Amer Tabsh, the host of Mega on Alam Al-Sabah, interviewed me last month to talk about blogging in Lebanon. Would love to hear your opinion about the discussion!
Category: Lebanon
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Here’s to launching the 3G service in Lebanon!
Last day I got a phone call from a gentleman in MTC Touch telling me that I will be granted the 3G service for a 1 month free trial period, and so right now I’m among the lucky people who got to participate in the pilot testing of this service in Lebanon. An yes I’m so excited about it!!
The service got activated at around 1PM today on my phone and didn’t require any special configuration to run. I randomly started loading websites and found the connection to be pretty fast compared to home ADSL and the crappy GPRS. Below are two tests done using speedtest.net after I shared the connection with my laptop.
As you can see, download is @ 1.7Mbps which is superb compared to the current internet speeds, while upload is varying between 0.11 and 0.22Mbps. Ping is of course higher that it is supposed to be, and I hope it’ll improve soon. Note that I was in Beirut central district at the time of this test, and I guess speed might vary depending on your location.
3G subscriptions will be available for both postpaid and prepaid lines, and data transfer will be limited to 4GB/month. It isn’t clear tough how much will the operators charge for it.
I’ll hopefully be posting more updates on the connection quality and speed throughout this trial period.
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Mounting the same license plate on two different cars
These two photos, taken by Mr. Mohamad Machnouk at the same time and in the same parking lot, show different cars with identical license plates. As the plates color shows, these two cars seem to be owned by some Lebanese judge. Talk about abuse of authority!
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CK One shock drive-by graffiti
I hope next jobs won’t cause similar traffic jams! Cool job nevertheless.
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Shouf Cedar Reserve
I’ve always heard people talking about the Shouf cedar reserve, but I never knew it was really that nice until I visited it last weekend thanks to a couple of friends.
We were originally planning a visit to Maaser El-Shouf village but then got tempted to continue further to the cedar reserve, the largest nature reserve in Lebanon containing 25% of the country’s cedars, and to our luck there was some festival ongoing in Maaser and shuttle service to and from the reserve was offered for free.
Entrance tickets are at 5,000L.L, and once you’re inside you’ll get to choose among 3 hiking paths with different lengths and each showing you different parts of the reserve. We chose the shortest one, a 1.2Km walk that took around 25-30 minutes to complete with awesome views and feel. Definitely worth a visit especially if you’re showing some tourists around the country.
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Nazl El-Sourour on video
Have you even seen any of Ziad El-Rahbani’s plays on video? Below are 3 videos from the timeless “Nazl El Sourour”.
I never understood why is Ziad refraining from releasing the full videos of his plays. Some claim he’s just waiting to make some good money by selling them if he ever went through a bad time.
Thanks @_kaled
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Al-Salam Juice
You can’t be a true Beiruti if you haven’t had a fruit cocktail at least once from Al-Salam Juice in Tarik El-Jadida.
Most of their cocktails can easily replace a meal since they’re very filling, with the most popular being the “Katyusha” that comes with Avocado juice and Kashta (heavy cream) loaded with lot of fruits on top.
Totally recommended, but good luck finding a parking spot around the place since it’s a very crowded area.
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Internet prices going down next month
Internet prices are finally going down by the end of next month after the cabinet approved the new price list yesterday!
The good news for consumers: Today a 1 Mbps connection, the second-fastest available, costs 115,000 LL ($76.67) per month. Under the new regime, 1 Mbps will be the slowest connection sold by Ogero, the state-run telecom company, and will cost 24,000 LL ($16) per month. (Both price figures exclude the 10% value added tax.)
Packages will range from 1 Mbps with a 4 GB download and upload cap (it’s not split; you get 4GB for each) to around 8 Mpbs with a 30 GB cap. Imad Tarabay, CEO of the Internet provider Cedarcom, told NOW Lebanon that as soon as the new packages are implemented, customers with packages below 1 Mbps now will automatically receive the lowest-level new package from their providers (assuming Ogero releases bandwidth to the private sector). Customers can then decide if they want to switch packages or not.
We’re still way behind what people get in nearby countries but it’s still a good step forward, I just hope there will be enough capacity to accommodate the demand when everyone is automatically switched to 1Mbps next month, and I wish they would reconsider amending those bandwidth cap because one would consume them so fast with the speeds they’re promising.
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Fuddruckers Lebanon opening on August 26th
If you’re like me waiting for Fuddruckers to finally open its doors in Dbayeh, then the wait is almost over. I just saw their latest announcements on facebook claiming the grand opening is going to take place on August 26th!
Too bad for me it’s going to be Ramadan and I usually avoid heavy meals on Iftar, so I won’t be trying it out until Eid comes.
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No more indoor smoking in Lebanon
I wonder what will happen now to all these places that are mainly popular for their shisha, like Sanyour for example, when the law is put into effect.
But then again, this law might end up just like any other law that never gets implemented as it should, or probably gets implemented for a short period of time before the police starts to ignore violators. Let’s wait and see.
