Category: Information

Two weeks ago I posted a letter from Aramex Shop and Ship saying that due to customs regulations they will be charging 5% customs fee on all shipments not including a KD1 handling charge and a KD1 government stamp. From what I understood this was going to apply to all shipping companies but today I received a package via DHL Borderlinx and to my surprise there was no charge. According to the DHL employee they’re not charging 5% customs on shipments. But does that make DHL cheaper? I’m not sure.

The problem (the only problem actually) with DHL’s Borderlinx is they charge based on volumetric weight. What this means is if a small box weighs 1KG and a large box weighs 1KG, the large box is going to be more expensive than the small box even though they’re the same weight. In my case my package weighed around 2KG but the volumetric weight was around 5.35KG. If I had shipped it with Aramex they would have charged me for the 2KG but with DHL I had to pay more than double the actual weight. On the other hand unlike Aramex, with DHL you don’t pay the 8% New York State tax and you also don’t pay the 5% Kuwait customs tax so which comes out a better deal?

Item cost: $187 (KD51)
Actual Weight: 2.2KG
Volumetric Weight: 5.35KG

Aramex Shop and Ship
8% NY tax: $15 (KD4.1)
Shipping cost to Kuwait: KD13.75
Kuwait customs: KD6*
Approx time from US to Kuwait: 8 days**
Total shipping cost = KD23.85

DHL Borderlinx
No NY Tax
Shipping cost to Kuwait: $110.60 (KD30.8)
No Kuwait Customs
Time from US to Kuwait: 4 days
Total shipping cost = KD30.8

So even with the new 5% customs fee Aramex is charging and even with the NY State tax they still somehow end up cheaper than DHL. This mostly has to do with the fact that DHL charges on volumetric weight. If they charged on actual weight than they’d be considerably cheaper. On the other hand DHL is practically twice as fast as Aramex so that alone could be worth the extra cost for many people.

My conclusion
Large (not necessarily heavy) packages ship to Aramex
Small or regular sized packages ship to DHL

So basically I’m still going to be flip flopping between the two companies for now.

*Calculated using their customs calculator
**Based on a different shipment just received from Aramex

Lulu are opening a new location in Dajeej Farwaniya right next to Sears. From the outside the location looks pretty huge although I’m not sure if it’s going to end up being their largest branch in Kuwait. What I like about the location though is that it’s closer to Salmiya than their Al Qurain branch which is currently my favorite. This would be their fourth location in Kuwait and according to a worker I spotted on site they should be opening right after Ramadan.

After posting about On Cost the other day I decided to pass by and check it out myself. From the pictures (and logo) it looked like Kuwait’s version of Costco and on some level it is but mostly it isn’t. The place turned out to be a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be. There also isn’t an electronics section, a clothing section or a hardware or home-ware section. The way everything is displayed thought make it looks like a Costco but it’s more of a supermarket then a full fledged all in one retailer. I picked up a label maker from their small office supply section. I got it for around KD3 less than I had seen it somewhere else.

Finding the place was easy. Just take the 6th Ring Road and if 360 Mall is on your right keep heading straight past the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium. Keep driving until you pass the new Kuwait University campus on your left (currently just hills and hills of sand) and then after that in a bit you’ll see a sign for the 604 exit. Once you take the exit stop at the traffic light and then take a left and pass under the bridge. Then keep driving straight until you get to a roundabout, you should spot what looks like a huge ass mall in the middle of the desert on your right, that’s the vegetable market and On Cost is located there.

Update: Here is a link to the location on [Google Maps]

Ama Traveller just posted pictures and information on a new place that opened up in Kuwait called “On Cost”. Judging by the pictures and her comments it looks very similar in style to the very popular large US retailer, Costco. Need to pass by and check it out myself but you can check out her post and pictures [Here]

iBadala is a local phone directory app on the iPhone and one that I use frequently. I’ve posted about them before [Here] and my biggest complaint back then was regarding the app’s design which looked prehistoric.

Turns out they read my post since I got an email from iBadala yesterday telling me that based on my feedback they’ve released a new revamped app with a completely new look. I downloaded the app awhile ago and the app does look better but more importantly the ease of use and speed is still there so they haven’t broken anything. In fact, they’ve made two minor changes to speed things up even more:

Search as you type
According to iBadala this feature was supposed to be in the original release but it never worked properly. What this feature does is it starts searching for results as you type so if you’re searching for “Open Flame Kitchen” by the time you’ve typed “Open” you already have two results displayed with the second one being Open Flame Kitchen.

Search results ranking
Another new feature to speed things up is how the results order changes the more people use the app. For example as I mentioned above a search for “open” will result in two results with Open Flame Kitchen being the second. If a lot of people are searching for open and then clicking on Open Flame Kitchen more than the first result which is Arab Open University, then the app will start displaying Open Flame Kitchen as the first result instead.

I was also told they’re releasing an Android version of the app in the next few days so that should please some people as well. If you want to download the iPhone version it’s available right now in the [App Store]

I had two packages arrive with Aramex today and as expected their new pricing system was applied.

The first package included air filters and the value was $86. I paid KD2.550 for customs and KD2 as a clearance fee. The second package included sandals with a value of $500. I paid KD8 for customs and KD2 as a clearance fee.

I haven’t received a package from Borderlinx yet so not sure if they’ve started applying these fee’s as well. But, according to a DHL customer service agent there is a new 5% customs fee on ALL shipments. So it’s not just Aramex.

Over the weekend I got the following email from Aramex:

We would like to inform you of an important customs update for incoming shipments to Kuwait. As per Kuwait Customs regulations (Customs Authority 68, 2012), customs duties are calculated based on the weight, value and the customs estimated freight charges of the shipment (as per IATA published tariff).

The new customs calculation formula can be determined by using our new Customs Calculator. Please click here to access the calculator.

So after clicking on their link and downloading the excel file I plugged in the weight of the package as 1KG and the value as KD10 and it told me I would have to pay around KD4 as a customs fee. Previously any package under $100 you would only pay KD1 as a clearance charge. I have no idea if DHL have implemented this new system as well but I’ve got two packages that will be arriving sometime this week to both Aramex and DHL so I’ll post an update once I get them.

Unlike initial reports turns out the fire yesterday off the 30th wasn’t actually the electrical transformer station. Turns out someone threw a cigarette near a pile of garbage and abandoned furniture which ended up catching fire. There was a car parked near the burning trash and that also caught fire. As you can see in the picture above this happened right beside the electrical transformer station which is why many people thought that’s what was burning in the video.

Thanks Kazik

According to Net Index, Kuwait ranks 104th place worldwide when it comes to the average internet speed while Luxembourg tops the list with an average speed of 41.01 Mbps. They also have a list of the fastest ISP’s and currently WiMD who are my current favorite ISP are leading the list by a good chunk. That probably has to do with the fact that the slowest speed they are willing to sell you is 6Mbps while with others like Qualitynet you could sign up to 1Mbps if you want to. Check out all the date on Net Index [Here]

I passed by Symphony Mall to check out the new Bang & Olufsen store but found it closed so I decided to wonder around the mall to check out what other stores are open. The whole mall is pretty much vacant except for a new store in the basement called Destination XL. It’s a big and tall men’s store that opened up just two weeks back.

The place from the inside looks pretty nice with the layout looking very similar to a men’s section in a large department store like Macy’s. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the inside but I spotted brands like Lacoste, Polo Ralph Lauren, Joseph Abboud and Calven Klein among others.

It’s too bad the store is just for the big and tall since I liked the fact they carried a bunch of brands all in one place. Symphony Mall is located in Salmiya right next to Missoni Hotel opposite American University of Kuwait. The entrance is from the back side and the mall looks like it’s still under construction but DXL are open in the basement.

Starting this coming Sunday, Solo Pizza Napulitana will start opening for lunch. Previously they used to open up only in the evenings from 6 till 11pm which wasn’t very convenient. If you’ve never been to Solo PN check out my review [Here]

Update: Their timings will be 12:30pm to 3:30pm and 6pm to 11:00pm

The International Associations of Multidisciplinary Research (IAMURE) measured both the noise and air pollution levels in Kuwait and concluded that the pollutants in the air are reasonably low while on the other hand the measured ambient noise levels were pretty high.

The noise levels were measured in 10 different locations during various times of the day and week but they don’t mention which locations they chose. I live in Salmiya right on the main shopping street and never really thought it was very noisy or at least not nosier than any other city anywhere in the world. I’d be more interested in the pollution levels of the sea now that summer is here.

You can read their full findings on their webpage [Here]

The total number of active Twitter users in Arab countries is now up to 1,311,882, says new data through to March of this year. Kuwait leads the way with a Twitter population penetration of some 8.13 percent, ahead of Bahrain (4.28 percent), Qatar (2.22 percent), the UAE (2.16 percent) and Saudi Arabia (1.37 percent).

Kuwait sent almost sixty million tweets in the month of March. The most popular topic across all Arab countries was the #Bahrain hashtag.

That’s alot of tweets. [Source]

The new food court called Tick-it Lounge 6 that includes Potbelly, Pinkberry, Starbucks and a new place called Tick-it has finally opened up at the airport. Local blogger Baba 3od has more pictures and information [Here]

Last week I had a shipment of wireless surveillance cameras get confiscated by Kuwait Customs. For some odd reason they’re cracking down on the import of any kind of surveillance equipment and to get an exception you’ve got to do a small runaround. This post will show you how to get that done quickly.

Aramex passed me my package clearance paperwork on Wednesday and I headed to the Kuwait Airport cargo area the following day. At first I thought clearing the package was a similar process to clearing other packages from customs so I printed a map I had created and instructions I had posted a few years back and started using it as my guide. But I quickly found out that was the wrong process for this case and instead I needed to head to the Aramex office in the cargo area.

[Google Maps]

The Aramex office is located right at the other end of the cargo area and you need to walk there under the sun since there is no shaded pathway. I highly recommend you go there in shorts, a tshirt and a baseball cap. Seriously it’s a miserable walk. Once I got to the small Aramex office the guy there signed the documents and told me I should head to another office back on the other side of the cargo area where they will have my package. So I walked back in the blistering heat and quickly found the second office by asking someone. Once inside I handed my paperwork to an officer who then went to a back room and brought out my shipment. He filled up a bit of paperwork, handed me one of my cameras from the box (I had ordered 3) and told me I should now take the paperwork and the camera and head over to the Kuwait security department near the VIP airport.

[Google Maps]

I walked back to my car and drove around the airport twice until I found the building. It’s located opposite the long term parking lot but to get to it you need go in by car from near the airport arrivals entrance. Once I got to the heavily protected compound (it has high walls topped with barbed wire and security cameras pointing in every direction) I then had trouble finding parking space. They have a tiny parking lot that was fully packed so I was forced to park in a no parking zone right next to a your car will be towed signed. Once inside I headed into the first building but turned out it was the wrong one and needed to go into the second white building that was a short walk away.

I went inside to this second building and headed up to the first floor and then walked all the way down to the end of the corridor and into an office on the left side (before the couch). There were two officers sitting, as soon as they saw me they told me I needed to go into another office two doors down on the left where someone would fill in a request for me. I did that and came back to him and he looked at my box and asked me why I got the camera? I told him I wanted to be able to monitor my apartment in Lebanon while I’m in Kuwait. He was like why didn’t you buy it locally? I told him I couldn’t find this specific model locally and it’s always cheaper online anyway. He was like ok, go next door and photocopy your civil id card and come back. I did and two minutes later I get back only to find the officer gone. The second officer who was sitting on the couch told me he’d be back. 10 minutes later some other officer comes and decides to finish up my paperwork. I had to write a letter stating that I was planning to use the cameras for personal use and then had to sign it and give it to him. He then finalized my paperwork and I had to go back to the Kuwait Airport cargo area back to the office that had my package. I showed them the paperwork there and was then allowed to take my cameras and leave.

While there I noticed a variety of other cameras that were held. One guy I met had ordered a helicopter with a camera built in while I noticed another guy was trying to clear a spy camera. So if you’re planning to order any kind of surveillance camera you should know there is a high probability it will be held right now but clearing it isn’t too difficult. The whole process took me around an hour and a half but should take you less now that you know where to go.