I went here, I went there, I went everywhere [on points] and my sister was never impressed. She like most of my friends and family really didn’t buy into the points idea or was suspicious as to its legality. Then Memorial Day weekend came and I left…to Costa Rica.
“This is the first time I’ve been impressed with your points crap,” she halfheartedly complimented. Why when I showed her pictures of Maldives and her dream bungalow was she so excited by this trip? Because it was booked at the 11th hour and 59th minute for basically free. I say basically because of all these stupid fees, hidden taxes, and ridiculous charges imposed by taxis, Frontier Airlines, and the country of Costa Rica which will be addressed in tomorrow’s blog. For now, let’s focus on the Pura Vida (pure life) way that I got to go on this great impromptu trip for mere pennies.
Forget 30 Days to Maldives, you can get to Costa Rica in about 30 minutes of work.
Step 1: Apply for the Frontier Airlines Card
Step 2: Spend $500 on the card.
Step 3: Receive 40k miles, enough for a roundtrip ticket to Costa Rica!
Then live the Pura Vida while doing your best Tarzan impression following the superman zipline experience.
I would like to thank Lenovo for my broken X220 laptop, Lenovo again for this terrible X1 Carbon Touchscreen POS with Windows 8 replacement, and all my loyal followers on all the wonderful social media outlets.
We have made it! It seems like only 2.5 months ago that I started writing this blog…
It has been only 2.5 months. Anyhow, a lot has changed since then and I have happily received plenty of new readers. Therefore, to honor this momentous occasion and catch everyone up on what they have missed, here are the Top 10 posts of all time (as tracked by WordPress).
My apologies to everyone who had nothing to do over the long Memorial Day weekend because my blog had no new content. Friday morning I was wondering what I should write about and, devoid of content, starting looking at the balance of my points accounts.
One account that caught my eye was my Frontier Airlines account that had 40k miles. I had previously signed up for a Frontier Card that gives 40k points after $500, enough to for a ticket to Costa Rica.
A quick check of availability showed a flight from Phoenix leaving that evening to Liberia, returning Tuesday from San Jose all for a grand total of $40 (or so I thought).
A few clicks later and I was on my way.
Given my Memorial Day weekend experience, I will cover a few topics this week:
1. How to apply for the Frontier Card so you too can go to Costa Rica while making yours truly a few dollars. (All bloggers who say, “Apply for cards, it’s such a good deal” are getting paid from them. So I’ll just come out and say I too would get paid if you kindly click my referral link. Wow, I am one of them now.)
2. The ridiculous world of airline fees even when you fly for free.
3. Transport and other hidden costs of traveling.
4. When staying in luxury is an inconvenience.
5. More hints about my book promo. I should add that the title of the book is not ThePointsOfLife but rather Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Mine as there has been some confusion about the name; more proof that people read headlines, not posts!
Besides trying to write scholarly articles on a daily basis, I needed a way to create a buzz, a disruption that would go viral, bring more people to my blog, have them fall in love with the one of a kind content, thereby allowing me to reach my goal of selling millions of books.
For the past two months I have been pounding the pavement with my clever marketing campaign and am almost ready to reveal what I have done in an effort to sell books.
That announcement will be coming in the next couple of weeks as the release date of my book becomes more certain.
For now, I will open the floor to any guesses. Those that know me personally, please don’t ruin the surprise.
I’ll give you a clue, it is associated with the first few words of Michigan’s fight song, “The Victors.”
Remember when you saw Coming to America the first time or tried princess chicken for the first time at Empress of China when you visited Flint, Michigan? That and experiencing other firsts is why I continue to travel and seek new adventures in new places. While I love going back to a country that I have visited before, nothing compares to the first time in a new city.
The next best thing to going to a place that lives up to the hype is to travel with a friend who has never been there before. My best friend, Michael Jeries is the lucky bastard that gets to travel for the first time to Southeast Asia any day now. He has no set itinerary, just a list of countries. In fact, he even forgot to pick up a visa to enter Vietnam- a rookie mistake you would think he would’ve learned from after our Brazil New Year’s disaster.
Since I cannot personally go to SE Asia with him and show him the ladyboy bars in Bangkok, Thailand, I am going to do the next best thing and publish a guide of the top things he must see in the cities he is visiting.
Cambodia: My least favorite country in SE Asia. Calm down all you backpackers who found your soul or discovered yourselves while touring Angkor Wat. Cambodia was the last country I visited in SE Asia and I ended up with food poisoning after drinking bad ice. Ironically, I took a picture of the menu that said “we use clean ice” as a joke before I had my bucket of rum and coke and then the chills and death set in.
See Angkor Wat: All soul-searching weirdness aside, Angkor Wat is a must see, an astounding example of what man is capable of.
Skip Sihanoukville: Although Majid and I had a great time drinking 25 cent beers and lounging on the beach, this hippie beach town is probably worth skipping in lieu of other beaches on this list.
Bali, Indonesia
See Bali Kuta: Please go to the Bounty Hotel and drink FGD all day at the pool while listening to the customary backpacker tracks played by the resident DJ.
Skip Nightlife in Seminyak: Why take the dangerous motorbike all the way to this ritzy part of Bali when Sky Garden Bali plays your favorite hiphop every night. Club KU DE TAH was a nice establishment right on the water but lacked the fun.
Maybe: Maybe you should do something besides drink and party in Kuta and see the rest of this beautiful island, Mikey. I know Brent and I planned on climbing a volcano to see the sunrise but ended up detoured by those FGD.
Vietnam
Hanoi: There’s a street of pho and more pho. Ask the locals as I was too stupid to write down the name but pho sure worth the visit. See what I did there?
Ha Long Bay: If you see anything in Vietnam, see Ha Long Bay. It looks like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean from the outside and a scene from Batman on the inside.
Ho Chi Minh:
See Cu Chi Tunnels: This is a remarkable war memorial park where I took some of the greatest photos ever. It is incredible to see how the Viet Cong fought the Americans by establishing a network of underground tunnels and using by using innovative booby traps despite limited technology.
Skip Shooting Guns: You do that enough at home.
Secret: Pho locations. Will have to wait for the top ten list to be done or private message me lol.
Thailand: I’ve been here many times before but you tell me where else to go besides Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, Phi Phi Islands, Bankgkok, and Phuket since you’re going to be living there.
Hoang Sa Islands? Xisha Islands? Let’s settle it over a bowl of pho.
The Paracel Islands have been in the news over the past few weeks not because of their tropical beaches or iconic full moon parties. The flora and fauna of the islands is of little concern to either side. The dispute is over the rights to the potential oil reserves around the islands and control of the South China Sea waterway. In this ongoing dispute between Vietnam and China, China claims the uninhabited archipelago known to them as the Xisha Islands belongs to them while Vietnam claims that the Hoang Sa Islands is rightfully theirs.
There are serious implications in regards to the outcome of this dispute. If China maintains the globally unpopular position that the islands are theirs and the international community cannot arrange a compromise, they will tighten their grip as the world’s emerging superpower. The precedent set if their actions go unchecked and will mirror those of Putin who defied the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and annexed Crimea as part of Russia. By all accounts, Putin’s appetite to restore Mother Russia remains unsatisfied as he has his eyes set on other parts of Ukraine and even Moldova. The same can be said about China, a country that has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan. These countries are more capable foes than Vietnam given their own militaries and U.S. backing making the outcome in the Paracel Islands ever more critical. Make no mistake, China is using the Paracel Island dispute as a test case of what they can do without international reprimand.
The natural culmination of this interesting tug of war ends with the professor’s peace accord. The complexities of the negotiation require both sides to come to the table and engage in a meaningful discussion. Such talks cannot commence on an empty stomach. Pho peace to prevail, I propose setting a meeting at the 7th best place in the world to get pho– Shanghai, China.
Pho Sizzling’s uncompromising flavor and cost-conscious menu will placate China’s desire to swallow whole the sovereignty of its neighbors.
I’m feeling so blessed to have so many people tell me happy birthday on Facebook.
No, no, no, I will not write that and really can’t deal with people that do. I do appreciate when I get the annual Happy Birthdays but really enjoy when they have at least some personalized message.
For example, my friend wrote “Happy Birthday jackass” which is more thoughtful than a nondescript “Happy Birthday”.
I turned 32 today which is great because I am finally getting old enough to justify being the angry, old man I have always been.
Anyhow, the reason for this post is to use my blog to ensure that my birthday wish comes true; sell 1 million copies of my book Everyone’s Advice Is Wrong . . . Including Minewhich is due out in less than a month.
Americans compete over who makes the best bbq, Vietnamese the best pho, and us Arabs, we fight over who makes the best kebab.
Kebab, kebab, kebab, that’s all I’ve heard all week since my parents came to visit. Even though I currently live in Arizona, home to tasty Mexican food (shout out to Los Betos late night drive thru) my mom made it clear that she did not want to go to a Mexican restaurant the day she arrived.
She wanted kebab.
With that, the marathon of kebab began.
Stop 1: The Persian Room in North Scottsdale:
This used to be the go to place for kebab in the Valley. With generous portions, great prices, and a bustling dining room, anyone who was anyone in the kebab community came here for Iranian kebab.
Then tragedy struck The Persian Room; they got a new oven. If ice cream is to apple pie then bread is to kebab. While one may be able to survive without the other, the synergistic effect of the two is immeasurable.
The Persian Room for an inexplicable, baffling, and inexcusable reason decided to change their oven from one that used to produce hot, fluffy, delicious bread to some Set It And Forget It contraception where the bread comes out flat and dry.
Picture your favorite puppy before and after falling into the pool.
Without the trusty sidekick of bread with kebab, my parents and I enjoyed a deflated dinner of kebab.
Stop 2: Pars Restaurant in North Scottsdale:
Pars is another Iranian kebab palace in Arizona. Iranians lay claim to making the best kebab but as an Iraqi I beg to differ. Historically, this has been a subject of great dispute. See Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988.
Preaching for peace in the Middle East, my parents and I broke bread (slightly fluffier than The Persian Room) at Pars while waiting for or kebab to arrive.
Out comes the kebab, all tender and juicy, but wait! Where is the mint, basil, and sweet onion? If ice cream enhances apple pie, then whip cream makes it orgasmic. Same analogy holds true with kebab depending on your bonus toping of the aforementioned three.
For me it is sweet onion, of which Pars had none.
For my dad it is basil, of which Pars had none.
For my mom it is mint, of which Pars had none.
The critically observant kebab critics left stuffed but slightly unsatisfied.
Stop 3: My Uncle’s House:
What’s a vacation without family? What’s a family invite without kebab?
My uncle laughed at our Persian experience and welcomed the prodigal sons and daughters back to the land of Iraqi kebab. Combining the best of both worlds, Iraqi and American, he fired up the grill and set fire to the freshly prepared kebab.
Kebab Jungle: Home of Best Iraqi American Kebab
While I would love to give you a full report of how it compared to the others, I am too full to type another letter.
So my parents are visiting this week making airing (writing) p oats posts difficult. I still use my blackberry but I can’t use it to ride posts.
So I’m using this great HTC m8 to write a post and complain.
I’ve already but backspace 100 times and I’m about to give up.
I have two points to make:
1. Autocorrect is terrible. While we all knew this it goes beyond bad word selection. Why doesn’t Autocorrect be grammar correct abs intuitively use plausible words. Yes it used abs not and.
2. Signature lines. I apologize for any errors. Sent from iPhone
Sorry that isn’t a valid excuse for laziness and for blaming your dumb smart phone. It’s bad enough no one uses words anymore, opting for smileys. And lol. That you can’t even read your emails. Perhaps laziness is not the culprit and Autocorrect is to blame.
In the world of sports there is nothing that compares to football. No I’m not talking about international football, known to us Yankees as soccer, nor am I talking about Australian rules football, better known as who knows what, nor am I talking about American football, better known as real football.
No my friends, I am talking about Canadien Football-the CFL. What is more entertaining than the CFL, I dare you to answer.
Doug Flutie, Maurice Clarett, and all those other legends make the CFL a must watch every Sunday (I think they play on Sunday). The field is longer, there are 3 downs instead of 4 and I think they measure stuff in meters not yards.
But, tragedy may strike this great game in the form of a strike. No great sport is immune to strikes from baseball, to basketball (twice), to NHL hockey, to the NFL (refs). Strikes are a part of business and a part of life but I can only hope and pray that the CFL doesn’t go on strike.
This year I really think that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have a chance to win it all. Only the devil’s intervention of a strike could make this great dream turn into a horrible nightmare.
So please world, join in and pray with me that the strike doesn’t happen. Maybe their savior will come in the form of God’s second son, Tim Tebow.
This blog was written for my cousin George, the only person who watches the CFL.
