Category: Interesting

This post is a throwback for those who’ve been reading the blog from the early days. Do you remember my posts on Shark of Kuwait? He was an interesting looking character that used to always park his vintage blue Buggati outside Starbucks opposite Fanar in Salmiya. Not sure what reminded me of him but I decided to check and see if he was on instagram and turns out he was! So if you want to see what he’s been up to for the past 10 years, check him out @sharkofkuwait

I should probably put together a series of posts called “Where are they now?” in which I get in touch with previously popular personalities I’ve featured on the blog and see what they have been up to. Like where is Big D??

Arabian Business has published an article about bitcoin mining and turns out Kuwait is the cheapest country in the GCC for mining bitcoins with a rate of $1,983 per Bitcoin. The reason for that is the cost of electricity in Kuwait is so cheap compared to our neighboring countries. Bahrain, on the other hand, is the most expensive GCC country for mining with a rate of $16,773 per Bitcoin. Check out the article [Here]

This has to be the first for Kuwait because I haven’t seen one like it here yet. Down the street from my place in Salmiya, right towards the end of the 4th Ring Road, they’re constructing a pedestrian bridge that uses escalators instead of your usual stairs. The pedestrian bridge is also covered so I’m guessing it will probably have airconditioning as well.

I find this odd because the area is pretty ghetto so it’s weird we’re getting such a fancy pedestrian bridge. Now I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the Metro plans. I know in the metro map (pictured above) there is meant to be a station in this area and there is plenty of room around this bridge for one as you can see in the map below. Could this be connected to it?

I’ve always heard of counterfeit alcohol that’s bottled locally, but I think this is the first time I see how an operation looks like. The photos below have been making their rounds on WhatsApp and shows how dealers bottle and label bottles. Although the photos are being labeled as taken in Kuwait on WhatsApp, they’re actually from Saudi Arabia (the logo is of the Saudi National Guard).

One of the dangers of illegally obtaining alcohol is you never know what you’re really buying.

The new Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) is set to open towards the end of this month, but if you drive by at night, you can get a sneak peek at some of the dinosaurs on display.

Yesterday I found out that the popular German large format photographer, Andreas Gursky, had captured two photos of the Kuwait Stock Exchange. The one pictured in this post was auctioned off at Sotheby’s for KD280,000!

His two Kuwait Stock Exchange photos were captured one year apart. The first photo was captured in 2007 and you can view it [Here] while the second photo which is pictured in this post was taken in 2008 and you can view the larger version [Here]

A reader recently spent over a month in prison for driving his mum’s car without having a driving license (he nearly got deported too). He wrote about his experience on his blog, and you can check out his post [Here]

The part I found interesting is how prisoners get free cigarette packs. I wonder if that decision was made to prevent or cut down on drug use and violence. It’s interesting because I’ve never heard of a prison doing that before. The cost on the government to supply cigarettes to all the inmates for free must be ginormous.

Update: The writer has now edited his post based on the advice of his lawyer and removed certain parts including the part about free cigarettes.

A post shared by Comic Con Kuwait (@comicconkuwait) on Jan 13, 2018 at 9:28am PST

Stan Lee, the comic-book writer who co-created the popular characters Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men and more is coming to Kuwait next month. Comic-Con Kuwait announced on their twitter account that he will be coming to their event that’s going to be held from February 22 to 24 at the Fairgrounds.

Stan Lee might be the biggest guest star yet to come to a comic-book convention in Kuwait and they still haven’t even announced all the guests. For more information on this event and to buy tickets, click [Here]

Thanks Hanna-Bell

I could swear I’ve written about the Heritage Museum before but I can’t seem to find the old post for some reason. The Heritage Museum is located inside the Kuwait National Museum and I passed by yesterday since I wanted to check and see if the Planetarium at the museum was still open. The Kuwait National Museum is currently being refurbished (I’m so glad they decided not to demolish it) so I wasn’t sure if visitors could still access it or not. Turns out, for the most part, its inaccessible including the Planetarium, but the Archaeology Exhibit and the Heritage Museum can still be accessed.

Archaeology Exhibit
I didn’t find this exhibit to be that interesting and it’s pretty small. It’s located right as you walk into the museum and it will take you just a few minutes to skim through the stuff on your way to the main Heritage Museum.

Heritage Museum
This part of the museum is a lot more interesting to check out and is fairly big which makes the trip worthwhile. The Heritage Museum is divided into three areas, the first is a wax museum where different aspects of Kuwait’s traditional past are on display. The wax models aren’t very realistic but there are a lot of different displays and the whole thing is meant to resemble an old Kuwaiti street so it’s at least visually interesting.

The second part of the Heritage Museum is where different items from Kuwait’s past are on display. These aren’t wax objects but actual real objects that were collected and put on display. An example of a display would be for example a collection of old radios that were used in Kuwait back in the old days.

The final part of the Heritage Museum is a small photography exhibit where old photos of Kuwait are on display. This is a fairly small cooridor which you’ll be walking through on your way out of the exhibition and is fairly dark so it’s hard to see the photos properly.

If you’ve never been to the Heritage Museum you should check it out mostly because of how odd it is. I mean the eerie dark mood of the museum is alone worth the trip and with the construction taking place, it just adds to the whole creepy mood. If you want to pass by, the museum is open from 8AM to 2PM and then again from 4PM to 8PM. There is no entrance fee. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

A few pictures have been uploaded online by the company fabricating some of the wildlife that will be placed inside the Natural History Museum at the soon to open Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre, and they look really really good.

The other day I said you could see what looks like a shark hanging on display while driving by on the Gulf Road, turns out its a primitive whale (a Basilosaurus, pictured above).

The Quetzalcoatlus pictured above even got featured in the November issue of National Geographic! [Link]

To check out some more photos, click [Here]

Thanks lovelykuwait

Yesterday some drone photos of the Kuwait Motor Town race circuit were floating around on WhatsApp. Not sure why I didn’t think of going there and taking a drone photo of the circuit myself since Google Maps really hasn’t updated the view since construction started. These drone photos, on the other hand, show that a lot of progress has been made and that the hardest part of the construction, the paving of the track asphalt is basically done. You can also see the dragstrips in the photos as well as the grand stands under construction.

The first phase of the Kuwait Motor Town Race Circuit is targetted to open by the end of March, I’m hoping that’s still on track. I’m so excited!

Originally expected to be completed by the end of this year, the completion time for the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre in Shaab has now been pushed back a tiny bit towards the end of January, early February.

The exhibits are already being fitted and I’ve been seeing trucks the past few weeks unloading more and more stuff. If you look carefully while driving by on the Gulf Road you can even spot dinosaurs and I think even a large Shark hanging on display.

The Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre is currently one of the largest cultural and science projects in the world and once complete will house four museums, Natural History, Science, Islamic and Space.

Kuwait Skydive is the first skydiving center to open up in Kuwait. They’ve only just opened and they’re offering tandem jumps out of a plane with an instructor, as well skydiving lessons.

The cost of a tandem jump with Kuwait Skydive is KD160. That’s KD5 cheaper than the cost to skydive in Dubai which was where everyone was going previously.

Kuwait Skydive also offers an AFF course for KD1,000. The course includes 8 jumps and takes around 7-10 days to complete. Once you’ve completed the course you’ll receive your own jump log book and you’ll be able to start jumping out of the plane by yourself.

Their jump location is in Khiran and they’re open daily except for Sundays. Currently, they’re only accepting booking via phone since their website is under construction. So if you’re interested you can call them up on 65566226. For more information you can also visit them on instagram @kuwaitskydive or kuwaitskydiveco.com

I recently found out about an instagram account in Kuwait that sells cool looking vintage typewriters. The majority are in Arabic but they do get English ones every now and then as well. Vintage typewriters can make a great gift, especially to a writer. For example I once bought a friend of mine who used to write poems a vintage typewriter, the same one Leonard Cohen used to type up his first poetry book (pictured above). They loved it and it was fully functional so they were able to use it right away. So if you’re looking to get one for yourself or as a gift, check out the instagram account @8.6s

Thanks barwaleathercraft

If you’re a regular at the coffee shop Arabica, you might have noticed an American barista working there a few months ago called Anna. She was here temporarily as part of a barista exchange program, and after she went back to Japan she wrote about her experiences in Kuwait. You can check out the quick Q&A [Here]