Author: Mark

Friday night a friend of mine sent me a video (watch it below) of a coffee shop which I assumed was in Dubai because of how big and pretty it looked. I was watching the video and in my head I was trying to figure out why he would send me a video of a coffee shop in Dubai. But, when I got to the end of the video, it turned out the coffee shop was called Majnoon Qahwa, was in Kuwait and had just opened up. So yesterday morning I headed with a friend of mine to check it out.

Majnoon Qahwa is actually a Jordanian brand and they’re located at The Spot, a new food complex opposite Messilah Beach. The place is pretty big, two floors and an outdoor terrace, the top floor has a bit of a sea view, lots of seating and even a small study area. The ground floor has a smaller seating area but a cozier one with two large coffee roasters at one end giving the space a slightly industrial feel.

We didn’t end up having any of their food, I just had a latte and a pain au chocolat. The latte was ok but the pain au chocolat was terrible, super dense and tasted more like a cake. Not sure how they got that wrong (Al Nata, you guys should hook them up with your stuff). But I really did love the space, the couch we were on was super comfy, the whole interior was beautifully lit up with daylight that came through golden Mashrabiyas and I loved the super high ceiling. Would I go back? Probably not since its out of my way but if I lived in the area then yeah for sure, I’d just skip the pain au chocolat next time.

Now if anyone wants to get the best teapots ever, for some odd reason they sell FORLIFE teapots at the place. They’re reasonably priced as well, around KD10 which is KD2 more expensive than Amazon. They’re really the best teapots, I love them and I personally have 4 different colored ones myself.

If you’re interested in checking the place out, here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account is @majnoon_qahwakw

A bunch of things taking place this weekend. The only one I’ll probably be going to is the Revive.Nine Popup thats taking place at the new Elevation Burger in AlSeif since I’m curious to see their new outdoor events space. Check out all of this weekends events below and if I missed anything let me know:

Thursday
Exhibition: Attraction
Play: Part of a Whole
Revive.Nine One Day Pop Up
The Divan’s Movie Night: Memento

Friday
Tai Chi in the Park
Breast Cancer Awareness Workshop
Good Game: Magic The Gathering
Quiz Night

Saturday
Yoga with the 3
Discussion: How Literature Shapes the World
Pink Saturday Carnival

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

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

New This Week:
Inferno (7.1) ♦
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (7.7) 4DX Release

Other Movies Showing:
Deepwater Horizon (7.2)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Lights Out (6.7)
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (7.2)
Snowden (6.2) ♦
Storks (7.2)
Sully (7.9)
Tank 432 (3.6)
The Disappointments Room (4.3) ♦
The Magnificent Seven (7.0) ★
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (5.1)

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

So usually before I actually sit down and write a post I start writing it in my head. I visualize everything and then I just sit down and type it out. So today I had the perfect plan, there is a new place that was serving matcha drinks and ice cream at the Mishref Coop. So I started planning my post in my head and decided I would pass by today, take a few shots, try out the ice cream and then come back home and write about it.

That plan turned out to be a complete fail since the matcha place turned out to be a popup and they had already left the Mishref location. But, since it’s a slow news day and this was going to be my second post for today, I decided I’m still going to go ahead and post it since it would still be informative.

The matcha place is called Matchadose and they serve a variety of matcha drinks and ice cream. As I mentioned they’re a popup so they move around from location to location. They should be announcing their next location soon so if you’re into matcha then you should check out their instagram account for updates @matchadose

Update: They’ll be popping up next at AUK on October 16th.

Between East & West: A Gulf

Kuwait is participating at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale which is the largest architecture show in the world. The Kuwait Pavilion is called ‘Between East & West: A Gulf’.

I had seen photos of the Kuwait Pavilion exhibit over the summer but didn’t post about it since I had difficulty understanding the exhibit myself and so would have trouble writing about it. But one of the architects involved in the project recently sent me the video above which made things a lot clearer so I decided to share it on my blog. If you can’t hear the audio in the video because you’re at work, here is the project description from their website:

Hundreds of islands dot the waters between the Arabian and Persian shores. An afterthought in the political maneuverings of their respective coasts, these islands tell an alternative narrative to the one which drives conceptions of the region. They represent a possibility greater than spaces of political contestation and hesitant demarcation. These islands are the sites of identity in formation, places of experimentation and architectural invention. Their historical roles were as varied as places of leisure, spirituality, planning, war, exile, and health. The island is an entity both isolated but also crucially connected through the waters of the Gulf, and thus not an exception to the national but the rule which defines it.

This year’s Kuwaiti pavilion looks beyond the shores of the country and argues in favor of a masterplan for a united Gulf. By presenting the untold history of the region and proposing an alternate future, the pavilion casts the hydrography as a singular entity of neither East nor West, but as an untapped archipelago which defined the region and offers the greatest possibility for its reconciliation.

What is unique about this exhibit is that it was conceived and executed by a fairly small and young team of architecture students and recent graduates. Here is a list of everyone that was involved and you can find their full bio on the pavilion website:

Commissioners: Zahra Ali Baba – National Council for Culture Arts and Letters / Kuwait (NCCAL)
Curators: Hamed Bukhamseen, Ali Karimi
Art Director / Graphic Designer: Fahad Alhunaif
Publication Coordinator / Editor: Muneerah Alrabe
Project Designers and Research Architects: Saphiya Abu Almaati, Shahab Albahar, Mai Albusairi, Nada Alqallaf, Rawan Alsaffar, Yousef Awaad Hussein
Financial Team: Mohammed Al Ajmi, Mohammed Al Jameel
Administrative Team: Abdullah Albeeshi (Head of team), Noora Al Musallam, Jaber Al Qallaf, Jassim Al Shamali.

The 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale opened up this past May and is running until November 27th. For more information and photos on the project, check out the Kuwait Pavilion website [Here]

I’ve been wanting to post about the Kuwait Business Center ever since I got involved in the project back in April, but I couldn’t since the project was still under wraps and when it soft launched in May, there were still a few kinks that were being worked out. But, a couple of weeks ago the Ministry of Commerce and Industry officially launched the Kuwait Business Center which is why I decided now would be the best time to write about it.

Anyone who has tried to start a business in Kuwait knows how much running around is needed. Literally. I have a friend who was opening a business and according to his iPhone, he covered the distance of 5KM just running around getting paperwork signed and stamped from one person to the next. KBC is solving all of this by shifting everything online and automating the process while also setting up a one stop shop located in Ishbilia. Now all you need to do is visit their website, apply for your company online and then once everything is approved, you head over to the KBC office in Ishbilia and get everything finalized there. Just 1 visit and just 4 days to issue a license compared to over a month and lots of running around with the old fashioned way.

There are a bunch of other benefits which I’m not sure if they’ve implemented yet or not since the information on the website is all in Arabic. But one new feature I was told about back in April was that small businesses no longer needed to rent an office space so they could get a license, instead they could now use a PO Box which would help keep their overheads low.

So if you’re planning on starting a new business, check out the Kuwait Business Center website [Here]

I was only made aware of this recently by a friend. We were talking about coffee machines and he suggested I order one from Amazon UK and have them ship it directly to Kuwait without using a forwarding mailbox (Amazon ships some items abroad). I told him shipping would be too expensive and wouldn’t be worth it. He then told me that when you ship stuff directly to Kuwait with Amazon UK, they remove the 20% VAT during check out. So I added a few items to my cart and tried to check out and he was right.

Once Amazon removes the 20% VAT and add the international shipping cost to Kuwait, the price basically evens out and you end up paying no shipping or next to nothing for shipping when compared to the original listed price. So you could buy stuff from the UK and get it delivered to you in Kuwait for a cost less than if you lived in the UK and bought it yourself over there. Here are some examples to make this clearer:

Sage Dual Boiler Coffee Machine
Listed Price: KD 382
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 368

Sage Smart Grinder Pro
Listed Price: KD 70
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 77

Xbox One S FIFA 17 Bundle (500GB)
Listed Price: KD 94
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 93

Vitamix Standard Blender (Certified Refurbished)
Listed Price: KD 123
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 127

So as you can see from above this works better when the item is expensive since the 20% VAT would be worth more than the cost of shipping the item to Kuwait. The items would be shipped using AmazonGlobal Priority which uses one of Amazon’s shipping partners like DHL or UPS. The items would be delivered to your door in Kuwait in around a weeks time. The voltage in the UK is also similar to Kuwait so you won’t need power transformers or anything of the sort. So if you’re looking for an item that you can’t find in Kuwait or you’ve found it but is too expensive, try finding it on Amazon UK, it might come out to be a pretty good deal.

Update: One thing to add, the “Price shipped to Kuwait” includes an “Import Fees Deposit”. Basically the customs fee for importing the item into Kuwait. Once your package gets delivered, Amazon will refund you either the full deposit or partial amount from the deposit. So the actual price you pay is even cheaper than what I have listed above

I stopped using Netflix awhile back since the US version stopped working with my DNS Proxy provider and the Kuwait version lacked all the real estate reality shows I enjoy watching (like Beachfront Bargain Hunt). But recently, my DNS provider Smart DNS Proxy fixed the issue and Netflix US has started working again in Kuwait. According to their support page dating September 30th:

We have restored Netflix for many of our users and are working on getting everyone back ASAP. If you see a “United States 01-10” region here, give it a try! Browsers should work without any other changes, devices may need static routes setup.

So there you have it, if you want to use the US version of Netflix in Kuwait you can now do so again. It’s $4.99 a month for the proxy account and you can get it [Link]

Update: There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding Netflix US vs Netflix Kuwait. If you aren’t using a proxy, then you’re accessing Netflix Kuwait. It doesn’t matter if you have a Netflix US account with a US credit card, if you’re in Kuwait you’ll automatically access Netflix Kuwait. Netflix Kuwait and Netflix US look exactly the same, but the Netflix Kuwait library is a lot smaller. Here is a simple test to tell which Netflix you have. Search for the show “Lakefront Bargain Hunt”. If you have Netflix US it will show up, if you have Netflix Kuwait it will tell you not found.

BitOasis, the UAE based Bitcoin exchange backed by the DCG (Digital Currency Group) out of New York have now added support for KNET and exchanging bitcoin into Kuwaiti Dinars.

Bitcoin has many benefits and is considered by many the future of currency. Some of the advantages of Bitcoin include anonymity during purchase, meaning there is no digital trace linking a person to a transaction, similar to when paying for an item in cash. Another advantage is that nobody owns Bitcoin, not an individual, not a company, not a government, bank or any other financial institute. This means no one can freeze your account, take any money from it or stop you from performing transactions.

If you’re interested, check out the BitOasis website [Here]

Thanks Abdullateef

I’ve never retracted a review since I started blogging over a decade ago. The most I’ve done was go back to a review and add a little note at the bottom mentioning what has changed about the place and thats about it. But, the amount of backlash I’ve gotten over my review of the US forwarding mailbox service Edfa3ly has been like no other which has made me consider retracting my original review. But I won’t and here is why.

Back in August I posted about how Edfa3ly was the cheapest way to ship lightweight packages from the States to Kuwait. Some of the advantages were the fact that they charged per 100grams, that you wouldn’t pay any US sales tax and you wouldn’t pay any local customs clearance fee. I had ordered an item from Amazon and had just paid around 500fils to have it shipped to me and it took 10 days to arrive. Two days later I posted a coupon that my readers could use to waive the international shipping fee and thats when things started going downhill.

First sign of trouble was when a reader left a message saying that once the package arrived to Kuwait he had to pay KD2 to have it delivered to his door and that he also had to pay KD5 for custom clearance. Then two more readers left messages stating the same thing. That turned out to be a temporary fuck up on Edfa3ly part but they fixed the issue.

More signs of trouble kept coming in though. A lot of readers were complaining that they couldn’t get hold of customer support. Some spent days trying to get a hold of someone to no avail. It seems people had more luck getting a response back from Edfa3ly by leaving a comment on the blog then trying to reach support through the proper channels.

Another problem was also brought to my attention. I had originally stated that you wouldn’t have to pay any US sales tax but Edfa3ly changed their policy and started charging a US sales tax. I also posted packages would take around 10 days to be delivered since thats how long it had taken mine to arrive but people started complaining how shipping was taking over 3 weeks with many going missing.

I couldn’t retract or update the review without trying the service out again myself, so I placed an order for another cheap lightweight item, a USB charging cable for my Game Boy Advance. These were the charges:

Item Price: $4.99
Sales Tax Inside US: $0.35
Customs: $0.25
Clearance Fees: $3.32
Edfa3ly Kuwait Fees: $0.05
International Shipping Fees (1.33 dollar(s) per 100gm): $6.65 (0.5KG)

Total: $15.61
Free Shipping Discount Coupon: – $6.95

Final Amount: $8.66

Item order was placed on September 9, it arrived in my mailbox September 19, it then shipped out on September 23 and I finally got it October 6. So I ended up paying around KD1 to have the item delivered to me in Kuwait and it took 17 days to be delivered to me after shipping from the States. Thats not bad, it wasn’t an important item so I wasn’t in a rush and shipping was still much cheaper than the alternatives. If I had ordered using PostaPlus, the same item would have cost me at least KD3.5 to have it delivered to Kuwait while with Aramex it would have cost me KD4.25. Now true I had used a free shipping coupon with this order but it seems they constantly have a free shipping coupon listed on their website. One confusing aspect is why they marked my package as weighing 500grams when the item weighs just 25grams as you can see in the picture above. But since I had the coupon for free shipping I didn’t care or contact them to find out. If I was paying for shipping I would have definitely made an issue about this.

Now one final comparison. In my original review I posted a breakdown of how much it cost me to ship a Nikon Rubber Eyecup for my camera from Amazon (pictured above). The breakdown was as follows:

Item Price: $10.7
Customs Fee: $0.54
Edfa3ly Fees: $0.54
International Shipping Fees: $1.33

Total Price: $13.11

If I was to place the exact same order today and not use a free shipping coupon, the breakdown would be as following:

Item Price $10.4 (it’s 30cents cheaper now on Amazon)
Sales Tax Inside US: $0.73
Customs Fee: $0.56
Edfa3ly Fees: $0.1
Clearance Fees: $3.32
International shipping fees: $1.33

Total Price: $16.43

So while previously it cost me $2.41 on top of the item to have it shipped to Kuwait, this time around it would have cost me $6.03 which clearly isn’t as cheap but still cheaper than PostaPlus or Aramex.

So will I continue to use Edfa3ly? Yes like I have been… for really cheap small and light items that wouldn’t be worth shipping with PostaPlus or Aramex. They’re also items I don’t need urgently. For everything else I’ll continue to use PostaPlus like I have been doing. Someone emailed me telling me they ordered a Kindle with Edfa3ly, I personally wouldn’t order a Kindle with Edfa3ly. It’s more reliable to order a Kindle to my PostaPlus account and PostaPlus would also most likely be cheaper. People tend to skim through my posts no matter how short or long they are. I only recommended Edfa3ly specificaly for “tiny cheap stuff”, packages that weigh under 1/2kg. Look at what I ordered as a perfect example, a rubber eye cup for my camera that costs $10 and a tiny custom USB cable for my Game Boy that cost $5. I didn’t order a MacBook or an Xbox.

I will be placing an update under my original review mentioning the fact they now charge a US sales tax and a clearance fee, but I will not be retracting my original post since I still stand with what I originally stated. Edfa3ly are the cheapest way to ship light packages from the US to Kuwait. They are just no longer as cheap as they originally were.

UPDATE: There have been major changes to the service since this post. Edfa3ly are no longer the cheapest option to ship, they no longer charge by the 100grams and they are now more expensive than PostaPlus so I have retracted my review.

The second Five Guys location in Kuwait is going to open in Salmiya on Salem Mubarek Street, opposite Galleria 2000 [Map]. This means that strip of street will now have the following burger places:

BGR The Burger Joint
Fat Burger
Five Guys
Johnny Rockets
Shake Shack
Smash Burger
Steak & Shake

The only franchise thats missing on that street now is Elevation Burger.

Below are this weekends events, if I missed anything let me know.

Thursday
Exhibition: Attraction
Lena Chamamyan Concert
Comedy & Illusion Show
Oktoberfest 2016

Friday
Tai Chi in the Park

Saturday
Street Food Brunch
Yoga with the 3 – Women Only
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
K’S PATH Shelter Open Day
BarCamp Kuwait 5
Good Game: Conquest LCG Game Night Kit

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

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

New This Week:
Little Boy (7.4)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (7.2)
Tank 432 (3.6)
The Disappointments Room (4.3) ♦
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (5.1)

Other Movies Showing:
Deepwater Horizon (7.2)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Lights Out (6.7)
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Storks (7.2)
The Magnificent Seven (7.0) ★
Snowden (6.2) ♦
Sully (7.9)

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

So turns out the Sheikh Jaber Causeway Bridge that is set to be completed in 2018 has a pretty cool website. I use the word cool here not because of the design, but because of the kind of content thats available on the site like the project map, project overview, monthly updates, images, video and more. You can even book a trip to their visitors center! Check out the website [Here]

Now here is the thing. This “bridge” is set to be completed in two years time and it already has a website yet the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre which is set to open end of this month still doesn’t have one? A bridge has a website but the cultural centre doesn’t? How does that make sense? Are there any shows that will be coming? And why is all this information so hush hush?

Filling Pieces is a cool Amsterdam based footwear label and there is now a small store in Kuwait that sells the brand. The shop is called “Sneaky” and although they don’t have a large collection from Filling Pieces, it’s a start. The shop also sells sneakers but that collection is also quite small. If you’re interested, the shop is located behind Starbucks next to the church in Kuwait City and heir instagram account is @sosneakyq8