Category: Information

A few years ago I posted about the Scientific Center expansion plans and one of the most controversial aspects of it was the fact the plans included a new dolphinarium. As you know, holding dolphins in captivity is pretty cruel and a friend of mine even posted an appeal in hopes of stopping it.

Recently construction started next to Scientific Center and I was curious to know if the dolphinarium was still being built. So I got in touch with my contact at the Scientific Center who not only reassured me that they are not going ahead with the dolphinarium, but he also shared with me some new information on the expansion as well as the visuals I’ve shared in this post.

The Scientific Center have now started construction work on the new expansion, with the first phase focused on marine works and land reclamation. This includes renovation of the Dhow Harbor area and the relocation of the seawater intake pipe which provides clean seawater to the tanks within the aquarium. The construction you see now on the side of the Scientific Center (pictured above) is for the marine works which is estimated to take around 9 months. This will be followed by the groundbreaking, structural foundation of the expansion, the construction of the superstructure, MEP, the finishing and new exhibits installations, and then finally the renovation of the existing building attractions and exhibits.

The design and programming of the expansion building was developed as a priority, in partnership with the center’s Board and consultation from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). The expansion commits the center to playing a leading role on a national level to transform the country and help develop a knowledge-driven economy. Because of this commitment, the programming and exhibits within the expansion aim to increase the quality of STEM teaching from the center, as well as the importance of environmental protection, through engaging learning experiences.

The expansion will introduce new concepts to the region, as well as inspiring exhibits, through both new additions and the renovation of current ones. The public can expect to see reinvigorated ecosystems in the Mijbil Almutawa Aquarium, modern commodities and services, a brand new children’s science museum, as well as numerous new halls and labs enabling visitors, schools, universities and more to engage with the center in developing their own innovations to better Kuwait.

Here are some other facts you might find interesting:

– The renovation of the aquarium is being done in partnership with the creative
design and consultancy firm ROTO, who you can learn about [Here]

– The overall expansion is estimated to come at an approximate value of KD 36 million, with a timeline of projected completion by 2022

– Many people aren’t aware that the Scientific Center is a non-profit

– The center is aiming to introduce class-specific programs, labs, and workshops for educators to use for their own curriculum

– The footprint of the center is doubling

So to summarize, there will be no dolphinarium and the Scientific Center will be increasing their exhibits and attractions and refurbishing the current building. All of that is expected to be completed in around 3-4 years.

Around a decade ago, maybe more, there used to be a store in Muthana Complex that used to just sell telescopes. That store closed down ages ago and after that, the only other place I knew of that sold good telescopes was Xcite in Avenues. But, they no longer seem to carry them anymore so right now if you’re looking for a telescope, your best option is the Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC).

Inside the space museum at ASCC there is a gift shop that sells Celestron brand of telescopes. Below are the models I spotted along with their prices and a comparison to Amazon.

Celestron AstroMaster 70 EQ
Amazon: KD40
ASCC: KD50

Celestron AstroMaster 90 EQ
Amazon: KD67
ASCC: KD80

Celestron AstroMaster 114 EQ
Amazon: KD55
ASCC: KD80

Celestron Ultima 65
Amazon: KD40
ASCC: KD70

The pricing seems pretty decent on most of them especially when you consider the Amazon prices I’ve listed don’t include any taxes or shipping costs. So if you’re looking for a telescope, you should head to the space museum gift shop.

Update: If you want to buy a telescope or get into astronomy then check out this local website called Ikarus Tech.

If you’ve ever researched high-end music earphones or maybe you’ve purchased a pair before, you’d know that you can get custom sleeves for them. Earphones (the type you stick inside your ear) come with different sized rubber sleeves, usually similar to the ones below. These are made to fit the majority of ears but aren’t a perfect fit.

With high-end earphones, you can get custom silicon sleeves made to fit your unique ear canal shape offering your better sound isolation and a perfect fit. To get these custom sleeves done, you need to send the manufacturer an impression of your ear. A few days ago someone on Reddit asked where to get this done in Kuwait, so I figured I’d post that information here.

International Optics have a Hearing Center at their location in Central Plaza in Salmiya. At the hearing center they can take an impression of your ear and have your mold ready all within 15 minutes. Once they give you the mold you could then mail that to the silicon sleeve manufacturer abroad to create the custom sleeve for you. The cost for two earmolds (left and right) is KD15.

So if you’re ever looking to get molds done, that’s a place you can go to. Their phone number is 25714573 or 97234752 and they’re located [Here]

The Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) opened nearly a year ago and since then I’ve visited it nearly a dozen times. It’s right down the street from my place and so it’s really convenient for me to drop by whenever I want. One of the things I was concerned about when the museums first opened up was how it would hold up to the abuse.

Well I’ve got good news, all six museums are still pretty much intact. I passed by on Thursday and went through all the exhibits and I could count the number of exhibits that were out-of-order on my hand. Not only that but since my last visit a few months ago, new cafes have opened up and a couple of new exhibits were added.

Best part about the museum is that there rarely is anyone ever there. For example I passed by Thursday evening and there were barely any people which is great if you don’t like crowds.

If you haven’t been to the museums yet then I’d highly recommend you do so, it’s just a cool place to walk around and chill with loads of outdoor spaces to explore as well as the actual museums themselves. For more information click [Here]

As you’re probably aware by now, last month demolition started on Al Sawaber even though people tried to stop it from happening. I heard a bunch of stories about how the contractor wasn’t supposed to start demolition because of a court order or how the whole thing was a miscommunication between various ministry departments. But all the stories aside, what’s happening to Al Sawaber now?

Basically, the contractor started demolition by removing all the pedestrian bridges that connect all the Al Sawaber buildings together. From what I could tell the buildings have been untouched so far. Activists went to court early in the month to stop the demolition from taking place with one of the reasons being that Al Sawaber is classified as a modern heritage building so it should be protected not demolished. On February 19th the court will make their decision and if they agree with saving Al Sawaber, then the contractor will supposedly have to rebuild what they’ve demolished.

If you want to stay posted on everything Al Sawaber, then your best bet is to follow the @save_alsawaber account on Instagram.

Bangkok recently went on full alert because their air pollution level was high after their PM2.5 reading reached 152 which is considered unhealthy. The odd thing is, at the same time, Kuwait’s pollution level was reading at 155 and nobody cared. Nobody probably cared because 155 isn’t even high by Kuwait standards, I’ve seen it hit 358 and I’ve seen it in the 200s multiple of times. Even when it was at 358 which is three times worse than when Bangkok declared red alert, nobody in Kuwait blinked an eye.

So why is it that we don’t seem to care (me included) about the quality of the air we breathe. Is it because there isn’t anything we can do about it or is it because it doesn’t seem like an issue because nobody is making a fuss about it?

When in Bahrain last month my friend rented a Chinese car (BYD) and although I found the car pretty crap, one cool feature it came with was a built-in air quality meter because its a feature people in China care about because of the pollution levels there. With a touch of a button, the car could tell you how bad the air quality was outside the car. Sounds like a gimmick but it’s a car feature we should all probably want to have like the Chinese do.

If you want to check the current air quality in Kuwait, click [Here]

Thanks Nibaq

This Friday, Staged in Kuwait will be holding auditions for actors, singers, and dancers who would like to take part in their upcoming spring musical. Everyone is welcome to try out for any role as long as you’re over 18. If you’re interested in taking part, here is some info:

Where: SIK Rehearsal Studio, Adan. [Map]
When: Friday January 25th, 2pm – 4pm. (Please arrive for a 2pm start)

What to bring:

– Singers should come with a prepared song that best shows their voice. (Musical Theatre genre preferred.) Please bring a backing track on your phone or USB.

– Script reading will be provided at the audition. Nothing to prepare.

– A simple dance segment will be taught to all auditionees to see how you move. (Please come in comfortable clothes and shoes that allow you to move.)

Here’s some random information I recently found out, turns out you can actually rent the Kuwait Towers for private events. They’ll close the whole thing off for you and nobody but you and your guests can come in. So say you want to have your wedding there, a birthday party or a private dinner, you can do that. The cost? KD10,000 a day.

The Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed causeway project is nearly complete and is set to open this coming April. Once it opens the bridge will be the world’s longest with a total span of 48.53km [Source].

Going by the drone footage in the two videos here, the drive will be very scenic over the Kuwaiti bay and take around 35 minutes from one end to the other. There isn’t anything on the other side to see yet but at least the road isn’t broken and full of potholes and little rocks flying around like every other road in Kuwait at the moment.

The Bait Al-Othman Museum originally opened back in 2013 and I passed by it a few months after opening to check it out and post about it on the blog. But last week I went back to the museum again and to my surprise, it turned out they had expanded the museum considerably since my last visit 5 years ago.

I’m having a difficult time trying to decide how much information I should share about the place. When I visited the museum last week I went expecting to see the stuff I had seen the last time I was there, basically various rooms covering important aspects of Kuwait and its history. But once I started exploring some of the new sections which I hadn’t seen before, I realized Bait Al-Othman is by far one of the most bizarre and entertaining museums in Kuwait. I had such a good time that I want to go back again with more friends.

Some of the new areas of Bait Al-Othman felt like they had been taken from the now closed old Science Museum in Kuwait City. The museum has such a random combination of content including a small haunted house, loads and loads of stuffed animals and even a hostel. I really want to share more details but I think it would be a lot more fun to just go there without knowing too much about the place.

So if you haven’t been to Bait Al-Othman before or at least not recently, you should definitely pass by the place. The museum is located in Hawalli [Google Maps] with loads of parking space available. Their opening hours are from 9AM to 1PM and 4PM to 9:30PM everyday except on Fridays they don’t open in the mornings.

Pro Tip: You need around 3 hours or more to see everything, and make sure you visit all the rooms. There are some areas which look closed off but they lead to other areas. So explore it all.

Over the weekend Carriage launched an amazing new membership service called Carriage Black where for just KD3.5 a month you’ll get unlimited free deliveries. For someone like me who basically uses their service every day, and sometimes multiple times a day, this is a pretty incredible deal. But, I think I know why they’re doing this.

From what I’ve heard, when Deliveroo launches in Kuwait (any day now) they will be offering free delivery to customers for at least the first 6 months. That would pretty much kill Carriage so this is a way for them to compete with Deliveroo.

If you want to sign up to Carriage Black then make sure you have the latest updated version of their app since the service only became available with their most recent update.

Built in 1981, Al Sawaber Complex was designed by renowned Canadian architect and urban planner Arthur Erickson with the idea of creating a community for Kuwaiti families of modest means. He accomplished that with a layout that provided easy horizontal circulation between the apartment blocks, while also creating intimate spaces sheltered from the rest of the city.

The complex is recognised as a modern heritage building of cultural and historical significance by the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature. But, because of a complete lack of maintenance, arson in some of the units, escalating land values in the surrounding area, and gentrification, the project has now been marked for demolition.

The demolition date is unknown but a contractor has been chosen so demolition can begin any day now.

A team comprising of members from Kuwait Municipality Master Plan and Planning Departments, Kuwait University School of Architecture professors, and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature are trying to save the project. They’re hoping to raise public awareness as a last resort to save Al-Sawaber Complex from imminent demolition.

Rather than being demolished the team is proposing that the complex be rehabilitated and regenerated as a mixed-use urban development while maintaining elements of the original character and structure.

If you’d like to support the team in trying to save Al Sawaber then follow them on instagram @save_alsawaber and sign their petition [Here] (blocked on Viva for some reason)

Top photo by Asseel Al-Ragam

The local CityVan service by CityBus rebranded and relaunched a few days ago as GoCity. GoCity now has two services that fall under it, the first is GoCity Van which is what CityVan used to be while the second service is new and called GoCity Cab.

GoCity Cab is basically our local version of Uber and allows you to book a cab via the app. I haven’t used them yet but I did download and set up the app just to get a feel for how it works and so far my first impressions are good. The app is well designed, easy to use and easy to set up. I’m home now so I set my location in Salmiya and then put my destination as Avenues and got an estimate of KD2.800 as the ride fee and 6 minutes as the wait time for a cab. The app had options for an SUV and Premium car but both weren’t available for me when I was testing the app out.

I don’t know whats the hold up with Uber coming to Kuwait, there has been talk about them entering the market for years but nothing has come of it. I personally use Q8 Grand Limo whenever I need a cab and I really like the service and experience. But, Q8 Grand Limo is pricey and only makes sense for me since I don’t take cabs often. If I had to use cabs all the time then GoCity would make more sense.

Right now they have two promos running, one is a 25% discount if you use the code “GO25” while the other one is a 100% cash back as credit into your account if use the code “JUSTGO”. If you end up using the service let us know in the comments what you thought of it and also what were the conditions of the cars.

To download the app click [Here]

Update: iOS users can find the app in the Apple Store, just search for GoCity

Over 4,300 books have been banned so far in Kuwait since 2014 with 700 of them being banned just this year alone. Random books like the Little Mermaid were banned as well as books written by local authors. The book bans were so absurd that New York Times last month published an article about it which you can read [Here]

Over the weekend, local designer Mohammad Sharaf installed a book graveyard next to Kuwait’s Annual Book Fair to protest the banning of the books. The book graveyard got removed by the authorities quickly but the pictures went viral sparking a conversation on the subject again.

Now Alqabas newspaper is reporting that the appeals court have overturned the Ministry of Information’s book ban stating we live in a different time where the world is a much more open place. This is obviously great news so I really hope its true. I’m hoping this ruling could possibly encourage someone to open up a large bookstore in Kuwait. The book fair was incredibly packed when I visited it with people buying books so there definitely is a market.

The Avenues are having a Black Friday weekend except they’re calling it a shopping marathon with over 180 stores and restaurants offering various discounts. It’s taking place from Thursday 22nd till Saturday 24th and you can download the full list of places participating as well as the offers they will have by clicking [Here]