Resurrection !!

Just had a look back at my posts. Its been such a long time! Crazy how times flies ha?

OMG! So much has happened in this past year! Where should I start? Hmm, lets not start anywhere. Lets talk about some other important things.

The blog

When I created this blog, I actually wanted to explore my expressions. But I guess I was not able to put my thoughts on the blog frequently enough. So I’m going back to basics!

The blog is going to be about: me, my thoughts, and what I feel (not forgetting the ramblings).

Changes

This is the exciting part here!

Its been too long, to continue this blog as it is! So a lot of drastic changes are about to come! What are they? I still have not gotten to collecting and finalizing them, but it will come soon!

Meanwhile…

Keep your eyes up here. Come back in a 2 or 3 weeks!

And just to keep you entertained, here is a cover of a beautiful Spanish song by me.

YES I SPEAK SPANISH NOW! Now can you see how much has changed? =)

LiveJournal Tags: Resurrection,back,changes,new,spanish,song,cover,chayanne,enamore,de,ti.

A post from Egypt !

Its 1:00 am local time, and I’m on the balcony of my hotel room. Presidents Hotel, in Zamalek is one of those budget hotels. For 60USD a night, its pretty good !

My room is on the 13th floor. There is a nice breeze, and its cold. I would hate to go back to the intense summer heat of Oman. I’m actually right opposite to the Omani Embassy in Cairo, not that it will be helpful, given that I’m not Omani !

I’m using someone's unsecured WiFi connection. Egypt has too many of these, way to many. WiFi is everywhere ! And there is a 100% chance you will find one open.

This is my first time alone in Egypt. Last time I was with over 300 AIESEC members for the Middle East North Africa Exchange and Leadership development conference (MENA XLDS).

To be alone in this messed up city can be a daunting task. Its just like Bangladesh, but the difference is that I don’t know the local language. But my last travel has made me more prepared to the shocks and rip offs that people here offer. And might I say I have pulled it off pretty well so far.

Zamalek is a very quiet, green, and posh area. Its where most of the embassies are located. My main reason of travel is to visit the Colombian embassy to get my visa. And by tomorrow, I would have done that !

But I like Zamalek more then the other places here in Cairo. Its a nice place to stay. Great view of the Nile and really nice.

So after arriving here, I went out for a walk. Its a pretty small place. Might I add, my GPS on the E66 has saved me yet again. I love this thing ! I would have been in deep trouble without it.

Ok, back to the walk part. So, while walking on the side walk with the Nile on my left, I found the lover’s nest. Yes, this is where the young and middle aged lovers come to twitter x] (you know what I mean). Some stand by the railing, other park their cars and continue inside. I have not seen this before in Cairo, and here it is so open! No one bothers or cares about the passing by people. Although they seemed pretty scared of me, cause I was walking around with my Nikon D60 which is not hard to miss.

The story of how I got from the airport to here is for another post. Its pretty long and I need to wake up early tomorrow.

Later !

Pink Girl

Yeah, I know. I haven’t blogger in ages ! Its just a habit I can’t seem to get myself into. I envy kishorcariappa, muscati, angryinoman. They do such an awesome job. Cheers to them !

I recently had an amazing trip for an AIESEC conference in Egypt. It was called MENA XLDS ‘09. I will talk about that experience in a later post. But there I met a girl. Who is P.I.N.K. For real ! And she is also very sweet and cute *blush*

So I wrote a song about her. Technically, this song I have used a lot more chords then I usually do. So yeah, love it !

Check it out !

Pink Girl (Original)

Colombia

So headed off to Colombia hopefully soon for an internship through AIESEC.

After having a depressing experience with the Japanese Internship (the company backed off at the last moment), I have found this awesome opportunity to experience a part of the world that many of us from SE Asia, or ME don’t really think about.

I cannot say that the process has been smooth. I don’t know who to blame, but when they get to know my nationality on my passport, things automatically take a wrong term.

Transit visa’s are a pain in the ass. Plain and simple. Why do they even have these ? Like, you are too dangerous to loiter around in our airport !

I need two TRASIT VISAs. USA and UK. So yeah that makes it much more harder! I also have to fly to Egypt for a second time to get my visa from the Colombian Consulate there.

Interesting fact: There is an honorary consulate here. The consular is the VP of the Omani Olympic Committee. They do not have an office or staff. Its just him.

No matter what, I’m now determined to make this trip and get to know North America.

I hope to write back with some good news, and the ever so hard to get final confirmations.

Oman Mobile 3.5G !!

 

Oman Mobile finally gets around to launching its own 3.5G service. On 1st of March after corporate testing, it was officially released to the public. Here are some interesting offers/features as advertised by Omanmobile:

1. They insist of up to 7.5Mbps speed. Now we all know this is a theoretical speed, and no one ever really gets this ! Nawras dose a better job at informing customers of 1Mbps Download and 384Kbps upload, which is more closer to reality.
2. R.O. 1 for 24 Hours is cheaper then Nawras (R.O. 3 for 48 Hours). Currently this offer is valid only till May 7th for Omanmobile. Nawras has turned its offer into a package.
3. Pay as you go charges are almost identical.
4. 1 GB plan is the same (R.O. 19) but then Omanmobile offers more GBs and increased the package price (15GB for R.O. 34) and (30GB for R.O. 59)
5. There is no inter-network video calling yet.
6. Video calling is a little bit more expensive then Nawras.
7. Omanmobile seems to have a very good coverage already deployed. Special mention: Buraimi, Hafeet, Salalah.
8. The devices are Huawei (R.O. 59, 69, 109).

So what do I think ? Well, its not a surprise. Omanmobile is clearly targeting its own customers and not invoking a price fight. Which in a way is rather disappointing. I think the only reason why there are two or more companies is to have competition. 

I must say, I’m a bit disappointed with Nawras, their 3G+ network coverage has not improved much since they launched their service a long time ago. Their video calling isn’t that great.

Anyone who has tested the quality and speed of their service, please feel free to leave comments.

Links:

Omanmobile 3.5G

Nawras 3G+