Author: Mark

Cool footage of Salhiya and the surrounding area from back in 1984, but sadly, I didn’t spot Alamiah in the video nor the Korean restaurant on M2 in the video. YouTube

Thanks @forzaq8

Over the weekend I tried out the cotton candy experience at Spunsprinkles and it was wayyyy more fun than I thought it would be. I had pre-booked the experience for me and a couple of friends a week earlier since the few available slots they have get booked quickly. The space is pretty small but super cute and we had stools set up for us in front of the cotton candy spinner.

The first thing they made us do was pick the flavor of the cotton candy we wanted from 16 different ones available (not including their secret menu). After picking our favorite we got to choose all the various sprinkles and glitter we wanted with our cotton candy including edible stickers. Once we all chose how we wanted our cotton candy to look, we started building it. Although the experience is mostly catered towards children, it was honestly a lot of fun as adults which is why they get people of different ages booking the experience.

In the end, we all left with huge smiles on our faces and our tubs of customized cotton candy (my watermelon flavored cotton candy was delicious). The experience costs KD1 per person not including the cost of the cotton candy which varies from 1.5KD to 2.5KD depending on what you’re building.

Being stuck in Kuwait for the past 18 months has resulted in most of us looking for anything new and fun to try while here. This is something you definitely should add to your list to try with friends (or your kids). Their experience slots for the week fill up quickly but new slots open every Sunday at 4PM. Check them out on Instagram @spunsprinkles and if you want to book an experience yourself, here is the link.

It started off in 2008 as a group of domestic workers who got together to spend leisure time, cooking, and playing games. Then as the group got more popular, other domestic workers were coming to them for help, so they decided to do something about it.

“Before, nobody talked about domestic workers. They were there, but nobody could see them. But over the past 13 years, there have been a lot of changes.” – Ann Abunda

In 2010, they founded Sandigan Kuwait, a more serious group that advocates for the protection and welfare of domestic workers. They now assist and assess workers’ cases from different nationalities, and from different work sectors. They have a repatriation programme, offer legal aid, and provide psychosocial activities. In addition, every Friday they have a livelihood program for domestic workers.

It’s an inspiring story and you can read more about it on the International Labour Organization website ilo.org

via @AlHashemShaikha

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

A Quiet Place Part II (7.3)
Annette (7.0)
Anything for Jackson (6.3)
Black Widow (6.8)
Blackpink: The Movie (7.5)
Cruella (7.4)
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (6.1)
F9: The Fast Saga (5.2)
Free Guy (7.7)
Hard Kill (3.3)
Rogue Hostage (3.1)
Seobok (6.1)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (4.4)
Snake Eyes (5.7)
Lupin III: The First (6.9)
The Suicide Squad (7.5)

The classic movie below is now showing at the 1954 theater:
Rain Man (8.0)

The films below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:
Antartica (N/A)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (7.7)
Turtle Odyssey (7.2)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

If you’re bored and looking for a new skill to learn then you might be interested in welding. There is a place in Kuwait called Safety Group that offers welding workshops for both men and women.

The course is for beginners and will give you a background on welding, welding safety, the different kinds of welding techniques, and of course, you get to weld.

It’s a 4-day workshop and costs KD90. It’s in Arabic and if you’re interested check out @q8welder on instagram or get in touch with them on 66644873.

Haraka Center for Movement Arts (HCMA) is a new dance and movement center that just opened up in Shuwaikh. Their classes will focus on ballet, modern, contemporary dance, other dance styles, and movement-based classes.

HCMA is for women of all ages and levels (no classes for men). They started a few days ago and their full upcoming schedule is available on their website harakacenter.com. Drop-in classes are for KD15 while their packages start from KD40. If you’re looking for something to do then check them out, also make sure you follow them on instagram @haraka.center

Buenos Aires and Berlin-based architecture studio Jasper Architects won an international competition to design a hotel located in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert.

The project was inspired by sand dunes and the renderings that have been published look very cool. I’m really curious to where in the desert they’re going to build this since we don’t have sand dunes here, just flat open space.

According to the article, the project is currently in the design phase and is expected to be completed in 2024. For a lot more renderings and details, click here.

Thanks Hind

One of our company employees has been stuck in the US for months due to the restriction on expats coming into Kuwait and while there she got her vaccination. When the airports reopened she uploaded her vaccination paperwork to the MOH website to be validated but it still hasn’t gotten approved even though it’s been nearly a month.

She ended up missing her flight back to Kuwait so instead, she applied for a Saudi visa online since we have an office there, and in contrast, it took just 3 minutes to get her vaccination validated and visa issued!

Based on the responses under my previous post, I know a lot of you are still waiting for your vaccinations to get approved, but for those of you who already got it approved, how long did you have to wait??

If you’ve ever researched stainless steel flasks or mugs then you’ve most likely come across the Zojirushi brand. They usually top the best vacuum insulated mugs list and their most popular model has over 22,000 ratings and 5 stars on Amazon. I have one and love it, it keeps my coffee hot for hours when I’m on the go and it’s super easy to take apart and clean. I’ve even ordered them for friends because they weren’t available locally but this weekend I noticed True Value now carry the brand.

Their standard and most popular flask sells for around 7.800KD on Amazon without shipping but True Value is selling them for 13.950KD which is double the price. So it’s actually cheaper if you just ordered it online where you get a much larger choice in colors, but at least you now have the option to buy them locally.

I’ve previously posted about renting bikes from Extreme Sports on the Gulf Road but there is also an alternative option. Bike Station is another bike rental option on the Gulf Road with two locations, one in the Pearl Marzouq parking lot and the other next to the Kuwait Towers.

Their bikes seem to be in good condition and they charge 3KD for 1 hour or 5KD for 2 hours. If you rent the bike for longer then it’s a flat 2.5KD per hour rate.Because of the summer heat, they’re currently only operating from 6PM to 1AM. For more info check out their instagram @bikestation.kw

According to the latest Speedtest Global Index, Kuwait’s 5G speeds ranks 7th fastest in the world but behind neighbouring countries UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Norway had the fastest. According to the index, Kuwait’s 5G speeds average is 338.97 Mbps which sounds about right compared to how fast my 5G is.

When I first got 5G I was averaging 700 Mbps but over the years it’s slowed down to an average of around 200 Mbps for me. To check out the full article, click here.

Thanks K 🍪

More and more companies are introducing electric cars and a few months ago Mercedes launched one themselves called the EQS. Unlike other manufacturers, Mercedes is trying to capture the premium electric car market and not the budget end which is an approach I like.

The first thing that caught my attention when Mercedes launched the car was the very futuristic interior. It’s actually why I was excited to check out the car when Mercedes invited me for a sneak peek earlier this week. The EQS is currently in Kuwait as part of its worldwide roadshow and I got to spend a bit of time with it but I didn’t get to drive it.

In-person I didn’t like the front end of the car much but the rear with the long one-piece tail light definitely looked futuristic. But really it’s inside the car that things start getting very cool. The whole front dash looks like one giant screen that starts from the driver’s side and ends on the passenger’s side and the software it’s running is fairly smart and intuitive.

The EQS doesn’t officially ship until later this year and although the official price gets announced next week, the rumor is that it will cost around KD40,000. Since this is an edition one car it’s not going to be available for public viewing while in Kuwait. The car is here for a short while just for private viewing and then will fly back out. For more info on the car though click here.

I don’t post about coffee shops anymore because they’re just too many of them and too much of the same thing but GOODCUP has one cool thing going for it, the location. GOODCUP opened up a couple of weeks back and as soon as I saw photos of the space on social media I really wanted to pass by and check it out.

The coffee shop is located in an old building inside Souk Mubarakia and it’s pretty big with two floors. The coffee shop occupies one part of the ground floor and the rest is divided into smaller spaces that are available to rent to other businesses. As you can imagine and see from the photos, the coffee shop is very instagrammable so most of the people there were there to grab photos and leave since the seating is pretty limited.

Finding the location is easy, just find Freej Swaileh first in Mubarakia (Google Maps). Once you’re standing in front of Freej enter the souk on the right of it (Souk Al Hareem), and then around 20 meters in you’ll find GOODCUP on your right-hand side. They’re also on instagram @goodcupkw

One of the oldest Korean restaurants in Kuwait, Koryokwan is now called Korea Gwan. Don’t know why they changed it, maybe because nobody could remember the name Koryokwan? I know I couldn’t. They also gave the interior a bit of a facelift although I think the new lights are too bright. I didn’t see anything new in the menu though but it’s been given a facelift as well.

On a side note, I just spotted their very old original logo on their instagram account (pictured below) and it looks very familiar. There used to be a Korean restaurant on mezzanine 2 of Salhiya in the 80s and I remember they had a very similar logo outside the restaurant but don’t think they’re the same restaurant.

From what I know, Koryokwan was opened by Mr Kim in 1989, just before the Gulf War. Mr Kim was the General Secretary of the Boxing Federation in Korea and was then brought to Kuwait by Sheikh Fahad Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to coach the Kuwait boxing team back in 1982.

Mr Kim (in yellow) helped Kuwait win two bronze medals at the Asian games and later helped train the Kuwaiti police and army. After leaving boxing in 1988 he teamed up with Carlton Hotel to open up Koryokwan. In 1991 after the Gulf War he got into a disagreement with Carlton and they split ways. He ended up opening a super trippy hair accessories store while someone else teamed up with Carlton to run Koryokwan. A completely random story which you can read in more detail here.

Korea Gwan is open daily from 10AM to 9:30PM. They’re also on Instagram @koreagwan_kuwait

There is a new fitness store in Avenues called Befit that recently opened up and they carry a couple of cool brands including Rogue and Concept2. Concept2 rowers have been difficult to come by since the start of the pandemic and when found are usually overpriced so I was pretty surprised to see they were selling them for normal Amazon prices.

On their website, Befit have the Concept2 rower listed for KD443 (with free shipping) but in-store they have it listed for even less at KD427. The store is pretty small so they don’t have a lot of equipment on display but if you’re trying to get your hands on a Concept2 it’s worth passing by. They’re located in the corridor behind the new Adidas store that’s opening in Grand Avenues.