How to fleece money when travelling

Yup , when we travel , we loose money , we had to pay the higher taxi fare those jerks asks , we have to pay Tourist only high prices , but I got them good , in my recent travels with the family i went through all the tourist traps paid through my nose but at last i got them , first the Coffee Bean Company , the cofee shop like star bucks had a program to buy their membership at RM 25 and get RM 30 value , guess what i bought it at every coffee bean ( my usual order used to be two ice lattee with chocolate muffin totoal 29 RM ) and the mother of all the my last night in KL , i high on coffee found a roach in my 15th floor room which i quietly handed over to the receptionist and the next day left the hotel citing that i don;t wanna any other bug roaming on me , little they know i was leaving the country hahaha and when i reached home i had an email from Shangrila KL stating that due their negligence they will give me one free night at Executive Floor , now my uncle is going this week and he will utlize the night hahahaha i got them good sara kharcha nikal gaya
now i gotta run for Namaz take care

Marriott Sucks

Yup Marriott Karachi sucks , i had a meeting on behalf of my organization there on Saturday night at Senator Hall and guess what those jerk heads made me sit on a wet drenched chair and spoiled my NEXT trouser , when i called their manager , even he was rude to me , finally i had to resort to call my account manager who had to run to the hotel in his t-shirt along with the GM of this flithy hotel where the AC ducts were leaking water , flies were flying around with their banquet manager running after them with a fly swatter what a sight a five star hotel ( they call it that ) looked like that of a 1 star at train station . The GM asked me to give him my pants so he can get them dry cleaned , like i am going to take my pants off , what i will wear for 20 min a stiking towel wow a towel on a dress shirt and tie interesting Bengali look . The next day the firm i work for organzed a big gala dinner and we found a fly in the rice yup a fly dead and cooked in the rice , i am never eating at Marriott again don;t wanna get gastro , last time i had that lost 10 pounds in 2 days and looked like a stick instead of the healthy hippo i was before had to change the ward robe for my pants to fit . The gala dinner went well we celebrated with 5 am one of our directors organized the musical it was cool , i had to leave early causse my kids fell asleep , will post some photos later

The Travelogue

Finally i'm back sitting in my office , sipping my flavored tea taking a 15 min break from work like the past 2 weeks i was not on official break .
The story is to be told after i left Bangkok airport for penang , i left when my daughter Z started messing with the keyboard and my son started nagging to see the airplanes so we left for the boarding area and guess what the flight was late by an hour which we spent watching airplanes come and go , Z learned to imitate airplane flying in that hour with ZZZZZ sound while T was busy watching his cartoons on the PMP i got from Pakistan . My original plan was to reach KL at 12 pm and catch 1:45 shuttle to Penang plenty of time at KL airport but due to an hour delay i reached at 1 pm , rushed to the transfers counter , they even arranged for my kid's stroller to be sent directly to Penang , ok breaktime over will write later

Last hours in Bangkok - Thailand Recap

Yup the time has come , me sitting in the lounge with my family , its 8:05 am , i will be catching the 9 am shuttle to Kualalumpur with connecting flight to Penang , will reach the place at 4 pm , around after 6 hrs with 2 hrs stayover at KLIa . About my Thailand experience well , Thai hospitality is its best , my hotel in Pattaya , the Sheraton resort was one of the finest i have ever stayed at , 3 swimming pools , large spacious rooms , and the shower well it feels like i am standing under the rain , i took my family to the walking strip during the day , and to the central entertainment plaza they loved it all , missed the Coral isalnd tour because of my a** travel agnet who forgot to hire the tour for me and f***edup half of day when i was waiting for him adn later say , you never told me i thought it was optional . Well on the third day we left for bangkok stayed at Grand Sukumhvit by Sofitel , not bad for $ 80 , 2 rooms yup 2 one with bed and the other one with SOfa and kichennte , the first thing my son asked was mom will you cook for me plese guess he is tierd of all the KFC ( its halal in Thailand ) and Fish burgers . here we went to Siam discovery and Siam Paragon , wish Karachi has places like that Siam Discovery has a Ocean World with Sharks , Squids , Jelly fishes and all sort of sea ctreatures even Penguins and water rats took us 2 hrs to go through all that and my youngest loved the fishes , didn't wanted t leave and had to be forcefully taken out , Siam paragon is some what like City center in Duabi but a lot better the first thing we saw when we enetered were a Lanmborghini Gllardo and a Lamborghini Merciliago yup the finest machines right on diplay with Ferrari Porche and Hummer showrooms on the 4th floor , awsome shopping place if you have the dough ARmani , Jaspal , Swarovski , Damas , Tiffiny all were there and a lovely food court with foods from every where . Spent a total of 6 hrs there and got back to our hotel at 10 pm and straight packed the bags and went to sleep , woke up at 5 am gt ready , forced the kids out of the bed , went down checked out and guess what my jerk of the travel agent forgot to send me the pickup car ,i called him and he said it will come , when i don't know, well i hired a cab , nice guy and reached airport at 6:45 check in went smooth , unlike my other Thai experience , came in the business class lounge wihch was full for the early morning flights , had my family seated got them tead and corrisants and water melons and now me relaxing in front of what my wife call her " sotan " ( second wife ) the computer and blogging away with my youngest the lovely Z on my lap , she is contsnatly trying to hit on the keyboard . its 8:15 , m,y son T has come asking for more water so i better leave , will write later about my exploits in Penang till than you all take care and wait :)

Blogging from pattaya

Yup , me back and blogging from Pattaya , a mix of heaven and hell well , there is a mosqu and numerous gogo bars , in the night it looks like a women super market ,i mean you can choose among them aat the numerous beer gardens . Well i am here with my family and not interested in these activities . my flight from karachi was soso , the business class of Thai was not as expected . no amenities , no service tiotally pthetic , will blog later it s raining outside and goptta reah my room fast

I'm back and going out soon

Yup I'had been away , stuck with work , has a manager meeting today at 5 pm so was busy arraning stuff from writing material to sheilds all is now done , me relax another 5 min and back to work . the week went awsome with the work. Last sunday took my son to Sunway LAgoon , Pakistan's best water park , well the palce was good but not the crowd , a lot of horseplay and staring at women's chests etc by them , i stayed there for an hour and took my son to Country Club for lunch . then the rest of the week was spent doing work and arraning for my tickets from Malaysian Airline . The jerk there told me that there are no seats available for Penang KL flight and all classes are full , when i contacted my agent he told me that business is open so i had to run back to Malaysian and made him issue me the ticket. Another collegue of mine has left for KL with his family , his last words on SMS before sitting on Malaysian Airline plane was " here all seats seems wet , soggy and smelling " good thing i am travelling on Thai , didn;t had a good experience on Malaysian last year , some body dropped brown rice on it , the tray was dirty and sticky even the flight attnendent didn't listened to me the worst flight i had and i had sat in bad planes like that of BIman airline with orange interior , my son who was 2 at the time got them good , when the flight was landing in Karachi on our way back , he got to go pee and they didn;t let him so he wet their seat , now i knew the flight from Karachi to KUl was again pack , they deserve it all the lashing they will get from the passenger who was assigned to that seat , well i'm leaving for namaz , will post something new maybe tomorrow and than adios for 2 weeks or less if i can get my hands on a computer somewhere

Travelling Plans

Well one more week to go when i leave for my well deserved vacation , I deserve it cause i work 60 hour plus a week not to mention sometimes it shoots up to 70 hrs so 62 hrs on average into 50 weeks makes 3050 hrs a yr , now i will be gone 14 days of pure bliss no letters , no emails , no SMS , no MMS , ocassional phone calls ( my office number is set on international roaming ) 14 days with my family , basking in pattaya , shopping in Bangkok , wind surfing at Penang , exploring in Langkawi , splashing in Sunway , riding in Genting and finally relaxing in Kualalumpur . Got all my flights reserved , all my hotels reserved and guess what as an special incentive , the company allowed me to travel Business Class all the way with the family , ooh the sweet sensation of wide seats on Airplane , i can sleep all i want , eat all i want , the amenities , the special attention .

Even the hotel is got booked are world class , Sheraton Resort , Sofitel Grand , Holiday INN ( no choice here Shangrilla is sold out 2 mths before ) , and Shangrilla where they have live bands in the night right in front of KLCC . The hotels came out to be quiet inexpensive despite all the big names my average comes out to be $106 per night not bad considering a friend of mine is paying on average $190 for the same hotels . Well i am off to work will update later

Karachi is Not So Quiet

The past two days had been very quiet in my life but not in Karachi , things happened , a well known political / religious figure Alama Turabi was killed in a bomb blast , so his party has called for strike , there was a long queue outside petrol pumps ( gas pumps for americans ) today i went out , half the city was close from outside but working behind closed doors , even my bank closed their shutter and letting customers in through back door .

Last night i saw Click , yup we get movies in Pakistan within a week after they are released in US although the quality is never good till the master print is out none the less all my AMerican friends envy me that they spend some $ 6-10 to watch a movie ( $ 3.75 for AMC matinee time ) and i spend the maximum of $1.00 to own it on DVD to watch it again and again and if the luck strikes i get 5 movies on one DVD in Divx format so 20 cents a movie to be watched on my home theatre system but not on a Bravia .

I'm back after nice dinner

Tonight i went to Sheraton Pakistani awsome place kick ass prawns , great kebabs , tasty parathas and delicious gravy and biryani , 25 people all fed till they are full only for Rs.5000/- (USD 85) than we had Amma ka metha pan from P.I.D.C now stomach full i'm home , the kids are asleep , even me sleepy so see ya all in the morning take care
ooh the higlight of the day , Porsche showroom yup a spanking new Porsche dealership is opening at Karachi in PC Hotel shopping area right beside Sani's , will be fun to visit i hope they'll carry some Porsche caps and key chains

Last night Recap and comments

Yup my blog is hot , 2 comments in 2 days where i had been running it since April its my personal best average Thank you to both of you to make my blog feel special and to Umarah for her comments about my house . Nothing much happened today but a lot happened last night , my best friend Faisal got his mehandi thing done now he'll get marries inshallah day afer tomorrow , finally after all these years he got married way to go Faisal the party was awsome , food excellent and the company was good , he end up giving Rs 10,000 ( approx USD 175) to his sister in law who was holding his finger while others put a lot of Hena on his hands and face . Imagine a groom with red mehandi face :) any way i was the one sitting with him , it was fun , got home at around 12:30 am , the good thing about KArachi is at night you can drive as fast i waas going 100 kmph in the streets well got home was not sleepy so started watching TV , an old flick was on by the cable wala a funny horror movie and than came the drop scene , my eldest (4yr old) who was not feeling well started crying i ran to him and he had vomitted all over himself , well i rushed him to the wash room , washed him while my wife took care of his bed went to sleep at 3 am and up at 8 am got ready and sitting in my office since then well its almost 5 time to go home will keep ya all updated tomorrow . P.S my son is now feeling well and was playing when i went home for lunch .

May June roundup , my life and all the happening

I know i had been lazy , you people missed my stories , my rants and my work to get a Bravia , Well about the Bravia , the dream is here but again no one is willing to buy my ads so i archived them .

Now the monthly round up , nothing worth mentioning happened in May , had some product launches etc etc , June well had a mushaira ( poets and stuff ) at my place some 200 people showed up including kids and we had Zia Ul Haq Qasmi , Jeidi Knight ( Ather Hussain JEdi ) etc the program went on till 3 am , I had been lazy in June and didn't took my kid any where so no Karachi round up . The current plans are to take the family to a small trip to Malaysia and Thailand , got the tickets booked , hotel reserved just awaiting the day to come to catch my flight to Pattaya , will be a hectic tour i will take my kids ofcourse my wife too to Pattaya , Bangkok , Penang , Langkawi , Sunway Lagoon , Genting , Kualalumpur all in 14 days it seems crazy , we will be living of our bags one day we unpack them , the other day we repack them . Me the messed up self is only taking 3 trousers and 3 t-shirts for the whole trip , the plan is to discard the most stinkiest one before getting on the plane for Karachi all i will be carrying in my bag will be a 25 pack of Babylove diapers for my youngest one , all the cerelac and Nido they drink and ofcourse some Lahori NEstle water , yup my kids like the nalke ka pani filled in bottle so much they even wrinkled their nose at French Tap water Evian . I am trying to hooking them to Aqua Fina cause Fina naheen to peena naheen now which pena are they talking about .

Damn my blog is hot

Well the boost i needed , someone beside those who i forced to read my blog at my work read my blog and send me an email
Hey buddy,

"Nice blog you have...So you finally bought a Bravia? funny sony bravia
post... And I missed the McDonald's party... next time..

rgds
zain

pkblogs.com/zainfeb13 "

Thank you for the kind words Zain , now everyone who reads this blog should make 5 people read Zain's blog and good things will come their way , i call this chain blog

My neighbour sent the pix of my house on the eve of my daughter's b-day party , purple was the main theme color as demanded by my son

I again got reviewed , my blog is HOT

Yup again someone read my blog and reviewed it . Thank you ArtAbode , for the rest the review is as follows

Reviewed by ArtAbode:
I like the fact that Schawlaf got excited about Quantumfog's comment. I hope mine gets the same reception!
In My Life Now And Forever Schawlaf writes about his daily perspective on life. I also enjoy that he really took the comments by QuantumFog to heart.
I am holding my breath to hear about your new business venture, don't keep us waiting too long.

For ArtAbode , i have posted the idea and its results , i will try to further enhance it

Flopped but not destroyed

Yup , the business venture flopped , it was neat , it was cool but nobody wants it . I have a personal collection of above 5 gb of advertisements both in jpg and video formats , i offered the major advertising agencies in Pakistan to purchase it at the meagre price of USD 600 ( Rs. 40000) , my plan was to sell to not more than 10 companies to net a total of USD 6000 which will enable me to purchase a Sony Bravia 32 inch for USD 2700 , and a 17 inch laptop by Dell for around 1500 USD with the rest i will get adavncetech M.A.G.I.C for USd 1000 whenever available and Logitech bluetooth mouse and keyboard and 2 webcams all money gone . than i will hookup my new bravia to my old inspiron 6000 , coupled with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard by logitech and web cam and connected to my 256kb DSL through wifi and whenever my wife will turn on the tv she can see me working in the office .
Ahh all dreams shattered .
But I will not give up , will work out some other crazy plan to make USD 6000 so that my wife can see me in the office whenever she turns on the Bravia . and i can see my house on the new 17 inch .
Any ideas please post

now giving the new twist to the old idea instead of targeting the large ad firms i will not target the small ad firms , reduce the price to USD 500 , instead of 10 , i will target 15 now atleast 12 will get hoooked and i will get the Bravia

New Business Venture

Nowadays i am working on a new business venture , i will never be able to buy a 32 inch bravia from my salary , so i am working on starting my own small business to make sme extra money , if i make some i will infomr what the business is

bi weekly ROundup

yup i am getting lazy in my blogs , first weekly roundup now bi weekly , now i will try to be regular . The month started with a bang , 3 new product launches , training and other stuff went well , now the best its my daughter's birthday now , yup this saturday on 15th there is a party at my house , a big one , 250 pax invited , cakes , excellent food and all the works so if you are in the neighbour hood drop me an email at schawlaf@gmail.com and i will forward you an invitation .

the world is going into shambles , first on tuesday my cousin hit his car which got totalled but miracoulsy he and his friend were not majorly hurt , now who would drive a car at 90mph , while beating his friend with a stick listeing to loud music ofcourse a 14 yr old like my cousin , he is all shook up and will not be allowed in the driver's seat maybe a for next decade . he is allright now and resting in his house .

Than the stampede at Faizan-e- Madina , poor 33 pax died all women and kids than the blast 2 days ago which killed the top sunni religious leaders in Karachi where are we going , religious intolerence at his worst , its we killing our own brethern in retaliation the city was closed tomorrow , yup a city of 16 million without any activity , offices, banks , schools , shops everything was closed , one cannot even get bread any where , it sucks ,

today is again the same , petrol pumps are closed , no public transportation not even taxis are running let's see what will happen today , Tomorrow is strike day well its friday so half the day is spent in friday paryers will keep updatedabout happenings .

Someone finally read this blog

TOday is one of the happiest day of my life , someone actually took time to read my rants and write a review , yup a review so here you go
Recent reviews

Reviewed by QuantumFog:
Schawlaf is running his blog from Karachi, Pakistan. This, folks, is what the web is all about - in the space of a couple of weeks, I've read about people from Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Beirut, Iraq and now Pakistan. Love it.

Each has shared their perspective, and Schawlaf's effort is as good as any. His cookie cutter site is simple to navigate, probably because it started a month ago. There should be more contrast between the text and background color on his daily posts, otherwise his content looks fine.

We also need to know why he left Michigan, and we're looking forward to seeing some local pictures of Karachi. (Hint: no expensive digital camera required, cheap ones do fine for the internet.)


I will try to make some changes in the near month on the outlook of this blog

weekly round up - running for school admission , Mohatta Palace and Keamri Port Fountain

I had been away for the past one week , no i was not out of the city , i was running around for my son's admission in school , well he is 4 years old and like one time when people used to ask how many seats the medical / engineering college has how many applied now the same goes for the Kinder Garten / Primary .
I gave an interview on the 10th MArch at C.A.S ( Center of Advance Studies ) and was told to wait till 1st of April for the letter well the letter came , a regret letter :( , well my wife was after me to somehow get my son in this particular school , why the school he is in is perfectly allright and one of the best in the city but no it has to be C.A.S , lasst year i was rejected from there cause we fail to conceive our kid a month and a half earlier yup just becasue of 45 days we didn;t qualify for interview , that gynecologist told me to get my wife operated in Feb but i opted to wait and my son was born in MArch should have listened to her .So now i have been running around kissing asses to get him in CAS called the main school they refused to talk to me so yesterday i walked in the junior branch where i was given the cold shoulder , i did gave them an application 'pleading' to take my son in case some fortunate pupil of their's left which i know was torn and thrown in the waste basket right after i closed the door so here's the story of the past week other highlights include

A visist to Mohata Palace , those of you who haven;t been there it's awsome a piece of KArachi history and some stuff you may never see else where

a visit to Kemari awaiting for that damn Fountain Cruise to run take my advice go there after 8 pm so that some people show up else if you go there accompanied with your son like me they will make you wait for an hour in the empty boat for an hour long cruise .

Other good things i finally got SPSS 14 ( cracked not purchased ) well someday i will learn how to use it till than i have forwarded it one of my clients

That's it for now , will try to be regular now have to leave some 350 pages await my signs

Forum

After a long time i visited Forum today , the place has converted into an all time enetertainment arena with all sorts of shopping and food reminds me of 12 oaks mall at Twelve Oaks Michigan ( though its not as big ) well i went to Hub leather awsome collection got my mum a Suede bag and promised my wife to buy her one the next time i take her over there . I also for the first time saw a local shoe maker using Swarovski crystals on their shows with the nominal price around USD 20 per pair . Where food is concerned the Baked Cheese Cake followed by Cold Coffee Mocha Flavored hit the spot

got Bravia

umm i had been away for the past few days , working on my job , launching new medicines working at new theraputic categories and well got a new TV at my place the all new 40 inch Sony Bravia , its awsome with all types of inputs one can imagine even some which i never imagined it even accepts direct PC input ( wire is provided ) so i can play need for speed most wanted on it now i am planning to get a 26 inch for my bedroom once i save Rs 80000 .

Lawyers are Crazy

Some people forget to lock their cars , some forget to roll up the windows but today when i was at the highcourt a lawyer parked his car beside mine got out , took his papers out of the back seat and walked away while leaving his door ajar, guess what he will do with his case !

I had been up since 7 am today and spent 4 hrs of my life standing outside court well the bright side was i met one of my old friend there . well now i need a nap so me sleep

The party is over

Finally the party is over , took two days to get rid of the hangover from litres of Fantas and Cokes not mention BigMacs Filet Of Fish and Chicken nuggets yup chicken despite all the propaganda about chicken having flu , i love chicken , i eat it everyday in form of Shish Tawook , Noddles , Thai Green Chicken curried with coconut all this home cooked , my wife is the best well some 40 kids showed up with their mothers along with my family members , it was one hell of a time , magic show , face painting and food yup the food everybody enjoyed and had fun , Taha got a car trunk full of gifts actually we had to put them in two cars from books to remote control truck the part started at 5 pm and lasted till 8pm . Taha was happy all his favorites in the end i was happy too , i expected the bill to be in the high 20K's but it came out to be only 13k , the party like that at home was estimated at around 40k with my full participation in setting things up and getting them removed . The pics are read to be viewed just search for " fantaz " on flickr .

Tommorrow is Party Time

Tomorrow , the 18th March 2006 , my son will turn 4 , to celebrate it there's a party at McDonalds Tariq Road so if you want to come , come and enjoy it with us P.S if i don't know you , you have to buy your own sandwich but mention my blog and i will give u a goody bag , pics will be posted later here and on my flickr account

Volkswagen Lupo 100 Km in 3 Litre of Fuel

Only 15,000 Euro less than what a loaded Civic cost in Pakistan and gives an economy of 30km / litre well one full tank of 50 litre and i can drive around for 4 months , another one on my wish list


Volkswagen Lupo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jumeirah - A Festival of Taste For The Uber Rich

Food and wine festivals are always happily decadent events but when an event is hosted by the Jumeirah hotel group, luxury takes on a whole new level. Th first annual Jumeirah Festival of Taste takes place May 21-26, 2006 in Dubai and features perhaps the most over-the-top dining event I have ever heard of. It is called the Ultimate Dinner Party and will take four people on an unparalleled dining experience. It starts with a cocktail reception at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers where they can mingle with the celebrity chefs participating in A Festival of Taste, then they are taken by helicopter to the Burj Al Arab for a first and second course. A luxury car then takes them to the Villa Beach Restaurant at Jumeirah Beach Hotel for a hot entrée. Then a limo takes them to the Pisces in Souk Madinat Jumeirah for the main course, followed by a short walk to Napa for dessert, coffee, cigars and digestifs. The evening ends with an overnight stay in a suite at Burj Al Arab and a morning breakfast as well as a receive a gift from Jumeirah to commemorate the night. The party costs AED 100,000 for four (around $27,230). Other more traditional events that are part of the festival include cooking demonstrations, wine tastings and book signings. The festival kicks off with the ‘1001 Nights Meet the Stars Opening Event’ which includes a champagne reception,wine tasting, live cooking stations featuring renowned chefs and live entertainment.
( Source : Luxist)

Jumeirah - A Festival of Taste

Ukrainian 4x4 unveiled by boxer Vitaly Klicko - Autoblog

Ukrainian 4x4 unveiled by boxer Vitaly Klicko - Autoblog

Got Juiced

suno suno meri dastan
kis tarah Telenor ne nikala mera Juice
pehle kharach kia 100 rupiya taake mile d-juice
us per bheja main ne office ka bhaiya keh telenor se lao free pack ek juice
us ne kaha naheen dete mujhe pack
kehte hai original id lao than come back
main ne phir mufta content mangaya
pur message dekh kar rona aaya
kehta hai web par ja is address par
bhai jab Data Server hi error dai to sar maro ki headrest par
phir jo mai ne balance check kia
4 ruppe ka jhatka lia
na mufta aaya na free pack juice
is tarah Telenor ne kia mujhe de juice

My first blog

Finally I'm a blogger , unlike Bob the Butler (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0216584/) I didn't started from the A's to reach the BL for Blogger i had been jumping the alphabets from a child to a student from the A/V guy to the Research Assistant from the Computer Lab Incharge to Projecter Slide cleaner , now my current jobs are that of a Marketing Executive for a healthcare company along with a Son , Father , Husband and Friend .
What I do ? well I do everything and nothing , someday I sit in the office all day doing nothing someday I am working till 1 am doing everything from vendor approvals to marketing strategies all are my responsibilities well a Jack of all trade good in all with the help of my collegues .
Why I am blogging ? I don't know , do i want people to know about my life well only if it interesting all i want is a place where i can go and say whatever i wanna say , who cares if anyone reads it or not it my life and i like it , someday i will come back to this blog and will pick up the finer memories of my life , someday when i will be old i can cherish these memories , relive them cause its going to be my life for now and forever.