Categories
Food & Drinks Information

Kei is Closing Down

Kei, the first Japanese restaurant in Kuwait is closing down their JW Marriott location at the end of the month. Kei first opened up 40 years ago and were originally located at the Hilton Hotel in Bneid Al Gar but had to move because the hotel got demolished. They moved to JW Marriott 20 years ago and now have to move again because the hotel is also getting partially demolished. They still haven’t found a new location to move to, so it will be awhile until they’re back again. If you want to pass by one more time before they close, their last day of operation is December 31st.

Regarding the hotel what I understood is happening is that Salhiya Mall will be expanding into the lobby area of the hotel and the first few floors of the hotel will be converted to offices. The hotel will still remain but will move up a few floors above the offices.




Categories
Information

Will you get the COVID-19 Vaccine?

Over the weekend the MOH launched a vaccine pre-registration website which you can access by clicking here. I’ve read both that this website will help prioritize those who register early to get the vaccine first, and I’ve also read that this website is just for the government to get an idea of how many people are interested in the vaccine. In any case, the plan is to start by vaccinating 10,000 people a day beginning with essential workers and other priority groups first. I’m guessing that number will eventually increase once private clinics start offering the vaccine as well.

Oddly I keep hearing about people not wanting to vaccinate and are worried it would become mandatory. I’m personally going to vaccinated as soon as possible just so I can go back to living life without worrying about contracting the virus. It’s pretty difficult to run a blog about Kuwait without being able to freely go around the country discovering and trying new things. I just want all this to be over with already.

[poll id=”13″]




Categories
Design Information

Messilah Beach Club to get Renovated

The Touristic Enterprises Company (TEC) is planning to renovate Messilah Beach from the ground up. The club first opened in the late 1980’s and I’ve been to it a few times back in the 90s when I was still in school but haven’t really been there since so don’t really have any attachment to the place.

The new renovated Messilah will contain:
6 Restaurant blocks
Swimming Pool and Wet Recreation areas
Jogging Track
Hard and Soft Landscaping
450 Car Parking spaces

No start or completion date was mentioned but you can check out more renderings of the beach here.

Also found the picture below of the club I’m guessing from the 80s or 90s which I thought looked cool.

Thanks lovelykuwait




Categories
50s to 90s Food & Drinks Information

Layali Tehran – The First Persian Restaurant in Kuwait

I recently found out that the oldest Persian restaurant in Kuwait was located down the street from where I live. Layali Tehran was the first Persian restaurant in Kuwait and has been around now for over 50 years. They were originally located in Sharq but had to move to Salmiya years ago. I don’t know much about Iranian food other than kebabs so I’m not the best person to ask about the food, but, I think the most interesting thing anyway is the idea of dining at the oldest Iranian restaurant in Kuwait.

If you want to try it out they’re located on Amman Street. Parking is a bit difficult but I parked across the street where there was less traffic and just crossed over. Their phone number is 25613312 and here is their location on [Google Maps]

This got me thinking, I wonder if the first Chinese or Italian restaurant in Kuwait still exists? I previously posted about the oldest restaurants in Kuwait and there were some good examples in the comments, check those out here.

Also just shared some interesting stuff on Twitter related to the oldest restaurants in Kuwait:
Oldest “liver” restaurant in Kuwait
Opening of Muwaffak Jabri Restaurant in 1961
Opening of the first Wimpy in 1969
Photo of the first burger restaurant in Kuwait Haroon El-Rasheed




Categories
Information

SOLO Pizza Napulitana Now Bigger

This took a super long time but SOLO Pizza in the city finally expanded their space. They took over the location next door and broken open the wall between the two spaces. Perfect timing with the whole pandemic and all since previously the seating area inside was super tight while now they can comfortably space out all the tables.




Categories
Activities Information Things to do

The Ultimate Kashta Setup List

If you’ve recently walked along the Gulf Road or taken a trip to Mutla’a then you’ve probably noticed Kashta setups on the beach or in the desert. Last year there were only a handful of businesses that set up these gathering spots but this year the market has exploded with everyone jumping on board the kashta train.

Inspired Edibles have put together the ultimate kashta setup list which I’ve reposted below. Because there are so many I’ve highlighted the ones that seemed the most interesting with an asterix *

BOHO *
C Breeze
Cavotago
Cliche
D Table
December Tent
Desert Room
Desierto *
Doublede
Explore More
Festivity
Getaway
Glamping
Kashta Chill
Kashta KWT *
Kashta Limited
Kashta Spot
Kashtaaa
Kashtat
La Bohème *
La Récolte *
Le Project
Let’s Kashta
Lumière *
Maddah
Nakshet
Outing
Paper Moments
Picnic Day
Picnic Vibes *
Project Room
Rental Hub
Rentals by REL.EVENTS
Sea Wild
Set It *
Sets by A *
Sol Sahara *
Tents by the Moon
The Parterre
The Flower Reception
The Modern Kashta
Three by Three
Van Life *
VEER *
VEZ
Vivid Events




Categories
Information Video Games

Xbox Series X – Everything You Need to Know About the Middle East Edition

The all-new Xbox Series X officially launches today but I was lucky enough to get mine yesterday so I could play around with it and have a post ready for today. I purchased mine from Geekay on September 22nd when they launched the Xbox pre-orders. I was hoping to get a hold of a unit before the launch date by a few days but the Geekay shipment of Xbox’s only cleared customs yesterday afternoon and so only got to pick up mine after that.

Not sure about other local sellers but Geekay will be either delivering all the pre-orders today. They also contacted their customers and arranged a pickup timeslot for today if they didn’t want to wait for delivery. My brother for example is gonna have to wake up early today to pick up his Xbox at 9AM, so it was a lot of fun sending him photos yesterday of my Xbox.

There are a lot of unboxing videos and reviews on YouTube by much better gamers than me, but in this post I’ll go over some of the things regarding our Middle East edition.

  • Firstly, the Middle East version of the box is bilingual. The front side is the same as the US version but the rear of the box and all the fine print are in both Arabic and English

  • Once you open the box there isn’t a manual, but the getting started guide is bilingual

  • The power plug is the UK Type G plug

  • The console works with 220v so no need for a transformer

  • There is no power brick, just a regular cable from the Xbox to the wall plug (this is the best thing ever)

  • I have a US Xbox account and it works perfectly fine with the Middle East edition Xbox (well kinda)

  • I ran into a minor issue buying games from the Xbox store and I think it’s because I have a US Xbox account but a Kuwait-based Microsoft account? I pay the monthly Microsoft Office subscription fee using a Kuwait address but I have my location on my Xbox account set to US so maybe there is some sort of conflict

  • Because of the issue I had of purchasing games directly from inside the Xbox store I ended up using Amazon to buy the digital copy of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I used a Florida address so I didn’t pay any tax and got the game for the listed price of $59.99 and then installed it on my Xbox using the code Amazon sent me

  • On starting the console there was a 775MB update I had to install. This was downloaded and installed by the time I was done setting up the Xbox

  • On my Zain 5G, Valhalla took around 2 hours to download. It’s a 47GB file and was downloading on average at speeds of 45Mbps with the occasional jump to around 65Mbps and drop to 35Mbps. The game was ready to start halfway through the download but because I installed it before the launch date I couldn’t play it

  • I only installed two games on my Xbox for now, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Killer Instinct. Quick resume worked perfectly when flip-flopping between the two games

  • The packaging and overall design of the Series X is minimal and smart, I personally love it. I think the new PS5 is ugly (sorry Sony fanboys) while this is a lot less flashy and it fit into my TV cabinet perfectly

  • The controller feels great, there is a new texture on the backside which gives it a much better grip when held

  • The official price of the Xbox Series X in Kuwait is KD167 while the smaller Series S costs KD104

If anyone has any questions, let me know and I’ll try to answer it in the comments.




Categories
Activities Information Sports

Rent Bicycles Outside Green Island

Recently while riding my bike on the Gulf Road, I noticed an Extreme Sports truck loaded up with bicycles parked in one of the lots. I didn’t know what it was for at first but then spotted an employee a few days ago and decided to stop and find out what they were doing. Turns out it’s an Extreme Sports bicycle rental truck. For KD3 an hour you could rent a bicycle from them to ride up and down the Gulf Road.

I’ve previously posted about their bike rental location at Marina Waves, this one on the other hand is located at the Green Island parking lot. If you don’t have a bicycle but feel like riding one, this is a pretty good option. Here is the location of the rental truck on Google Maps.




Categories
50s to 90s Automotive Information

The Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club (ADMC)

I don’t remember how I first found out about the Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club (ADMC), or how I came about a picture of their car badge, but when I first saw it I knew I needed to have one. It’s such a great looking badge with the cute desert mouse and beautiful colors, I ended up spending over a year looking for one to purchase and wasn’t able to find a single one for sale, anywhere and for any price! I got in touch with random people whose parents might have been part of the club, I checked small private sllers, large auction sites, I checked with car badge collectors, and nobody either had one or wanted to sell one. Finally, back in September, one went on sale on eBay, and not just any, but one that was in pristine, 10/10 condition. It looked like it had never been installed on a car before and all the enamel was still intact and vibrant. I put a ridiculous maximum bid number since I knew I’d most likely not come across another one ever that was so clean, eventually, I ended up winning the bid for a lot less than I expected, around KD75.

Now that I had the badge I found it very frustrating that I couldn’t dig up any info on the club, there wasn’t anything online except for a single photo from an ADMC Alitalia Darts event dating back to 1964 and that was it. So I got in touch with a friend at KOC and asked him if he could check their archives for any photos or articles on the club and he struck gold.

Turns out KOC had some photos related to the motoring club but they were still negatives which hadn’t been scanned. So they dug them out of their archive and scanned them so I could share them on the blog. These images haven’t been seen by anyone for over 65 years! They also shared some articles relating to the club from the old KOC newsletter called “The Kuwaiti”. The Kuwaiti was a weekly newsletter and he flipped through the 1954 and 1955 archive of the newsletter and sent me some photos of ones relating to the club and motoring in general. Some really interesting stuff.

I’ve decided to share everything in two ways. Firstly I uploaded all the photos and articles to a Flickr album. If you prefer viewing things that way click here.

I’ve also created a PDF file of all the articles and if you prefer viewing the articles that way then click here to download the PDF

For the scanned images I have all of them embedded in high resolution below. The blog will resize them automatically to fit the width of my page, but if you save the images, you can view them in higher resolution on your phone or computer. Check those out by clicking more below.

Finally, I’d like to thank Kuwait Oil Company for digging these photos out and scanning them for me. Now people looking for info on the club will be able to find some kind of information online.




Categories
Information

Compare All the Local Credit Cards

I found out about a website a few days ago called Yalla Compare which is a financial comparison website. It’s actually a website that sells insurance but is made to look like a financial comparison website but they do actually have comparissons. Using the website you can compare the different requirements and rates for personal and car loans between the different banks but more importantly, you can also see all the different credit cards offered by the local banks and compare their costs and benefits.

I’m not sure if people choose a bank based on credit card benefits, I’m assuming no. But, if you’re at least curious about what other banks are offering compared to what you’re getting, check out the list by clicking here.




Categories
Information

How to report your Employer for not Paying Salaries

There is an interesting conversation currently on Reddit regarding companies who either reduced salaries because of the pandemic, or who missed or aren’t paying the salaries. Not sure how many of my readers are going through this issue but if you are and want to file a complaint you can do so by contacting the Public Authority of Manpower:

Phone: +965 69009600
Email: [email protected]

Check out the discussion on Reddit here.




Categories
Automotive Information

My New Favorite Car Oil Place

Totally random and insignificant post to everyone but this post is for people googling looking for a certain brand of oil for their car. My FJ and Lotus get their oil changed at the dealer, but my Alfa and Datsun I change the oil myself. Previously I was getting my car oil from Auto1 on Canada Dry street but they only carried the Lukoil brand and the last time I went they didn’t even have the right viscosity grade I needed. There’s a BMW spare parts store nearby that carries the Liqui Moly brand of oil but they also never seem to have the viscosity I needed and they’re overpriced. But, I recently found a place in Shuwaikh that carried a ton of oil from different brands and grades and its now my goto place for oil.

If you’re looking to buy oil for your car they carry a number of brands including Liqui Moly, Lukoil, Lucas, Kassel, Kendall, Mercedes-Benz, and Shell. Their Instagram account is @q8.oil.center and here is their location on Google Maps (large sign outside that says Motor Plus and also Kuwait Oil Center).




Categories
Information Interesting

How Powerful is your Passport? (2020 Edition)

There have been a lot of changes compared to the last time I posted the Arton Capital Passport Index 5 years ago. Kuwait has moved up quite a bit on the list from 54th place back in 2015, to 36th place this year. Kuwaitis can now visit 34 countries without requiring a visa and they can also get visa on arrival in 38 other countries. Here are some countries with their rankings:

1 – New Zealand
4 – United Kingdom / Canada
13 – UAE
21 – United States
34 – Qatar
36 – Kuwait
41 – Bahrain
44 – Saudi Arabia
45 – Oman
58 – India
60 – Egypt
68 – Lebanon
74 – Syria
75 – Iraq

Want to see how your passport compares? Check out the full list here.




Categories
Information

STC Issues with the Blog

I’ve gotten a number of messages from STC users that they’re having difficulty accessing my blog from their devices. Do you have STC and are having difficulty accessing my blog? If yes, let me know in the comments cuz I’m curious about how widespread this issue is.




Categories
Information

Boecker Pest Control

A few days ago my friend asked me if I knew of a good pest control company, he had gotten one already but he still had a pest problem and wanted to see if I knew of a better company. That made me realize, I never posted about Boecker. Although it sounds German, Boecker is actually a Lebanese pest management and food safety company. I go way back with the brand since when I was in university I interned at the company that helped create the Boecker brand, so I’ve been a fan for a long time. Then a few years ago a friend of mine got the franchise to Kuwait and started offering their services to the business and residential sectors.

I used them last year to come spray my apartment for pests and they’re such a professional company from the communication over the phone, to their uniforms to all the little cards and informative material they leave around the house. Another reason I highly recommend them is because they’re a pet friendly company and I wouldn’t trust any other company to come over and spray for pests if I had a pet.

To get an idea of their prices I think I paid KD90 for my large 3 bedroom 2 storey apartment. My friend which I mentioned at the start of the post told me they were cheaper than the first company he hired so I don’t think they’re crazy expensive or anything. They also have a disinfection service for germs and viruses including COVID-19 if that’s something you’re looking for. If you’re interested in calling them, their number is 22210015 and their website is boecker.com