Category: Information

Nibaq sent me this over the weekend. Its a chart of the most reliable and least reliable vehicles. In the number 1 spot for reliability its Lexus, Toyota is 5th, BMW 9th and Mercedes 19th. The least reliable brand is Land Rover and its the least reliable by FAR. [Picture]

For lunch I passed by Shatea Al Watyia, a small Kuwaiti restaurant located behind Casper & Gambini in Kuwait city. The restaurant is in an old Kuwaiti style home which goes well with the menu which is based on traditional Kuwaiti food.

The inside of the restaurant is divided by regions, since we were a large group we sat in Fintas which was a private room with enough seating for 8 people. Flipping through the menu there are a lot of dishes to choose from ranging from machboos to grills. I decided to go with the Mourabian which is a rice and shrimps dish.

We first got the starters which were made up of a variety of dishes including sambousak, yerish and a lentil soup. The sambousak was so so, but the yerish was pretty cool. It was my first time trying it and I honestly forgot whats it made from but to me it tasted like a chilidog’s chili which is pretty cool. The lentil soup was also really great.

The main course arrived soon after that and the quantity was huge. Last week I was in Ta’al and ordered the shrimp curry which disappointingly came with 8 pieces of tiny shrimps. In comparison at Oum Habib the Mourabian had at least two dozen tiny shrimps and the rice portion was gigantic!

The general atmosphere of the place was quiet and the staff friendly and fast. I don’t know how packed the place gets in the evening but I imagine its even cooler when filled with a lot more people. The prices are also really cheap. The soup was KD1, the appetizers around KD1.500 and my main dish was just KD3.500. Thats a really good deal for what you are getting in return. The shrimp curry at Ta’al for example was KD5.500 without rice. Good food, great prices and good service, final score is a 4.5 out of 5. I would definitely go back there again.

update: Erzulie decided to edit my review since my vocabulary is limited to three words “good” “cool” and “amazing”. If you want to check out her interpretation of my review [click here]

A reader sent me the following email:

Dear Mark,
I am personally aware of a very sad story about an American teacher in Kuwait. The teacher, Katherine Phillips, is an Al-Bayan Bilingual School Middle School Deputy Principal. She is the victim of an influential parent who has effectively detained her in Kuwait. Her only crime was to suspend the influential parent’s son for fighting! This is a normal procedure but the parent threatened her and is carrying out his threat. Her full story can be found in International Schools Review site.

She is crying for help. It would be great if you mentioned it.

Regards,
bu ziyad

You can read her story by clicking [Here]

During lunch I went with a bunch of coworkers to the ice skating rink. I was expecting the place to be packed with kids since school is out and the weather is extremely hot but instead the place was deserted! I am such a bad skater but I love the place since its freezing cold and in this heat I can’t think of any place I would rather be except for the frozen isle section at Sultan Center but thats about it.

For people who haven’t been there before the entrance is KD1.500 and that includes entrance and rental of the skates. Its also easy to find, look for a yellow building in Kuwait City.

The best thing about summer is KDD Silver ice cream.
The second best thing about summer is Faloda sorbet.
The third best thing about summer is Sunkist orange drink.

Faloda, also spelt Faloodeh or Faludeh and is a Persian sorbet made of thin frozen noodles. Its pretty strange but tastes amazing. Really refreshing plus you can add either lemon or rose water to it for extra flavor.

The place I get my Faloda from is located in Kuwait City, opposite Al Rayya mall and under the Baba Taher Iranian restaurant. I think the place that sells it is called Marafie. A small sized portion will set you back 250fils which is the same cost as regular ice cream.

According to Wikipedia, Faloda is one of the earliest forms of frozen desserts, existing as early as 400 BCE.

Nibaq just finished setting up KuwaitBlogs Search and even created a googlish logo so try it out.

https://search.kuwaitblogs.com/

In 1988 a Kuwait Airways Boeing was hijacked and diverted to Algiers while on its way to Kuwait from Bangkok. The hijacking lasted 16 days and ended with a Naval Officer from the Kuwaiti Royal Family being killed along with another Kuwaiti military person. The Algerian authorities allowed the hijackers to escape in exchange for the remainder of the 110 people aboard to be set free. (Wikipedia)

This is a video sporty4ever uploaded on to YouTube which is of the plane returning back to Kuwait after the hijacking.

[YouTube]

Here are a couple of cool watches that I like and their prices in Kuwait:

Part of the Bvlgari Ergon line, it comes in two models, with and without the chronograph… but I prefer it with. The case is made of steel, the bracelet is a steel and rubber combo while the dial is made from black carbon fiber. Only the non-chrono version is on display in Kuwait but you can order the chrono version and its priced at around KD1,500.

Bvlgari
Location: Salhiya Complex.
Telephone: 2415360

The Panerai Luminor Chrono Daylight is definitely my favorite Panerai watch ever made. Sadly though its no longer available in Kuwait and according to the dealer you can’t even order it. Its a big watch made from steel and the diameter of the dial is 44mm. The price when available was around KD3,300.

Panerai
Location: Salhiya Complex.
Telephone: 2421907

Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore. The most expensive of the three coming in at KD7,000 for the steel version and KD7,500 for the titanium model. This is the ultimate watch to get. Its both classy and sporty at the same time and its distinctive octagon face makes the watch recognizable from a mile away. The dealer does offer a 25% discount which brings the price down to a mid sized car.

Audemars Piguet
Location: Salhiya Complex.
Telephone: 2441716

A nice list when planning your vacation:

1. Moscow
2. London
3. Seoul
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Copenhagen
7. Geneva
8. Osaka
9. Zurich
10. Oslo
11. Milan
12. St Petersburg
13. Paris
14. Singapore
15. New York

Kuwait isn’t in the top 50. Actually the only country from the Gulf which is on the list is UAE and it takes two spots, 34 for Dubai and 45 for Abu Dhabi. Here is the top 50 list. [Link]

Today morning I found out from Confashions that Villa Moda was having a one day 50% sale at their Fanar and Mubarikiya branches. So during lunch I went with some friends to the Mubarikiya branch which is extremely close to my office. It was my first time there and was pretty impressed at the size of the branch but kinda shocked at the location since its in a pretty old and beat up neighborhood.

The choice of clothing in the mens section was pretty poor. The stuff on display I would never wear and I can’t imagine anyone else wearing. Now take what I say with a grain of salt since I wouldn’t call myself stylish being that all I wear throughout the summer are Zoo York and Hurley t-shirts with Hurley jeans on the bottom. I did find a pair of Prada sneakers though that were pretty OK but after discount they were KD60 which I would rather put on a pair of Camper’s.

The womens section had a lot more items but the cool stuff (like Juicy Couture) were not on sale and their collection of accessories was pretty weak. Anyway if you have nothing else better to do it might be worth the trip to check it out. The Mubarikiya branch is larger then the Fanar one plus the interior is a lot more interesting.

update: I caved in and got the shoes after work.

There are four guys who have been uploading a ton of old videos that used to be played on KTV back in the 80s and 90s onto YouTube for us to view. The four guys are (in no particular order):

hummer15al
sporty4ever
NiceQ8i
k0003

I would like to just say thank you to them because they have really been doing an amazing job. If you would like to view the videos they have uploaded just click on their names above.

A commenter posted a link to a Kuwait Times article entitled “What not to do in Kuwait”. K.thekuwaiti replied back to the commenter telling him the article was retarded because every piece of advice ends with a warning that you would be raped if you don’t do this.

I decided to check out the article myself and its true what K.thekuwaiti said. The article is giving the worst impression on Kuwait and a lot of things are really taken to the extreme. Here are some examples from the article:

Avoid starting friendly conversations with taxi drivers. This would give him the impression that you want him to have sex with you and of course, he would ask you if you are married and if your husband is with you. Never admit to be single and alone or even to confess that you are a runaway maid or employee. Many of them would not hesitate to rape you and leave you empty handed and get you pregnant.

So tip #1, don’t talk to taxi drivers or they will rape you.

Avoid accepting gifts or laughing over sexual jokes with your boss unless it is really okay with you and this is what you want .If you came from an environment where you are very open with the opposite gender, then you might think that such jokes are okay but here, it is not. This would give men a hint that you are ready to have sex with him and you could find yourself a rape victim. Besides, accepting someone’s gifts means approval.

So tip #2, don’t be friendly with your boss or he will rape you.

Avoid trying to look sexy by showing the sexiest parts of your body. You may think that you have a sexy body and want the world to see that because it is okay for you, but do not do that here. Lots of men here would think of you as a prostitute and may try to reach or touch you by any means. You may not mean it but this would be hard to convince them because they came from a different culture. The culture here associates clothes with manners. The more you cover yourself, the more respected you will be.

Tip #3, if you are hot people will think you are a prostitute and you will get raped.

Avoid fighting with a Kuwaiti. He simply wouldn’t hesitate to use any wasta to make you the wrong person of the dispute and make you take the blame. You might end up begging to him just to let you go!!!!

Tip #4, don’t fight with a Kuwaiti or he will rape you.

You can check out the full article on the Kuwait Times website but in case they decide to remove it you can grab a copy from [here]. The writer of the article is Muna Al-Fuzai. [Link]

Villa Moda started their summer sale on Saturday and it ends tomorrow (not sure about this). They have 35% off on most brands except for Gucci. Since they haven’t advertised their sale the place isn’t that packed. For more details on the sale you can call them up on 4827004. I tried calling them now to find out if the sale ended tomorrow but its 9AM and they are still closed.

Thanks Dana

K.thekuwaiti has a detailed write up on what is BlackBerry and the packages MTC are offering. If you are interested check out his blog. [Link]

This is a cool feature. It seems you can now make Google Images search for pictures of just faces. There isn’t a command available yet in the user interface but if you append &imgtype=face to the end of your search result url, it will filter the images and just display the ones that are of faces.

For example try these two links:

A search for images of Kuwait
https://images.google.com/images?q=kuwait

Same search for images of Kuwait but with the faces filter
https://images.google.com/images?q=kuwait&imgtype=face

Its slightly geeky but still cool. Check out this site for more details. [Link]