How this is so, one will often times brought on by other things that we wanted to miss anyway Thus, I Thomas and his contribution to blog about his favorite shoes Parade asked how Footwear here in Saudi because the looks. I had some time ago time, a shoe parade made (uff 3 years ago already). Therefore fits quite well, here an update nachzuliefern

So those are my current favorite shoes. Size 42 or 43rd I know so precisely never. Since we live in a rather hot region, this time I have given credence to the advertising and added myself Geox shoes. So the shoes have holes in the footbed and are intended to prevent the odor. And I even think that this works. At least, nothing stinks Whether that comes from the shoes, I do not know, but what counts is indeed the feeling. According could be, get over the 99 € but rather expensive shoes,

As Thomas said in his post but under Saudi desert boots, I want to go out too. It wears the slippers or sandals. At least I would call it that. The name is probably Saudi Zobairiah. But do yourself:

credit: Hadeel *

These shoes carry the male Saudis at every opportunity. If this is now in the car, in the company, while shopping, or private. Even in the restaurant I've seen many with the traditional footwear. In the climatic conditions here in principle, of course, no surprise, but still unusual.

Incidentally, an interesting aspect of the shoes: Galileo, this pseudo-science program Pro Sieben had on some time ago one of their fake checks with regard to the highway surfing the Saudis ( Saudi Street Skate done) and came to the conclusion that in their view is very difficult and therefore would be a rather fake.
I can only say: is not it! The decisive factor for not just the usual, but certainly practiced highway surfing to one of the special road surface and the other just the Saudi sandals. The road surface, as mentioned in a previous article, not nearly as handy as in Germany. It will probably take place pebbles mixed with marble in the asphalt, which makes the lining of course, more smooth, but durable. Second, the lining of the shoes is a special one. These two aspects of Galileo had apparently overlooked in his fake-check. Here again the video:

So much for my shoes here and the Saudi shoes in general. I think I'm going to establish those Saudi sandals too. Which have already drained

In the comments I was asked how it behaves with Internet access. Just as in Germany, there are of course also different providers. However, the diversity of providers is limited. So far I know of Mobily , the Saudi Telecom (STC) and Zain . In the latter, I'm not sure whether the offer is not just mobile phones.

As in Germany there are the Internet via DSL and UMTS/3G/HSDPA and Wimax . And I have DSL so far only seen on the STC and would not know whether there is another provider. The connection means it is UMTS/3G however in every case of STC and Mobily. Mobily offers additional access to Wimax, which I have not seen in the STC.

Now it's nice to know who offers what, but knowing how fast and reliable connections are, then but the ultimate

We begin with the DSL. This comes in an expansion up to 8 Mbps. Unfortunately, I do not know exactly what does this line then. I can say it only for a 4 Mbps line. Which is at about 500 SAR (ie 100 €) per month.
I could even test the DSL with a colleague and the 4 Mbps are achieved, but the upstream is only around 0.3 Mbps. So not really exhilarating. This is the latency of around 20ms in the normal range.

Continue with Wimax. Which we use at home itself Wimax offers from Mobily to an expansion of 2 Mbps and 0.5 Mbps upstream, and for 260 SAR (ie 52 €). Price, of course, again not to compare with German connections, but you can do with all the Wimax. Sometimes it is slightly slower than usual, from Germany, but in total not the end. Only the reduced upstream bothers me even more than previously at KabelBW. However, I fear that this will soon change something here even less than in Germany. The ping of around 120ms is still in the frame.

Lastly, there are there are still mobile Internet access. This is again the STC and Mobily. Although I've used in the latter. And in this case I have to say that the UMTS or HSDPA has exceeded my expectations pretty. Access available as a Data Solution to a prepaid card on it and does it in a package 100 GB SAR in the month. That I have paid in Germany Eplus for 250 MB 10 €, I save money even here in the

But the transfer rates are the real hammer. Like on the screenshot of the Speedtest.net to see the milestone on App, I get the more than 3 Mbps HSDPA in the downlink and more than 1 Mbps upstream. And the ping is 91ms and again better than WiMAX. I had meanwhile been busy thinking whether we should switch to the mobile flat for 350 SAR, would be payable but again, a router, so I've ticked off the first time. Especially since the difference not so radically notice

All values are of course measured against a local server and not to Europe. To / from Europe, the connection is not quite as crisp, but you can live with it.

Skype is available on the Wimax connection easily and at times even I send an image with 640 × 480 and up to 350kbit. From time to time, especially in the evenings it is possible that the compounds rather hook, then you have does the occasional 4's Round Trip times on Skype and accordingly there is hardly fun, because you do each other very often the word is. Since these are the exceptions, however, we can live quite well with the Internet

Otherwise, I had pretty much written at the beginning of my stay here, that the Internet is controlled government here and they more or less regularly to the lands or stop sign . This changes the selection of sites that are blocked fairly regularly.

If there are outstanding, easy to clean in the comments

As mentioned in the article on Internet censorship, I also wanted here in Saudi mobile Internet. That is no problem insofar as you have an Iqama.

The data can also add such option to book a prepaid fare in different data packets. According to my experience in Germany, I decided to go for the 1GB version which is enough slack. A cost of 100 SR / month.

The sign is either an SMS "SUB 1G" to a number or via the hotline, but only asks you to do the same

Also notified promptly and receive the confirmation message about the activation. Short-tested and goes. I would have noticed but can I really did not have enough credit on the card and so I got shortly after the end of the connection also, the next message that the last call costs 3 SAR.
The safe side, call the hotline, which confirmed the credit problem. Since I had charged the meantime, the pay credit could be activated again. So far so good.

The next day used the Internet and a bit short on it again the well known message "your last call cost 3 SAR.
Hotline again. The good Lord and I did not understand us so real, so linguistically. Anyway, he said something about it, he would have created a ticket and the back office would accept the, report, and I should not use the network.
24 hours waiting, no response. In the meantime, I received an SMS from Mobily, but in Arabic. I interpreted this as fix the problem and turned the power back on.

Unfortunately, far from it, at the earliest usage I got the same message after a short time. Meanwhile, who had @ MobilyCIO with me via Twitter reported that I had written what music hotline. flux times at him and was so turned on Mobily1100 referenced.

After some back and forth in terms of customer data exchange, I was called by the service. In conversation, it turned out, that the Internet connections had caused the cost, but an SMS service. I had always received from the SMS number 5268, but nothing I thought. The same would be a service would have the complete on the pages of the provider. How fortunate that I knew nothing about and my explanation to no Arab can not know the company and not know what it is at the service, the service was closed and I will reimburse the fees debited. Amazingly, I can make myself understood easily even with the lady.

And there is even a saying Twitter is useless;) Anyway, I now know that there are also dubious SMS services, and to subscribe to them without doing something about it. And besides, I know that the hotline is tight if Prayer Time is. Well something I should have clearly

Part of the technical work by the way since the beginning of problems and especially faster than in Germany. Since one can thus get over a short-term settlement problem sometimes;)