Transit Pass Collection: Istanbul (Updated)

A little while ago, I posted about the the Akbil, which was the mass transit pass for public transit in Istanbul. Recently, I went back to Istanbul and found out that they've updated their systems! As a result, I got a chance to get the new card and take a few pictures of it.

 The card is basically what we see in most areas that have made the jump to RFID. It's no SUICA (then again, that's Tokyo. Nothing is quite like Tokyo, where you can buy donuts in the train station with your card). This one uses an ePurse which is drawn from to pay for rides, but I didn't notice any major discounts over using the tokens of Akbil.

 A transit nut too? There are close ups of the token after the break...

Food Friday: Pok Pok (Portland, OR)

The other weekend, my girlfriend and I drove down to Portland for the weekend. Portland is a fun town, and this time we really started exploring some of the neighborhoods on the east side of the river, including the great restaurants in the area. Pok Pok was one of them and it's perhaps one of the most original Thai restaurants I've been to anywhere.

The biggest thing here is the menu. There was almost nothing on it that you would expect to find. Phad thai? Absent. The standard stoplight selection of curry? Replaced by regional curry varieties. How authentic it really is, I can't say (yet) but they go out of their way to provide a different view of Thai cuisine and the recipes were researched and developed in Thailand and then brought back to Portland. After looking over, we eventually settled on two great dishes (and one alright dish): The Pok Pok special and the Neua Naam Tok (and the Khao Muu Daeng).

The Pok Pok Special: Roasted Game Hen & Papaya Salad

Neua Naam Tok: Steak Salad

At the Top: Seattle (Columbia Tower Club)

This is the view from the top of Seattle at the Columbia Tower Club. Located on the 75th floor of the second tallest building on the west coast, this is as high up as you can get in Seattle and a fantastic view. I really wish I had had my other camera to be able to capture it better! I was here as part of a celebration organized by the French Chamber of Commerce for this year's beaujolais nouveau, which was a great night and a great deal (I'll be going back next year if they have it here).

Gear: The Kindle Family

Gear: Kindle Fire

The Kindle Fire has been hyped as a true competitor for the iPad and a game changer with it's $199 price tag and bevy of features. I recently got my hands on one and in this post, we'll be exploring Amazon's first tablet and color Kindle. After the break, we'll take a look at what the Kindle Fire is great at and whether this deserves a place in your gadget line up.

Gear: Kindle Touch 3G

As a frequent traveler, my Kindle Keyboard (as it's now known) has been a constant companion. It's been from Seattle to Stockholm, and Abu Dhabi to Athens. Everywhere I've gone, it's been my e-reader and my backup communicator so when Amazon announced their new Kindles, I had to get my hands on one for a review. After the break, we'll take an in-depth look at the Kindle Touch 3G (with Special Offers) and see if it lives up to it's older brother.

Donate your Orphan Miles for Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day is a day to thank the men and women who have served our country. While we wish everyone in uniform a safe return to their family, many soldiers return only after sustaining injuries in the line of duty. For these soldiers and their families, relocating temporarily to be with their loved ones as they receive treatment at a VA hospital can be complicated by having to worry about where to stay and how to pay for their accommodation. For these families, there is Fisher House, which provides a comfortable place to stay within easy reach of the VA.

Their program helps make a a difficult time a little easier, and you can help by donating any orphan miles you to their Hero Miles program. Your miles help cover travel to and from the hospital where the soldier is being treated. Many of us have a mileage program we don't use that much or will never earn enough miles to earn a reward. These orphan miles can be the difference between a wounded soldier having their family with them in a time of need or not. Donate your miles today.

Food Fridays: The Salmon Difference

Salmon is salmon, right? Not so! One thing that Seattle is known for is fresh fish and especially for our top notch salmon. If you think you don't like salmon, the fish here will convert you to a salmon lover.

This is what you usually find in the supermarket: Atlantic Salmon. It's farmed and that light pink color is actually from food coloring in the feed for the fish. It's perfectly fine fish, but...

...when it's sitting next to this, it's hard to thing about buying it. Here's what we get every year: Fresh Alaskan Sockeye Salmon. It's wild caught, usually fresh off the boat and that color is 100% natural. Doesn't it look delicious?

12/1/2011: The End of Kindlefish?

Recently Google decided to change the way the API for Google Translate works and, more importantly, to change it from a free service to a paid service. On 12/1/2011, Kindlefish will no longer work unless I start paying Google to use their API. The fee isn't that much overall ($20 for 1 million characters), but I will need to rework the site to update it to the new API and I don't earn any money off of Kindlefish.

If you are a fan of Kindlefish or would like to support the website and service, please consider donating by using the link below! If I get enough donations ($40?) to keep Google happy and pay for the coffee needed to rework (and improve) the website, I'll keep it up and running. Using the new API, Kindlefish will end up being more reliable than ever and continue being there for you whenever you need it.

Update: So far, there haven't been any donations. I've been happy to provide Kindlefish as a free service so far because Google Translate has been free for me to use, but at the moment it looks like Kindlefish will go down temporarily in order to assess whether I want to start paying for access to the new API.

5 Reasons I Don't Like DirecTV on Flights

About two months ago, I started receiving emails from PR companies for products and articles they are interested in promoting. I generally ignore these because this is just my personal blog and what I write about is what I'm interested in, not necessarily what is going to drive traffic. However, this e-mail caught my attention: "10 Reasons I Love DIRECTV on Flights".

Am I alone in thinking that DirecTV in flight is actually a bad thing? Here's my top 5 reasons that DirecTV on board isn't really all that great:

1. "Welcome aboard. That'll be $6". - Some airlines, like JetBlue and Virgin America offer a free selection of TV channels, but for others those screens are strictly for hire if you're in coach. Continental and Frontier both require a swipe of a card to watch your shows.

2. Commercials in the Air. - Even after you swipe your card, most of what you get is live TV and whatever happens to be on just then complete with commercials. There are some channels which are prerecorded with popular movies and series, but these are 10 out of 105 channels and I'm not sure if those are ad free. The last thing I want to see when I'm in the skies is a commercial for anything on TV.

No, thank you.

3. More Flicker in the Cabin. - If you're on a red eye or in need of sleep, DirecTV adds to the light flicker inside the cabin which makes it harder to get to sleep and stay asleep.

4. Is there anything even on? - Think about it: When you watch TV at home, odds are you're watching your DVR or streaming a video from Netflix. How much live TV do you watch? For me, it's virtually zero, and none of this looks remotely interesting to me:

From my IAH-SEA flight a few months back

5. It's OK to Unplug - A flight only lasts a few hours and it's one of the few times where we have all the excuses to turn everything off. Why not enjoy being 35,000 feet in the air? There's virtually nothing you can do on an airplane that can't wait until afterward.

This is what you should be looking at.

(PS: The original article is here, but once you get there there's not much except advertisement. No thanks!)

Goodbye Viaduct

This last Saturday, WSDOT opened up the viaduct for one last hurrah before shutting it down for the first part of demolition. Between the hours of 9:30 and 12:30, anyone could come down and walk up and on the viaduct and being a bit of a transit nut, I decided to go down and look at the structure from a new perspective (as well as claim my chunk of the viaduct). It was an appropriately wet Seattle day, but even with that over 3,000 people turned out to say goodbye.

The viaduct may be an ugly, 1950 concrete wall on the Seattle waterfront, but what everyone came out for is this: The view. On a nice day, driving on the viaduct is the best introduction you can give a person to Seattle. On the right, a close up of the city and on the left the ferries, Olympic mountains, and the Sound. In terms of a comprehensive, easy to access, and beautiful scenic drive this is about is good as you can get in the city itself.

After the break, more photos from the event, including the people, their goodbye notes, and the structure itself.

McDonald's Around the World: Stockholm

I like McDonald's. I don't think that the food is great or that the service is top notch, but what I do like is that what we take to be something that is standardized around the world simply isn't. A Big Mac is a Big Mac, except when it isn't. For example, how do you offer a Big Mac when cows are holy and beef is taboo? You make it the Chicken Maharaja Mac (complete with two all chicken patties and tikka masala sauce). I haven't tried that yet, but I'm looking forward to it when I make it to India.

However, today my focus is the frozen north of Stockholm. Given that Sweden doesn't have any dietary restrictions, the menu is fairly similar, but even then local cultural opinions show through. Take a look:

The standard menu is pretty familiar. The classics are all there. The McFeast is essentially a quarter pounder with lettuce and tomato, while the CBO is actually one of their rotating sandwiches. More so than in the US, McDonald's in Sweden likes to swap out sandwiches rather frequently. Some of them are specific to Sweden, while other burgers (like the 1955 below) I've seen in other places, like Germany. 

Some of the  rotating menu is below. The hot wings and cream cheese stars aren't always there. 

After the break, it's a virtual cornucopia of McDonald's. We've got the menu signs for the Happy Meals, the night menu, and the breakfast menu, plus the McToast. Read on for McDonald's, svensk stil. 

Food Fridays: Stockholm Sampler (Saturnus Cafe, Pelikan, and Soldaten Svejk)

Not many of my posts involve Stockholm, and even fewer involve the restaurants here. The main reason is that eating out here is obscenely expensive and many of the restaurants are only so-so, which makes picking the wrong one a $40-50 mistake. You learn quickly to be very skeptical about places...

...but today I'm going to break that tradition and share a sampler of bites from Stockholm!

Saturnus Cafe: Tucked just north of the busiest part of Stockholm near Stureplan, Saturnus cafe is well known for its immense kanelbullar (cinnamon buns), but also offers up a range of French inspired bites, including the prosciutto, mozzarella and pesto sandwich. The cafe is small and cozy, although it can get very busy and crowded very quickly.

Pelikan: Located on Södermalm, the pelikan restaurant offers up a variety of Swedish dishes at prices that are fairly reasonable ($25+) in the Stockholm context. Their Swedish meatballs, pictured here, are very tasty and match the atmosphere of the restaurant, which evokes the a past era. The restaurant itself is a great space to dine in.

Soldaten Svejk: A noisy Czech pub located near Medborgare platsen is also home to some of the best priced meals in Stockholm. The most expensive item on the menu is about 133kr ($21), which is the price of an appetizer in many other places. Eating in will get you a table almost immediately, but if you're just there for beer (and they have a nice selection of Czech beer) you'll be in for a hunt to find a place to stand. Great food and beer is slightly offset by how loud it gets in the bar. If you're looking for a quiet place to talk with friends, this is not it, but if you're out for a hearty meal and celebration this is the perfect spot. 

"Raggmunk" (Potato pancake) and Bacon, with lingon berries. Fantastic!

Pragerschnitzel covering up a potato salad and some saurkraut. Traditional and tasty.

First Kindle (2011) Reviews are Starting to Appear!

The first reviews of the new $79 Kindle are starting to appear. The Kindle Touch hasn't been released yet, which is what I think most people are waiting for (or the Kindle Fire), but the first and least expensive kindle is out and has been combed over by the people over at Engadget.

The new Kindle looks like it's a great basic reader and at $79, it's a really inexpensive device, but the choice to scrap the keyboard in favor of size and leaving out the killer new features found on the Kindle Touch like X-Ray make me wonder if this is the right way to go. For $20 more, the Kindle Touch gets you everything the basic Kindle offers and a more.

Update: Gizmodo now has their review up, with more of the same but slightly less enthusiastic. Their basic conclusion is to wai for the Kindle Touch as well, with a 3/5 rate.

via Engadget
via Gizmodo

Flight Report: Ulaanbaatar to Stockholm (Across Russia, Finale)

It's been more than 3,500 miles by train, plane, and bus from St. Petersburg, across Russia and finally over to Ulaanbaatar. It's been a great trip and now we have to head back to make sure that my mom can catch her flight back to the US.

For this flight, we've gone with Aeroflot. It's not part of my usual alliance and it's reputation is less than sterling, but how would they stack up today? Not that great, unfortunately. From a technical side, Aeroflot has shaken off the older Soviet planes, with the majority of it's fleet being newer airbus planes. In our case, we got an older Boeing 767 and a massive delay. More than 4 hours on the ground with zero explanation.

Lifting off, we're on our way out of Asia and back to Moscow before heading on to Stockholm. With such a late departure, we're going to misconnect in Moscow without a doubt. Will we make it back? What's the in-flight meal like? All this and more photos after the break.