I was trying to find information on the Anglo American School of Kuwait and by chance ended up finding a whole bunch of old photos of Kuwait dating back from 1960 up till 1984. I hadn’t seen any of them before and the one that grabbed my attention the most was the one above of a karting track in Ahmadi back in 1964. Most likely the first go-kart track in the region. There are a ton of photos, some are more interesting than others but all help paint a picture of life in Ahmadi back in the 60s and 70s. Check them out [Here]
I had lunch with two high school friends today, one of which I hadn’t seen in 16 years. We were mostly reminiscing about the past and how lame everything was for us back then. Those of you in high school today don’t realize how lucky you are compared to us kids who grew up in Kuwait back in the old days. I graduated in 1996 and back then we didn’t have any malls or restaurant chains or anything like that. For entertainment we just had a few options.
The only mall in Salmiya was Laila Gallery but we weren’t allowed in on weekends since it was families only. That was pretty common back in the day.
Even Sultan Center wouldn’t let guys in alone on weekends. It was really embarrassing. Until today whenever I go to the Sultan Center in Salmiya and I see a security guy standing outside I wonder if he’s going to let me or not.
There was a cool Hardees where Starbucks is right now in front of Al Fanar. But then they demolished it.
The ice skating rink was pretty decent in the early 90s but started going downhill after that.
Fuddruckers was like the only restaurant open on the Gulf Road back then. The place used to get crazy packed and at one point was the coolest place to be.
Then Johnny Rockets in Salmiya opened and a lot of the crowd shifted there. Johnny used to get super packed as well but most of us would go and occupy a whole table and just order one tea or one shake. So, they introduced a minimum order charge of like KD1.5 per person so everyone shifted outside Johnny to the sidewalk corner and I never saw Johnny that packed again.
Oddly that sidewalk corner became a hot spot where everyone went to meet up with other friends. It used to get pretty crowded so the cops stopped allowing us to hang out there.
McDonalds opened at around the same time over Johnny so some people started hanging out there instead.
But mostly, we just hung out at each others houses listening to music and talking. Every now and then there was a house party but really that was it.
Kinda miss the simplicity of those days now that I think about it. No cellphone, no internet, no car and just enough money to make the difficult but important decision of buying a music tape from The Video Club or having dinner.
KUWAIT SHIDOKAN JITSU WARRIORS WAR I
Hughes, Pele, Newton, Menne, some of the top talent in lightweight world traveled half-way around the globe in hopes of winning $60,000 in an 8-man tournament on Kuwaiti soil. No easy victory as Menne would face Canada’s Carlos Newton in the first round and then Russian alternate Maro Magob before fighting the much heavier Kareem Barklaev from Russia in the finals. [Source]
The video on top of this post is of Antonio Tello versus Kuwait’s Khaled Mubarak [Video]
Here is a link to the full fight card of Warriors War Kuwait [Link]
A few digitized 8mm clips taken in Kuwait back in the 70s. Not too exciting and the music is annoying but there is one scene where for a split second you can see the Al-Salam building in Salmiya (the circle green building that got demolished) while it was still under construction. There are also shots of some parks, a parade and random streets. [YouTube]
40 years ago, NASA’s Landsat program launched it’s initial satellite into space (July 23, 1972). Since then the program has been tracking and recording changes on the Earth’s surface via satellite imagery.
Since it’s been 40 years, NASA commemorated the anniversary by selecting and compiling a list of its top ten stories or revealing images which it had stored up during its four decades of existence. One of the stories that made the top 10 was the 1991 Kuwait Oil Fires.
As Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War, they set fire to over 650 oil wells and damaged many more, just south of the Iraq border (yellow line). These Landsat images show before, during and after the release of 1.5 billion barrels of oil into the environment, the largest oil spill in human history.
You can check out the top 10 stories and images on [WIRED]
Someone upload a video of highlights of the Kuwait and Nigeria match that took place at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, USSR. Kuwait won that match 3-1 (they scored an embarrassing self goal) and during the tournament managed to make their way to the quarterfinals before being eliminated by the Soviet Union 2-1. [YouTube]
I’m currently in the process of reviewing the Sony NEX-7 camera so I was in Souk Mubarkia over the weekend taking some photos when I found the Mubarak Kiosk open and decided to check it out.
The function of the kiosk changed a lot over the years, originally in 1934 the kiosk was the first independent legal court in Kuwait. Later it was rented and used as a pharmacy an then as a post office run by the British. At the end of the 1950s the kiosk was used as a public library and 60s forward the top floor was used as a photography studio while the ground floor was turned into a samboosa shop. In 2010 the National Council for Culture Arts and Letters took over the kiosk and renovated it from ground up and turned it into a museum.
The museum is pretty small but that doesn’t really matter. The fact that the kiosk was renovated and turned into a historical site is what’s important and they really need to continue renovating more and more old buildings. It’s not worth driving all the way to Souk Mubarkia just to visit this museum but if you’re in the area it’s interesting to see. They have an iPad on the top floor in the back corner that has a photo gallery of old pictures of Kuwait as well as pictures of the kiosk from the outside and inside before and during renovation. I thought that was very interesting and even tried emailing the photos to myself using their iPad but failed (didn’t have access to the home button).
If you want to pass by here are their opening hours:
Summer Visiting Hours Saturday to Friday
9AM to 12PM – 4:30PM to 8:30PM
Saturdays and Fridays they’re closed in the morning
Sunday they’re closed in the evening
Winter Visiting Hours Saturday to Friday
9AM to 12PM – 4PM to 8PM
Ramadan Visiting Hours Saturday to Friday
9AM to 12PM – 8:30PM to 11PM
(First days of Eid they’re closed)
Update: Below is a picture of the kiosk taken by John Newton back in 2009. I can’t believe how much the whole area has changed.
Kuwait Little Theatre celebrates its sixtieth year with a documentary produced by Panorama Pictures looking back at the history of the busiest and best little theatre in the country.
I can’t believe they’ve been around that long and I have yet to watch a single one of their plays. That’s just embarrassing! [Vimeo]
Video from the last day of school at ASK back in 1988. I didn’t know they had the bubble back then. Very cool video, wish I had a Sunshine School 1988 video.. [YouTube]
The photo above was taken by Ahmad Alnusif’s father and shows the Fatma Mosque being built back in 1972. I found the shot below taken by Cajie also on Flickr showing the mosque today.
I think these two shots work really well as a before and after since the angles match up pretty closely. I’ve actually cropped into Ahmad’s photo above so that it matches todays photo (I hope he doesn’t mind) but you can see the full image in high resolution on his Flickr page [Here]
While looking for something else I accidentally found a PDF on the Ministry of Oil’s website that has a bunch of old pictures of petrol stations in Kuwait dating back to the early 50s. The PDF is over 200 pages and around 40MB’s in size so not really practical to go through it. But, I chose four of my favorite pictures and posted them below for you to see.
If you’re interested, you can download the PDF containing other images from their website [Here]
This is a proposal for a Hyatt Regency hotel and full-fledged convention center that was proposed way back in 1975. I can’t help but be completely floored by this concept – the hotel and overall complex look absolutely massive! The hotel building itself has a timeless classicism to it; I think it would cohesively fit in with all the modern, glassy buildings we have today while retaining its 70s feel. This could have been our equivalent of the Sheraton in Doha, which began construction way back in 1978 and opened in 1980. That Sheraton is one of Doha’s iconic landmarks today, something Qataris are proud of. –ChaoticTranquility
Project Description:
The site of Hayatt Regency Kuwait on Kuwait Bay, overlooks a traditionaly landscaped Arab park in downtown Kuwait City. The focus of six floor, 586 room luxury hotel will be a large landscaped atrium lobby. Restaurants, commercial space, recreational facilities, service amenities and the hotel rooms will face on the atrium. The fully air-conditioned hotel will feature 16 special duplex suites on thetop two floors in addition to its many luxury suites. An adjoining conference center, similar in character to the United Nations General Assembly Hall, will provide seating for 700 presons. Fixed seating for 400 will be placed on the main floor with 300 filling the balcony, which can be subdivided for smaller conferences. Parking for 885 cars will be below grade. Recreatinal activities such as swimming and boating and the hotel’s health club will be linked to the hotel by an underpass to the beach. [Source]
A reader emailed me this old Video Club membership card he found dating back to the mid 80’s. Back then you’d pay to be able to rent a certain amount of videos and every time you rented a video they’d punch a hole in the card. That was back when The Video Club was one of the coolest video rental places in Kuwait.
