Category: In Focus

When I needed some grappling gloves I ended up ordering a pair online since I couldn’t find any locally. Go Sport used to carry the Venom brand but they ran out of stock ages ago and never restocked. Then Nat needed a pair of combat gloves and a friend of hers recommended Sportsline in Salmiya. I hadn’t heard of the place before but turns out they have a huge collection of training gloves.

They mostly carry gloves from the Everlast brand including grappling, training and boxing gloves as well as face protection and hand wraps. One wall in their store is just filled with different kinds of Everlast gear all organized very nicely.

They also have a good collection of boxing bags and gear from the Samurai brand.

Price wise I found them more expensive than Amazon even when including shipping. But if don’t want the hassle of ordering online then this is a good alternative. They’re located in the basement of Al Wataniya Complex in Salmiya. That’s the same building that has the bank CBK, right across the street from NBK and Eureka.

Last night I passed by Solarity, a new shop that revolves around solar powered items. When I found out about the place I thought to myself finally! With all the sun we have solar energy just makes sense. When I passed by the store they were still setting up but I managed to see a whole variety of garden lights and some back packs with solar panels. In the next few weeks they’ll be adding more items since they’ve only received around 20% of their products at the moment.

The official launch is tonight at 5PM and they’re located in Shuwaikh right next to Bike World. If you take the right hand turn after City Center, Tilal Complex will be on your left. At the next intersection take a right and their shop is located around 50 meters after also on the right. I really hope they do well. Here is a link to their Facebook page [Link]

I’m really excited to post about this place since it’s about damn time we get a specialized photography store in Kuwait. Over the weekend I was planning to order a Think Tank bag from Amazon. I didn’t go through with the order since I was planning to go to Dubai today and figured I would get it from there. My trip got cancelled and I was going to order the bag tonight when I found out on twitter about Alghunaim Photography. Talk about the perfect timing!

Alghunaim Photography just recently opened up in Baitak Tower. They’re a small store but they’ve got some very cool brands including Think Tank bags, Manfrotto tripods and bags, National Geographic bags, Hoodman accessories, Kata bags, Lenspen, LockCircle, Datacolor products, Black Rapid camera straps and more. They actually still have more brands on the way but even with what they have right now they’re already my favorite photography store.

The bag I was interested in was the Think Tank Retrospective 5. It’s a small shoulder bag that I wanted for my tiny Panasonic GX1 camera. It costs around KD40 on Amazon and with tax and shipping to Kuwait it was going to end up costing me at least KD50. At Alghunaim they’re selling it for just KD45! The owner is actually trying his best to match his prices to Amazon. With the Manfrotto items for example he told me his prices should be equal to that of Amazon which I think is great. They also have a lot of National Geographic bags although I didn’t spot the tiny one that’s popular with X100 owners.

Another interesting thing the owner is trying to do is create a used camera market. He wants to start displaying and selling used cameras in his store so if you have one you’re planning to sell you should pass by.

I really hope the store does well and I also hope the prices stay the same. They don’t have an online website yet but their store is easy to find and there is a ton of parking as well. They’re located in Baitak Tower in Kuwait City (facing Safat Square) and they’re on the ground floor opposite Starbucks. You can also call them on 99066601 or 90023334.

You could also visit their website [Here]

More pictures below.

I found out about Al-Sabih Marine from my twitter followers and I’m glad I did since I was planning to order a Pelican case from Amzon and it turned out to be cheaper to just buy it locally. .

Al-Sabih Marine is located behind Tilal Complex in Shuwaikh and as soon I walked into the place I spotted their Pelican collection. I was looking for the 1200 model in black but spotted a yellow one on display for KD23. The same case costs around KD10 on Amazon so I asked the salesman if they had any discounts and he told me they did and that the final price would be KD19.5. It also turned out they had it in black which was great. KD19.5 isn’t cheaper than Amazon but it was going to cost me at least KD10 to ship it with Aramex so even though I was paying double the price of Amazon I was still saving money. While I was there I also noted down the prices of the other sized cases just for reference. These prices below are without the discount which I am assuming is a standard 15%:

Pelican 1200 – KD23
Pelican 1300 – KD27
Pelican 1400 – KD38
Pelican 1450 – KD45
Pelican 1490 – KD65
Pelican 1500 – KD52
Pelican 1510 – KD72
Pelican 1550 – KD68
Pelican 1550 DIV – KD99
Pelican 1560 – KD80
Pelican 1600 – KD84

If you’re interested in getting a Pelican case I’m not aware of any other place in Kuwait that sells them for cheaper. Here is a link to their website [Link]

If you don’t know what Pelican cases are just watch the video below.

[YouTube]

I heard about this place that fixes iPhones ages ago but never had a reason to pass by until today. My mum accidentally dropped her iPhone into her coffee and it stopped working so I took it to the Michel Chinese Workshop in Hawalli. That’s the official name of the store but you can call it the iPhone and iPad Workshop. The shop is located in the basement of a complex and is run by a very nice Chinese couple in the front and four young Chinese technicians in a small glass room in the back.

This tiny place kicks ass. They fix whatever problem you have with your iPhone or iPad and at a very reasonable price. They fixed my mums phone for KD15 while one of my twitter followers was able to replace his broken iPad screen for KD30. They’re also fast, it took them less than an hour to diagnose what the problem was with my mums phone and also fix it.

Finding the place isn’t too difficult as long as you know Ibn Khaldoon Street since they’re right on it. Get to Ibn Khaldoon and if you pass McDonalds on your left, keep driving around 100 meters and you’ll spot the above banner on your right hand side. If you’re on Ibn Khaldoon Street and you pass McDonalds on your right then you’ve passed the place. In case you get lost you can call them on 66228596 or 22640666.

I was in Dajeej the other day when I passed by Negochi whom I briefly posted about last year. The store is known for their rifles but I left the place more impressed with the other stuff they carried like their huge collection of flashlights, binoculars and even their large collection of glow sticks (ravers rejoice!). The place isn’t that big but it’s packed to the brim with a lot of random cool items that I don’t have any use for but wish I did. For those interested they also carry Leatherman tools although their collection is a bit limited.

I took some pictures with my phone cam hence the low quality shots but you can check out more photos on their Facebook page although their pictures seem old since the shop has a lot more items on display now.

Negochi is located off the 6th Ring Road in Dajeej right behind where the new OSN office is located (down the street from their previous location). You could also call them up if you get lost on 97238543 or 24336426.

The Lebanese store Lama recently opened a new and much larger store near my house in Salmiya. They’re mostly known for importing and supplying the local supermarkets with Lebanon fruits, but if you visit their store you’ll also find other interesting food products. Most of the products don’t mean much to anyone except the Lebanese in the same way strangers to Kuwait won’t understand the obsession with Sunkist and KDD Gold for example. But, if you’re Lebanese you’ll be interested to know that Lama carries some of our favorites including Gandour products like Tarboush, Unica, Pik-One Safari, dry biscuits and more. They also carry BonJus, SMEDS, Picon, Lebanese bread from the Wooden Bakery as well as Taanayel dairy products.

If you’re interested in passing by they’re located in the street that’s parallel to Baghdad Street. Just take a right after Dodo and head down until you reach the main road, the store should be in front of you.

For other In Focus posts click [Here]

For all my hardware needs I usually pass by Ace Hardware since their location is convenient and there’s always a lot of parking. But the hardware section at Ace is pretty small and there are a lot of things I either can’t find or if I do find they just don’t have enough variety. That’s where Bin Nisf comes in.

Bin Nisf is located in Shuwaikh in the street behind where the old IKEA used to be located. I believe it’s the largest hardware store in Kuwait. The place is HUGE. They have everything from screw drivers to car jacks to construction boots. There isn’t anything really they don’t have and the best part is the fact they carry a number of brands. This means if you find an item lets say a drill, you’re not just stuck with that one brand but you can actually compare it to other drills from different brands.

Price wise they’re similar to the rest of the market but unlike the smaller hardware shops on the same street the prices at Bin Nisf are usually fixed unless it’s something that costs over KD25 and then there “might” be room for negotiation depending on what you’re getting. The biggest disadvantage they have is location. There barely is any parking around them and don’t even think about going there in the middle of the week since it’s traffic hell. But, you could do what I do which is park on the same street where A2Z and True Values are located and then just walk 5 minutes to Bin Nisf or pass by on Saturdays. For contact information and a map check out the very outdated Bin Nisf website [Here]

I found about this pet shop and decided to pass by and check it out. They haven’t officially opened yet but already the place looks really great and is by far the best pet shop in Kuwait. I absolutely hate pet shops in Kuwait because all the ones I’ve seen are very dirty with pets shoved into tiny cages and they’re just sickening to visit. Pet Zone on the other hand is one of the nicest looking pet shops I’ve ever seen and they still haven’t even finished the place yet.

The place is 2 floors, on the first floor they have pet food, lots of fish aquariums that will have fish displayed inside (they were still all empty when I was there), a pet grooming area and right in the middle two nicely done displays for guinea pigs and rabbits. Upstairs on the other hand they had pet accessories, birds and one large display that I think will end up housing a python or some other large snake. I think I also saw a room where they shower the pets but not sure.

As I said they still haven’t officially opened, it’s still just a soft launch and so they haven’t received all their animals yet and they were still finalizing their fish displays. But, you can still pass by and check out their pet food and accessories which they have a lot of. According to the employee they should have most of their animals in 2 weeks time. Pet Zone is located near The Avenues, if True Values is on your right, take the first right hand turn after it and drive straight in as if you’re heading to the 60th, Pet Zone will appear on your left hand side. Here is a map I drew which you can use [Map]

Update: The store has moved to a much bigger location [Link]

A few weeks back Nat accidentally slammed my FJ’s door onto a little pole while opening the door and I ended up with a nasty dent. The usual fix for this would be to take the car to a body shop and have them repair the dent and then repaint the door but I decided to pass by Dent Xpress and see if they could fix it. For those of you who’ve been checking my blog for a few years you might remember Dent Xpress as one of my previous advertisers. They’re a little shop behind Sun City in Shuwaikh that specializes in paint-less dent repair.

I had finished some morning chores that day and decided to pass by Dent Xpress to get an estimate and book an appointment. Once I drove up to their front entrance their employee was standing outside and noticed the dent as I pulled up. After getting a closer look he told me the dent was pretty deep and since my car was black he couldn’t repair it 100%, I told him anything would be better than the current state. I asked him how much it would cost and he told me just KD15 and it would take 30 minutes to repair. Luckily there wasn’t anyone there before me so I told him to go ahead and start on it.

I went and sat down in their cozy little corner and watched the guy work on my dent. It’s really interesting to watch so you don’t get that bored waiting. If you’ve got an iPad with entertainment on it I would bring it along or you could be old fashioned and flip through some magazines they had available. After exactly 30 minutes my FJ’s dent was repaired. Even though the guy said he couldn’t repair it 100% it looked like it was 100% fixed. He told me if I looked closely I could see a tiny little bump. That bump which you couuld only see under a certain light and up really close was basically non existent so it’s a 99% fix even though you really can’t see the tiny bump. I left extremely satisfied which is why I’m currently writing this post. So if you’ve got a dent and need it repaired Dent Xpress would be a good place to stop by before a body shop. They can’t repair all dents and the paint also needs to be factory original but it’s still worth passing by and seeing if they can repair it. Below is a picture of my FJ door before and after the repair.

Their website address is www.dentxpress.com
Their phone numbers are 24837666 and 55787747
Their Facebook page is [Here]

The post below reminded me I should actually post about the Funoon store. For everyone that’s grown up in Kuwait during the 80’s, this store is a gold mine. They have all the famous Abed Al Hussein Abd Al Rida plays and shows available… on DVD! I picked up the Bye Bye London DVD for just KD3. Quality isn’t DVD quality but it’s better than the VHS tape I had. Only problem I actually had with the DVD is that sound comes out of one speaker only because they took the mono track and assigned it to one side. I would have taken the mono track and repeated on the left and right instead. But anyway that’s a small complaint. They also had Seif Al 3arab (2 DVDs), Bye Bye 3arab, Dars Khoosoosee, Darb Al Zalag and a lot more… all on DVD and all priced at KD3 per DVD.

Not sure how many branches they have but I went to the one off the 5th Ring Road in Salmiya. If Turkish Grill is on your right hand side it’s around 200 meters right after it, on the corner of Amman street.

I first heard about G-FORCE back when k.thekuwaiti posted about them on my blog back in 2008. I thought the place looked amazing (check above) but I never ended up passing by them until recently. I needed to get some paint work done on my Z4 since the previous paint job I got was starting to peel for some odd reason. My friend recommended I pass by the G-FORCE body shop since their prices were cheaper than the dealers and yet their paint work was better. So I passed by for an estimate and to check out the place.

I passed by them in the Free Trade Zone (behind Villa Moda) and was met by their sales manager. I asked him if I could check out the place first since it was my first time there and he gave me a tour. On the ground floor is their car showroom where they display their Cobras (by Backdraft Racing), Big Bear Choppers bikes (they’re the dealers) and other random but interesting cars for sale. The Cobra on display looked incredible but I figured it was one of those if you have to ask then you can’t afford it kinda cars so I never found out how much they cost. They looked really amazing though. On their top floor they had a whole bunch of items on display ranging from clothing and racing gear to car parts and memorabilia. Turns out they had a ton of cool brands like Sparco, Recaro, HRE wheels, Autoart, some other brands I don’t remember and even Fomula 1 and MotoGP clothing. In one corner they had a signed Rubens Barrichello racing suit which had worn and won in but it wasn’t for sale. At first impression this place looked nothing like a garage should look like and I mean that in a very good way.

Anyway once we were done I went out back and checked out their body shop, it was super clean and organized even though they were busy working on a bunch of cars. I got to check out their DynoJet (yup they have one) and then check out their prep/paint booth which according to k.thekuwaiti is Ferrari approved. Their painter checked out the panels I needed painted on my car and he told me right away what was wrong with the previous paint job. It was a bit too technical for me to understand but basically the previous painter hadn’t prepped the panel properly and so the paint wasn’t sticking to the car. I got a price quote which was better than I expected and booked an appointment to drop my car.

They ended up doing a great job on the paint job and since it turns out they also did mechanical work I had them fix a small oil leak I had. I figured I would post about them so I asked the guy what other services they offered and he told me they did everything from 1000hp upgrades to custom paint jobs and get this… they have something called the G-Force Advanced Driving Academy. Twice a year they take 24 people from Kuwait to the Autodrome track in Dubai where they hire out cars (TT’s, R8’s, single seater racers) and teach them basic to advanced driving techniques. I thought that was pretty cool but again I didn’t ask how much it cost. Anyway if you’re interested to find out more you can visit their website [Here] and their Facebook page [Here].

For some reason the past two weeks I’ve been obsessed with Casio G-Shocks. I’ve already posted a ton of pictures in my twitter account and I’ve even posted about them on my other blog 248PM. I’m a huge fan of watches but I’m always worried about them getting scratched, lost or stolen so when I started checking out the G-Shocks it was like this is a watch I can get and not have to worry about.

There were a few different models I liked, I first liked the G-5500 special editions which came in two colors (pictured above), a bright yellow representing Tokyo and a gark gray one representing New York City. I then saw the GA-100 (pictured below) and loved how dark and evil it looked. Finally I saw and read about the GX56 (pictured on top of post and the very end) and knew right away that was the watch for me.

The GX56 is Casio’s largest G-Shock ever made. It not only huge but it’s also super tough and I personally think looks really great. It comes in three colors but the Casio dealer in Kuwait gets them in just one color which is the one in the picture above. I ended up getting that and so far I’m loving it. Price wise it’s not cheap since it costs KD50 which is on the expensive side of the Casio spectrum. The GA-100 is for KD35 while the G-5500 special editions are for KD40 each.

The Casio dealer is pretty decent, their prices are slightly more expensive than Amazon but when you add shipping costs and tax it turns out to be exactly the same as Kuwait. The branch I kept passing by was the one behind Souk Al Kabeer in Kuwait City. All the models I posted above are available at their Kuwait City branch. Their phone number is 22458727.

I’m a huge fan of Victorinox Swiss army knives and if I wasn’t so clumsy with sharp objects I would probably have a nice huge collection at home. Thing is I have three Swiss army knives and have managed to cut myself accidentally with all three (one of them pretty deep) so I’ve kinda kept my distance from them.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the knives. They have some really great looking ones with my favorite being the bright emergency yellow RescueTool which I’ve had my eye on for a while now. Majority of people don’t know this but we have a pretty good Victorinox dealer here in Kuwait. The shop isn’t in the best location and the interior design is pretty crap (check photos below) but they do have a pretty huge collection.

The shop is called Shalimar Stores and they’re located in the ground floor of the mall right behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. Prices of knives vary with the majority falling in between KD5 to KD15. They also carry Victorinox scissors, bags and watches as well. Their phone number is 22451270

Recently I noticed that when I sleep for over 9 hours I wake up with neck cramps and a sore ear. It turned out my pillow had become too hard and with the way I sleep was causing me neck pains. Nat suggested I get Tempur pillows so I did a quick google to find a local dealer and landed on Some Contrast’s blog. He had found and gotten Tempur pillows from a place called The Bed Boutique in Tilal Complex. Since I was planning to pass by the Tamiya dealer there anyway, I decided to drop by and see what they had.

The shop has pillows, quilts and mattresses. They had a few brands the most popular being Tempur and Temprakon. Now one reason I felt like coming to this store was because Some Contrast posted they had a small private room (pictured above) in which you could try the pillows which is what I ended up doing. I got around 4 different types of pillows and tried them while lying down which is much better than just trying to feel the stuff in your hands. In the end I ended up getting the Temprakon Ergomagic which is a very comfy pillow (picture and details on their website). It’s a down pillow with a three layered core, one layer is a comfort foam which provides support for the head and neck, the other two layers are foam inserts which are used to control the height of the pillow. If the three layers combined are too high for you, you remove one of the inserts. If it’s still too high you remove another insert. Very practical.

Nat on the other hand got the same pillow as Yousef from Some Contrast which is the Tempur Symphony (pictured above). I tried it and also it was very comfy I didn’t think it was high enough for me since I like high pillows. The Tempur material feels very organic since it takes your shape and molds around it. I tried the Tempur mattress and it felt like the bed was alive since however you moved it slowly takes your form.

Anyway if you’re interested, The Bed Boutique is located at Tilal Complex. Their phone number is 22256171.

Update: Was just reading about the brand Temprakon on their website and it’s even better than I had thought. Their pillows and quilts are made with NASA’s OUTLAST material which is used in the NASA space suits. They’re the only manufacturer in the world allowed to use the OUTLAST material to make pillows and quilts.