Author: Mark

If you’re a PayPal user you probably already know that as residents of Kuwait, we don’t have the ability to cash out our PayPal credit. Meaning if someone sends you $100 with PayPal, there is no way of withdrawing that money or depositing it into your bank account.

But according to a reader this might change come October. According to the reader, he recently got a call from PayPal for a survey and at the end of the call, he asked them about money withdrawals in Kuwait. The PayPal representative told him that money withdrawals would be activated in October with NBK.

Hopefully this is true since I know a lot of small businesses who want to open up online websites and accept credit card payments but can’t afford the high rates of our local banks. PayPal would be a much more affordable option for them and work easier with ecommerce sites like SquareSpace and Shopify.

Thanks Jassim

Last week police arrested a man who stabbed his wife at least seven times and the video of the arrest went viral. I just got to watch the video now and found it a bit confusing since in the video it looks like civilians are arresting the murderer, while the cop is on his phone the whole time.

The video starts off with a police officer ordering a man to surrender while he had his Apple earbuds on and the phone in his hand recording the whole incident. While he is recording the video, two men in civilian clothing get closer to the man, one of them looks to be carrying a police baton. Once the man surrenders and lies down on his stomach, the two civilians proceed to secure the man down and then one of them goes to get handcuffs before coming back and handcuffing the man. Finally a second policeman comes into the video and hands something over to one of the civilians.

Now my educated guess is at least one of the civilians is actually a cop himself, probably off duty or undercover, but its still weird that the first cop was on his phone the whole time. Check out the video above to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

I’m heading back to Kuwait in a couple of days and it looks like I missed out on a bit of drama while I was away. Shaab Park, Sultan Center Shaab, the football fields and everything else in that block have been closed down and cordoned off by a fence. Whats going on? Sultan Center Shaab was my goto supermarket so I can’t imagine not having it there anymore.

Photo by @7ammoud

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Altitude (4.7)
First Kill (4.8)
The Big Sick (8.1) ♦
The Dark Tower (7.7)
The Jungle Bunch (6.6)
The Wall (6.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Ali and Nino (7.4)
Atomic Blonde (7.2) ♦
Baby Driver (8.3) ♦ ★
Boyka: Undisputed (7.3)
Cars 3 (7.1)
Despicable Me 3 (6.6)
Dunkirk (8.6) ♦ ★
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (7.0)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (8.2)
War for the Planet of the Apes (8.5) ★

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Every year on the anniversary of the 1990 Kuwait Invasion, I like to share some links related to the war. This year I added a couple of new ones, check them all out below:

Free Kuwait
This is a website that focuses on the campaign that was led by Kuwaitis in exile and is loaded with photos and information.

Kuwait Invasion – The Evidence
This is a website that contains over 1,200 pictures taken right after the 1990 invasion as photographic evidence to all the destruction caused by Iraq.

Short movie: Hearts of Palm
Hearts of Palm is a short movie set in August 2nd 1990 and deals with Kuwaiti students living in Miami Florida during the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait.

The Class of 1990
This is a short documentary about reuniting class mates years after the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

Homemade video from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
Video clips taken by a Kuwaiti family during the Iraqi invasion

Desert Storm Photos
Photos taken by soldiers during Desert Storm.

Short Animation: Sandarah
A captivating story based on true events that took place during the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

First Account of Iraq’s Invasion of Kuwait
Interviews with various Kuwaitis that were in Kuwait during the 1990 invasion.

Iraqi Invasion Pictures
Photos of the Gulf War aftermath.

Photo on top by Adel Al-Yousifi

Selections, the bi-monthly cultural magazine posted a short article on Kuwait’s Modern Art Museum. One bit of information that caught my attention was the fact the building used to be an important school before, a fact I wasn’t aware of:

Interestingly, the museum is housed in one of Kuwait’s few pre-World War Two era buildings, an imposing former school that educated some of the country’s most prominent figures, including the current Emir Sheikh Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. Today, the unique building is managed by the National Committee of Culture, Arts and Literature, which is responsible for maintaining the collection and permanent displays on site.

You can check out the full article on the Selections website [Here]

Thanks cognitoas

A reader sent me the picture above this morning and I didn’t think of it much since I hadn’t heard of Shakey’s before, but later during the day I drove by one here in L.A. so decided to google it now. Turns out Shakey’s was the first franchise pizza chain in the United States and now they’re opening up in Kuwait. Their first location will be in Salmiya, right on top of Five Guys.

Thanks Mohamed

For those of you who follow my blog regularly, you probably know that my favorite podcast is called Kill Tony, a comedy show run by the popular comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. In the show, Tony randomly selects a name of an audience member from a hat (the audience members are young striving comedians) and they have to come up and do a stand up set for 60 seconds in front of Tony and his guests. After the 60 seconds, Tony and his guests roast the comedians while also interviewing them to find out more about them. The show takes place at The Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard here in L.A., it’s my favorite comedy store, it’s where Joe Rogan and his friends perform, and I always drop by whenever I’m in town. Today I got to watch Kill Tony perform their 224th show live and I loved it.

Me and my friend got there a bit early so we managed to get a table right up front and dead center which was amazing. Tonight the three guests were comedians Benji Aflalo, Jak Knight and a surprise appearance by the legendary Ron White who came in 30 minutes into the show with a bottle of tequila. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard, the podcast is funny as is but watching it live and half drunk is a completely different level of funny. Everyone was also super down to earth and after the show all the comedians including Ron and Tony were in the main patio drinking and talking with all of us.

If you listen to podcasts and like comedy then you need to check out the Kill Tony podcast if you haven’t already. I was a fan before and a much bigger fan now.

From what I’ve been hearing, it looks like March is the targeted opening date for the first phase of the Kuwait Motor Town Race Circuit. The first phase will be the main F1/Moto-GP circuit and drag strip while the completion of the rest of the circuits as well as the hotel and mall will follow at a later date. Personally I don’t care about the hotel or the mall, I just want the main track to open so I could take part in open days.

Kuwait Motor Town will have karting, moto-cross, rally-cross, super-cross, 4×4 technical and ATV circuits as well as the main F1/Moto-GP circuit and the drag strip. For previous posts on the Kuwait Motor Town, click [Here]

Sam Chui, the world’s most followed aviation blogger recently flew on one of the new Kuwait Airways planes and reviewed it. Overall he really liked the new planes although he had major issues with the Kuwait Airport, but don’t we all. I’m surprised Kuwait Airways didn’t bump him up to first class from business since it didn’t look like anyone was there and it’s Sam Chui..

Jazeera Airways just rebranded their identity and launched their new face lifted website. Not sure how I feel about their new logo yet, going to wait and see their new plane livery before I make up my mind on it. [Link]

Thanks Sara

A reader who’s traveling to L.A. next week asked me if I could share a list of places to see and places to eat at. Problem with L.A. is that its huge and spread out so I’m not sure how practical a list like that could be. Traffic here is insane so trips around L.A. usually take an hour easily and most of the time a lot more than that. I’m also staying and hanging out mostly in the Armenian areas like Glendale and Burbank which are not close to any touristic spots I’m aware of, maybe the Griffith Observatory but thats about it. So again not sure my list would work for anybody else but I’ll share some below.

The best way really to find some great eating spots in general is to just open up Yelp whenever you find yourself hungry. If a place has 4+ stars and 200+ reviews then most likely that place is gonna be great. Since I’ve got relatives and friends in L.A. I’ve been pretty lucky so far on this trip with some really great food recommendations, but whenever I’m stuck I just go back to Yelp. Below are some of the best places I’ve gone to on this trip but for all the places I’ve been to, check out my yelp account mark248am.yelp.com

El Faro Tacos – I just found out on this trip that Lebanese immigrants to Mexico had a small influence on their cuisine in the form of the Al Pastor, which is basically a shawerma taco. This small hole in the wall specializes in the Al Pastor and is super authentic and super cheap, just $1.24 for a taco. They were so good I had 4.

Afters Ice Cream – Like In-N-Out but for ice cream. Afters is a California based brand and is currently only located there. I dropped by and picked up their “Anti Diet Diet Club” tshirt which is a spoof of the “Anti Social Social Club” brand, and while I was there I also enjoyed their billion calorie Cookie Monster ice cream in a hot glazed milky bun.

Baja California Fish Tacos – Best fish tacos I’ve ever had, they were crazy good. Order any of the fried fish tacos since there is no way you can go wrong. This place along with El Faro are the only two places I’ve given a full 5 out of 5 on this trip so far.

Eggslut – So this place I wasn’t really going in with high expectations but I ended up leaving impressed. I’ve had a ton of egg sandwiches in Kuwait mostly from EightSix and Eggcellent so really didn’t figure Eggslut could be that much better. It was! I ordered the Fairfax which had scrambled egg and cheese topped with their special sriracha mayo sauce, maybe it was their bun or the sauce but damn it was so good. Actually might go back there tomorrow morning for breakfast.

Sugarfish – Simple straight forward authentic sushi. They have set menus which is what me and my friends all ordered and everything on it was super delicious… except for the blue crab. AVOID the blue crab, it tasted like canned tuna.

The Drunken Crab – A Louisiana-style seafood spot with delicious crawfish tossed in their special spicy drunken sauce and served authentically in plastic bags. Its one my have to visit places every time I come to L.A.

Verve Coffee Roasters – If you’re looking for some good coffee while in L.A. and a place to get some work done, this is a great spot. It’s located in downtown so it’s probably going to be close to where you are and it’s super chill and not too packed.

786 Degrees – They make the best Napoletana pizza I’ve ever had, but not only are their pizza’s delicious and award winning, the people working there are the friendliest people I have every encountered anywhere. Super polite and super nice, they won’t let you pay for the pizza unless you love it!

Other notable mentions:

Norah – Best cornbread EVER

Baco Mercat – Go there for the Hamachi Crudo

Hopefully the spots above are helpful. I might add more to it before my trip is over.

Just found this video while looking for stuff to post about. It took place around a month ago based on the upload date and it happened right in front of Abyat. No clue what it was about but a number of cars were attacked and one car even tried running over a bunch of guys.

A couple of weeks back I posted about Blaze Pizza coming to Kuwait and the Middle East. I had never had Blaze Pizza nor even heard of them up until a few days before that announcement, so I was curious to try it out. Since I’m currently in L.A., I ended up stopping by Blaze Pizza yesterday and figured I’d let you know what to expect.

What makes Blaze different from other pizza places is that it was modeled after the Chipotle concept with a made-to-order approach. As a customer you create your own pizza which they then cook in a high-temperature open-flame oven in 3 minutes. They have a few signature pizzas on the menu if you don’t feel like creating, but all the fun is in the creation.

To start with you get a choice of three doughs to choose from, the original, the high-rise (thicker) and the gluten free. You then get to choose your sauce, they had four kinds, regular tomato sauce, spicy tomato sauce, a white cream sauce and a garlic pesto sauce. After that you get to choose the kind of cheese you want followed by all your toppings. The process is pretty quick and familiar if you’ve ever been to a Subway or a Chipotle. Baking the pizza takes just 3 minutes unless you order the gluten free dough which takes 6. So by the time you are done paying and find a table to sit down at, your pizza would be ready.

If you manage your expectations beforehand, the pizza isn’t too bad. My friend ordered the gluten free dough and I thought that was a better option compared to my original one since it was thinner and crispier, but overall I didn’t like my pizza and only ended up eating half of it. Blaze Pizza isn’t going to taste better than Solo PN or even try to compete with it or similar real pizza joints, instead it’s going to compete with the likes of Pizza Hut and Papa John’s. I’m not so sure how it will end up doing in Kuwait, but more options is usually always a good thing.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Ali and Nino (7.4)
Atomic Blonde (7.2) ♦
Boyka: Undisputed (7.3)
Dunkirk (8.6) ♦ ★

Other Movies Showing:
2:22 ♦
Baby Driver (8.3) ♦ ★
Despicable Me 3 (6.6)
London Heist (7.2) ♦
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (7.0)
Railroad Tigers (5.9) ♦
Spider-Man: Homecoming (8.2)
War for the Planet of the Apes (8.5) ★

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)

The Scientific Center will have discounted tickets for Secret Ocean 3D this weekend up till July 27th because of Shark Week. The discounted ticket price is KD3.

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.