Author: Mark

Dubai’s beach-born concept SALT is coming to Kuwait next month and they’ll be popping up at the new Blajaat project in Salmiya.

Although SALT is mostly known for their iconic Airstream trailer, over the past few years their pop-ups have turned into beautiful and elaborate setups, so should be interesting what they’re planning for Kuwait.

The exact date hasn’t been finalized but they should be popping up the last week of November.

A few weeks ago I got a call asking me if I’d be interested in getting a sneak peek of a new Italian restaurant opening called Piatti. I was hesitant to check it out at first but the person over the phone told me it was a fine dining restaurant and was confident I’d be impressed with the space. Since it’s not everyday we get a fine dining concept opening in Kuwait, I was intrigued. Just a month ago, a video went viral of a Saudi personality stating that unlike Riyadh, Kuwait didn’t have fine dining or an even a fine dining culture. I guess that’s going to change now.

As soon as I walked into the space I realized it was going to be something special. I think it took the walk from the reception area to the waiting area for me to fall in love with the interior, so pretty much instantly. There were so many different layers of materials, textures and colors all somehow working together cohesively to create this visual eye candy. Wherever you looked you’d spot an interesting design detail or beautiful craftsmanship, even the wallpapers were hand painted for Piatti. It had a lot of classical elements, but yet still felt contemporary.

They had wanted me to take some sneak peek photos, but after seeing the place I told them I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t feel I’d be able to do the interior justice, so instead, I connected them with my favorite architectural photographer @mashkanani who was able to take these beautiful photos in this post.

I haven’t tasted or even seen the food yet and I’m already excited about the place. The average paycheck per person isn’t going to be over the top crazy, from what I understood it’s going to be similar to Cipriani, probably a bit less, so fairly reasonable in the scheme of things.

The restaurant location is interesting as well. It’s located across from Seef Palace, right above Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (Google Maps) and has a beautiful view of the sea and the palace. There will also be an outdoor terrace but it wasn’t ready when I passed by.

They’re starting private dinners tonight and then opening to the public on November 1st. If you’re interested in booking you can do so through their website piattiofficial.com starting October 31st. Their instagram is @piatti.official

The weather has become much more bearable in the mornings which is why I thought I’d post about the sunrise paddleboarding experience offered by @outdoorish.kw.

Outdoorish are holding daily sunrise sessions which take off from Salwa and last for around 90 minutes. The sessions tend to start at around 5:30AM and the price for the experience is 15KD per person including the paddleboard.

In case you can’t get up so early, they do also have morning paddle sessions that start at 7AM, and on weekends they also hold sunset sessions. To book an experience you can either DM them on Instagram @outdoorish.kw or book through their website.

A few days ago I visited Winter Wonderland and one decision I was glad I made was getting the ASCC x Winter Wonderland combo ticket. The ticket costs 3KD more than the usual entry ticket but allows you to park in the cultural center underground parking next door, and enter through the new gate connecting both projects together. You of course can use the same ticket to also visit the museums which is what I did since I was with a friend who hadn’t been before.

The biggest advantage of this combo ticket is you get to avoid the traffic jam on the main Wonderland entrance, as well as the queue to scan your barcode when getting in. The ASCC parking was empty with no traffic to get in or out and then the entrance to Wonderland from the cultural center was also empty. I went in and out twice and both times it was just me and my friend going through.

The park in general doesn’t seem as crowded as last year, but if you’re hesitant in visiting because of the traffic, just get the combo ticket and avoid the headache. Here is the link to their website.

Duck Park is a small public park located in Shaab that has a small pond and lots of ducks! I first found out about it last year but back then when I visited the park, there weren’t that many ducks and the pond had been drained. But, I passed by a couple of days ago and things have now changed.

The park is pretty nice, small but is being well taken care of and features a climbing rope section for kids along with some swings and toys.

Other than ducks you have a few other kinds of birds that roam around freely as well as the park cats. I call them the park cats since they seem to be chill with the ducks and aren’t trying to constantly chase them or eat them.

If you want to pass by and check out the park, here is the location on Google Maps.

I finally got to watch the new Frasier reboot this past week. Two episodes are out and not sure why people don’t like it. It’s a bit cheesy yes but that’s always been Frasier. Anyway, that’s the only new thing I managed to watch this week, let me know if you’ve watching anything new and interesting.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
57 Seconds (5.3)
Elevator Game (4.2)
Killers of the Flower Moon (8.6)

Other Movies Showing:
A Haunting in Venice (6.7)
Expend4bles (5.1)
Goldbeak (4.4)
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (6.1)
Saw X (7.2)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Canterville Ghost (7.6)
The Creator (7.3)
The Equalizer 3 (6.9)
The Exorcist: Believer (5.1)
The Island (4.3)
The Nun II (6.3)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Coraline (7.7)
The Addams Family (6.9)

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

Give is a local non-profit organization that aims to improve the process of donating to charities. Their online platform connects people with registered Kuwaiti charities in order to make it easier to discover what projects are available and to donate to them all from one place.

In light of the atrocities taking place in Palestine right now, Give has over a dozen Palestine missions listed aimed squarely at urgent relief efforts.

The process of donating is really simple and fast, the easiest I’ve personally ever encountered. You don’t have to create an account or input any personal information, all you have to do is select the relief mission you want to donate to, select the amount and then pay using one of the many different options available. If you have Apple Pay set up, the whole process from selecting a relief project to donating will take you less than a minute.

To donate right now to the relief efforts, just click here.

Etihad Airways have a ridiculous promotion right now. A return flight from Kuwait to Abu Dhabi is only KD19.950 including tax. It’s 8KD to go there and 12KD to come back which is so cheap! This doesn’t include any checked baggage but if you’re going for a weekend you can just fly with your carry on.

There is UFC 294 taking place in Abu Dhabi this weekend which is why I think they have this promotion. Even if you don’t end up going to the @ufc event there is still a lot to do and see in Abu Dhabi.

I wasn’t planning to review the iPhone 15 Pro this year and mainly because I didn’t think people were still interested in the iPhone anymore, but I was wrong. After watching countless TikTok’s of the long queues in Dubai and then similar long queues in Kuwait of people lining up to get their hands on the new iPhone, I realized, people still care a lot.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this iPhone to review. They’ve been very supportive from the very early days of the blog and I’m a huge Xcite fan.

I’ve been using the phone for over a week now after upgrading from my iPhone 13 Pro, and to be honest, it doesn’t feel any different. This isn’t a phone that’s going to make Android users want to switch over, and it also isn’t a phone that’s going to make existing iPhone users run out and buy one.

But, this is the best iPhone ever made.

People complain about Apple’s incremental updates but I don’t understand why they make it sound like it’s a bad thing. The new iPhone is faster, has a better screen, better camera, better battery life, is lighter, and now even has USB-C. It’s better in every way compared to the previous iPhone but that doesn’t seem enough.

I tend to want to upgrade to a new phone because of the camera which I use a lot for my blog. I do have my Fuji X100V always nearby, but the iPhone’s standard 28mm and the ultra wide lens tend to be more useful than my Fuji’s 35mm and the iPhone is always on me while the Fuji isn’t. So any extra bit of improvement in the camera is always beneficial for me.

So, should you upgrade?

I upgraded from an iPhone 13 Pro and didn’t really notice much of a difference overall. If a friend with a 13 Pro asked me if they should upgrade, I’d tell them they didn’t have to. On the other hand, if you’re an iPhone Max user, the weight difference alone might be worth the upgrade. A friend who uses a Max felt a huge difference moving to the 15 Pro Max.

In any case, as of right now it’s still difficult to get a hold of an iPhone 15 Pro in the color and size you want from an authorized reseller. So good luck with that.

One of my favorite museums in Kuwait is the Tareq Rajab Museum. I always found the museum interesting since it was packed with a vast variety of objects covering many different subjects. They have an incredible collection of over 30,000 pieces many of which can’t be found anywhere else in the world. Over a year ago, the museum closed for renovations but they’re now finally reopening again tomorrow (Oct 17).

The museum was originally founded in 1980 by Tareq S. Rajab and his wife, Jehan S. Rajab. A couple of years ago their grandson Tareq N. Rajab took over the responsibility of the family museum and started the process of rejuvenating it. He originally started with the website and Instagram account, that was followed by the creation of the new Arms & Armor wing of the museum before being handed the rest of the museum to renovate.

Tareq invited me to visit the museum for a sneak peek and although before visiting I was worried it might have lost its charm with the renovation, I’m pleased to say it hasn’t.

At first glance, the museum’s aesthetics remain largely unchanged, but there have been significant improvements. The displays, previously overcrowded and lacking descriptions, have been completely revamped. They are now curated with clear descriptions for every item. There is also a new and HUGE diorama in the museum depicting the famous “Battle of Hattin”. The diorama is composed of 3,500 tiny soldiers that were hand painted individually by Tareq, his dad and three other colleagues over a period of 14 months. There was clearly a lot of time and passion involved in the museum renovation.

If you’re looking for an interesting place to visit then I can’t recommend this museum enough. The entrance fee is still only 2KD and it also gives you access to the “Tareq Rajab Museum of Islamic Calligraphy” that’s located in the same neighborhood.

The opening hours are:
Saturday to Thursday: 9AM – 1PM & 4:30PM – 8:30PM
Friday: 9AM – 1PM

The museum is in Jabriya and here is the location on Google Maps.

Pixel House was designed by the Kuwait and Madrid based firm AGi Architects. It was completed this year and designed around two main features, privacy and temperature filters.

The garden which looks visually amazing serves as the first barrier to the warm air and the retention of dust. This first thermal filter is followed by the swimming pool which is covered with a perforated slab that will eventually be covered with climbing plants. The living room next to the garden area has openings to the shaded outdoor space, minimizing heat gain caused by solar radiation. Finally the courtyards in the middle act as thermal filters for the interior of the house.

When it comes to privacy, the living and entertaining areas are located in the most public part of the house, near the entrance. On the other hand, the private rooms are tucked away but are still attached to the outside area through gaps, patios and courtyards. The whole facade surrounding the pool also opens and closes for privacy.

For more photos, click here.

Photos by @ngphoto.com.pt

The second season of Winter Wonderland is opening its doors on October 15th, and tickets just went on sale a few moments ago.

Last year tickets were really difficult to come by so this season they increased the number of tickets available for sale everyday up to 15,000. That should hopefully solve the sparsity faced last year.

This season there are also two kinds of tickets available to purchase. The regular ticket is 5KD but there is a new second ticket option that is in partnership with Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre located next door. The new ticket costs 8KD and gives you access to both Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre and Winter Wonderland. With this ticket you also get the benefit of being able to park in the cultural centre’s underground parking.

Tickets are available now but as of this post the app and website were crashing. I’m guessing that’s due to the number of people trying to get tickets. Link

I thought the events were starting to pick up but I guess it might be still a bit too warm. Below are some events I found taking place this weekend, if I missed anything, let me know.

Thursday, October 12
Bunka x Cadillac

Friday, October 13
Game Night at Bonjiri

Saturday, October 14
IFK Brunch in the Garden
Storytelling with Aseel AlYaqoub
Sunrise Paddling
Risograph Workshop

Exhibitions
The Eye of The Sky Drone Photography Exhibition
Sacred I by Yasmine El Hazek
SIF, An Introduction by Mohammad Kassem

There are two new shows that I was looking forward to watching and are now premiering this weekend, Lessons in Chemistry and the new Frasier reboot. Also, and I’m not even slightly joking here, but one show I look forward to on weekends is The Kardashians.

A new episode comes out every Friday and the Hulu series is the only reality show I watch. It’s a lot of fun, there is drama, gossip, humor, cringe, but mostly, a lot of humor. I also like playing a game where I try to guess if it’s winter or summer on the show because there is no way to know. In the same scene Kanye could be wearing a huge ass leather bomber jacket, beanie and rain boots while Kim is in a Skims tank top. Really every scene is like that, the sisters go out to lunch and half of them look like they’re at the beach and the other half look like they’re about to go skiing.

Anyway, let me know if you watched a good show or movie this week.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Goldbeak (4.4)
The Exorcist: Believer (5.1)
The Getback (7.5)
The Island (4.3)

Other Movies Showing:
A Haunting in Venice (6.7)
Desperation Road (5.7)
Expend4bles (5.1)
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (6.1)
Saw X (7.2)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Canterville Ghost (7.6)
a href=”https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11858890/”>The Creator (7.3)
The Equalizer 3 (6.9)
The Inseparables (7.5)
The Nun II (6.3)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Coraline (7.7)
The Addams Family (6.9)
The Thing (8.2)

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

A few years ago I came across the photo above taken by George Rodger in 1952 of the first elephant in Kuwait. Initially, I thought the elephant was for our current zoo, but that couldn’t have been possible since the zoo opened much later, in 1968. Turns out there was another zoo in Kuwait before that called “Salwa Garden”.

Salwa Garden was the first zoo in Kuwait and the first modern zoo in the Arabian Gulf. It was established in Rumaithiya by Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in 1954 back when the area lacked basic infrastructure like roads or electricity.

Sheikh Jaber traveled to India and Africa in search of animals, and whenever he got the animals he also brought with them their minders to help ensure that the animals received proper care. He also strived to establish near-normal conditions for the animals. For the Himalayan bear for example, he purchased ice slabs for it from the Al-Ghanim ice factory until it adapted to Kuwait’s climatic conditions. He also made sure that all the animals were well fed and medically cared for.

The garden was called “Salwa” because it was an Arabic term for recreation and entertainment. Admission was free because Sheikh Jaber wanted to share his love for nature with others and it the garden ended up attracting both locals and foreigners.

A decade after establishing the garden, Sheikh Jaber decided to close it due to rapid urbanization and the establishment of the Kuwait Zoo in Al-Omariyah which he ended up donating most of his animals to.

It’s a really interesting story and if you want to read more about it, there is a great paper written by Rua Alshaheen, Yousef Alharoun and Mohammed Alajmi called “A case study of Kuwait’s Salwa Garden” which has a lot of info and where I got most of mine from.

There is also a book called “Salwa Garden” that was published by Mona Al-Sabah which contains information as well as a lot more photos of the garden.