Author: Mark

The website is currently soft launch phase but still contains a good amount of data. My comments would be that I’d like to see some travel information like which countries are flights restricted from. I’d also like to see a section on temporary measures taken because of the Corona outbreak like how waiters must wear masks and gloves now or how shisha places are temporary not allowed to serve shisha (like is this true for example?). Here is the link.

Thanks Cold2zero

Because of the Corona outbreak, all of the Al Salam Palace Museum tours have been canceled until further notice. It sucks because they had just opened, but if you’d still like a peek inside of the museum, then check out this website. You’ll find a bunch of photos and a video of the museum there that should give you an idea of what to expect once the tours start again.

Update: Found this video online as well that gives you a nice walkthrough.

Al Shaheed Park have a “Garden of Lights Festival” taking place at the moment but I can’t find anything about it on their Instagram page. I think they aren’t advertising it because of the whole Corona thing but it’s on right now.

I don’t know for how long the festival is on, but last year it took place from March 5th to 15th so might be similar. If you want to check it out then you should head over to the park pretty soon before the festival ends.

Update: The festival is until March 14

Update 2: Due to the Coronavirus, the festival had to be cut short and was closed down yesterday March 9th.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to go visit Al Bohayra Farm and since it was pretty far, I figured I might as well take the opportunity to test drive a car that’s more comfortable than mine. I mean out of the 4 cars I own at the moment my FJ is the most comfortable one which is weird because my FJ isn’t even comfortable. So I got in touch with Mercedes and to see if they had a new GLE I could review. I had seen the new GLE at their Avenues showroom and really liked the way it looked so I was very curious to see how it would drive as well. Luckily for me, Mercedes had just put a brand new silver GLE 450 into their test drive fleet and I would be the first person to take it out.

The new facelifted GLE launched last year and like with their other models, I really like the design direction Mercedes has been taking recently. I never used to be a fan of the Mercedes styling and had always been a Beemer guy but their new cars just look so damn good. Even when I went to pick up the GLE from their showroom I spent a good amount of time checking out the new small Mercedes A-Class since it looked pretty great too.

The GLE as expected turned out to be the perfect car for my road trip. It was spacious, super comfortable and just a really nice and quiet space to be in. Even when I ended up on a pothole-ridden road the car ate it up like it was nothing. But the main reason I’ve become such a huge fan of Mercedes is because of their dash cluster. From all the car manufacturers out there, I think Mercedes have gotten the whole digital dashboard thing right. I first experienced it in the Mercedes S-Class years ago and now it’s trickled down to all their models including the GLE. I can’t think of another car manufacturer that combines the dash screen with the center control screen more elegantly and cleanly that they do. And unlike the new more expensive new G-Class, the center screen is actually a touchscreen in the GLE. It was something I found annoying in the G-Class and it’s been fixed here.

I’ve been thinking about replacing my FJ Cruiser with another SUV since I’ve had my car for 10 years now, and one of the reasons I wanted to take the GLE out was to see if it could be a possible replacement. Well, the answer to that is going to have to be a solid no. Basically I realized I can’t own a comfortable normal car or I might not want to drive any of my other cars. First world problem for sure, but that’s currently my reality at the moment.

That’s not to say the GLE was a perfect car, over the short period of time I had it I did discover some minor annoyances. One thing I was surprised with was the fact the car didn’t have adaptive cruise control. It had all the other bells and whistles like lane-keeping assist, automated parking, assisted emergency braking and 3D surround cameras, but no adaptive control which was odd on a fully loaded Mercedes at this price point. It’s kind of a must-have option nowadays especially systems that can work in slow traffic. Another issue I had was with Apple CarPlay. Although it worked flawlessly in the G-Class, my experience with CarPlay in the GLE was fairly buggy with the system crashing on me more than once. But more importantly, unlike in the G-Class, CarPlay wouldn’t take up the full width of the display but instead just occupy a smaller boxed area in the middle of the screen with black bars on the side. I hated that since it made what is a large gorgeous display seem a lot smaller than it is. But, it’s just a software issue that can be fixed with a software upgrade.

The GLE starting price is KD 22,700 but the model I drove cost KD 27,500. It’s a really good looking car with plenty of power and all the options you could want (except for adaptive cruise control). If I didn’t have any of my other cars this would definitely be one I’d consider. I loved the silver color and I didn’t even mind the interior color although if I had to choose I’d probably go with black. When I went to pick up the car from the dealership I walked through the quick service garage (pictured above) and it’s one of the nicest and cleanest garages I’ve seen. If you want to test drive this car you can, here is a link to the GLE website with a form you can fill out.

The Way Back

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

New This Weekend:
The Assent (3.8)
The Way Back (9.2)

Oscar Winning Movies Back in Theaters:
1917 (3 Awards, 10 Nominations)
Little Women (1 Award, 6 Nominations)
Parasite (4 Awards, 6 Nominations)

Other Movies Showing Now:
After Midnight (5.3)
Bad Boys for Life (7.2)
Birds of Prey (6.9)
Brahms: The Boy II (5.9)
Dolittle (6.2)
Frozen II (7.1)
Jumanji: The Next Level (7.0)
Sonic the Hedgehog (7.2)
The Call of the Wild (7.1)
The Invisible Man (7.4)
VFW (6.3)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Turtle Odyssey (7.7)

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

I guess arcades are making a come back in Kuwait, first with Joystixx and now Retro City. Retro City is a new arcade place that recently opened up inside Boulevard Mall. They have one new machine which is Tekken 7 while the rest are retro looking arcade cabinets with old school games installed. The idea is cool but when I was there I didn’t think there was much variation between all the games to keep me entertained, and some games I wasn’t even sure why they were there to begin with. Here are some of the games they had:

Marvel vs Capcom
Tekken 7
The King of Fighters 98
Super Street Fighter II Third Strike
X-Men
The Simpsons
Metal Slug 3
Metal Slug X
Batman
Double Dragon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Pacman
Space Invaders
Zaxon
Dig Dug
Gun Smoke

The last five games, in my opinion, shouldn’t be there especially since every round costs 250fils. I would have liked to have seen some sports games or some vertical scrollers like Mars Matrix (but at 100fils per game since I tend to die a lot). Retro City does have a small memorabilia/action figures store which is cool. But really though I need an arcade with NBA Jam or with the original Sega Rally (1 not 2) or Daytona USA units.

If you want to check the place out they’re inside Boulevard Mall but hidden. The easiest way to find them is look for the Crash Power store on the ground floor. They’re located in the area behind them. You can also find them on instagram @retrocitykw

When I found out the American bookstore Borders was opening up at The Avenues I got pretty excited because I thought finally, a bookstore! Well they opened over the holidays and guess what? They don’t sell books! Borders in Kuwait is a toy store for some reason with not a single book for sale.

The stationary and arts & crafts store Paperchase also opened as part of Borders. Both are located side by side in Avenues Phase I.

Last week Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre organized a private music performance in Vienna called “The Sounds of Kuwait”. I saw bits and pieces of the performance on instagram but a friend just sent me the 10-minute long video above.

If I get my hands on a better quality video I’ll update this post with it, but for now this should do.

It’s starting to look like one of those abandoned Soviet parks. On the bright side, they’re building a new Entertainment City soon in its place although as a nostalgic person I just wish they keep the park as is and just refurbish it.

Thanks Alex

Virgin originally opened in Kuwait back in 2002 and was the second-largest Virgin store in the world at the time. They had books, music, movies and electronics but it eventually had a lot of music and movies banned and then slowly started shrinking in size until the store no longer existed. But now it’s back.

The new Virgin recently opened in Avenues and it doesn’t have any books or music this time around. Instead, it’s more of an electronics shop selling items like phone accessories, headphones, portable speakers, drones and random trinkets. They have a small gaming section and a large selection of Crosley record players but they don’t sell any records.

The Virgin in Dubai Mall is actually a cool place with so many different things on sale which makes you at the very least want to walk through the store. The one in Kuwait on the other hand, at this stage, doesn’t seem to have the same allure. In any case, it’s worth checking out if you’re in Avenues, they’re open in phase 2 near Carrefour.

Update: Turns out they actually have a tiny book section.

While on vacation I read an article that said expats who were in countries with high rates of the coronavirus like Thailand and Italy wouldn’t be allowed back into Kuwait while Kuwaitis would be quarantined either at home or at a government chosen location depending on which country they would be arriving from.

It got me really worried since it meant if while in Tbilisi a large outbreak occurs, I might not be able to get back into Kuwait.

Yesterday a friend was telling me it happened to her expat friend who was in Italy on vacation. He wasn’t allowed to get on the plane back home to Kuwait. I know everyone is freaked out about the coronavirus but I really think this is unfair since a lot of people like me count Kuwait as our home. If it was me in Italy and I wasn’t able to hop on a plane back here I wouldn’t know what I would do or where I would go.

Over the holidays 360 Mall opened up their new extension which is located in the same building as the new Tennis Complex. The extension has it’s own parking lot but you could also continue to park in the old 360 and then cross over via a long bridge that connects the two buildings.

There are a few new brands in the extension including the sneaker stores Dropkick and FILA. Lakeland is also back in Kuwait after previously closing down its locations in Marina Mall and Avenues. My two favorite breakfast spots Lunchroom and Cocoa Room are also both opening up in the new extension soon. It’s not that big of an extension but it’s still worth passing by to check out.

I just got back from my Tbilisi trip yesterday. I wasn’t expecting to disappear like this, I figured I’d lazy post while I was on vacation but I really needed to disconnect from work and my blog for at least a week and it felt great to do so. I continued to post on my instagram story since it gave me a reason to try and take some nice photos on my trip but other than that I really wanted to disappear.

I’m so glad to be back in Kuwait though. The whole Corona thing blew up while I was out and after the whole Iran outbreak thing I got freaked out. Not because I was afraid of getting the virus but afraid of being locked out of Kuwait. I read an article that said that they were stopping all flights from Iran and that Kuwaitis would be evacuated and quarantined on arrival while expats would be refused entry. So the whole trip I was worried Georgia would suddenly develop a mass Corona outbreak and I wouldn’t be allowed back into Kuwait and then where would I go?

For those of you out of Kuwait or for those of you wondering what the entry process at the airport is like right now, it’s pretty much similar to how it was a few weeks ago. As in there is a doctor with a thermal camera that scans every arriving visitor. Children and babies would have their temperature measured individually, I’m guessing because the thermal camera doesn’t work well on them? Whats really changed though is the mood of everyone. You can clearly tell everyone is now afraid of getting the virus from passengers to the passport control employees. A lot of people were wearing masks and my passport control lady even wore disposable gloves (which is probably more useful than masks).

When I got up to the passport control desk I was asked to place my finger on the fingerprint scanner and that’s probably the only time on my whole trip I got freaked out about getting the virus. I looked at the officer and was like do I really need to put my finger there? She said yeah so I put my finger on it and got it scanned. Thankfully once I was done she got her bottle of hand sanitizer and squirted it in my hands so I could disinfect it.

Anyway, I’m back now and catching up on stuff so I could start posting normally again starting Sunday. I noticed a lot of events have gotten postponed which is a smart thing to do for now. Some of the events that have gotten postponed include COMFEST, Redbull Car Park Drift and all the Kuwait Motor Town activities. I’m assuming things are gonna be pretty slow for the next two weeks or so…

Paradise Hills

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

New This Weekend:
A Million Little Pieces (6.1)
Boonie Bears: Blast Into the Past (6.3)
Paradise Hills (5.8)
StarDog and TurboCat (5.8)
The Invisible Man (7.4)
VFW (6.3)

Oscar Winning Movies Back in Theaters:
1917 (3 Awards, 10 Nominations)
Little Women (1 Award, 6 Nominations)
Parasite (4 Awards, 6 Nominations)

Other Movies Showing Now:
After Midnight (5.3)
Bad Boys for Life (7.2)
Birds of Prey (6.9)
Brahms: The Boy II (5.9)
Dolittle (6.2)
Emma. (6.9)
Fantasy Island (6.2)
Frozen II (7.1)
Jumanji: The Next Level (7.0)
Sonic the Hedgehog (7.2)
The Call of the Wild (7.1)
The Gentlemen (8.1)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Turtle Odyssey (7.7)

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

Emma.

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

New This Weekend:
After Midnight (5.3)
Brahms: The Boy II (5.9)
Color Out of Space (6.2)
Emma. (6.9)
The Call of the Wild (7.1)
Vic the Viking and the Magic Sword (5.9)

Oscar Winning Movies Back in Theaters:
1917 (3 Awards, 10 Nominations)
Jojo Rabbit (1 Award, 6 Nominations)
Ford vs Ferrari (2 Awards, 4 Nominations)
Little Women (1 Award, 6 Nominations)
Parasite (4 Awards, 6 Nominations)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Bad Boys for Life (7.2)
Birds of Prey (6.9)
Dolittle (6.2)
Fantasy Island (6.2)
Frozen II (7.1)
Jumanji: The Next Level (7.0)
Sonic the Hedgehog (7.2)
The Gentlemen (8.1)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Turtle Odyssey (7.7)

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