Category: Information

Pearl, a fellow blogger sent an email to Jazeera Airways complaining about some problems she had with one of her flights. The response she got back from them was just unbelievable. The Jazeera Airways guy basically calls her a liar twice, accusing her of exaggerating and and making up facts.

I hope Pearl can post his email address and full name so someone at Jazeera can put some sense into him. [Link]

Update: Turns out I misread, someone left a comment on her blog on behalf of the airlines, it wasn’t a reply to her email which means there is no proof its from an actual Jazeera Airways employee. My mistake! [Link]

Although Halo 3 is being released in the US on September 25th its currently available and being sold in Kuwait. Game Center in Rihab complex in Hawalli is selling the regular version for KD25 while the limited edition is selling for KD30.

I got a lot of emails and some people left comments asking me how to unlock the iPhone. Well if anyone took 2 seconds to google it they would have found a ton of “how-to guides”. If you have a mac just download INdependence, activate the iPhone then copy anySIM to the iPhone and launch it to unlock it. It can’t get any easier and its free.

Update: If you have a Mac follow this guide [Mac Guide] and if you have a PC follow this one. [PC Guide]

According to a few readers and a post by K.thekuwaiti, Zain has acknowledged the issue with the iPhone and is trying to fix it. One comment on K’s blog even states the iPhone should be working with Zain by 3PM today. If thats true it would be perfect timing since Nat should be collecting her iPhone today from U Shop We Ship.

Update: It is now confirmed, as of 3PM today the iPhone started working with the Zain network. Thank you to everyone at Zain who helped out in updating the network to support unlocked iPhones.

I just noticed today that Sultan Center now carry Altoids! They had three flavors available, Cinnamon, Raspberry Sours and Tangerine Sours. The price? Not cheap at KD1.650 per tin!

My favorite thing about Ramadan is that I get off work at 3PM. This allows me to have a ton of free time to do stuff I wouldn’t usually do like riding my bicycle.

Yesterday I went riding with Nat and the weather was surprisingly great. We rode from Marina Mall to Scientific Center, a short route since we didn’t want to take a longer one in case our bikes had developed problems after a year of storage. Imagine riding all the way to the Kuwait Towers and then finding out the bike has a problem and you have to walk back all the way to Salmiya. It would suck…

Riding the bicycle is really different from the motorbike. For one thing falling off a bicycle is no longer a big thing. Nat crashed yesterday when her bicycle slid on a curve and she just got up and continued riding. When the same thing happened to me with my motorbike I ended up with road rash, a fractured wrist and a large repair bill.

There are two brands of bikes I would recommend people getting, Trek and Cannondale. I personally prefer and ride Cannondale. When it comes to road bikes I would go with Trek but for mountain bikes Cannondale all the way. The Cannondale dealer is located in Shuwaikh, you take the first right after McDonalds on Canada Dry street and once you reach the small round-a-bout the dealer would be on your right hand corner. Trek on the other hand is available at GoSport in The Avenues and eXtreme Sports at Marina Waves.

If you are looking for a place to ride, the Gulf Road is a good place to start. For a short trail you can start off at Marina Crescent and ride all the way to Scientific Center and back. For a longer trail you can go from McDonalds on the Gulf Road and head all the way to Souk Sharq and back. Both routes use a sea side trail away from dangerous car traffic.

Cannondale have soooo many hot bikes to choose from, my favorite being the Gemini but the prices can get ridiculous with models costing KD1000 and up. You can spend a lot less of course, a member in the forum recently purchase a Trek for only KD148 and you can even get bikes for under KD50 even although I wouldn’t recommend them at all. The difference between the cheap and expensive bikes is usually weight, quality of parts, the frame and the finishing. Cheap bikes are usually heavy, equipped with the crappiest brands and handle like crap.

There used to be a riding club that met up every Friday at like 7AM to go riding but I don’t think they do that anymore. If anyone knows of another riding club please leave it in the comments below.

Just a heads up to everyone who is thinking of purchasing an iPhone to use in Kuwait. Although you can unlock the iPhone now for free, it’s currently not working properly with the Zain network. You can send make but you can’t receive calls on your iPhone. K.theKuwaiti is currently trying to find a solution for this and once he does he will publish it online. Everything else works including sending and receiving SMS’s and GPRS.

Update: According to a reader the iPhone will work with the Zain network if you have a new 128K sized sim card. Does anyone know how one goes around to getting a 128K sim card from Zain?

For people who aren’t going to fast during Ramadan, a great solution for lunch is microwavable meals. I have a decent collection of reviews of some meals available at local supermarkets and I will be adding more during the month of Ramadan. For now here are the ones I have available:

Microwave Meal: Chicken Masala
Microwave Meal: Beef with Classic BBQ Sauce
Microwave Meal: Beef Patty Sandwich Builder
Microwave Meal: Manicotti
Microwave Meal: El Charrito Grande
Microwave Meal: Fried Chicken Meal
Microwave Meal: Chicken Fingers

According to this random old guy who was watching over the bakala I frequent while the regular bakala guy was out praying, KDD has increased the price of the Silver ice cream by 50 fils and so is now being sold for 200 fils. I don’t know if other KDD products increased in price but if this very reliable source is right, I am guessing they did.

Marzouq was supposed to get me an iPhone with him from the States but he couldn’t buy one from the store without signing up for an AT&T contract. So I decided to order one online from the Apple Store.

Thing is because of all my traveling and shopping these past 3 weeks my credit card is completely maxed out, like KD80 over the limit. I figured let me place an order on the store and see if it works, if it didn’t then it didn’t and if it did great. Surprisingly, it went through. MTC Zain couldn’t charge my last months phone bill to my card cuz it was maxed out yet Apple somehow managed to charge an iPhone!

Anyway for those of you who want to buy an iPhone, Amazon.com don’t sell it but you can purchase the phone directly from the US Apple Store online. For your shipping and billing address fill in your USWS or Aramex address. For your credit card you can use a local card. I personally used my NBK Visa card and it worked. I don’t know if it works with cards from other banks like Gulf Bank, Burgan etc.. but I am guessing they should. Enjoy!

Amazon supposedly redesigned but I have been refreshing my browser for a while now and I still can’t see it. I did manage to find a screenshot of the new design on the page where they talk about their makeover. [Link]

The iPhone software unlock is now available for $99. I was hoping they would sell it for $49 but oh well still not bad. [Link]

update: iPhone Worldwide Unlock is selling it for $50! [Link]

I love Muthana Complex in Kuwait City because it has a lot of interesting shops and the latest I found is called Tea Art. Tea Art as you can guess from the name specializes in Tea and their stock is all imported directly from China. They sell Black, Green, Oolong, Pu-erh, White, Blooming and Red Tea. Their prices range greatly and they even have tea that costs over KD2,000 for 100 grams. I asked if I could try it and the answer was simply no, expensive teas can not be tried before purchase which sucks. Imagine dishing out KD2,000 for tea only to find that it tastes horrible.

They have cheaper teas that cost like KD600 and KD700 and for us regular folks they have tea that cost under KD20 and even under KD10 per 100 grams so it not all super duper expensive teas. Cheap teas (under KD20) make up the majority of their products.

If you are a tea fan they are located on the ground floor of the Muthana Complex next to elevator 6. Their phone number is 2490404.

www.teaart-me.com

I just tried going to www.mtc-vodafone.com to recharge Nat’s mobile when I noticed the site was down. So I decided to check www.zain.com and noticed the site is now online. I can’t seem to find the eeZee recharge link though… [Link]

Update: OK I think https://kw.zain.com/ is where the eeZee recharge link and the full website will be located. I think its currently down because they are uploading the new updated site during the middle of the night so that its fully functioning by morning time. Its 1:35AM at the moment.

Update 2: https://kw.zain.com/ is now also online.

I was trying to figure out if I should get the iPhone or the iPod Touch for Nat and in the end decided on the iPhone. The iPhone has a few extra features over the iPod Touch, it has a phone (duh..), it has bluetooth, a digital camera and the battery lasts slightly longer. The price difference between an 8GB iPhone and an 8GB iPod Touch is also just $100. Now the downside is that the iPhone needs to be unlocked to work in Kuwait. I figured if I couldn’t figure out how to unlock it I will just end up with an iPod which can browse the web and take pictures which really isn’t that bad. You can check the side by side comparison on the features by following this [Link]