Category: Information

I got an email from someone telling me that Viva’s office on the 18th floor of the Olympia building was on fire. I brushed it away as a rumor and decided to ask a friend of mine who works at Viva if their office was really on fire. Turns out its true and they had to evacuate the building because of it. I don’t have any pictures but if I get any will post them.

Update: Just got one picture which I added to the post above.

Update2: According to a source at Olympia, it was a small fire started by an electric short. Both buildings were evacuated for 15 minutes.

Wow this is pretty cool. Seems like the new unreleased Aston Martin Rapide 4-door was spotted testing here in Kuwait. Car manufacturers usually test cars in severe climate conditions like extreme heat and cold before the car is released to make sure it can handle the weather conditions. The Rapide is expected to be introduced early next year and to compete with the likes of the Maserati Quattroporte and Porsche Panamera. [YouTube]

Wagamama has finally confirmed an opening date which at the moment is set for the first week of September. This will be their first store in Kuwait and they will be opening at the 360 Mall. Here is a link to their local website. [Link]

Just got an email and SMS regarding a Michael Jackson candle-light vigil and tribute that will take place tonight at the Marina Mall beach from 6:30PM till 11PM. Here is a link to the Facebook page. [Link]

I passed by 360 today and this is what I thought:

The Good
– The interior of the mall is probably the nicest in Kuwait. Looks very fancy with a mixture of wood, marble and carpet.
– Finally there is a proper Nike and Puma store
– Geant Hypermarket is huge
– Toys R Us!
– A lot of new brands launching at the 360
– Food court looks pretty

The Bad
– I would say only 20-30% of the shops and restaurants are open, everything else is still closed
– I was expecting a larger Toys R Us
– I compared one item at Geant which turned out to be more expensive than Carrefour. The WD HD TV player costs KD35 at Geant and KD31 at Carrefour. This of course isn’t an accurate assessment but it still gave me the impression that Carrefour is cheaper.

The Ugly
– Parking or should I say the complete lack of any parking. I was there during the day, the mall wasn’t packed and I couldn’t find parking. Its bad enough the parking isn’t shaded but the fact that there wasn’t enough parking during the middle of the week at 1PM is just ridiculous. I had to park illegally like a lot of people and I was lucky I even found an illegal spot. A friend passed by last night and told me he had to wait in a car jam for 20 minutes around a kilometer away from the mall and in the end he left because the line into 360 wasn’t moving.
– There were nice looking fountains outside but when I got closer they stank of sewage and were murky green and dirty.

[YouTube]

Kuwait won 3 gold medals, 3 silver and 5 bronze at the recent Asian Youth Games that were held in Singapore. I checked out YouTube and managed to find two interviews with two Kuwaiti participants, one of them is Hessah Al Zayed (above) who won a bronze in shooting while the other is a table tennis player (below). Overall Kuwait came 9th out of 39 countries that participated in these games. Thats pretty cool.

[YouTube]

The IMAX theater at 360 Mall will be opening on July 5th and it will be playing Transformers 2. I tried to purchase tickets from the KNCC website but it seems you can’t at the moment. [Link]

via 360Dewan

A fire started around 4:30PM in one of the buildings in Dajeej that contains furniture shops. Due to the size of the fire the firefighters weren’t able to tame it. He shot a video which you can see above and also pictures which you can see below. [YouTube]

Update: Here is another good video [YouTube]

AndyQ8 just posted a list of shops that will be opening at the 360 Mall.
Click on continue to see the full list.

Kuwait Government Online is a very helpful site with information and forms on different government procedures. [Link]

Thanks K.TheKuwaiti

Some good news, back in 2006 I posted about how Kuwait had the most corrupt diplomats in New York averaging 246.2 parking tickets per diplomat. Well the new 2009 results are out and Kuwait is no longer first, instead they’re second! The Egyptian diplomats now lead the way with the most unpaid parking tickets while Kuwait is following closely behind owing nearly $1.3 million in unpaid fines. Here is the link to the article. [Link]

On a similar note Marzouq posted about the Kuwaiti embassy thats based in the Ritz Carlton in Singapore. Looks like the best place to be if you want to be a Kuwaiti diplomat. [Link]

Note: Stop emailing me hate mail. I wasn’t the person who wrote the article or call the diplomats corrupt. Since those of you who emailed me are too lazy to click the link here is a quotation from the link that explains how not paying your tickets means you are corrupt:

“In a great paper for the National Bureau for Economic Research, two researchers have found that the number of parking tickets that legally-immune foreign diplomats accumulate in NYC and refuse to pay is a great measure of how corrupt their home countries are.”

Direct all hate mail to the New York Daily News, the National Bureau for Economic Research or your diplomats.

I just noticed Jazeera Airways have introduced a new pricing structure. If you want to take advantage of their lowest fare you now need to pay extra if you want to take any kind of luggage with you and if you want to choose your seats you also need to pay extra.

Here is a larger shot of the chart above [Link]

Just yesterday I was listening to his album and playing his old videogame on the Sega Genesis. [News Link]

Update: Found this cool picture of Michael Jackson with Michael Jordan and Kriss Kross.

I just got an email from Q80 Boy telling me that 360 Mall will be opening this Thursday. Should be interesting, here is a link to their website. [Link]

Update: The stores that will most likely be open on Thursday are Geant, Toys R Us, Lush, Nike, Intersport, Marks & Spencer, A Pea in the Pod, Bebe and a handful of others. (Thanks AndyQ8)

Update2: 360 Mall just contacted me, they are no longer opening tomorrow it’s changed to the 5th of July.

Update2: Kuwait Black Market has pictures of the inside of the mall which you can check [Here]

I have two issues with gas stations in Kuwait. First is that there are only five stations (at least it feels that way) and the second is that they lack mini-marts. Maybe sometime in the future these issues will get fixed but for now it seems the priority was to face lift the oil change section.

The picture above is of the new Khidma oil change at the Kortaba station. Looks pretty but I would think if they were going to face lift something it would be the actual gas station and not the small oil change area.

[source]