Category: Kuwait

Around two weeks ago I took my BMW to European Center (markaz oropee) in Shuwaikh to service my car. I figured I would save a whole bundle of money by not taking it to the dealer plus they would fix it quicker. I dropped my car in the morning, the guy told me the car would be fixed by noon, I told him I would be at work so I would pick it up at 6. At 6:30 I pass by and they were still working on the car. All they had to do was replace brake pads, gas filter, air filter and fan belts, I was really pissed but there wasn’t anything I could do. Anyway I ended up leaving from them at 7:30 and turned out the wipers has suddenly stopped working and I just felt they did a lousy quick ass job. Anyway forward to yesterday, I start the car and I hear this crackling popping sound and the engine revs were jumping. I opened the hood and the sound was coming from the engine so I guessed one of the spark plugs was acting up. So I was like fuck it, I am taking the car to the dealer, I had some other minor problems in the car and I figured I would get them fixed once and for all at BMW.

I woke up early today and drove the car to the BMW dealer. I get there and they were extremely friendly and professional. I sit down and start talking to the guy about my car troubles and he took notes down like a psychiatrist. He then went out checked the car himself and we came back and sat down again. He told me for them to “check” on the problems I have listed he estimates it would cost me KD200. Not to fix the problems, just to check the problems. I told him how about you skip the checking part and just go straight to fixing the problems because I know what they are. He is like to fix a problem they need to check it first. I was like fine, we started going down the list of problems I had given him and I marked off 3 superficial problems and that managed to bring down the estimate to KD100. He then told me they needed 4 to 5 days to check the car and then get back to me on how much it will cost to fix the problems.

I then asked about renting a car from them since I do that when I drop the Wrangler off at the Jeep dealer for the full service. Turns out they do rent cars but they were completely out of my league. The cheapest car they had was for KD40 a day while I usually pay KD7 when I rent from the Jeep dealer.

So in conclusion I think I am going to get raped with the price.. but psychologically I will at least feel that these guys know what they are doing and they will fix things right… I hope.

Taken from Al-Waseet, read the part in red:

I was at a friends place today and I saw a pearl white Gallardo IMSA parked outside. What I understood is that there are currently only 3 in the whole world and this was the first one in the eastern hemisphere. The IMSA tuned version has 600 horsepower, 100 more than the standard car and 80 more than the top spec Gallardo SE. It also has a unique widebody which allows it to accommodate larger wheels. My request for a test drive has already been rejected sadly…

More information and PR photos here [Link]

Forzaq8 has a really funny video he shot of “the most popular speed bump in Kuwait”. Check it out below with visual commentary.

[YouTube]

Looks like the Prada phone is no available in Kuwait, anyone know how much it costs and where its sold? [Link]

Picture by Nibaq

update: Turns out a friend of mine purchased a Prada phone while he was in England for 420 pounds. Other then no Arabic support the biggest issue he has with the phone is that if you save a mobile number with a country code like +965, the phone won’t recognize that person when he calls. The battery life also is terrible lasting at most a day and the wow factor disappears after a week. Another reader commented to this post saying that Villa Moda is currently selling the phone for KD300.

Here are some pictures taken by my friend: [1] [2] [3] [4]

What a storm! It lasted maybe around 15 minutes but it rained so hard and it was so windy that the whole street under my office building got flooded in a matter of minutes. I never saw it rain that hard before, I loved it!

update: When I got back home it started raining hail like crazy. From the time it took me to park the car in my buildings underground parking and to get up to my apartment the street in front of my house got flooded. I recorded a video of the hail storm with my phones camera but for some reason it didn’t get saved.

update 2: Here is a picture showing the size of the hail taken by Caudillo

update 3: And here is one more picture taken by nibaq

Cinemagic is having a weekly screening event called “Short & Sweet”. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, and will run every Wednesday between 7:00 – 9:00PM. The screenings bring together a collection of short films from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Each week they will screen a different selection of films of varying genre, nationality, and style.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by increasing the public’s interest in and appreciation for the art of filmmaking.

This week, they will screen “Promises” a 2001 Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary film that looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

The film follows the journey of Israeli-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg as he meets with seven Palestinian and Israeli children between the ages of nine and thirteen, seeing the Middle East conflict through their eyes. Rather than focus on specific political events, the film gives voice to these children, who, although they live only 20 minutes apart, live in completely separate worlds.

Attendance is always free of charge, but seating is limited, so make sure you arrive early. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

From all the cool strange touristic places in Kuwait like the Zoo, Entertainment City, Ice Skating Rink, Green Island etc.. my favorite is definitely The Scientific Center. Its such a beautiful and relaxing place. I passed by there today, it was only my second (or third) time so the large shark aquariums still mesmerizes me when I see it. I sat on one of the benches watching the sharks and fish swim and awhile later four scuba divers appeared and started cleaning the tank. It was fun to watch and the aquarium is really gigantic. If you haven’t been there yet you need to. The entrance fee is KD3 but its not only for the aquarium, there is another section you pass through first which has like bats, lizards, snakes, crocodiles etc.. When you visit the place you won’t believe you are in Kuwait.

Website: www.tsck.org.kw

update: by request here is a picture of one of the scuba divers in the tank [Picture]

And I thought “the movie” The Pursuit of Happyness was sad.. [YouTube]

via Desperately Wandering

I was checking out some pictures on Flickr of Kuwait when I spotted this one. It was taken by Ra-1.

[Flickr]

I posted about this song before, here is the actual video clip:

[YouTube]

I was flipping through YouTube looking for a certain commercial when I by mistake found this video clip. Its a trailer for a documentary about Kuwait and some of the places they recommend tourists to see are Canary Restaurant, some electronics store and Taxi Al Resala! [YouTube]

The documentary turned out was done by 3 Angels Power Film Production here in Kuwait so I decided to google them to find out more about them. I found their website and.. its interesting. Make sure you let their page load and then check out all their sections. [Link]

Emily Sharpe, a reader of the blog sent in a link to the following video which was shot by her during the swearing in of new Kuwaiti Minister of Education, Nouriya Al-Subeeh during the Parliamentary session. The session was disrupted by Islamist MPs who objected to the fact that she refused to wear the hijab (headscarf), which she does not normally wear.

[YouTube]

Does anyone else find this new Burgan Bank ad cheesy? It also reminds me of the Subway “Kaifi” campaign that were released last year. I tried to find a copy of those Subway ads but I couldn’t.

Picture from ads2blog

update: here is the subway ad! Thanks conz

Subway ad taken from the Coaxial website

Here is a site with links to all the local newspapers in Kuwait (Arabic and English) and also some magazines. [Link]

The Daily Star is not listed there probably because their site just recently came online.