Search: “ace”

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)

Looks like Burger King is trying to get on board the sliders train with their new offering, Burger Buddies. Was Burger Boutique the first to offer sliders in Kuwait or was there another place before?

Update: Just had it today and it wasn’t bad at all. The bun was very soft, the patty was juicy although as some people have mentioned slightly dry. My only negative would be the fact that each patty is shared among two buns which means you need to rip them apart and sometimes that results in one bun having more patty then the other. Six sliders is for KD1.300 while the combo is for KD1.750

The video above is of the new Zain commercial, while the one below is the original from 1973. Same song, same singer. Its cool seeing the same thing but 35 years apart. Big difference of course is that the singer (Abdul Karim Abdul Kader) is much older, but I also noticed how the girls skirt is now much longer and Abdul Kader is no longer sitting next to her but standing a couple of meters away. Imagine a remake of Bye Bye London today, the whole play would probably take place at a Starbucks.

This is definitely definitely definitely one of my favorite ad campaigns ever. Burger King hired independent researchers to travel to remote places around the world and find people who have no clue what a McDonalds or Burger King is and who have never eaten a burger and then have them try both the Whopper and the Big Mac and see which one they preferred. Its pure GENIUS! Its a very short touching and entertaining documentary which you can watch on the Whopper Virgins site and although I hate Burger King in Kuwait I think I am going to go have a Whopper for lunch tomorrow.

I LOVE IT so watch it! [Link]

I posted just over a week ago about my kitchen from IKEA. Originally when I posted they were over installing my kitchen and it was a positive post but as the workers progressed with the installation things took a turn. In short they installed my kitchen bar crooked and had to fill the space on the side with a ton of silicon, also 2 panels were installed crooked and 2 major parts still weren’t in stock.

Surprisingly I got a call a few days later from a manager asking if everything was ok and if I had any feedback. He was a very nice guy and when I told him about my problems he offered to come by and check the kitchen which he did. He told us he would solve our problems and make sure the remaining items (two horizontal wall cabinets and two pull out corners) would be released from customs as soon as possible.

Today IKEA was back in my kitchen finishing up the install and fixing the problems from last time. When they were done I went to check the kitchen to make sure everything was fine. I opened the horizontal wall cabinet upward and the door came crashing down. I was like isn’t this supposed to stay open like the ones at display in IKEA? The employee was like this is the new model it doesn’t stay open. So every time I need to get something big from the cabinet I need to hold the door open with the top of my head while I use my two hands to take out an item? I didn’t get a response. I then opened the corner cabinets and to my surprise they had installed a rotating shelving system instead of the pullout I had chosen at IKEA. When I asked why they told me the pullout doesn’t fit in my cabinet, it needed a bigger cabinet. Fine but why didn’t the salesman tell me that instead of misleading me to believe I was getting the pullout? Not only that but we were really excited about the pullout shelves and we could have gone with larger corners if we had known.

A quick call to IKEA resulted in no help. There isn’t anything we can do about the corners, we were screwed by the salesman and to solve my wall cabinet problem they would replace our cabinet hinges with the older model off a display cabinet from the showroom.

The employees left and I was confused. The wall cabinet hinges are huge (pictured above) which doesn’t make sense if their only job is to open and close the doors. I also figured IKEA wasn’t stupid enough to make cabinet doors that don’t stay open so I took out the cabinet instruction manual and tried to see if I could fix it myself and guess what? I did! Turns out there was a screw they needed to rotate to the right like 30 times and that adjusted the door to stay open. The doors work perfectly now and stay open when lifted which means IKEA needs to start hiring people that read the goddamn manuals! My kitchen corners are screwed up but at least I don’t have to bang my head every time I take out a plate from the cabinet.

In conclusion, IKEA kitchens are affordable but you get what you pay for and that’s terrible finishing and sneaky salesman. If you do decide to get a kitchen from them make sure you not only go through the list of items one by one but also have the salesman show you each item one by one. A friend of mine had warned me about this based on his experience with IKEA and so I was careful but it seems not careful enough.

Last night I was checking out the Tamiya cars Frog and Hornet online and figured I would pass by the Tamiya dealer in Kuwait, My Toy to check and see if they had them. Today out of the blue my friend calls me up and asks me if I wanted to pass by the launch of the new My Toy store in Shuwaikh. Turns out they opened up a branch at the trendy Tilal Complex and the official opening was today so after work I passed by to check it out.

The new store is small but the location is really great and they had this huge indoor race track setup in the basement which I think RC fans will love. I spotted the Frog and Hornet on display but it was too packed to check out properly so I will have to go back this weekend. I used to love My Toy as a kid in the 80’s so its great to see the brand still alive.

Now someone please bring Kids “R” Us back to life!

IKEA are over today installing my new kitchen. My experience so far with them has been really great. I think it was around 2 months ago when I first approached them about getting a kitchen and they quickly sent someone over to get the sizes. After that it was kind of a long process for the design since me and Nat kept changing things around until we finally settled on something we were both happy with. After that it was all about trying to keep the cost down as much as possible and we were able to chop around 25% of the cost by removing things we didn’t need and when we finally paid we used an NBK credit card and got another 10% off as vouchers which dropped the price down even further. The guys installing the kitchen are telling me they need two days to finish the installation but they’re pretty quick so I think they might end up finishing today.

Update: I guess I spoke too soon. Its not even 3PM and the guys were packing up to leave, they told me they had another kitchen at 3PM they needed to go to. I was like WTF? My kitchen is 80% done and I booked this day over 2 weeks ago how could you leave after half a days work? So I called their manager up and complained, I told him I took a day off work and the employees came in at 10 and they are now leaving at 3. I told him the kitchen is nearly done so I don’t understand why they can’t work a full day on it and get it completed. He told me they only work from 7 to 3:30, I told him if they did come in at 7 we would be done by now plus they told me they have another kitchen they have to go and work on. The manager asked to speak to one of the guys over at my place and when he was done I was told they would stay longer and try to get the kitchen done today.

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.

This looks like an interesting yet strange and cheesy B-rated wrestling event. I don’t recognize any of the wrestlers and I doubt many people will but they do seem more entertaining than the pro wrestlers on tv. Here is some info about the event:

For the first time ever in Kuwait, wrestlers from different parts of the world are coming together to compete for the East Wrestling Championship Belt; 16 wrestlers, 11 nationalities, 1 title: East Wrestling Champion.

What?
EWC, East Wrestling Championship
16 wrestlers, 11 countries, competing for 1 belt, 1 title EAST WRESTLING CHAMPION

Why?
To host the first EWC Champion on Kuwaiti soil and bring back excitement and entertainment.

When?
1st, 2nd, & 3rd day of Eid Al-Adha (Dec 7,8,9)
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm (3 hour show per day)

Where?
Venue – Kazma Stadium

Who?
EWC CHAMPS:
1. Bambi Killer (Austria)
2. Gangrel (USA)
3. Micheal Kovac (Austira)
4. The Hawk (Lebanon)
5. The Sledgehammer (canada)
6. Joe E. Legend (Germany)
7. Alofa the Wild Samon (Samoa)
8. El Mariachi (Mexico)
9. The Arabian Giant (Palestine)
10. Nour Loubnan (Lebanon)
11. Kurgan (Canada)
12. Bruiser Bradley (USA)
13. Jean-Pierre Lafitte (Canada)
14. The Ring Unbreakable (Lebanon)
15. Gama Singh Jr. (India)
16. Fahad Al-Khaleej (Arabian Gulf Region)
17. Shak Khan (Pakistan)

EWC TICKETS:
Starting from ONLY KD3.000. Customer may purchase a single day pass or a Championship Ticket for ALL 3 days.

Ticket Prices:
KD 3.000
KD 5.000
KD 7.000
KD 10.000
KD 12.000
KD 25.000

EWC TICKET OUTLETS:
ONLINE: https://www.ewc.com.kw
VIRGIN MEGA STORE
PLATINUM GYMS
24 hrs CALL CENTER: 22986666

I personally will be rooting for Nour Loubnan (Lebanon’s Light) who is pictured above and my second favorite I think will be Jean-Pierre since he looks funny with the face painting.

Thanks Komsomol

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.

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.

Since I arrived to Cairo on the weekend I hadn’t really experience Cairo traffic until today. It took us around an hour and a half to get to Lucille’s a burger place that was highly recommended by a few readers on the blog while it took only 20 minutes on the way back. If that wasn’t bad enough there was a football match tonight in which the Egyptian team Ahli won and I ended up getting stuck in one crazy traffic jam celebration on my way to the production house.

Anyway finding Lucille’s wasn’t very easy and when I did the place didn’t look impressive. I decided to ignore the location and look of the place and go in and order a cheese burger. I had read a lot of positive stuff about this burger so I was really expecting it to be great, it wasn’t!

For everyone who rated this burger highly you must have had a different burger than the one I had because mine was pretty ordinary. Presentation wasn’t appetizing at all and although the bun was soft and the meat tender the burger overall was just fair. If it was in Kuwait I would have rated it a 3 or 3.5 out of 5 not more so I don’t understand how this could be the best burger in Cairo. The one I had at Four Seasons last night was a better burger than this.

No more burgers for me on this trip, I need to start having more local dishes.

GulfRun is starting off this week with the Carwash and Sticker at Al-Falah Carwash on Wednesday and the GulfRun Carshow (Marina Mall Crescent) on Thursday and Friday. Next week the cars head off the Bahrain International Circuit for GulfRun4.

GulfRun Blog:

GulfRun is going to be taking over Marina mall this weekend from Thursday at 5pm until Friday at 10pm, before they head to Bahrain International Circuit for the GulfRun4.

In addition to having the participating race cars on show; Title Sponsor Al-Fahad Travel and Tourism and Gold Sponsor Magic – Natural Energy Drink- will be having their booths present along several exhibitor booths at Marina crescent. They will be showing off everything from Modified cars (Kromozone), Mitsubishi Evo-X and Eclipse(Al-Mulla), Ford (Arabian Motors Group), KTM/Ducati /BMW Motorcycles (TriStar Motorcycles) and even Tamiya Toy cars (My Toy).

List of participating cars [here]
Schedule of events [here] and [here]

Posted by K.

I am having a hard time believing the hotel I am staying in is the second best hotel in Cairo and that its a 5 star. When you first come in the lobby is pretty big and has a luxurious look but as soon as you step into the rooms its as if you’re stepping into another hotel. The rooms are pretty outdated, old, boring, and not very clean. I would give it a 3 star or 4 star tops. I guess the coolest thing about the hotel is the fact that it was in the news a few months back because of the no alcohol policy they activated.

Anyway supposedly Adel Imam comes to the hotel often so I am hoping to catch a glimpse of him before I leave. If you’re coming to Egypt what I am hearing is Four Seasons and Sofitel are the best hotels to stay in. If you are going to stay at the Grand Hyatt then ask for rooms that end with 44 or 45. Best view and the rooms feel cozier.

Speaking of Four Seasons, I had their burger here at the Giza hotel. It wasn’t as good as the amazing one I had in Four Seasons Jordan but still pretty good.

I am now trying to organize a list of things to do here based on everyone’s comments. I am having a hard time organizing the list since there are tons of places that were mentioned. So far I’ve just been to Khan Khalil, the two Four Season hotels and McDonalds which by the way isn’t that good like some people mentioned. The Quarter Pounder here looks like a mutated home made burger and wasn’t that great.

Update: One thing I forgot to mention is the pollution here. Its really really bad. There is like smoke in the air the whole time, like a fog!

Update2: In case my post gave the impression I am not enjoying Egypt that’s not true. I am actually liking it here because of the wackiness and the fact that EVERYONE has a sense of humor!

I purchased an oven from Abyat a few days ago. Yeah it sounds strange buying an oven from Abyat and not a place like Alghanim or Eureka but I was looking for a built in oven for my new kitchen and I found a really great looking Gorenje oven from the Ora-Ito collection and for a really competitive price at Abyat.

So yesterday they call me up to deliver the oven. I tell the driver how to get to my place and within 30 minutes he comes over with the new oven and leaves.

So today Abyat call me up to deliver the oven. I tell the driver how to get to my place and within 30 minutes he comes over with the new oven and leaves.

I didn’t mistype, it was déjà vu. It seems they made a mistake and they delivered my oven twice. I now have two beautiful ovens in my kitchen but not for long. I called them up and told them about the mistake they made. They were surprised but very apologetic and will be coming by tomorrow to pick up the extra oven. I like Abyat, its no Home Depot but its close enough.