Category: Kuwait

I don’t think newspapers should participate in April Fools. It’s just lame. Newspapers are supposed to be a source of truth not hoaxes. If you don’t know what I am talking about check the main page of the Kuwait Times. They have an article saying that alcohol is now legal in Kuwait. Its very easy for newspapers to pass a hoax as truth because people trust newspapers. They are taking advantage of this trust, I didn’t fall for it but how many people out there today will? [Link]

Picture taken from ads2blog

Today I went riding with Marzouq in the morning as I have been doing practically every Friday. Today though it was a completely different ride then our usual. Today we took the Fahaheel Expressway and rode down to Mina Abdullah. Once we got to there we took the inside rode and rode down all the way to Julia’a, then to Bnaider and finally to Al Zoor gas station.

The road we took was amazing. It was a narrow newly paved two lane road and it had a lot of twists and turns. It was also really long which was great since the weather was perfect and the road really fun. I got some good practice taking turns while trying to lean the bike really low thanks to Marzouq coaching skills. Now, after todays experience I trust my bike a lot more then I did before.

Before we left the south and got back onto the Fahaheel express way, I told Marzouq I had a problem when we were riding on it earlier in the day. Whenever I hit speeds exceeding 120km my jacket (which I now believe is a size too big for me) fluttered from the wind like crazy and it was painful. He told me I should just move as far back on the seat as I can and then lean over low so that my chest is touching the gas tank. That would bring me down really low behind my front faring which would protect me from the wind. I tried it and it worked! I was able to reach much much higher speeds without any side effects from the wind.

Anyway hopefully we will be riding their again since its such a beautiful place. And whats up with all these challets with cool names. I found one called “South Beach” and I figured it was some funky private beach but it turned out to be just a name of a challet.

I just found out from a user in the Forum that there is a company in Kuwait which allows you to pay for a pro flickr account using Knet. They charge KD5 over the Flickr membership fee but thats still better then nothing. [Link]

I got a message from k.thekuwaiti today telling me to check the Friday Times today since he gave me a shout out in it. I didn’t know what he was talking about so I went and picked up an issue (its free) and started flipping through it. Turns out there is an article on blogging in Kuwait and K got interviewed for it. The article is still not available on their website but it might be there tomorrow. For now you can just pick up an issue and check it out.

Yesterday I posted about how Al-Qabas are stealing pictures from local flickr users. Turns out the university magazine, Cruise Campus stole not 1 picture but 14 pictures for one of their covers!! Someone should tell them that combining 14 pictures into 1 doesn’t make a new copyright free image. Whats funny is when one of the photographers called them to complain, they told him they got the pictures from a CD which they got off Al-Watan newspaper. [Link]

Thanks to Moayad for pointing out the above.

I was just told that the official opening for Avenues mall is April 9th. Also Carrefour should open on the 9th or max by April 13th.

If you turn to page 48 of todays issue of Al-Qabas newspaper (March 27), you will see a lanscape picture of Kuwait taken by Cajie, an extremely talented amateur photographer. The problem is, Al-Qabas used his picture without his consent. They didn’t email him or try to contact him to seek permission to use his picture. Instead of trying to support a local amateur photographer by at least crediting him, they instead resorted to stealing his picture and not giving him proper credit. Here is the original picture [Link]

Also turns out this is not the first time Al-Qabas have stolen a picture from a flickr user, here is another example. [Link]

And thats not all! Here is even another example! [Link]

If any reader knows someone at Al-Qabas please bring it to their attention that what they are doing is wrong.

Picture above taken by Q8e.

Choowy Goowy have just launched a new look. They’ve redesigned the labels and have also added more flavors including one flavor called “Mark&Nat” which is the oreo cookies. Finally and probably the biggest addition is that they also have brownies. For more information call 2626559.

update: The jar in the picture above is the Solo flavor and not the Mark&Nat one, below is the Mark&Nat label, its 100% Magenta same as the blog.

I just want to introduce my new sponsor to replace Mercedes called Q8Flowers. You might remember them because I posted about them back in November. I had ordered flowers for Nataly from them since they were the only flower shop in Kuwait where I could place an order and pay for it online. If you haven’t checked them out you can do so by visiting their website located at www.q8flowers.com

I had such a terrible experience with cab drivers today. In the morning I dropped my car at a garage in Shuwaikh then from there I decided to take a cab back to work.

I stop one of those beige and white taxis, I get in, I look and notice the driver had started the counter and we drive off. Five minutes later we are under my office building, I look at the counter it says 500fils so I give the driver 500fils. He then tells me he wants KD1.5 not half a dinar. I was like what? why? The counter says 500fils. He was like ok KD1. I was like why should I give you KD1 when the counter says 500fils. I get out of the cab with the driver yelling at me angrily.

Later during lunch I decide to take a cab back to my house. I stop another cab driver, I get in and I tell him turn the counter on. He says its not working, I was like fine thank you and I open the door to exit when he stops me and tells me its working but I can’t get a receipt. I was like fine I don’t need a receipt. He drops me under my house, the counter said 850fils and I give him KD1 and tell him to keep the change.

An hour later I have to get back to work, so I stop another cab under my house and I tell him to start the counter. He was like why, I will charge you KD1 to get to Kuwait City, you want it to be less then that? I figured KD1 is the same price I paid to get to my house so whatever. He drives off and gets onto the Gulf Road, once we are near McDonalds he spots an American tourist on the side of the road and decides to pick him up. I was thinking “O…K… lets see where this is going” The tourist gets in and wants to go to Souk Sharq. We drive off and a few minutes later we reach Souk Sharq. The tourist asks how much, the driver says KD1.5 and the tourist pays. The ride should have cost the tourist MAX half a dinar and here the driver was charging him triple the price and the tourist was fine with that.

So he drops the tourist off and we start to drive off when I tell the cab driver he should give me a discount now. He was like why? I was like because you wanted KD1 from me to Kuwait City and you just made KD1.5 from this tourist. He was like so? I was like its illegal to pick up another passenger plus you wasted my time now by driving through Souk Sharq. He was like what is this some kind of new law? I told him its not a new law and its not my first time riding cabs so don’t try to fuck around with me. He stops the car and tells me I can get out here and he doesn’t want anything from me. I was like fine whatever.

So I am now waiting in the shade at Souk Sharq for another cab to pass by and one does. I get in and tell him to start the counter. He tells me its not working, I was like thank you and I open the door. He then tells me wait how much do you want to pay? I was like I want to pay whatever the counter tells me and I get out. I could have told the guy half a dinar or whatever but I wanted to be stubborn because I wanted to see how messed things can get.

I wait five minutes till the next cab shows up. I get in and I tell him to start the counter. He politely says ok. We get to my destination and the total was 400fils. I give the driver KD1 and tell him to keep the change. Finally a decent driver.

I can’t believe how bad the taxi service is in Kuwait, and all this in just one day!

Picture by Mink

I was at the Ducati dealer yesterday, TriStar and they had a limited edition Bimota bike on display. There are only 23 of them in the world and they were made as a tribute to the Italian soccer team for winning the World Cup.

I was kidding around with my friend who works there telling him how easy it would be to make this bike look like a tribute to the Kuwaiti soccer team by editing the Italian flag to make it look like a Kuwaiti one. When he heard that he took me to the rear of the bike where it turns out there was something that already looked like a Kuwaiti flag! I found that pretty funny.

Here is another better picture of the bike [Picture]

I am not a big fan of Golf but the Kuwait National Finals 2007 of the Mercedes Trophy Golf Tournament is going to be held tomorrow 23rd March 2007 at the Sahara Golf Club. I might just go for an hour if I don’t have anything better to do. Tee-Off is at 7AM and will end at 3PM. The presentation and prize distribution ceremony will commence at 7PM followed by dinner.

Also if you need more details about Golf in Kuwait you can check an old post of mine [Here]

I had a meeting tonight at the Salmiya Club and when I got there the club soccer team were practicing so I spent some time watching them. It made me really miss playing soccer, the last time I played was during high school. Although I have been living in Salmiya all my life and passed the club from the outside like a million times, I never imagined the club was this huge from the inside. They have the largest soccer field in Kuwait, they also have 2 small ones, 4 outdoor and 1 indoor tennis court, squash courts, a large pool and bunch of other stuff. I was completely flabbergasted (this is officially the biggest word I have used this year), since I had no clue the place was this cool.

Monday I am going back to play some indoor soccer. I also might start going there to play some tennis and squash with Nat. I can’t believe I never bothered to go into the club before..

Here is the club on Google Maps [Link]

Kabab Al Hajat are know in Kuwait for their Kababs but recently they started making shawerma and I was curious to know how well it faired up.

Anyone who has ever been to Kabab Al Hajat and tried ordering food will know that there usually its extremely crowded and wait is long. Thankfully the shawerma station there has its own cashier and so is never full. When I passed by they only had chicken shawerma but the guy told me they were going to add meat also soon. I ordered two chicken and a coke, each shawerma costs 250fils and the coke 100fils.

Firstly it is important to point out I had my shawerma at lunch time. Very very few places serve shawerma during the day for some reason, I can only think of maybe 2 or 3 places max that serve shawerma for lunch so Kabab Al Hajat don’t have much competition while the sun is still out.

How did the shawerma taste? Well the garlic wasn’t strong which I usually mark as a bad thing. This time though I actually appreciated it because I was having shawerma during my lunch break and I didn’t want to get back to the office stinking of garlic. The overall flavor of the shawerma though was average, nothing in it stuck out as being amazing and there was no flavor that tasted weird or out of place. They use small Arabic bread not the hot dog one (samoon).

For the final score I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. Since they serve shawerma for lunch I think thats a great thing and I would pass by again for sure. At night though I would rather drive a bit further and get a shawerma from Badar Al Badoor.

Today on our lunch break me and my friend decided to pass by Marina Waves and try wall climbing and it turned out to be a lot of fun.

After some short instructions we decided to climb the beginners wall first. It looks easy when you see someone climbing but its really not. After some minor struggling we both raced to the top but then we didn’t know how to come back down. We both looked down and it was the scariest sight, we were like hanging from the top and the bottom looked really far. In the end we decided we would climb back down the wall and not try and see if the safety rope worked. Around half way down I decided to let go though and the safety rope did end up bringing me down. Turns out to come down you just rappel down with the rope.

We spent 40 minutes trying to climb different difficulties, I managed to climb two thirds up the medium side while my friend managed to hit the top. Thats as far as we got ranking wise. Other then that the whole thing was a struggle for both of us since we both aren’t very fit, me less fit then him of course. After 40 minutes I couldn’t even make it half way up the easy side yet alone attempt to climb the difficult one.

The whole thing was a lot of fun and I am definitely going back again. It costs KD4 for an hour of climbing, gear included. They open from 12PM to 12AM except for weekends its 10AM to 12PM. I now appreciate the extreme climber a lot more.