Category: Reviews

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’m flying Turkish Airlines from Kuwait to New York Business Class courtesy of the airline. The trip is divided into two stages, the first is a short flight from Kuwait to Istanbul while the second is the longer journey, Istanbul to New York. One of the main reasons Turkish Airlines wanted me to review them is because they’ve gotten a brand new plane for the Kuwait – Istanbul leg of the journey which they’ve recently entered into service.

The new plane is an Airbus A321 and I think it was entered into service around a month ago if I’m not mistaken. First thing I noticed once I boarded the flight was the trendy color scheme of the seats which were dark gray and had minimal red accents and bright turquoise pillows. The seats have built in power sockets, USB ports, a large pull out screen and a remote control. Since the flight is a short one the seats don’t fold down flat into beds but they do recline back a good deal with leg supports as well. Since this was business class there was lots of legroom as well.

The trip going to Istanbul is 3 hours and 20 minutes long. One of the advantages flying with Turkish Airline to the States or any other European airline is the fact your journey starts by flying west which results in a quicker overall trip since you don’t waste time backtracking your flight path (if your journey started by going east for example).

Breakfast was served on this trip and even though I was told by some readers the food would be great I actually wasn’t expecting much for this first stage of the trip. I was wrong since the food turned out to be pretty good. They started of breakfast with some cheeses, labneh, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. A light combination which I’ve noticed Turkish Airlines likes a lot since there was a similar setup at different stages of my trip (lounge and Istanbul-NY flight). There was also a bit of turkey, freshly squeezed orange juice, fruits, jam, butter and yogurt. Once I was done with my starter I was served a cheese and tomato omelet which was also very good. The whole meal actually made me look forward to the one I would be having on my next longer flight since there would be a chef on board on that one.

It was a pretty good start to my trip. My only quibble and I’m being picky here is the lack of a phone network on-board. The only planes I’ve been on where I could use my phone while flying to check my email and chat on BBM are the Wataniya Airways ones and I’d like to see other airlines introduce this feature as well. Below are some pictures I took on this trip.

Note: I will be posting about my Istanbul to New York flight as well as the lounge in separate posts.

Earlier in the month I posted about my quest to find a good car cam, a camera I can use to record what’s happening on the road while I drive. My thinking was I might one day capture something interesting that I could later upload onto YouTube and post about on the blog. I was looking for something affordable with decent video footage and after a bit of research I was leaning towards the Muvi Micro camera. A reader then pointed out that X-Cite were selling the same brand so I emailed my contact and managed to get 3 cameras sent over to review.

Muvi Micro Pro vs Muvi Atom
I’m going to start the review comparing these two cameras since they are priced similarly and offer nearly the same quality footage. Both these cameras are extremely small, if you look at the picture on the top of the page, they’re the two tiny cameras in that photo. The Atom is the smaller of the two and comes with slightly more accessories but both come with the very important clip. The clip snaps on to the back of the cameras and you can then clip them anywhere including your rear view mirror (if it’s not very thick).

Both these cameras don’t do HD but at this price point and with this physical size I wasn’t expecting them to. The video footage from both cameras is practically identical in terms of quality. The only difference I found is that the Micro Pro’s footage was slightly sharper when compared side by side with the Atom. But, the Micro Pro also has an annoying time-stamp that’s imprinted on the bottom of the video which killed it for me. Battery life for both these cameras is not that great, the Micro Pro lasts for around 90 minutes while the Atom just 45. On the bright side they both can be powered by USB and record while charging at the same time.

If I had to choose between the two I would most likely go for the Atom just for the fact that it doesn’t have the time-stamp on the video. The footage from both the cams aren’t that great but for YouTube they should work out fine as you can see in the sample videos below. I uploaded two videos shot simultaneously so you could compare the quality of the footage between the two cameras. I start off the video in an underground parking lot so you could see the low light performance and then I’ve got outdoor footage after that.

Veho Muvi Pro Sample Footage
Veho Muvi Atom Sample Footage

Muvi HD Pro
The HD Pro is larger than the other two cameras but it’s really not that big, it’s just that the other two that are really small which is why the HD Pro looks more bulky. Unlike the other two cameras the HD Pro has an LCD screen so you can actually see what you’re shooting instead of just aiming and hoping for the best. The HD Pro also shoots full HD (1080p) and has a battery that lasts up to 3 hours. So that’s three major advantages over the other two. The camera also comes with a ton of accessories most of which are mounting adapters including a windshield mount. You’re paying for all these extra features and accessories though since the HD Pro is double the price of the other two cameras. There is a more affordable option called the HD10+ which is the same camera but comes with less accessories and the price ends up falling between the HD Pro and the other two cameras.

Check out the comparison videos below between the HD Pro and the Muvi Pro.

Veho Muvi Pro Sample Footage
Veho HD Pro Sample Footage

Originally I was leaning towards geting the Muvi Micro from Amazon (a step down from the Micro Pro featured here) but after seeing the difference in quality between the Micro Pro and the HD Pro I realized it’s better to spend and get the best quality footage I could afford. With that mindset I ended up ordering the Contour+ which I’ll post about once I test it out. If you’re looking for an affordable camera to shoot video with while driving, walking (you can clip the Micro and Atom to your pants) or maybe mounting it on your RC car, then these cameras are worth looking into.

All the camera’s in this review were supplied by Alghanim and their prices are listed below: (They’re more expensive than Amazon)

Veho HD Pro KD89
Veho Muvi HD10+ KD69
Veho Atom KD40
Veho Muvi Micro Pro KD39

Digumz is a local video game rental website which I posted about back in March. Three weeks ago I decided to sign up and try them out and I’m really loving them so far.

Registration was a pretty simple procedure and I had two options for payment, K-net but I would have to leave a deposit or credit card and no deposit. I opted for the credit card payment and once the account was setup proceeded to order my first game. I went with Gears of War 3 and they managed to deliver it the same evening. They drop off the games and pick them up when you’re done and there are no delivery charges which is fantastic.

Their website is really easy to use and practical. Ordering a game is pretty simple and quick. You flip through their site, find a game you want and then click on the “Rent Now” button and it will be added to the queue list. If you don’t have anything on that list the game will be dispatched to you immediately. You could then continue to add games to your queue list and arrange them according to your priorities.

When you want to swap a game you go to your “Games I have” list and click on the “request game exchange” button and the next game on your list gets dispatched. In case your first choice isn’t available they will dispatch your second, if the second isn’t available the third and on and on.

Now there really aren’t any negatives, at least not for me since when I signed up their prices started at KD7 a month. For that price I can rent as many games as I want per month but only 1 game at a time. A couple of weeks back though they increased their prices and now the most affordable package starts at KD15. Lucky for me and everyone who signed up before the price increase, our memberships will continue to be renewed at KD7 a month which is great. At KD15 a month I don’t think I would have signed up since I am probably going to be renting only 1 game a month. For KD15 a month I might as well buy a game a month instead of renting. If you are planning to rent at least two games then KD15 a month would make more financial sense. They also have other packages in which you could rent more than a game a month but of course those packages also cost more.

Here is the link to the Digumz website [Link]
They also have another website where they sell games, here is the link to that website [Link]

At KD7 a month I’m really loving Digumz.

Last week just before Eid I was able to get a hold of the new Audi A1 from the dealership to test drive over the holiday. I had been nagging them for a test drive since June but since I wanted the car for more than a day I wasn’t able to get my hands on it until now. I’ve always had a thing for hatchbacks but I also got interested in Audi’s recently and even more so after watching Truth in 24 which is a need to watch movie if you love cars.

The car a fuel efficient 2.0l engine pumping out 122hp which doesn’t sound like much on paper but in reality I found the car pretty zippy. That probably has a lot to do with the 7-speed automatic gearbox that comes standard with the car. The first day I drove the A1 I was actually pretty annoyed with the gearbox since whenever I stepped on the gas pedal for just a bit more power the car would dramatically drop down 3 or 4 gears which I thought was overkill. But, by the second day I had gotten used to it and started appreciating the gearbox a lot more. It’s very smooth and really does make the engine power more readily available which is why the car felt zippy. Still 8 gears is a lot of gears and if you use the paddle shift then you’ll be doing quite a lot of clicking.

I’m around 6 feet tall and found the car cozy with a very adjustable seat and steering column. It was actually pretty comfortable… that is as long as you’re sitting in the front. The car is a 2-door and I tried sitting in the backseat and found it too claustrophobic for my size. I wouldn’t mind sitting in the back for a 5 or 10 minute ride but I definitely wouldn’t want to sit there for a trip down to Bnaider. The trunk is also pretty small, you could fit one large travel bag but barely. But since it’s a hatchback the back seats fold down and you end up with a much larger carrying capacity.

Tech wise the car I drove came with LED lights which I think helps give the car an eye catching look. The car I drove didn’t have navigation (it’s an extra option) but it did have a popup screen and a pretty good sound system which comes with two SD card slots to use for MP3s. You could also purchase an iPod cable or even stream music from your iPhone to the car using Bluetooth which is what I was doing most of the time.

Overall I had a lot of fun with the car. I drove it all the way to the junkyards at the end of the 6th ring road and even through Bin Khaldoun Street traffic so I managed to experience a wide variety of environments. It’s easy to maneuver as a hatchback should be but the car also feels really well built with a nice thick steering wheel and great feeling buttons and nobs. Most importantly the car looks great which at the end of the days is probably the most important thing. The starting price of the Audi A1 is KD6,995 but the car I drove costs KD8,995. If you’re interested you can call them up for more information on 1811118.

Since I’ve started running and biking I was using the Nike+ GPS app on my iPhone to calculate the distance and amount of calories I was burning. But it had limitations and a few bugs so I decided to invest in a watch that would do a better job at it. The first watch I looked at was the Nike+ SportWatch GPS but it wasn’t cheap at $200 and it didn’t come with a heart rate monitor which was another $70. It also wouldn’t work well with biking. After a bit of research I finally ended up getting the Garmin Forerunner 305 for a number of reasons while I will list below.

The Forerunner 305 has a built in GPS, a very large screen and it comes with a heart rate monitor. The amount of information it can collect during a run (or bike ride) is overwhelming. For example, you can find out the distance traveled, your top speed, average speed, max hear rate, average heart rate, amount of calories burned, the elevation, the duration, the length of your rest breaks, what zone your heart rate is in and a few more details all of which you can be uploaded onto the Garmin Connect website and get it displayed as maps, charts and numbers.

The 305 has a large screen which as a result allows you to display a lot of information on it. The screen can be divided into 4 sections with each displaying information of your choice. For example I have it set up to show me:

– The current duration of my run
– The amount of calories burned
– The distance I’ve traveled
– The current time

All the above in one screen and if with a press of a button I can flip over to a second screen with 4 more pieces of information. If that’s a lot of information you could also divide the screen into 1, 2 or 3 sections. I also got two accessories with the watch, one is a bike adapter so I could mount the watch onto my bike and have the information in front of me. The second accessory I got is a velcro strap since it’s thicker then the rubber strap that comes with the watch and personally I think looks much better.

There are two negatives about the watch, nothing major but ones that are worth mentioning. Because of the GPS, the battery on the watch lasts for just 10 hours before needing a recharge. 10 hours is more than enough time since my runs are a lot shorter but I already have too many devices I need to charge and don’t really need another one. The second issue is the way it looks. This is not the best looking watch out there. But on the positive side it is very light and I would rather have an ugly watch with a large screen over a good looking one with a smaller one. But still, this watch would probably rank high up in my Top 10 Ugliest watches ever list.

I’ve saved the best thing till the end which is the price. This watch cost me just $128! It’s literally a steal right now since the newer Forerunner 310 came out. This watch originally cost over $400 and at $128 I don’t think there is any other watch in the market with similar features at this price point. This is a good deal, just ignore the way it looks. You’re not supposed to look good working out anyway, if you do then you’re doing it wrong.

Here is the link to the Forerunner 305 [Amazon Link]

I watched the movie Super 8 tonight here in Lebanon and all I can say is that it kicked ass. If you’re a fan of 70s/80s sci-fi/adventure movies then you’re going to love this. I thought it was a combination of three great classics, ET, The Goonies and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I loved it.

There was no nudity, kissing or anything of the sort so it should be censor free in Kuwait.

I’ve been getting really bored of regular tuna and so when I found this John West packet at Sultan Center it looked like an interesting alternative. I checked the back label and it said I could heat it up in the microwave and it was just 156 calories. I bought a packet to try it out and it turned out to be actually pretty good. You just open the packet, empty the tuna onto a plate and microwave it for 30 seconds.

It looks extremely unappetizing but it actually tasted much better than regular tuna. Wouldn’t mind having a few packets at home for those late night cravings. The biggest issue though is price, 1 packet costs KD1.750 for the “Sweet Thai Red Chilli” although they did have different flavored ones for around 500fils cheaper.

On Thursday two engineers from Mada came over and handed me a router so I could review and after using it over the weekend here are my findings. I’ll start the post with the speedtest results since I know that’s what everyone has been waiting for. I used speedtest.net for the testing and although I was originally planning to test using the servers in London, New York and LA, I ended up running into issues with the New York and LA server and so decided to add two more locations which are New Jersey and San Francisco.

I don’t know why the NY and LA servers were giving me such terrible numbers but I think it had to do more with the server than my connection since the connection worked perfectly again with their neighboring cities. The location of the WiMAX router does effect the speed of your connection. For example I live in Salmiya block 9 and according to a Mada engineer, Salmiya is one of their most focused areas so the speeds I’m getting are probably the fastest you can get. When I tried the Mada router at my office in Kuwait City, I was getting on average around 2.8Mbps tops. The engineer told me it had to do with the location (Kuwait City), the fact my office is on the 21st floor (connection starts dropping after the 15th) and the fact the windows were double glazed (bounces signals). A reader called Kevin tried Mada in Mangaf block 1 and his download speed was around 6.5Mbps. So location does make a big difference on the speed. I don’t play many games online but my brother who lives next door and leeches my connection does. He spent the weekend playing on his Xbox online and according to him he didn’t notice any difference going from DSL to WiMAX.

Setting up and connecting the router was a very simple process. You just plug in the power cord, wait a minute and that’s it. You can then either connect to the router via one of the two ethernet ports on the device or by wifi. I did face a minor problem when I wanted to log into the device so I could change the wifi password as well as setup other options. Underneath the device you have two sets of login information. One is supposed to be the default wifi password the other I assumed to connect to the device to change the settings but it wouldn’t work. It was around 11PM and I wasn’t sure if there would be anyone at Mada support to help but I called them up and someone answered right away and gave me the default username and password which was just “user”. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to go through a dozen menus on the phone just to get to someone from support and I liked the fact that I didn’t have to wait on hold either. This probably has to do with the fact that the service is still new and so not many people have subscribed with them yet.

Which brings me to the future. The Mada WiMAX service currently has no download cap for the next 3 months, after that they are still not sure what the download cap will be but they’re saying it will be at least 20GB and that they will be offering a package for people who consume more. 20GB a month means around 600MB a day which is too little and makes the device really useless. 600MB a day is suitable for users who just use their internet to check email, maybe visit a few websites and also watch a video or two on YouTube. Those kind of users aren’t heavy internet users and for them if it’s a 1MB connection or 10 it wouldn’t make a difference. The real people who can use and fully take advantage of Mada’s WiMAX speed are users like me who spend all their time online surfing through a ton of websites, watching a million YouTube videos while iTunes is busy in the background downloading all the latest TV shows and Movies, the Playstation and Xbox downloading game demos and the server downloading torrents. For me it makes a huge difference if the connection is 1MB or 10.

Which brings me to a potential future issue. The connection is really great right now but that’s because the service is only a few days old, how will it be a month from now or even a year from now? I am not sure. Mada has been around for awhile now catering for the commercial industry so that gives me a bit of confidence in them. But still, 20KD for 10MB is going to attract a lot of people specially with all the problems people have with the ISP’s introducing download caps. Personally I am going to take it day by day and right now the Mada WiMAX internet connection is the fastest connection I’ve ever had. I’ve already disconnected my DSL modem at home and replaced it with WiMAX, that’s how much I’m loving this connection.

Mada currently have a booth setup at Marina Mall right outside the Mac store Digits and they also have a booth at Mohallab. It’s KD20 a month and if you sign up for 3 months it’s KD60 but you get the router for free. Here is a link to their website [Link]

Earlier in the week someone from the KitchenAid dealer in Kuwait sent me an email thanking me for my post on their mixer. They person also asked me if I would be interested in trying the mixer out and since I like to bake I was like sure why not. So the next day they had a delivery guy drop off a pretty black mixer for me to try out.

There are two things that grabbed my attention right away. The first is how heavy the damn thing is. The mixer not only has a solid metal base but the upper body is also made of metal and even all the switches. The second thing I noticed was the Made in USA marking. I knew KitchenAid was an American company but I didn’t think they actually made the mixers in the US.

I was originally planning to bake a triple layered chocolate cake but decided instead to bake cookies since I’ve made cookies a lot of times before and so would be able to compare this mixer to previous mixers I’ve used. Instead of my usual cookie recipe I decided to try a new one from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I’m not going to share the recipe here, if you want it then buy the book and support them. Anyway, those of you who follow me on twitter know by now that the cookies I baked turned out to be delicious! Even though The Hummingbird Bakery recipe was pretty similar to my old recipe the little changes they made were enough to turn my fairly good cookies into amazingly good ones. I was originally planning to eat just one cookie but ended up eating like a dozen!

Working with the KitchenAid mixer was very easy. I’m pretty aggressive when I mix (I like mixing at full blast) and by the time I add in all the flour and sugar the mixer usually starts to bounce around and I need to kinda hold it down or lower the speed to stabilize it again. With the KitchenAid it just breezed through the process without a sweat. It didn’t even do a little hop or shake a bit. The mixer is just really well built and I love how it looks. They come in a ton of colors but the most popular one I’ve seen is the Empire Red. The black one is nice and evil looking though.

I really loved the cookies and I really love the KitchenAid Mixer so it’s going to be sad to give it back. If you’re interested, the dealer is called Mabrook and their phone number is 24818242.

If you want the cookbook I used it’s available on [Amazon]

Around a month ago I found a video on YouTube of a guy in Kuwait making pizzas and since then I’ve been eagerly waiting for them to open up. I’m a huge pizza fan and the pizzas in the video all looked delicious but they hadn’t opened the restaurant yet and so I had to wait. Then a few days ago while I was in Lebanon I get an email saying they’re opening on the 15th but since I was busy yesterday I decided to pass by tonight instead to try them out.

Solo Pizza Napulitana is a new small Kuwaiti owned business that’s located in an old building in Kuwait City right behind the newly opened Japanese restaurant Tatami. From the outside it doesn’t look very appealing and on the inside it’s honestly not that great looking either. But the restaurant is as close as you will get to a mom and pop store in Kuwait. This is not a franchise, this is not a big business, this a tiny pizza joint where the owner makes the pizzas and from what I could tell his friends help him out waiting on tables and taking care of the payments.

I passed by after the gym in my shorts and t-shirt expecting the place to be empty but to my surprise it was pretty packed. I decided to sit on the one table outside but no one served me. So after growing impatient I popped my head inside and asked if I could have a menu. A minute later I got the menu which is pretty small, I think they had only 3 pizzas and 3 salads and maybe 2 desserts. I’m a fan of small menus as I’ve mentioned before and I quickly looked through it and decided to go with the Margherita since I couldn’t find a mushroom pizza on the menu. A few minutes passed by and no one came to get my order so I decided to move inside. I was seriously thinking of just leaving since I didn’t want to wait indefinitely for someone to come get my order but I kept reminding myself that they’ve only been open for 2 days and they’re already packed and probably not prepared for this much pressure. Finally a guy came over and was very apologetic for making me waiting very long. I told him it wasn’t a problem and asked him if they had mushroom pizza. He told me they did so I decided to go with that. From my table I could see the owner prepare my pizza and around 2 minutes after taking my order my pizza arrived. I was thinking to myself that’s ridiculously fast!

The pizza wasn’t sliced up which I thought was interesting since I don’t think I’ve ever had a pizza that didn’t come cut up into triangles. I took some shots quickly and then dug in. What a pizza, it was ammmaaaazing. The pizza crust, the tomato sauce, the cheese, the mushrooms… it was all just delicious and I couldn’t find anything to pick on. I was eating it and thinking to myself where have I ever tasted a pizza that was as good as this and I couldn’t think of any place. I mean sure we don’t have many pizza places in Kuwait to compare to but I’ve had a ton of pizzas in Lebanon and I even just got back from a trip where I tried two new great pizza places over there and yet here I was sitting in this tiny little restaurant in some dodgy back street of Kuwait City having what I thought was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had anywhere.

Once I was done with my pizza and I paid my bill (KD3.750 for the pizza), I decided to go up to the owner and introduce myself. I told him what I thought of his pizzas and he explained to me how he worked at some famous pizzerias in Naples and how he belongs to this group that’s trying to preserve the famous Naples pizza. He also asked me if I noticed how quickly the pizza gets done since it takes less than 60 seconds to cook. I wished him good luck and told him I would definitely be back again.

So if you are looking for what I think are the best pizzas in Kuwait then you need to pass by this place. It’s in a crappy location, it’s tiny and the interior isn’t that great looking but damn the pizza is just really great. Here is a link to their website where you can find a map and a phone number. They’re currently only open for dinner. [Link]

I’ve had a lot of iPods but I don’t think I’ve been impressed with one recently as much as I have been with the latest iPod Shuffle. I got it to use while I am running or walking since the new Nano although small and light, it doesn’t have any physical buttons which makes it difficult to control without looking at the screen. The Shuffle on the other hand is super light and has buttons which for me makes it the perfect iPod for exercising.

Of course the downside is that there is no screen.. you would think but it isn’t. The shuffle has a nifty feature (like the nano) called voice over. There is a little button that you press and a guys voice comes in over your music to tell you what song is currently playing. Click that button twice and the voice tells you how much battery is left. Hold down the button and the voice will flip through your playlist and when you decide on one just press play. This feature is extremely helpful since it really allows you to control the shuffle and find out what you’re listening to all by just feeling your way around the buttons.

Price wise the shuffle is cheap. Sheeel had them on sale for just KD10 and I should have bought one then but I didn’t, instead I bought one from the market for around KD17. Still not too bad, it’s more expensive than Amazon but if you include the shipping cost it comes out the same. The Nano sells for around KD50 here as well so the shuffle is less than half the price. Really the only problem I have with the shuffle is the fact that there is no hold button which is annoying since I accidentally managed to press the forward button a few times by brushing against it. Because of that I was going to give the shuffle a 4.5 out of 5 BUT, I just decided to check the manual and make sure there isn’t a way to put the shuffle on hold and guess what? Turns out there is a hold mode, I just need to press the play/pause button for 3 seconds to activate it. So now it’s perfect. If you’re looking for a music player you don’t want to worry about scratching, breaking or losing and if you prefer physical buttons over a touch screen then the Shuffle is perfect for you. Final score is a 5 out of 5.

When I was walking back home from work the other day I spotted this shawerma place called Dandosh. What grabbed my attention was a red skewer of chicken which according to a friend of mine I met there was their “mexican mix”. So since I was taking a day off from my diet I decided to pass by tonight and try out their shawermas.

I didn’t try their meat but I ended up having three different combinations of chicken shawerma which are:

– Mexican chicken shawerma with regular garlic and fries
– Regular chicken shawerma with red spicy garlic and fries
– Regular chicken shawerma with regular garlic and fries

I had all the above without their onion/greens mix.

The Mexican shawerma was a bit too strange for me. It had a lot of different spices and I tasted a hint of green pepper which I don’t like. The regular chicken shawerma with their special red spicy garlic was good although I thought it was a bit too spicy. My favorite shawerma turned out to be the classic, regular chicken with regular garlic. The garlic wasn’t too strong and the overall combination I think might be better than Badar Al Badoor although I would need to go back and try it one more time just to be sure. They also have benches outside if you want to sit and eat.

I would definitely recommend the place and if you want to know how to get there here is a link to [Google Maps]. For those of you who know where Badar Al Badoor is then it’s very easy to get to Dandosh. Just go straight instead of taking the right turn that takes you towards Badar Al Badoor.

I got the headphones above specifically for one thing and that’s to use when exercising. None of my other pairs of headphones are suited for sports because they’re either the type you stick inside your ear which isn’t practical when playing sports or they’re the kind you put over your head and then spend the whole time adjusting them so they don’t fall off. The 680’s are made for sports and I’ve had them for a couple of weeks now and really really love them.

First off these headphones are very light, once you’ve got them on you really can’t tell they’re there. You can also jump up and down, wiggle your head and probably hang upside down and they wouldn’t fall out of your ears. The headphones wrap around over your ears and then behind your head and once you put them on there is absolutely no need to fidget with them anymore, they just stay there the whole time. I’ve used them for running, walking and biking without facing any issues or having to adjust them in the middle of my routine.

The versions I got are the 680i, the “i” standing for ipod or iphone since the remote that comes with it works with them. By that I mean you can pause, play, forward, rewind, fast forward and fast rewind with the remote as well as raising and lowering the volume, activating voice over, answering calls as well as acting like a mic when talking on the phone. Now the problem is ALL the above is done with just 3 buttons. That’s where it gets tricky since you have to memorize a lot of button combinations like a double click is forward, a triple click is rewind, a double click and hold I think is fast forward, a single click and hold does something else… they’re just too many to remember and with my memory all you end up doing is rewinding a song by mistake instead of forwarding it or accidentally ordering pizza while trying to fast rewind.

Sound wise they’re pretty good, at first I found them a bit too bright but that got solved once I put on the tiny black ear foams that came with them. Another solution is to run them through a headphone amplifier like the FiiO E5 which I did and got some great results (without the foams). Only problem is you add bulk by running around with a small amp clipped to you as well as the fact you lose out on the iphone/ipod controls. Overall though I highly recommend these headphones for fitness and other sport activities. I ordered mine from Amazon for $70 but I found the same headphones except the cheaper 680 version without the “i” at Go Sport for KD18.5.

Here is the link to Amazon. [Link]

The past few days since I’ve been in Lebanon I’ve been watching a lot of movies at the cinema. Here is a quick summary of what I thought of them:

Unknown – Not bad, you think you know whats going to happen but then you get a nice surprise. I like Liam Neeson although the past 3 movies I watched he’s played a similar styled character which is becoming as annoying as Johnny Depp.

Battle: Los Angeles – This might have been a good movie if no one spoke in it. The cheesy cliche dialogue just ruined it for me and nearly put me to sleep a few times. The movie is like Transformers but without the Autobots, just the evil Decepticons.

The Adjustment Bureau – Watch The 13th Floor or Dark City instead.

On my trip to Dubai I decided to stay at EasyHotel. I had a good experience with them on my last trip to London so was interested to see how the hotel was in Dubai. What attracted me to the hotel was the fact rooms start at just KD7.5 a day (99dhms). Yes KD7.5 a day! I thought that was ridiculously cheap and specially for a hotel in Dubai. I looked for reviews online but couldn’t find anything and the only pictures I found were the PR shots. I was a bit worried to book a room but figured what the hell its only for 3 days so worse comes to worse it would be over quickly.

The hotel is located in the Jabel Ali free zone which is around 40 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from Dubai Mall. I rented a car from the airport and headed with my GPS towards Easy Hotel. Even though the software on my GPS is the 2010 map it seems since the map got released the roads in Dubai changed because the GPS made me take the wrong exit and I spent 40 minutes trying to get back to the main Sheikh Zayed road. Once you find the hotel though its pretty easy to get there.

My first impression with the hotel was positive. The building was very clean and simple on the outside with ample parking underneath. The reception was also very clean with a few vending machines on one side and some computers connected to the internet on the other. I should mention this in case you didn’t know already but Easy Hotel is a no frills hotel in the same way how Jazeera and Fly Dubai are budget airlines. The rooms are cheap but that’s because you get just the basics and you pay for extra stuff. The Easy Hotel I previously tried in London was also extremely tiny (see review here) but if all you care about is a place to sleep at night then you really won’t mind it all.

The rooms at Easy Hotel Dubai are pretty big compared to the London branch. There was ample space around the bed , a flat screen tv (with just 4 channels), a small open closet with shelves and hangers. There was even a little desk next to the window and a small safe to put your items in. The bathroom wasn’t that bad as well, the sink was kinda small but the shower area was pretty big.

As I mentioned with Easy Hotel you pay for extras. For example the fact I wanted a room with a window.. thats an extra cost. If you don’t care about a window then you pay less for the room. TV remote? You pay for that as well (although we were given one for free), extra towels? you pay, Internet? you pay, you want your room cleaned? you pay, water? you pay, room service? its a vending machine in the lobby. Surprisingly I didn’t have to pay to park my car at the hotel!

But with all that I loved staying there and in the end my room with extras came out to just KD10 a night which is still incredibly cheap and this is DUBAI!!. The hotel was super clean, the Internet was fast and the staff were very friendly. From now on that’s the hotel I will be staying in when I fly there.

Things to keep in mind though, you need to rent a car since the hotel is 30 minutes away from places like Dubai Mall. There are no cabs outside or near the hotel so you would have to order one and I don’t know how long that would take. There is a metro nearby but not walking distance. There is also nothing around the hotel, nothing you can walk to. But, because the hotel is so cheap you can splurge on a rental, my Toyota Yaris from Budget cost me just KD15 a day with all the insurance, gas and crossing 4 electronic toll systems a day. Would I recommend EasyHotel? Yes I would.