Category: Kuwait

Two weeks back I posted pictures of the GulfRun guys getting their cars washed and stickers applied and now Negative Effect just released a video of that event. I’m looking forward for the video of the actual races since he had a whole bunch of FlipHD cameras setup around all the cars capturing footage from every angle. For now though you can watch this. [YouTube]

This might sound strange but this little store is probably one of my favorite shops in Kuwait. It’s called Teacher’s Cellar and it’s located in Muthana Complex in Kuwait City. The store sells classroom supplies and it’s unbelievable the amount of stuff they were able to shove into the place. It has everything from scratch and sniff stickers to fake plastic food, washable crayola paint, stamps, hand puppets you name it. It’s mostly supplies for kindergarten and primary school classes so that’s why it’s all fun stuff. It’s really an incredible little store and I wish we had more of these little specialty shops in Kuwait.

They’re located on the Mezzanine floor of Muthana Complex opposite the Internet cafe. They also have a pretty decent website which you can check out by clicking [Here]

No not really. It’s actually one of the really old Toshiba laptops displayed at the Toshiba dealer in Kuwait City. This one’s from 1993 called the T100x Dynapad. It had a 25MHz CPU, 4MB of RAM and came with a 40MB hard drive. The Toshiba dealer has this amazing display of old laptops from the 80s up till the 90s. It’s like a mini museum.

This mini club was found inside what looks like an ordinary tent from the outside. Pretty cool. [YouTube]

A reader called Haresh sent me the picture above which he took last night around 8:45PM. I checked and the picture isn’t retouched, its straight out of the camera. That looks like a pretty big lightning strike.

Picture was taken with an Olympus E-520 with an f-stop of 5.6 and shutter speed of 5 seconds. Location is Salmiya.

I took a bunch of pictures today and the ones below are my favorite at the moment. I might find some more interesting ones later but have some things I need to do now. Tomorrow is the second day of GulfRun5 and they will be racing on a different track which I think looks visually more interesting so I should get better shots tomorrow.

GulfRun5 starts tomorrow so I am at the airport now waiting for my flight to Bahrain. I think a few bloggers are going to be there as well since Blushberry posted that he’s already there and p0ach posted that he is driving there. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

I noticed the Google Kuwait page now has a Kuwait Occasion Google logo on top. Google changes the logo on special occasions and when you click on those occasion logos you get information about that event. On clicking the Google Kuwait logo you get a search for “Kuwait’s National Day”. I think someone at Google mixed up the dates. The Kuwait occasion Google logo should be online Feb 25 and 26 but by mistake is online January 25 and 26. Unless there is some occasion today I am not aware of… [Link]

Update: Looks like I was right, it was a mistake. Google just removed the occasion logo and put back the regular Google one.

Sultan Center just got a huge supply of foam cans.

February = Hell

Well this post was going to be the ultimate water review but after drinking around 2 liters of water I threw in the towel. Other than the fact that I think I overdosed on water, they all started tasting the same after the third bottle. BUT, it didn’t go all to waste. I was able to answer the most important question… Does a KD5 bottle of water taste better than a 100fils bottle?

I picked up my bottles of water from four different sources, Dean & Deluca, Carrefour, Sultan Center Souk Sharq and Sultan Center Salmiya and I paid a total of KD17.330 for 19 bottles of water. I actually spent the bulk of that at Dean & Deluca purchasing 4 bottles of water which came out to KD11. I’ve listed all the bottles below with their prices but the KD5 bottle I will be reviewing is the one I got from Dean & Deluca called 10 Thousand BC. This is what it says on the back of the bottle:

Locked in an icy vault for over 10,000 years, this water comes from the remote and sheltered Coastal Glacier Range, that literally vibrates with the rich fragrance of health and vitality. Experience the pure, natural taste captured in 10 THOUSAND BC.

The competition? Our very own locally produced Al Rawdatain. It’s my favorite water and I like the brand a lot probably because it reminds me of my childhood. So how was it going to do against the water that comes from the beautiful coastal glacier range of British Columbia, Canada? Not very good.

You can take what I am about to say with a grain of salt since I am no water expert but the 10 Thousand BC water did taste better. I really felt like I was drinking snow, it smelled like snow and tasted like snow. Nat thinks I am losing it but I still have a bit of water left in the bottle (saving it for a special occasion like when Prince Charles comes over) to prove her wrong. The bottle looks great and the story behind the water is breathtaking. Al Rawdatain on the other hand tasted pretty normal but at 60fils its over 500 times cheaper. The Al Rawdatain water also came in a plastic bottle which although not as pretty as the 10 Thousand BC glass bottle can at least handle a fall without breaking.

So 10 Thousand BC tasted better but seriously who would buy a KD5 bottle of water to drink regularly? It’s actually one of the most expensive bottles of water in the world. I mean KD5 is an affordable luxury, anyone can afford it if they want to try it but does anyone drink it casually?

Check out the list of prices below.

I’ve decided to start documenting the different types of bus stops around Kuwait. Why? Because I am pissed off. I really love the old bus stops which we still have lying around randomly in different parts of Kuwait not being taken care of and left to wither away. The new bus stops on the other hand… it’s just very depressing. In any case I don’t know what I am going to do yet with this, I took some test shots yesterday just to see if there is something in this project and I think there is. What I need is some help. Does anyone have any information about the bus stops in Kuwait, like who designed which ones or the dates the different designs were introduced in Kuwait?

Last night I was invited to sneak peek a new trendy Italian restaurant called MELENZANÈ. It’s a local creation by two young Kuwaitis who put a great deal of time and effort to create what has to be the most bizarre looking restaurant I’ve seen. The concept is based around mistakes and so you have chairs that are upside down or missing legs, tables on the ceiling, tables crawling up the walls, bottles hanging out of upside down drawers.. just a completely unusual and strange setup. Very cool and it caught me by surprise since when I had checked their website before visiting the place I got the impression it was a classic Italian restaurant. Instead, I got greeted by what an Italian restaurant would look like if it was based in Alice in Wonderland.

They’re still finalizing the dishes but from what I saw and tried, they have a wide range of things to choose from and the prices seemed very reasonable. They’re not open yet but they will next month once the new Bidaa extension opens up which by the way looks amazing. I wanted to take more pictures of the restaurant but the place was dim inside so I only managed to get a few decent ones which you can see below. You can check the MELENZANÈ website but it looks and sounds nothing like the actual place. The mood, colors and music are completely different. Seriously ignore everything especially the cheesy Italian music, when I was there they were playing very cool lounge music and that’s what they will be playing generally. Here is the [Link]

I passed by the Royce Gracie event at Al-Arabi Club. I got to meet Abdulmohsen Al Babtain who brought Royce Gracie to Kuwait and is behind the Mixed Martial Arts SideKick Academy. A pretty cool and friendly guy who is doing a really great thing for Kuwait. He also introduced me to Royce Gracie which was a jaw dropping experience.

Royce Gracie is a legend and I can’t believe he’s here in Kuwait. I was kind of star struck and didn’t know what to say but then Royce asked me where I was from and I told him Lebanon so he started telling me how he loves Lebanese food and how he might be going there this summer. I then took some photos with him and even got him to put me in a choke hold. It was a great day.

I passed by the Concours d’Elegance today at Marina Mall to check it out. Since it was Friday it was pretty packed with people but since there was lots of room and lots of cars to check out, it didn’t feel too crowded. If you haven’t passed by do so since today (Saturday) is the last day of the event.

On a similar subject, I’ve been invited to the Shiro Nakamura event which is also today. Shiro Nakamura is the Senior VP of Nissan and Infiniti worldwide. More importantly (for me at least) he is also the Chief Creative Director for Nissan and Infiniti and the guy behind the design of the Nissan GTR. Will take pictures and post about it once I get back from that event. Maybe if I’m lucky I will get to meet him.

The Ahmadi Music Group with Kuwait Jazz Collective present the musical production of Gideon.

Gideon recounts the ancient story of the boyish warrior-prophet who rises from obscurity as the “youngest in the poorest family in the smallest tribe” of all his people. He assembles an army to defeat the Midanite oppressors, who are “like grasshoppers for multitude”. His untrained army approach their enemy under cover of darkness, holding no weapons, but only a dish, a lantern, and a trumpet. On his signal, they break the dishes, wave the lanterns, and blow the trumpets, causing confusion and panic among Midanites, and gaining a great victory. Gideon then reigns as a righteous judge for forty years.

The Ahmadi Music Group are made up of 60 plus singers from many different nationalities here in Kuwait. They will be playing at the Tarek Al Ali Theater in Maidan Hawalli. I honestly hadn’t heard of them before today neither did I know there was a theater in Maidan Hawalli so all this sounds very exciting. Should be an interesting event to go to.

They will be playing on the following dates:
7:00PM Monday 25th, January 2010
7:00PM Tuesday 26th, January 2010
7:00PM Wednesday 27th, January 2010

For tickets call 66184192
You can visit their website for more information on the group plus a map to the theater. [Link]