Author: Mark

“Way Too On” is a new music video by Kuwaiti rapper Element that was released a few days ago. If you like his music make sure to check out his website aboveallelements.com for more tracks and information.

Yesterday my brother asked me if I knew what the Arabica Coffee symbol % was. I thought I had shared it on the blog before but turns out I hadn’t. In case you’ve ever wondered what their % sign represented, it’s basically the coffee plant simplified, check out the image below. Smart.

Does anyone know where I can find an OBDII scanner for the car in Kuwait? They cost peanuts on Amazon but figured someone must sell them locally? Preferably a bluetooth one.

OBD stands for on-board diagnostics and is the term referring to the car’s self-diagnostic and reporting capability. If your engine light comes on, you can plug in the OBD scanner and the car will tell you what caused the engine light to come on. The OBD can also give you real time information about your car like car speed, engine temperature, fuel rate etc..

If you’re looking to go out to sea with a bunch of friends and don’t own a yacht then this may be of interest to you. Silsan is a marina company that has a bunch of yachts available for rent. Their prices start from KD15 an hour and can go up to as much as KD85 an hour depending on the size and kind of yacht. They also have different departure points like Salmiya and Khiran. These prices are per hour, per boat and not per person. So its KD15 if you’re 2 people or 8 people as long as the number doesn’t exceed the yachts maximum carrying capacity. These prices also includes the crew.

To check out what yachts are available to rent click this [Link]
To book a yacht you can call them up on 25650674

Since I last posted about the new Kuwait airport in May, a lot of progress has been made based on satellite imagery from Google Maps. Since I could now clearly see the outline of the new airport, I decided I’d overlay our current airport just to get an idea of how big the new airport is going to be.

I managed to fit six of our current airpot over the new one (same scale). This means the new airport is roughly six times bigger than the current one!

To view the updated satellite imagery, click on the following link from a mobile device (desktop will show old imager) [Google Maps]

While we’re on the subject of airlines…

British Airways
Not sure how its possible but BA always seem to have the cheapest business class tickets to the States; at least to LA, and by always I mean whenever I want to go. And I’m talking like 40-50% cheaper than anybody else. So if you’re planning on traveling to the States check out their prices now since there is a promo running. [Link]

Qatar Airways
If you missed out on the Qatar Airways offers during Eid it came back yesterday. I got a ridiculously great priced ticket for a trip to Europe next month, literally half the price of competition. So again if you’re looking to travel soon, check their prices out as well. [Link]

Etihad
Finally, in case you missed this bit of news yesterday, you can now carry electronics onboard your flights to the US if you’re flying with Etihad. They’re the only airline in the region which you can now carry electronics onboard US flights. [Link]

Wataniya Airways is getting close to relaunch and they’ve updated their website with the first three destinations they’ll be flying to which are:

Azerbaijan
Georgia
Sarajevo

If someone had asked me to guess their first ten destinations, neither of these three would have made my list. They seem like such low traffic destinations to be flying to but supposedly they’re popular destinations for conservatives. That’s interesting, and smart.

When Wataniya Airways launched the first time around they were flying to popular destinations like Beirut and Dubai so they were competing with a number of other airlines. This time around it seems they’re trying to carve a niche for themselves and now I’m curious to see what else they’ll be adding.

Here is a link to their [Website]

Thanks Abdullah

Galaxy Juice are one of my favorite local bands and they just released a music video yesterday for their new single ‘Awaken The Sunshine’. It’s a pretty nice video and the track is really great so check it out.

If you like their music follow them on [Instagram] [Twitter] or [Facebook]

Someone posted an interesting query in the Kuwestions section, what is the oldest restaurant in Kuwait? One reader suggested Mais Alghanim which is possible since its been active since 1953, but I’m curious if there is anything older that is still around and active?

The two photos here were taken from the Mais Alghanim photo gallery [Here]

According to a recent article in The Telegraph, Kuwait is one of the top 20 fastest growing travel destinations in the world. The article doesn’t mention why or how that came to be, and I also couldn’t find their original source of data, so I don’t really have more more information other than the ranking. Kuwait was also the only Arab country to appear on the list which you can check out below:

The top 20 fastest growing travel destinations
1- Sierra Leone +310%
2- Nepal +39.7%
3- Iceland +39%
4- South Korea +30.3%
5- Moldova +28.6%
6- Chile +26%
7- Vietnam +24.6%
8- Japan +21.8%
9- Liechtenstein +21.7%
10- Kiribati +21.6%
11- Kuwait +20.7%
12- Madagascar +20%
13- Cyprus +19.8%
14- Georgia +19%
15- Turks & Caicos +17.5%
16- Cook Islands +17.1%
17- Slovakia +16.9%
18- Kenya +16.8%
19- Tanzania +15.6%
20- Indonesia +15.5%

For the full article click [Here]

Thanks Hind!

The Assima mall and tower which is currently under construction in Kuwait City (across from KIPCO Tower) caught fire earlier today. The fire started in the afternoon and by the time I passed by in the evening, the whole site was engulfed in flames. Solo Pizza, Sola Taco’s and A’s Chicken were forced to close down since their shops are located right behind the construction site.

So if you were wondering what all that smoke coming from the city was, now you know.

Update: Below are some epic photos taken earlier tonight by a reader. Thanks Ricardo!

Update2: According to KUNA, the fire started around 3:30PM and it took 180 firemen to put it out. [Link]

Update3: Now that the fire is out the damage to the site looks to be pretty extensive. According to a reader, the shoring around the site is completely burned and the “shores” are collapsing. Before you start digging to create a hole for construction, you first have to stabilize the sides so they won’t collapse. That process is called shoring. The shoring is composed of steel beams with wooden planks between them [Like this] that hold up the sand walls. The wooden planks are now mostly burnt and the sand walls are collapsing into the site as you can see in the picture above. Thanks Dragos!

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

New This Week:
2:22 ♦
Despicable Me 3 (6.6)
Overdrive (5.5)

Other Movies Showing:
Deep (5.1)
Mr Frog (N/A)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (7.0)
The Mummy (5.8) ♦ ★
Transformers: The Last Knight (5.4)

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

New This Week:
Dream Big 3D (7.9)

Other Movies Showing:
A Beautiful Planet 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.

Jaber recounted an incident that took place in January 2017, while she was in Egypt training for her masters degree. She asked a close friend to take care of the cheetahs, but a fire broke out in the apartment and the fire brigade saw the wild felines and reported them to the police.

“I directly called somebody high-ranking at the police station of the district to replace the mention of ‘cheetah’ with ‘big cat’ on the complaint. It is necessary to act very quickly, so that the wasta works,” Jaber tells MEE.

Owning exotic animals is illegal in Kuwait yet these guys are parading them in this article for Middle East Eye and on their personal instagram accounts. Then to top it off they talk about how they have wasta to help them stay out of trouble and give examples of situations where their wasta helped them out. I really do hope because of this article they’ll all get arrested and their animals taken away from them. [Link]

The Central Bank has placed eight ATM machines around Avenues to dispense money for Eidiya’s. The ATM machines can dispense KD1 and KD5 notes in addition to the usual KD10 and KD20 notes. Four of the machines are located in Grand Avenue (pictured above) while the other four are located in the 2nd Avenue near H&M.

Distributing money (eidiya) to children during Eid is a popular tradition not just in Kuwait but throughout the Gulf.

Thanks LadyB!

The movies below are now showing or will be showing over Eid at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

During Eid:
Deep (5.1)
Mr Frog (N/A)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (7.0)
The Mummy (5.8) ♦ ★
Transformers: The Last Knight (5.4)

Movies Showing Now:
Alien: Covenant (7.0) ♦ ★
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (3.3)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Fast & Furious 8 (7.5)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (8.2) ♦ ★
Hacksaw Ridge (8.8) ★♦
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (7.2)
The Boss Baby (6.5)
The Circle (7.5) ♦

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)

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