Boseong Green Tea Farms in South Korea

Green Tea Hills

Green Tea Hills

I visited Boseong Green Tea Farm in South Korea at the end of May, 2013. The trip took 1 hour and a half from Yeosu, a city on the southern coast of South Korea. If you are leaving from Seoul (by the way, pronounced as soul), then it would probably take around 4 hours.

 

 

Way up

Way up

Anyways, I had hired an english-speaking driver to take me there, who also acted as my guide.  🙂 Because of its speculator scenery, a popular South Korean tv series is shot there. I bought a ticket and went to take an amazing walk between the green tea plants. The weather was nice. There were two path. I took the hardest one and most rewarding in terms of scenery. You would have to climb up the stairs. It had a speculator view of the green tea fields and the fog. I was thankful that I was wearing my nike shoes because the stairs were sometimes  steep and you would have to be careful. The path included climbing up 800 meters worth of stairs. I think the total path was between 1.6-2km longIt was very tiring but definitely worth it. At times I was so tired, I couldn’t climb up anymore and there weren’t any place to rest. The stairs were so steep that I couldn’t stand still on them so I would end up hugging a tree to support myself.  😆

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Qatar Airways has partnered with British Airways

Just received an email from Qatar Airways that Qatar Airways has partnered with British Airways. If you have Qmiles account from Qatar Airways, you will be able to redeem your Qmiles for award tickets on all British Airways flights effective 1st October 2013. This is great news for QA Qmiles account members. 😆 Furthermore, Qmiles can be earned on all flights with a British Airways flight number.

However, I am not sure if BA Avois account members can be used on Qatar Airways flights. I will post more once I know more about it.  😀

If you want to know more about it, click on the link below.

http://www.qatarairways.com/PrivilegeClub/PartnerDetails.page?promoCode=BRITISHAIRWAYS&locale=en_gl&category=Airlines

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Apply to Turkish Visa Online

IstanbulIf you are traveling to Turkey, you can now apply to the visa online. It’s easy. I have tried it. Just fill the form online for each traveller. After submission, you will receive an email to approve the form by clicking on the link. You will be able to pay for the fees online which is about US$20 using your credit card. Print the form. When you arrive in Istanbul, Just head to passport control directly. I tried it. It was easy and quick. No need to stand in the visa queue and have an exact change.  😀

https://www.evisa.gov.tr/en/

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SMS service for Ministry of Interior خدمة الرسائل القصيرة لوزارة الداخلية

MOI’s SMS service

A while ago, I registered to Ministry of Interior SMS service (خدمة الرسائل القصيرة لوزارة الداخلية). It has one time fee of 1Kd and then 40fils per SMS. After a few months of using it, I found it to be very useful & reliable as I have the tendency to forget when my car registration ends. Moreover it is certainly nice to get reminders whenever I commit traffic violations. After receiving my first SMS reminder regarding my traffic violation, I’ve become more cautious driver. For the record, I was going 108km/hr for 80km/hr road so it wasn’t that bad but I learned my lesson. 🙂

Below you can see, how to subscribe & what kind of services they offer to you.

 

To subscribe, send SMS

E<space>Civil ID

Example:

E 1111111111

to the following numbers:

ZAIN 992

VIVA 55250

Wataniya 1750

 

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Ice Cream Sandwich Software Update for Samsung Galaxy 2 (Middle East Version) is now available

Ice Cream Sandwich for Samsung Galaxy S2

Finally, Ice Cream Sandwich software update has arrived for Samsung Galaxy S2 (Middle East Version). I just upgraded it. You have two ways to upgrade: Firmware over-the-air (FOTA) or using Samsung Kies Software (PC or MAC).

FOTA way ( I suggest connecting to Wifi as it is about 200MB):

Go to Settings=>> Phone=>> Software Update =>> OK. 

It should connect to Samsung servers & downloads it. Afterwards, Follow the instructions.

Samsung Kies (MAC or PC) Way:

Download Samsung Kies from Samsung Official Website.

Install the software & then use Samsung Kies to back-up your phone.

After you back-up your phone, just click on to upgrade the firmware & follow the instructions.

I recommend using Samsung Kies because it gives you the ability to back up your phone.

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Bateel’s flavored Extra Virgin Olive Oils & Vingear

Bateel

I am a huge fan of Black Truffles. If you don’t know what it is, it’s called كمأة سوداء in Arabic or فقع الاسود in Kuwaiti Arabic. It’s expensive & rare to find. The price can reach up to $1000 per pound. When I go to a restaurant abroad, I always check whether there is a dish that is flavored with Black Truffles. The beauty of Black truffles, you only need a few shaves of it to flavor the dish as it has strong earthly flavor. One of my favorite Black Truffle dishes is in Dubai Armani Cafe. It’s pasta: Maltagliati with Porcini Mushrooms & Black truffle. If you are planning to go there & are into Black Truffles, I strongly recommend it.

Bateel’s Flavored Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Anyways, a few months ago my sister’s friend, knowing how crazy I am for Black Truffles, bought me Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Black Truffles from Bateel in Dubai. I tried it. It’s unbelievably delicious. I use it mainly for salad dressings but you can use it for pastas, cook your vegetables with it or even make on Egg omelet. For salads, You only need a tiny drizzle of it with a gourmet (aged) Balsamic Vinegar with a tiny pinch of Salt & Pepper to dress your salad. You can eat it with whatever basic salad combination you want and it will still taste amazing. Sometimes Co-operation (جمعيات) sells aged Balsamic Vinegar. If you can’t it find in your area, Sultan Center sells them and the Gourmet section in Shamiyah Co-operation (جمعية الشامية).

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Aalsmeer Flower Auction Market: The Largest Flower Auction in the World

Aalsmeer Flower Auction

I went to Amsterdam for two nights to visit to Aalsmeer Flower Auction. It’s the biggest flower trade center in the World. It was HUGE. Anyway, here is my trip report.

At 6.15am I took Bus #172 from the city center so I can be at the auction at 7am. The auction opens from 7am until 11am, Monday to Friday, but by 9am, usually all the flowers are sold and packaged for export so you have to be there at 7am to see the flowers.

Aalsmeer Flower Auction

Anyway, the journey took around 45 minutes from the city center. When we arrived at the bus stop, we asked a random man where it was located and he told us to follow him. It turned out he worked there and let us inside through the back-door.  At the time, I actually thought this was the official entrance so I took a couple of shots. There were tens of fast-moving trolleys filled with fresh flowers & plants passing in front of us so I snapped a couple of pictures, thinking that when we arrive at the auction, I will have time to take more.

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How do you track your Samsung Galaxy or android-based Samsung mobile if you lose it?


If you own a Galaxy or an android-based Samsung mobile phone, then you probably don’t know that there is a feature that allows you to track your mobile, have it ring even if it was on silent, display a message on the screen or even wipe the data remotely. 

I found this feature very useful as once I set my mobile on silent and then lost it in the house. Since calling it didn’t work, I logged in online to my samsung account and had it ring loudly.

So what do you need to do to activate this feature?

First create a Samsung Account. This is their website: http://www.samsungdive.com/

And then on your mobile, go to  Settings => Location & Security =>  Remote Controls.

When you activate the remote controls, your mobile phone can be locked, tracked and allow the data to be wiped remotely.

Hopefully, you won’t need these features but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Worst case scenario, someone steals your phone but at least you can wipe it clean so you don’t have to worry about your pictures, emails, or private information being viewed by a stranger.

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استبيان قسم التمويل في جامعة الكويت للعاملين بمجال التمويل والاستثمار الاسلامي

استبيان قسم التمويل في جامعة الكويت للعاملين بمجال التمويل والاستثمار الاسلامي أو من لديه خبرة عملية سابقة في هذا المجال

http://www.tinyurl.com/kufinance/

 يرجى المشاركة لأهميته في عمل وتخطيط برنامج جديد وهو البكالرويوس في التمويل الاسلامي

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Best Photography Apps for Android Phones

I’ve been using Android phones for the past two years and I have used several Photography Related Apps. After two years of buying Apps, I found out that each App excels at different function and you can use the app depending on the function you want. All of the pictures below are taken while I was traveling.

Instagram (FREE):

Instagram on Android

It has been recently released to Android and it has already been downloaded more than 5 million times. I love it. You can call it Twitter for Pictures. You create an account, post pictures, follow people’s accounts to view their pictures and let them follow you to view yours as well. You can comment on their pictures and let them comment on yours. You have an option to make your account private.

 

 

 

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