Category: Kuwait

Last week I posted about Alshaya’s mystery shopper program and now I found out about another program by a company called Khayal Consultants. Best part is you can sign up to be a mystery shopper through their website by filling an online form and answering a few questions. No idea on how much these guys pay though and who their clients are. [Link]

Thanks Mai

My Wrangler’s battery died today while trying to leave the Avenues. Its not the first time this has happened, the first time was two years ago when I was trying to leave Souk Sharq. That same day I posted about it on my blog on how Jeep’s Road Assist was amazing, that was on June 4, 2006. Thats nearly exactly two years later (off by just two days) except this time Jeep’s Road Assist wasn’t there to save me. The Road Assist number wouldn’t connect me to anyone, I would call and it would ring twice then I would get a beep and the line would die. I tried over and over and it wouldn’t work.

I didn’t even have jumper cables so I just walked back into Avenues and headed to Carrefour and bought some cheap ass cables for like KD1.300 (they sucked, need to get a better pair). When I got back to the car I asked the parking security if they had a plan for a situation like this, I figured they might have a tow truck number or maybe an emergency jump starter kit but turned out they didn’t have anything of that sort. Instead the security guard was kind enough to help me find a car that was willing to help me jump start my Jeep.

After jump starting the car it turned out if I removed my foot from the gas pedal the car would die on me instantly so after restarting the car again I had to drive with two feet, one on the brakes and the other constantly holding down the throttle. Luckily I didn’t have to drive too far, I was planning on taking my Jeep to service it at the dealer tomorrow so I just drove the car to the garage which was just 5 minutes away. Once I parked the Jeep outside and removed my foot of the gas pedal the car died again, perfect timing. I found a cab passing by and just took it back home. Tomorrow will pass by the dealer and have them replaced my battery. I am kinda glad I purchased the extended warranty back then. What I now regret is not actually going ahead and purchasing the Emergency Jumper Starter which I posted about in March!

5car5 just posted photos of a new Ford Mustang thats being prepped to join the local police department soon. The Mustang is supercharged and will have 500HP so it should be able to keep up with all the super cars out there. Who doesn’t want to be a cop now? Check out the 5car5 website for more pictures. [Link]

Back in December I posted about a user on YouTube called paradise1man who had just received his Bugatti Veyron and shot a video of it and uploaded it online. Well I just checked his account now and he has a ton of more videos the latest is of Paul Dalton, “The worlds best car cleaner” who came in all the way from the UK to clean his car. You can check out all his videos by following this [Link]

The video above is of Paul Dalton waxing the car which alone costs $10,000. [YouTube] If it was me I would have probably gotten bored of the car a month later and just started taking it to the Bayan car wash…

A friend just signed up for the Alshaya secret shoppers program. I don’t know if its new or not but the work involved sounds pretty cool. Basically as a secret shopper you are required to shop at Alshaya stores every week and then write about your experience. You also get two meals at Alshaya restaurants every week worth KD14 which you also need to write about. Based on your feedback Alshaya then try and improve their service.

The pay seems pretty decent too once you get more experienced. New shoppers get paid KD75 a month while silver shoppers get paid KD150 and gold shoppers get KD300. I think more bloggers should participate in this since bloggers spend a lot of time writing about their experiences anyway.

How do you sign up for it? You can’t. Its a secret program which not many people are supposed to know about (ooops!). My friend was able to sign up because he knew someone who was already a secret shopper. So ask around I guess or give them a call and try your luck? I think its really great they have a program like this and more companies should do it if they aren’t already.

My friend found this empty bottle of Jacksen on the road and took a picture of it. I thought Jacksen was banned from the market back in 1996 but I guess that was just a rumor. I wonder how many readers here know what Jacksen is used for…

update: oops its Jacksen not Jackson.

Some students at the French School of Kuwait attempted to all freeze at the same time a la “Frozen Grand Central” except the result didn’t turn out that good really. At least they tried, maybe the next one will be better. Forward to around 4 minutes into the video, thats when they freeze. [YouTube]

Thanks Yass

I’ve been hearing a lot of positive stuff about Aramex’s Shop & Ship service lately. K.thekuwaiti keeps telling me how he keeps getting everything really quickly and SomeContrast posted the other day that you can now even pay with Knet on delivery. I had a lot of problems with Aramex before which I made very clear on this blog but it seems they’ve improved a lot since then so I’ve decided to try them out again.

So far the experience has been positive. I called Aramex up on the new hotline number and I was instantly able to get a hold of customer service, something that was impossible to do when I last used them since their lines used to be always busy. I will try them out for my next few shipments and post my experience with them here on the blog. Looks promising so far.

I just heard from a friend they’ve started power cuts in Kuwait. My friend didn’t have electricity for 6 hours today! I hope this isn’t going to be a habit. In Lebanon we get power cuts but come on its Lebanon, the country doesn’t have any money and worse comes to worse the weather really never gets that hot there. In Kuwait on the other hand the government DOES have money so they can build more power plants and the weather gets extremely hot in Kuwait which means a home without AC is unlivable.

A reader of the blog sent an email to inform me that Dean & Deluca will be opening in Kuwait before the end of the year. According to the reader the upscale gourmet food grocery store will be brought to Kuwait by Alshaya and that they are working overtime to try and have the place opened by Q4 of this year. I don’t know the accuracy of this information but if its true it would be something to look forward to. Alshaya launched the Dean & Deluca Cafe in Dubai early this year but they haven’t opened their store yet.

Thanks SJM MUKI

Interesting Kuwaiti site where you can upload your car and have people rate it for you. [Link]

via zDistrict

I’ve been spotting this huge ass truck every now and then but I never had my camera with me to take a picture until today. This isn’t an ordinary Ford F650 which is already huge and super expensive, this is an extreme version which is even bigger and taller. The picture below although not a good one at least gives you an idea of the height of this beast and I was in my Wrangler when I took the picture.

Update: Here is a link with more information and pictures on the F650. [Link]

And here is another picture which better shows the size of this thing

Soon I think we will be getting live traffic updates while on the road via these digital signs as pictured above. I also think the camera’s (pictured below and taken from Marzouqs blog) are somehow related to the new traffic monitoring network. Both the cameras and the digital signs use the same style of metal frame and they’ve both appeared at nearly the same time so I am guessing they must be connected somehow. The digital sign above was taken on the istiqlal highway but I’ve seen the same frame being built in a few more locations including the beginning of the 4th ring road in Salmiya, on the Gulf Road heading towards scientific center before Marina Mall and I’ve also seen it across from KFC on the Gulf Road heading towards Salmiya and the beginning of the Istiqlal Highway in Kuwait City.

I got a chance to check out G-FORCE Auto Worx in the Free Trade Zone yesterday; as they were having a photo-shoot to get ready for their launch in July. The owners have gone all out putting together an unbelievable garage (4wheel dyno, Ferrari-approved prep/paint booth) that is levels above the current offerings in Shuwaikh. In addition to the garage, there is a showroom on the first floor that is going to have some very interesting sports cars for sale and a store carrying racing memorabilia (sadly, the signed Schumacher racing suit is not for sale), gear (shoes, racing suits, helmets) and aftermarket parts (rims, exhausts, etc).

One of the biggest issues with modifying cars in Kuwait is the lack of a capable garage; and GForce is looking to fill that void. They are setting up to be a car-lovers haven and I will be getting more info on the garage, showroom and shop as they get closer to launch.

More pictures below.

Posted by K.