Category: Kuwait

A reader who lives in Ahmadi just emailed me telling me he heard what sounded like an explosion awhile and now the air has a weird smell and he can hear emergency sirens in the distance.

It could be nothing (doesn’t Ahmadi always have a weird smell?) but I figured I would post and check here.

Update: Something did happen, read comments (or turn on the tv) for more details.

Update2: Changed headline from “Did anything happen in Ahmadi” to “Explosion in Ahmadi”

Update3: Added a picture from the scene of the explosion. Picture taken from Zoom and there a lot more pictures on their website. [Link]

The closest I’ve gotten to this bike was playing with my friends Hot Wheels version but now the Dodge Tomahawk bike is somehow in Kuwait. There were only 10 of these bikes ever made and the main feature was the V10 Viper engine that makes up most of the bike and pumps out 500hp. The bike originally cost $550,000 and there is one now on display at the TriStar showroom here in Kuwait. So even if you’re not interested in buying it, its still worth checking out because the limited availability practically guarantees you will never see it again. [Link]

Update: Although I received an email from TriStar clearly stating that the “Dodge Tomahawk Concept Motorcycle” was available in Kuwait along with the picture of the Dodge Tomahawk, it turns out instead they have a smaller Chinese knock off version of the bike with a tiny 150cc engine. Definitely not as exciting and definitely not news worthy. Here is a link to an article on Autoblog about these Chinese knockoffs with pictures. [Link]

I was watching Bruno Senna (late F1 champion Ayrton Senna’s nephew) racing his Mercedes SLR 722 on TV when I noticed a Kuwaiti flag on the side pillar and “Kuwait One” written on the front hood and rear bumper. I tried to google what Kuwait One was or who they were but I couldn’t find any information whatsoever. The video above isn’t of the actual race I was watching but you clearly see the Kuwaiti flag on the side pillar. Anyone know who they are? [YouTube]

I just wanted to remind everyone that the AUK Car Boot Sale is tomorrow in the parking lot of the American University of Kuwait in Salmiya.

The Butcher Shop & Grill are opening tomorrow at phase II in The Avenues. They’re located right at the start of the food court, opposite Starbucks. The picture above isn’t of the actual place although it does look very similar.

Picture by Amro ABDOUN

Guys closing highways to make donuts, it never gets boring to watch. I love the army of white pickups (wanayts) parked on the side. [YouTube]

I think I want to make some retro Kuwaiti t-shirts and sell them as a side business. I could make like a Kids ‘R’ Us shirt or “I heart Sunkist” one.. the possibilities are really endless!

Brands for Less is a store located in Salmiya opposite Eureka and NBK. Although they’ve been open for around 2 years now yesterday was the first time I passed by. Nat wanted a kitchen scale and she had heard there was a good one at Brands for Less so we went to check it out. The place although not very big was surprisingly interesting. They had a clothes and shoes section but I stayed downstairs where they had on display various electronics, stuff for the house and just really random stuff. I am trying to name some of the random items I saw but they’re just too many to list out. I mean they even have a unicycle!

The prices are very cheap, the cheapest I’ve seen in the market for what I was looking for and everything or at least the majority of the items were a German brand called Tchibo. All the product descriptions on the packages were also in German so its recommended you take a German speaking friend along. I ended up leaving with a few items my favorite being an Ethernet-Over-Power setup. The package came with three wall adapters and it cost me only KD13! Thats very cheap and although all the instructions were in German I didn’t need to set them up, they worked perfectly out of the box. There was only one more left so if you interested you need to hurry up.

I highly recommend anyone who loves places that carry random stuff to pass by. They’re located in Salmiya and their number is 25752456.

Back in 2006 I posted about a blog called IKEA Hacker that had just launched. The blog displayed different IKEA hacks done by other people, people who took regular IKEA stuff and using their creativity turned them into unique pieces. Well two of those people are a couple living in Kuwait, Pinot and Dita. They took IKEA fabrics, cut them up and then created fantastic wall art with them. Its really cool stuff and whats even more cool is the fact they taped the whole thing and created a video presentation which you can watch below. Currently they’re voting for the IKEA hack of 2008 and they are nominated so vote for them by clicking [Here]

Now watch the video below of the making of and check out the post about them on IKEA hacker. [Link]

[YouTube]

’11’ by Moza Al-Roumi at The Exhibition
On January 11 & 12 from 5PM to 10PM

Moza Al-Roumi is a talented Kuwaiti painter who is fresh out of college. On those two days, she will be displaying her abstract art paintings at The Exhibition. All of her artwork are for sale.

A little info about The Exhibition:
It is located next to Slider Station on ‘The Strip’ across from Alseef Palace in Jibla. It’s a place where artists, entrepreneurs, designers and others can show Kuwait their products and works of art. Whatever they want to exhibit.

Check out the-exhibition.com.kw or call 94066226 for more details.

Surprise surprise, yes the Burger Challenge is still on. I’ve got a few places I still need to try out before I end this but I’ve been very busy (i.e. lazy) so I haven’t been able to get around to it. Anyway two people previously commented that I should try out this burger place in Al Manshar mall so I decided to pass by today and see what it was about.

First lets get the weird part out of the way. The place doesn’t have a name. I don’t know how that’s even legally possible! How could a place not have a name? I asked the employee what the place was called and her reply was that they don’t have a name but that it belongs to the same owners of Papa Johns Pizza. I think that’s very strange but I have a theory on why it doesn’t have a name which I will share later on in this post. For now though I’ve decided to call the place “Papa John’s Burgers”. Cheesy I know but its there fault for not coming up with one themselves and I need a name for this post.

Their burger surprisingly turned out to be really good. I had a cheeseburger combo with an extra cheeseburger on the side and although I wasn’t expecting to like it I actually ended up loving it. Their beef patties are ground fresh every morning and their buns are very McDonalds Fillet-O-Fish like so the end result is pretty similar to Johnny Rockets except for one thing, the sauce. The sauce they put with the burger is wayy better than anything I’ve had at Johnny Rockets, its kinda like the Rocket Single sauce except better.

Now the bad news. Their patties are pretty thin and I think that has to do with the price since their cheeseburger costs only 650fils. The result is too little meat for the bun, it looks kinda ok in the picture above but thats because I actually pulled the meat out so it would show in the picture. If it had double the patty it might have been a strong competitor for best burger in Kuwait but its not so I rate this burger a 3.5 out of 5.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way I can talk about other things not related to the review. First of all the price, its unbelievably cheap! Imagine a Johnny Rockets burger for only 650fils because that’s exactly what this is! A combo consisting of cheeseburger, fries and coke is only KD1.100! Thats cheaper than McDonalds and even cheaper than Naif! Their location really sucks, they’re located on the mezzanine floor of Fun Ahoy (an arcade/themepark) right next to Papa John’s Pizza. Which brings me to my theory on why the place doesn’t have a name. The owners of Papa John’s also own Fuddruckers so my theory is they needed a cheap burger place to serve the kids at Fun Ahoy so they probably use the same meat that they use at Fuddruckers and also have Fudds make their buns. Now legally I don’t think they can own another burger brand since they have Fudds so they just opened this random place that serves burgers and doesn’t have a name. Its only a theory of course so don’t take my word for it. If you do end up passing by which you should, be sure to do so in the middle of the week when there won’t be much kids around.

Papa John’s Burger is located in Al Manshar Mall in Fahaheel.
The cost of the Cheese Burger is KD0.650

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
The Burger Hub
The Little Oven
Wimpy

Does anyone know what they’re building next to the airport. It looks like a large dome.

Picture by MacaholiQ8

I just got the following in my email from a passenger on a Kuwait Airways flight who’s currently stuck at the Cairo Airport. This incident just happened awhile ago:

Hey Mark –

I wanted to contact you for a [potentially] new post you might want to write. First off, what I’m gonna write about isn’t in the news yet but it will almost definitely be in the morning, so you get the insights before they do.

I was on Kuwait Airways flight 542 from Cairo to Kuwait today with my family. Basically, after the plane left the gates and was on the runway, we stopped and the crews opened up the doors claiming there was an apparently major technical problem with one of the engines. About a half hour later, they said it was fine and we could be on our way. Plane taxis once again, but I noticed that the ride was strangely bumpy.

We took off, and about 20 seconds after take off with the plane going up rapidly, the right engine exploded. The plane shook hard, another explosion went off with another hard shake, and then one final boom and the plane dipped. Passengers in the back started screaming that fire was coming out of the engine and the plane began to lose altitude freakishly quickly. People were screaming, panicking, praying and getting out of their seats. I was flying first, but even from there, I managed to see flames and smoke billowing out of the engine. Mix all that together, and voilà, a scene from Hell. I thought it was all over, and clearly, so did the 200+ others on that nightmare flight.

Lucky for us, after thirty minutes or so spinning around in the air, the pilot managed to stabilize the plane and we made an emergency landing at Cairo International again, complete with fire trucks and ambulances. The plane stops just off the runway, they offload everyone and the airline offered to set us up in a hotel. Things got a bit messy on the ground when a passenger blacked out and collapsed on the runway, but I hope he’ll be fine.

Definitely adds to Kuwait Airways’ stellar reputation lately, don’t you think?

I’m on the next Kuwait Airways flight out of Cairo in an hour or so. Wish me luck.

I hope to hear back from you.

– Khaled

Thats really freaky, I am never going to fly Kuwait Airways again. I just checked the Kuwait Airport website and it’s showing the plane as currently being delayed. This is crazy!

Update: I couldn’t find a mention of this incident in the Arab Times but the Kuwait Times have written about it. [Link]

Its the time of year again when AUK hold their annual car boot sale in their parking lot. If you’re interested in selling items out of the trunk of your car, one parking space is for KD10 while two is for KD15. The car boot sale will be held on January 10th, 2009. [Link]

Kuwait ranked 31st in the world in computer ownership. Doesn’t sound that bad until you realize Estonia, Slovania Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Latvia scored higher than Kuwait. Not that I have anything against those countries mind you! [Link]

Update: I just purchased the ebook version of The Pocket World in Figures 2008 and here are some interesting facts I found related to Kuwait…

– Kuwait ranks second in lowest death rate per capita. UAE is first, Qatar is third.

– Kuwait ranks 20th in most deaths in road accidents, I used to think we were first?

– Kuwait ranks 2nd in most injured in road accidents, Qatar is first with more than 3 times the amount!

– Kuwait ranks 3rd in death by diabetes, UAE is first, Saudi is second.

– Kuwait ranks 2nd in largest amount of carbon dioxide emissions per person. UAE is first.

– Kuwait ranks 4th in “Proportion of a country’s population residing in a single city”. That city being Kuwait City which doesn’t make sense since not many people live in Kuwait City.

– Kuwait ranks 3rd in Least economically dependent on agriculture. I don’t know if thats a good thing, I doubt.

– Kuwait ranks 1st in Largest consumption of energy per head (oil). UAE is second, the US is 5th.

– Finally, Kuwait ranks 5th in most crowded road networks. Qatar is first, Hong Kong second and Germany third.