Category: Personal

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.

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.

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.

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.

Although I got my Tamiya Lunch Box truck early in the month I had a faster motor and metal ball bearings I still hadn’t received from eBay so I couldn’t start the build until today. Aramex dropped off my parts in the morning and once I got home I started work on the Lunch Box right away. Five hours later it was done. I only managed to drive the truck for a few minutes under my building in the dark but it was great. Tomorrow I need to pick up a white spray can so I could stencil in some type on the side. Will post more pictures once I am done, I love how its turned out so far.

I was checking out Safat when I found a post by Intlxpatr talking about a Kuwaiti restaurant located next to Marina Mall. She had posted a bunch of pictures and the place looked really interesting and since it was on the same street as my house I decided to pass by and try it.

I have no clue how I never noticed this place before but even if I had I don’t think I would have thought much of it since from the outside it looks pretty average. Once you walk inside though you’re suddenly transformed into an old Kuwaiti city. The private cabins are actually little old Kuwaiti houses and to get to a cabin you have to walk through small narrow corridors, kinda like the old tight streets between the houses.

The menu is full of Kuwaiti dishes as you can expect, I ended up ordering hummus for starters followed by mourabian (yellow rice with shrimps on top) for my main course. The hummus was fine, the bread was weird, kinda like crepes but it was good. My main course also wasn’t bad at all and for KD2.500 was pretty cheap for the quantity. I prefer Oum Habbibs mourabian but that’s also nearly twice as expensive and located all the way in Kuwait City while this place is just minutes from my house.

Nothing I had tonight was wow but the place is an experience and I still have a ton of stuff to try on their menu. Prices are VERY cheap and you can actually check out most of the menu in Intlxpatr’s post. I passed by around 9:30 and the place was pretty packed. Overall it was a good experience and will definitely pass by again. They are located on the same street as Marina Mall, opposite Kwik Kopy, first floor, entrance is from the back next to the red truck (motor hamar).

To check out a lot more pictures of Freej Soeleh check out Intlxpatr’s post by clicking [Here]

Definitely by far one of the best movies I’ve watched in a very very long time. Just when I was starting to think movies were getting boring and dull comes along something so different and colorful.

Here is the movie summary taken from IMDB:

The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions. Each chapter of Jamal’s increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show? When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out. At the heart of its storytelling lies the question of how anyone comes to know the things they know about life and love.

Here is a link to the trailer [Link]
And finally here is a link to the official website [Link]

I’ve been checking out pictures of various easyHotel rooms taken by people on flickr and I honestly don’t know if I should be laughing or getting worried that I am going to spend 4 nights at an easyHotel end of the month in London. The rooms are so tiny most people could only take a picture of it while standing outside the room. But judging by peoples reactions in the photos, it looks like fun.. I hope. [Pictures]

Picture above by norbera

A few years ago I got an Audrey from eBay. It’s an “internet appliance” that was originally launched back in 2000 by 3com. It has a 7.8inch touch screen, a wireless keyboard and basic internet functions like web browsing and email. I lost interest in it awhile back until I found use for it yesterday night. It’s now officially become my kitchen computer. Basically I will be using it for finding recipes online and browsing the web while I wait for my food to be done. I think the keyboard is even waterproof so I am not too worried about it getting dirty. If anyone wants one there is a guy selling an Audrey on eBay, bidding is currently at KD8 but I doubt it would go for more than KD15. [Link]

Surprise surprise, yes the Burger Challenge is still on. I’ve got a few places I still need to try out before I end this but I’ve been very busy (i.e. lazy) so I haven’t been able to get around to it. Anyway two people previously commented that I should try out this burger place in Al Manshar mall so I decided to pass by today and see what it was about.

First lets get the weird part out of the way. The place doesn’t have a name. I don’t know how that’s even legally possible! How could a place not have a name? I asked the employee what the place was called and her reply was that they don’t have a name but that it belongs to the same owners of Papa Johns Pizza. I think that’s very strange but I have a theory on why it doesn’t have a name which I will share later on in this post. For now though I’ve decided to call the place “Papa John’s Burgers”. Cheesy I know but its there fault for not coming up with one themselves and I need a name for this post.

Their burger surprisingly turned out to be really good. I had a cheeseburger combo with an extra cheeseburger on the side and although I wasn’t expecting to like it I actually ended up loving it. Their beef patties are ground fresh every morning and their buns are very McDonalds Fillet-O-Fish like so the end result is pretty similar to Johnny Rockets except for one thing, the sauce. The sauce they put with the burger is wayy better than anything I’ve had at Johnny Rockets, its kinda like the Rocket Single sauce except better.

Now the bad news. Their patties are pretty thin and I think that has to do with the price since their cheeseburger costs only 650fils. The result is too little meat for the bun, it looks kinda ok in the picture above but thats because I actually pulled the meat out so it would show in the picture. If it had double the patty it might have been a strong competitor for best burger in Kuwait but its not so I rate this burger a 3.5 out of 5.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way I can talk about other things not related to the review. First of all the price, its unbelievably cheap! Imagine a Johnny Rockets burger for only 650fils because that’s exactly what this is! A combo consisting of cheeseburger, fries and coke is only KD1.100! Thats cheaper than McDonalds and even cheaper than Naif! Their location really sucks, they’re located on the mezzanine floor of Fun Ahoy (an arcade/themepark) right next to Papa John’s Pizza. Which brings me to my theory on why the place doesn’t have a name. The owners of Papa John’s also own Fuddruckers so my theory is they needed a cheap burger place to serve the kids at Fun Ahoy so they probably use the same meat that they use at Fuddruckers and also have Fudds make their buns. Now legally I don’t think they can own another burger brand since they have Fudds so they just opened this random place that serves burgers and doesn’t have a name. Its only a theory of course so don’t take my word for it. If you do end up passing by which you should, be sure to do so in the middle of the week when there won’t be much kids around.

Papa John’s Burger is located in Al Manshar Mall in Fahaheel.
The cost of the Cheese Burger is KD0.650

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
The Burger Hub
The Little Oven
Wimpy

I picked up my Tamiya Lunch Box kit today. The Lunch Box is based on an old dodge van and was originally released I think in 1988. Recently though Tamiya has been re-releasing some of their “greater hits” and the Lunch Box is one of them.

Sadly I won’t be building this truck yet since I’ve ordered some parts off eBay (metal bearings / a faster motor) and they still haven’t arrived. For now I’ve started with the painting. Originally the Lunch Box is supposed to be painted yellow but I saw a guy online who had his painted military green and I decided to basically copy him. Its my first time painting and I think I’m doing good for a beginner.

I was a bit heavy handed with the spray paint at first and I am not too patient waiting for the different coats to dry but I’m still learning so I should be better the next time. I think I need to pass by the dealer later in the evening and pick up another can of paint just to be safe.

Beautiful weather today so I took my Tamiya car to a parking lot across the street from my house to play around with. I even tried shooting a video (below) which didn’t come out as I planned! Its a really cool car but I keep wishing I had the real version instead. I am going to get soooo much more Tamiya cars though, its like I finally found myself a hobby! [YouTube]