Grenada - It's Awesome

Air travel never ceases to amaze me, in fact, it blows my mind. I find it incredible that I had breakfast in Grenada this morning, lunch in Trinidad, dinner somewhere over the Caribbean Sea, and tonight I’ll be sleeping in my own bed. I’ve been a pilot since I was 17 and I still find this facet of my life amazing.

The last few days in Grenada have been very eventful, so eventful that I’ve been returning back to my villa exhausted.

I’ve been staying at Maca Bana, it’s a group of 7 villas hidden away between some hills and trees. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in a place where I didn’t care if my door was locked or not. Maca Bana is a fantastic and comfortable place, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants some peace and quiet without sacrificing comfort. They’ve also got high speed wireless internet throughout the property.

Over the past few days I’ve done some jungle hiking and river tubing. I met a monkey in the rainforest. I participated in a Crab race and took a ferry to Carriacou, Grenada’s sister island. Carriacou is neat. It’s remote yet developed with paved roads. It even has a desalination plant and several restaurants and shops along the main strip. The picture below with the cannon was taken there.

I can sum up Grenada in one word: “Awesome!”

I won’t bore you with too many details, I’ll do that with my article that will be posted online in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can enjoy some pictures I took.

Update on my Trip

I'm terribly sorry that I haven't updated so far, the schedule was so tight that I only had enough time to shower between tours and dinner.

Now I'm exhausted.

However, tomorrow night I hope to show you pictures of the jungle, a crab race, a bit of river tubing and of course, a monkey.

Thanks for your patience!

Caribbean Flight - Torture and Uncertainty

Sleep deprivation is an interrogation / torture technique used by some nations in order to extract information from a suspect. The idea is to keep the lights on and not let the suspect sleep until they are so fed up and tired that they’ll say and do anything just to be able to get some shut eye.

I experienced this sort of torture on my overnight flight to a certain unnamed Caribbean island (You'll find out on Thursday where I am). The cabin crew kept the lights on the entire flight, except for 30 minutes between 1:30am and 2am. What made things even more exciting was the two guys hovering around me drinking beer, making noise while everyone else is trying to sleep and of course hitting on the mother of two sitting beside me.

What would torture be without some uncertainty thrown in there? Take my second flight of the day, I could fit my finger in the window covering and the interior wasn’t secure to the exterior shell. When we hit a bit of turbulence, my seat and the wall would move. Could it break and whisk me out the window? I dunno? But it was an exciting 30 minutes.

Although not extreme torture, it’s still annoying. And I’m putting myself through this for you, my loyal reader. Because you’ll see a real sanitized version of what I’ll be experiencing over the next few days. Imagine seeing an entire country in 4 days?

Anyway enough of my moaning and groaning, the reality is that sometimes the ends justifies the means. After spending 12 hours in airports, losing my first class seat to a coach seat near the bathroom (honeymooning couple were seperated), a 3 hour layover, beer drinking morons, bright lights, rickety planes AND no sleep for 24 hours, I was just hoping that this was all worthwhile.

And it is.

Below is the view out my window. It’s the rainy season here, so there are some rain clouds in the distance, with the sun beaming down, it’s hot. Really hot. And there’s not a beer drinking redneck in sight.



I can’t wait till 14 hrs from now, when I’ll get a chance to sleep.

The things I do for you…

An Idiot's Guide to...

I thought I had seen it all. I really did. I’m posting this for the sheer entertainment value because some of you may think I’m just kidding:




Glancing through the book, I just found myself chuckling at how simplistic the author makes entering the world’s most active war zone. Offering life saving tips such as “Remain aware of your surroundings” and a red alert warning about “kidnappings, ambushes and car bombs staged regularly west of Baghdad”. Unless you’ve been living in a Coma, you probably already knew that.

There are a few useful pages directed at Iraqi culture, clothing, food and even if so inclined job sites and phrases meant to make life easier.

Best of all it’s pocket sized.

Have a Sof Sole!

Here’s something you’d probably never think about in a luxury magazine, shoe insoles. I hate to bore you with the details of my stinky feet, but these things are so comfortable I had to say something.

Sof Sole makes some insoles and socks that are made for the athlete. I received a pair of running shoes with the insoles fitted in them, however, I’m not much of an athlete and ended up just looking at the shoes for a few months. I thought about giving them away, but then again I don’t know too many people with Size 13 feet. A few months ago I had a moment of brilliance. I decided to fit the Sof Soles into my fancy yet extremely uncomfortable Italian leathers. Voila, comfortable shoes that I can walk in for hours and take with me on my travels. I’ve been using them for a few months now without problem.

Apparently, the Sof Soles wick away sweat from your feet. Making a long day in uncomfortable Italian leather shoes a stress free event. Best of all, my feet don’t smell as bad at the end of the day!

You can get Sof Soles at Sport Mart by clicking here or at your local sports good store.

One Day in LA

I love LA and I jump all over any excuse I have to visit. Luckily the Beverly Hilton had just undergone a major renovation and I needed to check it out. America West First Class to LAX, what a joke that is, but still better than sitting in coach. I should have booked a private jet on a trip like this. I’m so annoyed with the airlines and airports that it makes it easier to justify an Easy AirShare fractional.

Down the escalators and direct to a sign: “Mr. Al-Sarraj” it says, yep, that’s me. I walk with the guy to my car. Ferrari F360 is fueled and waiting for me. Rough Life. Unfortunately traffic moves at a snails pace throughout the 27 minutes to the Beverly Hilton. I pulled up behind a Red Lotus Elise, a Bentley Continental GT pulled up behind me. I guess I’m in good company.

Alex, the gentleman checking me in comments on my Suunto watch. “You’re either a Runner or a Hiker”. I smiled, I only wished I was a runner. “I’m training for an adventure race” I told him. We talked about watches. He’s a runner and has been looking at buying a Suunto GPS watch. I showed him my Timex GPS watch so that he can compare features.

In the room I decided to load my Skype Panel up, buy some credits and make some phone calls. I called my good friend Albert, he works for a competing luxury publication that I will not name. Al and I cruised over to Westwood City, near the UCLA area. I’m amazed at how everything looks like a theme park in this town. I love LA. Afterwards I met up with an old friend of mine Angelo Tsaroucas. He’d made a good name for himself in Toronto as an Actor and now is making a go in LA. Pete, another good friend of mine was visiting Angelo, so we all decided to go out for a smoke at the Buena Vista Cigar Club.

The next morning’s first order of business is to find a diner. I love diners for the simple fact that they are informal and inexpensive. Usually a diner gives you a good idea of what the neighbourhood is about just from the clientele that pop in. After a little bit of walking about I spotted Roni’s Diner, looks good to me. David is Roni’s son, taking care of business with a hint of humor and sarcasm. “You should be so lucky to have a name like that” he mentions to a kid, also named David. “By the way, I like your shoes” he quips to the young man’s mom. They both walk out with a pizza and a smile. 20 minutes and $10 later and I’m walking out with a smile as well.

I’m loving LA. I’ve decided that another night is in order, I can extend my ticket for an extra day without penalty. Back to the Beverly Hilton, unfortunately they’re booked solid. I suddenly remembered William Shatner’s advice "Use Priceline". Within 5 minutes I was booked in the West Hollywood Hyatt, at a price I can’t disclose (but it was more than half the best rates I found!). Mapquest shows that I’m 3.62 miles from the Hyatt on Santa Monica Blvd and nearly a mile further if I take Wilshire. I had to give the Ferrari back today, but all is not lost, since I’m training for the Raid the North Adventure Race, I decided to carry my bags and walk. I took the long way.

In order not to get lost, I downloaded all the map quest pictures to my Creative Zen Vision, which came in handy many times.

I arrived at the Hyatt 2 hours later, checked in and went for another walk down Sunset Blvd. My good friends Angleo and Pete showed up a bit later and we went to Astro Burger for a bite to eat. What a great burger. That’s all I have to say about that.

The ironic thing about Sunset Blvd is that early in the morning it’s Sunrise Blvd. With the sun shining directly in my eyes, I figured it was time to wake up. No diners in this area, I grabbed a coffee, read the paper and waited for my limo to pick me up.

I did nothing for 2 days. I love LA!

Good ol' Billy

Bill Gates get a lot of flack for being the richest man on the planet, but personally, I think he's one of the most creative and ingenious people of our time. While Microsoft software has glitches, so do many of the appliances we have in day to day life. How many times do you take your car to the shop? Just think of a world without your computer?

Anyway, we all know about Bill Gates, but what I truly respect about him is his willingness to give and help his fellow human. This is something that is forgotten by many.

While I preach mass spending through RICH GUY Magazine, I also strongly believe in helping other people. Be it your friends, neighbours or even a stranger. Bill Gates, the richest man on the planet, does exactly that with his foundation. However, he does it for entire nations. Impressive.

I just read this quote on the newswire:

“I believe that with great wealth comes great responsibility — responsibility to give back to society, responsibility to see that those resources are put to work in the best possible way to help those most in need,” - Bill Gates

Good ol' Billy

http://www.gatesfoundation.org

100 Years for Montblanc

I was at an event today for Montblanc's 100th Birthday. In attendance were both the Proprietor of the Toronto Montblanc store Wayne Kingsland and the President & CEO of Montblanc North America, Jan-Patrick Schmitz. The talk of the day was the limited edition "Solitaire Mountain Massif Skeleton 2006" which retails for CDN$215,000.

Now, when I said limited I really meant it, there are only THREE of these pens on the planet. Designed for the collector, it features 1,277 white and 123 blue diamonds arranged in a way replicating the Montblanc mountain itself. "You can actually use it as a map if you want to go climbing" joked Mr. Schmitz. I found that funny.

Another interesting item was the Sport Tantalum Automatic Limited Edition watch. With only 100 made this year (for the 100th birthday). This watch has the right feel for a CDN$40,000 watch, and rightly so, Tantalum is heavier than steel. I wonder if this will come useful for those deep diving watch lovers who just have to test out the lower pressure depths of 1,906m.

Something I learned today: Montblanc quality control consists of using invisible ink in order to hear how the pen touches the surface of the paper. By listening to the sound a trained ear can discern good from bad.

Bittersweet Delight - The Smoking Jacket

Having worked in the luxury biz for so long, I tend buy and be given everything that I want. However, there are a few things that I purposely don't buy simply so that my friends can buy them for me on occasions such as my birthday/Christmas etc. The #1 thing I've always wanted is a smoking jacket. I don't know why I've wanted one, I just do. The other one is a Ferrari F430.

A month ago I was sitting in a coffee shop with my friend. We both had our laptops out doing some work when I got an email from http://www.cordarounds.com about a smoking jacket. It was fancy looking and made out of corduroy and only US$155. I couldn't resist the temptation, , I ordered the jacket. As you can imagine, having wanted a smoking jacket for so long, the wait was excruciating.

Finally, today, this very morning, the postman came and rang the bell (only once). He had a note that said I owed $9 in duty and to pay it at the post office. I sighed, why couldn't I just pay him. Anyway, I put on my shoes and drove to the post office. I paid the duty, I grabbed the box, I rushed home and opened it. IT WAS A SMOKING JACKET!!! I wished I could've taken a picture of my smile. After 5 years of telling my friends that all I wanted was a smoking jacket or a Ferrari, I finally had my smoking jacket. Then I saw the S on the label. Small. I’m an extra large sort of guy.

Now I have to send this one back, and get a bigger one. Groan.

In the meantime, I’ve been wearing the Scottevest. This is a really cool technologically enhanced jacket that has pockets for pretty much every single gadget you can think of and the wires associated with it. It’s cool, comfortable and of excellent quality. There’s even a matching hat that allows you to store your valuables in the brim and sides, and pants that have extra pockets as well. The version that caught my eye was the SeV, with solar panels on the back to recharge your gadgets. “Q” would be jealous that he didn’t invent this jacket himself! http://www.scottevest.com