Category: Kuwait

I was watching the video below and wondering if demolition had started on Al Sawaber, or if people were able to save it. Sadly as you’ll see by the end of the video, Al Sawaber couldn’t be saved.

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.

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

I’ve posted previously on how easy and smooth the process of obtaining a power of attorney (tawkeel) is in Kuwait and you can check that post [Here] After experiencing that department three more times since that post I have to say, I think they one of the best-run government departments I’ve experienced anywhere, not just Kuwait.

Every time I ship my car to Bahrain for a track day, I tend to get a new POA done because the car transportation company tend to send a different driver every time. Last week the transportation company actually asked me to do a POA for 16 of their drivers so that way I don’t have to keep getting a POA done every time. 16! So I headed to the Ministries complex in the city and I was honestly a bit worried. I thought when the government employee sees I need a POA done for 16 people he’s gonna either give me a hard time, tell me to f off or at the very least just complain about how much work that was. But surprisingly, the government employee didn’t even flinch.

As I’ve mentioned in my original post, getting a POA done in Kuwait is a very quick and efficient process. The department is well organized and well staffed so I tend not to wait more than 10 minutes for my turn. The government employees are always helpful and their work environment just seems to be very healthy based on what I’ve observed. So when I handed over 16 identification cards to the employee and told them I needed a POA done for them, I braced myself for the worst. But, the employee just took the photocopies and proceeded to type out all the information into the computer without hesitation. When everything was done and I just needed to get my papers stamped from another desk on the way out, the employee gave me a feedback form to fill.

Not only is this department so well managed and run, they actually give you a feedback card to fill up once you’re done! Obviously, I ticked all the “Excellent” boxes and when I handed the feedback form back to the employee they told me I needed to hand it to the person who’s gonna stamp my papers on the way out. I realized that made sense since you wouldn’t want to hand back the form with negative feedback to the employee you just had a negative experience with or they’ll just get rid of the form. I love this department.

Why isn’t the driving license renewal department not run by the same guy that’s in charge of the POA department!?? I’m actually not aware of any government department in Kuwait that even care about how your experience was let alone ask you to critique them. At the airport in Bahrain they have these smiley faces at various points around the airport asking you how your experience was. They have these faces after check-in, after passport control, after security check and even in the duty-free asking you how your shopping was. They’re not unique to Bahrain, they have them at various airports around the world but last night while leaving Bahrain I was thinking, if we had these stations at various government offices and departments, what would people click on the most? The POA department is the only one I could think of that would get the big smiley button press from me every time.

If you don’t read the title you could easily think this video was shot just a couple of weeks back (skip to 2:24). [YouTube]

Since you guys liked the photo from yesterday, here is another beautiful shot of Kuwait City covered with fog. This photo was taken by the photographer Nasser AlQattan and you can check out his Instagram for more photos [Here]

The beautiful picture above was shot by photographer Fahad Al Enezi over the weekend. The photo made me realize now that the weather is great I really should take out my drone for a shoot although I wish my DJI Spark had a better camera on it . Anyway, check out Fahad’s instagram for more photos [Here]

via @kuwaitup2date

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

A friend sent me the drone footage above of the Fahaheel Expressway flooded in Mangaf. The highway is completely submerged underwater and looks like a river. It’s supposed to rain worse tonight… [YouTube]

Thanks XBS

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A post shared by KUWAIT UPTO DATE (@kuwaitup2date) on Nov 9, 2018 at 9:29am PST

I was on the Kuwait sub on reddit and people were talking about the floods in Kuwait. I had no idea what they were talking about since I’ve been home all day so I popped open @kuwaitup2date and turns out Fahaheel got flooded earlier this evening from the rain. No idea how it happened but it’s horrible, it’s a legit flood.

They’re saying the weather is going to get worse so I decided not to risk it and moved my Lotus to a multistory lot next to my house so it would be parked a floor above ground. Although my building’s basement has never flooded, after watching the videos from Fahaheel I’m not risking it.

If you’re curious to know what has been happening in Fahaheel, check out @kuwaitup2date since he’s been posting a lot of videos.

Although Kuwait mail has improved over the past few years it still needs a ton of work. Imagine how great online shopping would be if we had a mail system that wasn’t so archaic. [YouTube]

Thanks K

Not to be confused with the metro project, the rail project is designed to connect Kuwait with the rest of the GCC via rail. Once the project is completed you’ll be able to take the train from Kuwait City all the way to Oman. The first phase of the project will connect Kuwait City to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.

Although there is no relationship between the two, I’m sure everyone here would rather they began work on the far more interesting and useful metro project (pictured on top). [Link]

Back in October, an English school got a lot of heat when they refused to hire a teacher unless she took her hijab off. You would think other schools would have learned from that incident but doesn’t look like that happened.

The blog Life in Kuwait just posted a number of screenshots of a conversation she had with a school in Kuwait she was applying to that kept highlighting the fact that if she wanted to work there, she shouldn’t wear a hijab.

I can’t get over how bizarre it is for a school in Kuwait to make such a request. Check out the whole conversation on the Life in Kuwait blog [Here]