Author: Mark

I finally spotted a Banksy work while in London. I should find out where the rest of his stuff is located and go check them out live since I find this more interesting then visiting boring museums. For more details on the above work and better shots check this [Link]

This is my favorite branch of Paul Smith in London (and anywhere else for that matter). The interior is very cozy and contains a lot of random items which aren’t available in any other branch. Supposedly its Sir Pauls favorite store because he gets to display and sell artifacts and products found by him from around the world. If you’re in the area (its right next to Borough Market) its worth visiting.

Last year when I traveled to London and Paris I found the hotels to be very expensive. They ate away a large chunk of the vacation money along with the plane tickets. This year with the cheap British Airways tickets there was a good chance the hotel budget would even exceed the cost of the plane tickets so I started searching for a solution. I needed an affordable hotel that had the following:

– Internet Access
– Location close to Oxford Street
– Location close to underground
– Cleanliness
– Security
– Modern looking

I found a ton of cheap hotels in London but none fit all my criteria and majority had gotten negative reviews on TripAdvisor.com. By chance I found out about a new easyHotel branch that had opened up in Paddington late last year and most if not all the reviews online were positive.

easyHotel is a no frills super budget hotel. To keep its prices down the rooms contain only two very essential things.. a bed and a bathroom. Thats it. No closet, side table, shelves, carpet, phone, mini bar, or anything else non essential. There is a flat screen TV but you have to pay for the remote control and thats the only amenity. According to the reviews online the hotel was very clean and in an excellent location so I decided to give it a shot. Four nights cost me only KD79 which is around KD20 a night. Compared to KD60 a night I paid for a normal room in an average 3 star hotel last year, this was a steal.

I took the regular subway from the airport to the hotel. It was around a 45 minute journey. I had an Oyster card which I recharged to use for a whole week (zone 1 & 2) so I paid only 1.5 pounds to take me from Heathrow to Paddington station which is a 2 minute walk from the hotel. If you don’t have an Oyster card the cost is around 4 pounds for a ticket.

When I arrived to the hotel I was given a choice of either a room on the 3rd floor or one in the basement. Since I wanted a bit of sun light I opted for the 3rd floor room. This meant I had to carry two bags (mine and Nat’s) up 3 flights of stairs since the hotel doesn’t have a lift. The bags were light on arrival so that wasn’t a problem but after all the shopping the bags more than doubled in weight so carrying them back down was exhausting and I nearly busted my knee. Once we got to the room I was actually impressed. Yes, the room is very tiny but it was spotless and bright. There was barely enough room to fit two bags side by side on the floor at the foot of the bed but even without any bags two people can’t move around the room very freely.

I liked the room and I really liked the hotel. I don’t think I can stay in the room for more than five days and with all the shopping we practically filled up all the floor space with bags but it was actually fun. We would get to the room late, watch a bit of TV, sleep, wake up early, leave the room and not come back until it was very late again. So really the room was serving its purpose. They had a special offer and gave us the TV remote control for free, there was also cheap wifi at 20pounds for a weeks use, AC/Heating was available surprisingly and best of all the hotel is a 2 minute walk from Paddington station and around 6 buses from Oxford Street stop right in front of the hotel. The hotel staff were also very friendly and helpful. Last day we were planning to take the Heathrow Express to the airport (16 pounds for a one way ticket) when the hotel employee advised us to take the Heathrow Connect (approx 6 pounds for a one way ticket). Turns out the Heathrow Connect is around 15 minutes slower but less than half the price so even more savings!

The final score I would give the hotel is a 4 out of 5. Its a very very excellent value hotel, just be prepared not to expect much from it in terms of size and amenities. I highly recommend it and will definitely be staying there again myself.

Expect a few posts about London before everything gets back to normal around here.

Everything is on sale but even without the sale London is cheap. Last year when I was here 1KD made I think like 1.6 pounds but now it’s like 2.6 although I’ve noticed when I use my credit card the exchange rate is like 2.3 pounds. Our hotel room is tiny as expected but will post pics and more once I get back to Kuwait since I am posting from my iPhone now. There was barely enough room for our luggage but with all our shopping bags things have gotten more… interesting. I think two more bags and we won’t be able to get into our room but I am loving it.

For some reason the wifi on my laptop isn’t working. I turned it off while on the plane to save battery and now it won’t turn on. This means I don’t have Internet which sucks. I am posting this from my iPhone at the moment, not very practical.

We just checked in to our BA flight to London and to our surprise they upgraded our seats to business! The guy at the counter didn’t know why but figured maybe because the flight is overbooked. It’s Nats birthday today so that turned out to be a nice gift from British Airways. Anyway if you haven’t booked a ticket yet today is the last day of their offer so don’t miss out! [Link]

I am getting ready to leave to London. Unlike most trips I am trying to take as little stuff as I can with me since my hotel room will be tiny and has no storage space whatsoever. Electronics wise I am taking my iPhone, MSI Wind netbook, Sony W300 camera and my iPod. For my in-flight entertainment I am loaded with stuff. I have season 1 of Mad Men, Supernatural, Star Trek The Next Generation and Battlestar Galactica. I’ve also got a few episodes of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares (US and UK versions), some old Stalone movies like Tango & Cash, Victory, Lock Up and Nighthawks and some newer movies like W and Doubt and finally, all the Harry Potter movies since I haven’t watched a single one of them yet. I can’t wait to get there.

Dean & Deluca soft launch is today. From what I saw over the weekend, it looks like they’re opening both the Dean & Deluca gourmet store and cafe in the same location.

Oh my God why didn’t anyone tell me about these!! It seems there is a whole line of Tamiya radio controlled construction trucks! I am soooo going to get these. [YouTube]

I am looking for a cheap commercial space to rent. Location doesn’t matter, size doesn’t matter it just has to be cheap. Anyone know where I need to look or ask?

Never mind, problem solved.

Spotted this Fiat 500 outside Shamiya Coop today. Although I love the car I don’t think it looks that good in Kuwait.

AMU, a blogger from Kuwait found out about easyHotel from my blog post awhile back and decided to give it a shot. He just got to London and this is what he had to say:

..the hotel is beyond my expectation for its price. It extremely clean and 2 minutes walk from the station. I have a double bed single room with a window. Nice and friendly staff and they have all the information available if you would like to do some site seeing.

I wonder if there is anyone else also from Kuwait going to be staying there with us. I get to London on Tuesday and will also be staying at the same easyHotel in Paddingtone so I will be posting my own review too. For now you can check out his review [Here]

Just a blast from the past. I used to play this game back in 1991 in my computer class when I was still in Kuwait English School. In the video above the game actually starts at the 2 minute mark. [YouTube]

I took my Tamiya Lunchbox out for the first time today. After all the hard work with the paint job I ironically managed to scratch it while it was still in the trunk of my Wrangler. If that wasn’t bad enough, 10 minutes into my run the Lunchbox lost died on me. It was performing really well, taking some great jumps while my dog was busy trying to catch it when suddenly it just stopped moving. When I got closer I realized the motor was working but the wheels weren’t spinning which meant something was wrong with the gears.

I got home, took apart the car again and turned out it was a problem with one of the gears, the pinion gear which is the one thats connected to the motor was loose. I tightened it back again and used some blue thread locker and its now working perfectly again. I think I am going to spend most of my time breaking my cars and then try and fix them… I love that.

If anyone is wondering where the place is in the pictures above its the huge park off the first ring road.