Daiso Japan, Muscat Grand Mall

  The Daiso Japan store in Muscat Grand Mall (MGM) is huge and worth walking through if you happen to be in MGM with some time to kill.  If you’ve never heard of “Daiso” you might like to check out their English website here.  All items in the store are 700 baizas or about $1.80 US.  When I enter a Daiso store, I always think about a similar chain of stores we have in Canada called “the Great Canadian Dollar Store“.  It’s nice that they have informative posters like this in the shop letting you know that there are 2 other Daiso locations in Oman: Ruwi and Salalah. I wasn’t aware of the one in Salalah.

  All kinds of interesting toys and gadgets in Daiso.   I wrote a blogpost about the Daiso shop in Ruwi almost exactly 4 years ago (at that time items were 600 baizas) and this shop in MGM is much bigger.  I was surprised to see that they even have computer items like ipod silicone jackets and LAN cables as you can see pictured here.  Remember that items come and go and you can never be sure that the same item will be there on your next visit.  They do this to encourage repeat visits.  Daiso MGM opened up about 8 months ago in September of 2012.  We bought several of these for our cooler for picnics, outings or camping.  They usually have interesting and entertaining cartoons on most of their items.  What Japanese store would be complete without Origami?!  What do you think of Daiso stores?  Are they full of cheap, useless junk or are these stores a lot of fun exploring?

Still Can’t Believe I Won a Blackberry Bold 9790!

Merge 104.8 FM is a relatively new radio station here in the Sultanate that just turned 15 months old on Sept. 7th.  I wrote about their launch way back then.  They have done a number of prize give-a-ways throughout the year.  I remember once they filled up a Mini Cooper with cash and participants had to guess how much cash was there! Recently, they have (or Omantel has?) been giving away Blackberries in various competitions.  In one of these cool promotions, they had a slow-mo video of a diver and asked online participants to add a comment that the diver might be thinking. (Located here)  I added what I thought was a funny line in between my 8am and 12pm class yesterday and thought nothing of it.  (“After a dive like that, they’ll have to change the name of this place from “Wadi Shab” to “What-a-Dive””)  Imagine my surprise hours later when I checked facebook, to see the following comment, “Congrats to Andrew Dale Brown can you please email us your contact details studio@radiomerge.fm”.  I couldn’t believe it.  I still can’t believe it, even after going down to the studio today and meeting up with the whole Merge gang (minus Sami unfortunately) which was a blast.

I’m not that familiar with the different blackberry models out there so I was wondering just what I was going to get when I opened the box.

Wow! What a beauty!

Great features on this phone! I love the keyboard and touchscreen.  It comes with a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus (new feature) and it even takes some pretty decent video!  This gadget is so sweet that I’m thinking of getting one for the wife even though she says she doesn’t need one.

I was in Muscat City Centre this evening anyway at Nawas to find out how to get internet on the phone (and at the Omantel desk for another big headache regarding my bill…That’s a whole other blog post coming…) so I took a quick peek in E-Max to see what one of these things cost.

Wow! That’s a value of at least $440 US!  Thanks again, Merge, and Thank You, Lord!

At a time when Nawras is selling the iphone 5 for 499 rials, I couldn’t be happier with my Blackberry!  I got this thing hooked up to the internet through Nawras for 2 rials/week (for 300 MB) by sending the text “BB7” to “80050”. It’s 9 OR for a monthly subscription by texting “BB30” to the same number.  Blackberry owners with an Omantel SIM card in the Sultanate can hook up for 7 days for 2 rials or 30 days for 8.9 rials.  They save 100 baisas (or about 25 cents, US) more than Nawras SIM card owners, haha! To subscribe for Omantel, send an SMS with “Blackberry” or “BB” to 90891.  The awesome thing is that it’s prepaid and no need to subscribe and all that nonsense!

On-line and doing fine! 🙂

Interested in Pre-Ordering an I-Phone 5 in Oman?

You can register with Nawras an interest in pre-ordering an i-phone 5 here.  Pre-orders for the i-phone have shattered previous records. Read about their record pre-orders here from Oman Obsever.

My 1st Purchase on Alatool Muscat – A Tablet!

I subscribed to Alatool Muscat about a week ago and haven’t been that interested in any of their advertised deals so far.  That changed this morning, however, when I received an email with what seemed to me to be a pretty good deal!

“Nextbook Premium 7SE Tablet launch: Own this sleek device for just OMR 45 with Android OS, High Resolution, Capacitive Display, Smooth Touch and much more. Save 35% on alatoolmuscat.com! (Original Value: OMR 70)” You can see all the details of the deal at http://www.alatoolmuscat.com/deal/alatool-muscat-direct/nextbook_usa_p7se

I like the idea of owning a tablet but don’t want to spend hundreds of rials on an        i-pad which is unnecesary anyhow seeing how we have 2 computers at home.  This tablet seems like a nice, more affordable deal.  Should be delivered to me within 7 days!

Anyone out there avid Alatool fans/customers?  If you have purchased an Alatool deal, how was your experience?

Culturally Inappropriate Product of the Day: “Lolly Dolly”

Can’t people just sell a camera bag and keep it at that?  What on earth were  the people at Crumbler thinking when they decided to sell this camera bag with a photo on it like that ?! And then add a lovely name like “Lolly Dolly” to go along with it?!  A dude dressed up like a lady?!  This product would have looked strange enough to me on a shelf in Vancouver, but in Emax in Muscat, Oman? Bizarre! And even the product description on Crumpler’s website is odd: found here.  You never know what you’re going to see next!