The long term parking at the airport is so small that on weekends it’s usually closed with a sign saying that it’s full and you’re basically forced to park in the short term parking and pay an exuberant price or park outside the cargo terminal for free but have to take the long walk back to the airport. Since I’ve been traveling a lot I kinda developed a routine which was working pretty well for me until this past weekend.

What I do now is get to the airport early like I usually do but I park in the short term parking. I then checkin to my flight and once I get the boarding pass I get back to my car and just park it outside the long term parking entrance and I sit and wait for someone to leave so that security will let me in. Usually it takes 15 to 30 minutes and it’s became a routine that works for me.

So this past Thursday, 30 minutes had passed and no one had left but since I had already checked in and still had around an hour for boarding I was doing ok. Then a car pulled up behind me and a Kuwaiti guy got out and came up to my window. I rolled it down and told him parking was full and I was waiting. The guy then goes to the security office and a few minutes later comes back with a Kuwaiti security guy who comes up to me and is like I am going to let the guy in because he wants to try his luck and look for a spot. I told the security guy I had been waiting here for 30 minutes now why can’t I go in to “try my luck”? Then the Kuwaiti guy came and told me to move my car so he could go in. I was like no, I was here first and I have been here for 30 minutes and I am not moving. The security told the guy in Arabic that I was a westerner and you know how stubborn they can be. The Kuwaiti guy kept trying to get me to move and telling the security he had his whole family in the car and his flight would be taking off soon etc.. etc..

Finally around 10 minutes later a passenger comes into the long term parking and was leaving. I tell the security guard I should be let in first to park and then you can let the other guy go in and try his luck. Of course he didn’t listen and let both of us in. I ended up driving the wrong way to get to the parking spot first to park.

So much drama just for parking. We definitely need more long term parking spots. My temporary fix would be to combine both the short and long term parking spots into one and then develop a pricing plan that would work for both. Until then it’s going to be like this every weekend.

A friend spotted the Fisker Karma hybrid electric vehicle in Kuwait. Not sure why anyone would want one here since gas is so cheap but my guess is it’s because it would be a very unique car to have in Kuwait.

There was one being sold on Q8showroom for around KD43,000 but not sure if its the same one.

So they now have a rare Aston Martin One-77, a Bentley Continental GT, a Mercedes SLS, a Ferrari FF and a Lamborghini Aventador. According to the police chief, the police received an amazing reaction from the public when the Lamborghini police cars hit the roads in Downtown Dubai so they decided to add more luxury sports cars to their fleet. “These sports cars will not be roaring and chasing speeding motorists,” he explained. “They will be used for road security in different areas of Dubai,” he said.

That’s just insane although the amount of publicity their police force is getting because of these cars is also ridiculous. Dubai really know how to market themselves. [Link]

Found this photo on Instagram of a cop car that was involved in a horrible accident. No idea what was the cause or if anyone was hurt.

via @moe_gharabally

According to a friend, last night while driving on the 6th Ring Road he spotted a riot police armored personal carrier that had gotten into an accident with a car and the car was completely crushed. He couldn’t take any pictures so if you have any or know what happened let me know.

Update: Added the photo above taken by @abo_saqr

Update2: Below is a video of the incident that seems to have been recorded right after the accident took place.

[YouTube]

I got a lot of emails from people with a link to a website that supposedly has the new traffic fines listed but everyone who sent me the link sent me the link to the same website. Since I haven’t read it anywhere else yet then it’s most likely a list that someone came up with themselves. I’ll only believe it if one of the local Arabic newspapers print it as well.

Note: They’ve updates the fines in that link since yesterday.

According to Arabian Business, the minister of interior and undersecretary have given the go ahead to take strict actions against expats who jump red lights, drive without a driving license and those who speed. Already 86 expats have been deported. Jeez talk about overkill. I’m not sure how this exactly works but if I get caught speeding again (I’ve been caught a number of times) will I get deported? [Link]

Below is a comparison between the old airport taxi prices and the recently updated ones. I tried to be as accurate as possible but they’ve divided up the areas in the new pricing system slightly so it was a bit confusing creating this list. For example Hawalli and Salmiya were both KD5 previously but now Hawalli is KD7 and Salmiya is KD8.

Aldajeej – Air Cargo
Old Price: KD6
New Price: KD4

Sabhan – Almagwa – Alfarwaniya – Jileeb Alshuyoukh – Khaitan – lshbeelia – ardhiya industrial – Alrabiya – Alrehab
Old Price: KD4
New Price: KD5

Alshuwaikh industria – Alodailiyah – Alrai – Alriggae – Alandalus – Gurnada – Alrawda – Alyarmouk – Qortuba – Alsurra – Aljabriya – Salwa – Almessilah – Bayan – Meshrif – Dahiyat Mubarak Abdulla Aljaber – sabah Alsalem – Alzahraa – Alsadeeq – Alsalam – Huteen – Alshohadaa
Old Price: KD5
New Price: KD6

Alshuwaikh Residential – Alshamiya – Alkhaldiya – Alfaiha – Kaifan – Alsulaibikhat – Alnuzha – Algadisiya – Aldaia – Al mansouriya –Aldasma – Midan Hawally – Hawally – Alnugra – Alrumaithiya –Algurean – Alqussor – Aladan – Mubarak Alkabeer – Jaber Alali – Aldaher – Abu Fatira – Al Funaitees
Old Price: KD5
New Price: KD7

Hadiya – Al Rigga – Al Fintas – Al Ogailah – Abuholaifa – Alsobahiya – Almahboula – Alahmadi – Al Mangaf – Al Fahaheel – Alqaser – Alnaseem – Alnaeem – taimaa – Aloyoon – Alwaha – Aldoha – Alshedadia – Amgarah – Kuwait City – Salmiya – Bneid Algar
Old Price: KD5
New Price: KD8

Almotlaa – kabd – Abdulla port – Alshuaibah lndustrial Area
Old Price: KD7
New Price: KD8

Um Al-Haiman
Old Price: KD8
New Price: KD10

Benaider Chalets – Aldhubaeiah
Old Price: KD10
New Price: KD12

Alzoor port – Alwafra – Alkhiran
Old Price: KD17
New Price: KD19

Alabdelli – Alsalmi – Alnuwaseeb – Alsabeya
Old Price: KD20
New Price: KD20

Photo above by Crazy in Kuwait
Old prices from [Here] and new prices from [Here]
Thanks Vineeth

With the last update to Google Maps on the iPhone they added a new feature for traffic conditions. I originally thought these were based on estimates or general traffic conditions in that area but I now believe the traffic conditions on Google Maps is actually live.

I was on the Fahaheel Expressway heading south earlier today using Google Maps for navigation and there was traffic just before the 6th Ring Road bridge. Turns out there had been an accident and debris was spread out all over the highway causing congestion. To my surprise the traffic was showing on Google Maps. No idea how they’re getting the traffic data but I’m going to be using Google Maps a lot more now when trying to figure out which road has less traffic.

So I got a parking sticker yesterday for parking illegally, let’s talk about this from a legal perspective and a legal perspective only:

1) The constitution says no crime or punishment only by law. Can you please show me where in the law it says the punishment for parking in a no parking zone is to stick a sticker on the violating car?

2) Punishments are to be carried out by police officers. Mall and campus security are not police officers.

3) Do you know that it’s illegal to stick stickers on cars? Even your own car.

I take full legal responsibility for my actions and call for the law to be executed upon me. I know what I did was wrong and a no parking ticket would have been worse than a sticker, it would have cost me more anyways. But I just get bothered when someone does something illegal in the name of the law, don’t do something illegal to let me know that I was illegal! Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at fajer.ar@gmail.com

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on 248am.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.