Category: Interesting

I was lucky enough to get a private tour around the new Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel today and I have to say I loved the place. When you pass by it on the highway it looks like one giant building but once you’re inside its a completely different world. I really left the place impressed and I managed to take some pictures to share with everyone here. My favorite thing has to be the fact that they have a lot of Islamic design incorporated very beautifully into the design which you can see in some of the pictures below. The beach is a lot bigger than it used to be and they’ve built a very nice marina, not for boats but for swimmers which I think is cool. The place will have around 400 hotel rooms, 60 apartments and 12 private chalets. They’ll also have three pools outside, 2 large ones and 1 small one for kids. They’ll also have an indoor pool. Click continue below for all the pictures I took. Completion date is set for May 2010.

Teddy On The Go is an interesting social experiment by a Kuwaiti architecture student that recently moved back to Kuwait. To keep herself in check and out of a routine she decided to start the website Teddy on the Go as a way to motivate her into doing something interesting or new everyday and also as a way of expressing her opinions subtly through the bear. Her project is going to last for 365 days only after which the bear will be sold for charity. Currently she is at day 11. Check out her experiment by visiting her website www.yearofteddy.com

I always thought they built the crane from down to up. [YouTube]

YouTube Description: Two awesome Americans in Kuwait give one lucky TCN a taste of the good life for one night… Will this spark a trend of kindness?

Basically two guys find someone who needs help, they then take him shopping, buy him stuff, take him out to dinner and then give him KD100 cash at the end. I think its a pretty cool idea especially if it catches on and random people start doing it. [YouTube]

Note: TCN stands for Third Country National

Thanks Nate

Kuwait for Kenya is a LoYAC initiative made up of young Kuwaiti volunteers focusing on the overall youth development in Kenya. This year, Genan Dashti, Amna Hussein, Dala AlFuwaires, Sara AlDirbas, Faisal AlShawa, Willy Mathew, and Dari AlHuwail traveled to Mombasa and were able to achieve the following:

Child Development Center (CDC):
Installing and fitting a new kitchen and dining hall

Mombasa Youth Counseling Center (MYCC):
Upgrading the HIV laboratory and VCT center

Goodwill Academy:
Providing student’s desks and chairs

The above video is a summary of this years trip to Kenya. Their website which is still under construction is located [Here]. You can also find them on Facebook by clicking [Here]

I think its really great what they did and I hope they get all the support they need for future trips.

Someone emailed me this liquor permit dating back to 1964 when alcohol was still legal in Kuwait. This permit was set to expire on August 31st 1965 but alcohol ended up getting banned completely at the end of 1964. Here is the full version of the image above. [Picture]

If you’ve missed my previous post from TIME magazine dating back to 1965 talking about how alcohol was banned in Kuwait click [Here]

Thanks Alban

Update: The permit was scanned and posted originally by Rwatan.

According to a report by nef (the new economics foundation), a UK-based independent think tank and research group, Kuwait ranked 128th on the Happy Planet Index out of 143 countries researched. The happiest country in the world is Costa Rica (surprisingly not Netherlands) while Saudi Arabia ranked 13th (?????) and Lebanon ranked 110.

Here is the link to the full list. [Image]
Here is a link to the full report. [PDF]

4,475 Lebanese participated in breaking the Guinness world record for the longest Dabke line. They weren’t as synchronized as the 1,500 Filipino prisoners dancing to Thriller but they looked like they had a lot of fun. Ironically, this record was broken in Montreal and not in Lebanon. [YouTube]

Two days ago during the brief freak storm we had, the wooden paneling covering up the ESPRIT store at Avenues got blown away. A reader was there and took pictures which you can see above and below. The ESPRIT store is the one that burned down a few months back.

Thanks Sp4rkster

At least he isn’t collecting burgers:

A citizen of Kuwait has applied to Guinness World Records for his collection of over 5,000 perfume bottles to be recognized as a world record, the Kuna news agency reported on Monday.

An astronomer by profession, Adel Al-Sadoun started collecting perfume bottles some 15 years ago, as he was charmed by the unique design created by perfume companies for their fragrances.

After gaining national fame for his unusual hobby, his collection was expanded by bottles given to him by friends and well-wishers. Some of the items are around 100 years old. [Source]

Thanks Jacob

The urban analysis blog re:kuwait researched and then created a map of the Kuwait Metro project. According to the map if I wanted to get to work by subway I would need to take the line 2 train from Amman Street and head north 11 stops to the Great Mosque station. Over there I would have to change to line 1 and head west 2 stops and get off at the Muthana Complex station. Not too bad.

Check out re:kuwait for more. [Link]

I think the hardest one I had to pick between was the 1980s and Christmas. When you get bored click on the Top 10 and Bottom 10 links to see the most picked and the least picked choices. [Link]

Three Kuwaitis, Muhanad Al-Sultan, Husain Ashkanani and Ali Al-Bairami are going to ride their motorcycles around the world through 17 countries in a trip that will last around 120 days. They’ve set up a blog called “Our Shared Planet Motorcycle Adventure” where they will be documenting the ride which I think takes off from today. Their trip is sponsored by the Public Authority for Youth and Sports. Here is the [Link]

Thanks Dhari!

I just got a phone call telling me they were talking about me and my blog on the radio, on FM98.4. I’ve never heard of this station before but supposedly its an English station? Did anyone hear the conversation?

Kuweet.com is like KuwaitBlogs.com except instead of tracking local blogs it tracks local tweeters. A lot of people in Kuwait have recently jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon including politicians so Kuweet is a nice site to be able to keep track of all their tweets without needing to have your own twitter account.

What is twitter? I think the easiest explanation is that its like blogs except every post is limited to just 140 characters.. perfect for people who don’t enjoy or have the time to read a lot of long posts. [Link]

Note: If you have a twitter account and want to be added to Kuwait just follow @Kuweet