal pics, etc, so I figured I’d do a quick mainly pictures post.

This trip came about thanks to free changes thanks to United premier status, and opening up better and better options up until the day before…when I finally got this routing sorted. The goal was to fly either Lufthansa or Swiss first, and hopefully leave out of DCA which meant a connection or two. Final routing was DCA-ORD-FRA-BRU-COO with ORD-FRA scheduled on the Lufthansa 747-400 hopefully with the new product of flat bed AND seat. Unfortunately 12 hours before the flight, they switched back to the old configuration. Boo hiss – at least I’d have two seats to myself and a great Lufthansa meal.

United operated by Shuttle America flight 3482
Washington, National (DCA) to Chicago, O’Hare (ORD)
Depart 11:37, Arrive 12:30, Flight Time 1:53
Embraer ERJ-170, Registration N649RW, Manufactured 2005, Seat 1A (aisle)

Nothing to say about this flight, it was on time, good crew, and that’s about it. I know some people dislike United Express, but I actually like the ERJ-170s.

Spent a bit over an hour in the United First lounge in Chicago, where I was the only person in it for half the time. As long as they keep serving Veuve I think it’s a decent product. It’s not Lufthansa quality, but perfectly adequate. Especially with the cocktail shrimp!

Lufthansa flight 431
Chicago, O’Hare (ORD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 15:45, Arrive 07:00 next day, Flight Time 8:15
Boeing 747-400, Registration D-ABTF, Manufactured 1991, Seat 83H and K (aisle and window)

I was a bit nervous for this flight. I tend not to like early transatlantic redeyes because they make it really hard to sleep. Even though this was 4:45 pm by my body clock, I had doubts I’d be able to fall asleep by 7p and get enough sleep to be functional and happy the next day. I didn’t have to worry, because in the end I got almost 6 hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep.

Despite being the “old” hard product, Lufthansa first is fantastic as long as the crew keeps the heat down which this one did. A few pre-departure pics:

A rose at my seat…

The service cart parked in front of my seat. They know where to keep the champers!

DC to Lagos, Nigeria and First Day in Lagos

Airports, Flights, hotels, Nigeria, Nigeria 2013 No Responses »

Oct 112013

So, yeah, this is a bit overdue, but things have been crazy with two trips to West Africa the last month, a trip to Provincetown, Mass. in between, and things being crazy at the office. Hopefully I’ll get these cranked out pretty quickly, since I have two trips to Hawaii and two more to San Jose, California coming up in the next month thanks to the United $10 mistake fare!

A couple of months ago, my good friend John (who’s written a guest blog here before on Air Canada) told me he’d be making two trips to West Africa for work in the coming months, and since I’d never been to any of the countries he was going to he suggested I come along. I didn’t have too much planned at the time, and it seemed like a good opportunity to get a bit of an inside view on the place, so I jumped at the chance. The first trip would be a long 5-day weekend trip to Lagos, Nigeria and the second trip would be Cotonou, Benin and Accra, Ghana for four days. I decided to extend the second trip while I was in the region, and planned stops in Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Cote d’Ivoire as well. Soon, the time to go was near!

United flight 356
Washington DC, National (DCA) to Houston, George Bush (IAH)
Depart 15:17, Arrive 17:24, Flight Time 3:07
Boeing 757-200, Registration N523UA, Manufactured 1990, Seat 3E (aisle)

Not terribly much to say here – it was a standard domestic flight, a cheerful pre-merger United crew, despite the fact the aircraft was older than dirt. Arrived into Houston on time, and had a few hours to kill in the United Club. Boarding was delayed about 30 minutes for the flight to Lagos, but soon we were settled in and it was time to go.

United flight 142
Houston, George Bush (IAH) to Lagos, Nigeria (LOS)
Depart 20:15, Arrive 14:50 next day, Flight Time 12:35
Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, Registration N45905, Manufactured 2012, Seat 1D (aisle)

This was to be my first flight of any real length on the 787, and fortunately my three short 2-3 hour domestic flights had clued me in that row 1 was the place to be. All seats in business class have the same pitch/legroom, but the footwells in row 1 and row 4 have double the space for your feet due to the way the seats are staggered. It’s a good thing, because it was going to be a very long flight and I was planning to get lots of sleep. The planned flight path:

Older Entries Newer Entries