Category: Travel

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.

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]

British Airways have amazing offers on their flights to London. A round trip economy ticket to London is for only KD140 with tax while a round trip Business Class ticket is now only KD512 with tax. Those are really great prices. [Link]

Here is a screen shot of the economy class price [Picture]
Here is a screen shot of the business class price [Picture]

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

Has anyone stayed at an easyHotel before? easyHotel is a no frills super budget hotel. I am going to London next month for 4 nights and I am looking for a cheap place to stay. The hotel I usually stay in costs around 130 pounds a night and isn’t anything special at all. I was checking out tripadvisor.com for other hotels in the area and I came across easyHotel in Paddington. It doesn’t have a closet, or a desk, or a phone, or Internet, or a safe but the room does have a double bed, window (there is cheaper option without one), and a cozy looking bathroom thats a size of a plane bathroom. The price for 4 nights comes out to 168 pounds. There is a flat screen TV but to use it I need to rent a remote which goes for 15 pounds for 5 days. House keeping is another 10 pounds. Reviews are all positive and since its in Paddington its 15 minutes from the airport via Heathrow Express so it seems practical. Still though, not too sure if I should go for it or not, should be an interesting experience if I do. They are opening up in Dubai next year which should be a big hit.

Update: Just booked a standard room with a window and a double sized bed for four nights. Total price with tax KD79. Thats just an extremely good deal. Makes London more affordable specially with the special offers like the one British Airways had, KD150 Kuwait – London Kuwait. Also found out they do have internet, 10 pounds for 24 hours and an extra towel is 1 pound. They also can store my bags, 5 pounds for 24 hours for up to 3 items. Thats perfect cuz last day my checkout is 11AM but my flight is in the evening so I can just store my bags with them while I shop. Early check in is also available for only 15 pounds. (1KD = 2.4 pounds)

Food wise there were only two things that stuck out for me in Cairo. The first is the burger at the Four Seasons, the second is the spicy chicken fillet at McDonalds.

When I first had the burger at the Four Seasons tea lounge in Cairo (opposite the Zoo), it came with blue cheese which I thought overpowered the burger. So when I went to have it the second time I asked them to replace the blue cheese with cheddar and it made a world of difference. The burger turned out to be great and if I was to rate it I would probably give it anywhere between 3.5 and a 4 out of a 5. Highly recommended. (Burger picture above)

The spicy chicken fillet at McDonalds was another surprise. I don’t know why we don’t have it here in Kuwait but we should since we’re missing out on a great chicken sandwich. Unlike the McChicken, the spicy chicken fillet kinda looks like Burger King’s Chicken Royale but tastes like KFC’s chicken Zinger. So basically its the best of both worlds and honestly everything else I had in McDonalds in Cairo tasted terrible so the chicken fillet is the only way to go.

And that’s about it, there wasn’t anything else I had in Cairo that stuck out.

I get back to Kuwait tonight and can’t wait! I have a few more pictures and posts I want to share related to my Egypt trip and will try to do that tonight so tomorrow everything is back to normal.

Last night I passed by Khan el-Khalili. I had briefly passed by it on my first day but figured it was worth a second visit. I honestly found Khan el-Khalili boring but it got more interesting the further I walked away from it. I walked through Khan el-Khalili and into another larger market and then crossed over a pedestrian bridge into another market until I got to the old opera. The walk reminded me of Oxford Street since it was long, packed with people and there was lots to see. I took a ton of pictures, below are 10 I like. Click on continue below to see them.

I finally had some free time today so I got to do some sight seeing. I went and saw the Pyramids and to be honest I was expecting them to be bigger. I don’t know why this keeps happening with me but I had the same reaction when I saw the Eiffel Tower. The Pyramids of course are much more impressive than the Eiffel tower. The Sphinx is really tiny which was a shock but overall it felt pretty cool seeing the Pyramids live. There were lots of tourists of course but the area is huge so they aren’t really bothersome.

One thing I am regretting is the fact I only brought one lens with my camera, my 50mm. Its simply not wide enough for landscape photography and I regret not getting another wider lens with me. Oh well not much I can do about it now…

I had lunch at Abou Shakra today and so far its the best place I’ve eaten at since I’ve arrived to Egypt (not including the burger I had at Four Seasons).

The place is very clean, the presentation of the food is really great and the prices are pretty cheap. I had the mushroom soup since it was recommended by a reader and surprisingly I liked it a lot. For my main course I had the Abou Shakra kofta and although it wasn’t fantastic it was pretty decent, much much better than the one I had at Al-Rifai.

If you’re in Egypt next time this is a restaurant I would recommend.

I was standing in my hotel lobby waiting for my ride when a van full of Americans arrived. Nothing strange except every one of them was carrying their own box of bottled water. I guess someone told them to bring their own food with them to Egypt it was a funny sight.

Update: In case I wasn’t clear above, it looked like they brought the bottles with them from the US not from a grocery store on the street.

So since I’ve been in Egypt I’ve been extremely disappointed with the food. First day I had Maison Thomas Pizza which was supposed to be the best pizza place in Egypt and it turned out to be very normal. Then I had Lucille’s burger which again was supposed to be the best burger in Cairo and it turned out to be average too.

So last night after work I decided to go all out. I wanted to have Kebab (or kofta whatever they call it here). I was told the best in Cairo was this very local place called Al-Rifai so we took our driver and headed there. We got there around 11PM and it was pretty packed but they quickly cleaned a table for us (with a tissue). When I saw the meat outside and the guy putting it on the skewers I could have puked right there on the spot and the smell of the meat wasn’t helping either. In the end out of 4 of us I was the only one who decided to risk it and eat.

The kofta wasn’t impressive at all. It didn’t have any flavor and I really have no clue why its really popular here. I couldn’t believe I risked food poisoning for something so disappointing. Now I don’t think I am interested in trying anything new, might just stick to fast food which is what I enjoy anyway.