Category: Kuwait

I went to pick up my cheque from Dent Xpress for the monthly banner and on my way out the owner gave me a black 80GB iPod video as a gift! It was a thank you gift because he got a lot of referrals from my site.

I am so giddy, although I have a black 60GB iPod video (which will now go to my younger brother) the new one is scratch free, has a larger hard-disk and a much better battery life. I think the battery life is the most important thing because watching videos drains a lot of battery.

One thing I found interesting was the back of the iPod was engraved with the Dent Xpress logo and phone numbers. I don’t think he did this on Apple.com because they can’t engrave logos. I need to find out where he got the iPod engraved because I could imagine a lot of people would be interested in customizing their ipods like this.

Anyway thank you Dent Xpress!

Cajie has taken a ton of cool 4 pictures of the Go Karting race which I posted about 2 days ago. Check them out. [Pictures]

update: Here are tons of pictures taken by K.TheKuwaiti

Coming to Bahrain has really depressed me. I have always felt this and I said this the last time when I went to Dubai. Consumers in Kuwait are treated like idiots.

Skyscrapers. In Bahrain they look more like the stuff you would see in Dubai, which is a good thing because they are very modern and futuristic looking. They aren’t rectangular blocks but more like creative spaces. In Kuwait our skyscrapers just look dull. Even places like Water Lemon, Johnny Rockets and Nino’s look wayy cooler in Bahrain. A lot of things seems better designed here.

We also seem to lack luxurious hotels. I briefly visited the Ritz Carlton Hotel here and there really isn’t any hotel in Kuwait I think that could match it when it comes to luxury.

Toys R Us. How is it Bahrain have a huge one and we have a crappy tiny one? How come we don’t have any toy store thats as big as Toys R Us here which by the way isn’t really big compared to the ones in the US and Canada.

I also walked into a tiny bookshop at the Seef Mall. I walked out with 2 books and a magazine. You know when was the last time I bought a book in Kuwait? I think 2 years ago. How come a small tiny bookstore at a local mall had a better quality of magazines and books then Virgin and the bookshop in Muthana combined?

Boring designs, no luxury hotels, small toy stores, and generic books and magazines. It feels like some people in Kuwait think we (the consumers) are not worth the effort. You know why? Because we don’t complain.

If you pass by the Ice Skating ring parking lot in Kuwait City you will notice the huge parking lot has turned into a race track. This Thursday there will be a 25 hour Go Kart race in the parking lot. It will be the third year this race has been held.

My contact at Alghanim Automotive sent me the following email to publish on the blog:

Hey, some news for you and your audience. The new Lumina’s and all new Caprice’s are in Kuwait!! You know how popular with Kuwaitis these cars are. They will be launched in the next couple of weeks all over Kuwait. Not only that, there is a new Epica and the new SUV that just came out, the Captiva. The Captiva will arrive end of December and is a very sexy SUV. I tried the new Lumina and OMG… it’s a freakin’ monster under the hood. The buttons, dials, and inside trim quality is so far above what you’re used. Honestly, it’s German level stuff (and im not talking VW) inside and outside. The time of big, ugly, floaty, gas guzzling American cars is way over. We’re planning to take on Audi A6 with the Caprice.

Here are pictures he attached to the email.
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Yesterday a friend at my office tried buying a ticket online at the Jazeera Airways website. When she hit the final submit button after putting in her credit card details she got a page with an error. So, she redid the process over and over until it finally worked. Once she was done she checked her email and found that she had purchased 5 tickets. It turned out even though she was getting an error the order was still going through. She has been trying to contact Jazeera since yesterday to report what happened but the lines are always busy.

Today so far the same problem has happened with 4 other people I know including k.thekuwaiti. Everyone who is also trying to contact Jazeera is getting a busy tone. Someone was also telling me the line yesterday at the airport for people waiting to buy a ticket was a kilometer long. Thats just crazy.

I just came back from my bank. I went to check and see if Showtime honored my cancellation request and canceled my standing order with the bank but it turns out they haven’t. I no longer have Showtime at home since I canceled my subscription over 2 months ago but they are still taking money from me every month!

The employee at the bank was very helpful because he had gone through the same situation with United Networks which is also owned by Global Direct the same company that owns and runs Showtime. He told me what many people are doing is canceling their credit cards so that Showtime stops billing them but I wouldn’t be able to do that because Showtime take the amount straight from my account and not my credit card. So, the employee gave me some numbers at Showtime to contact but he told me they rarely pick up and to keep trying.

Dealing with Showtime has seriously been the worst experience I have ever had with any company ever! I am really trying to think of a company that treated me worst but can’t think of any at the moment. My advice is to stay away from Showtime and any other company that is run by Global Direct like United Networks and ZakSat.

update: Just got off the phone with someone at Showtime. He was very friendly and helpful. He apologized for the mixup and told me they would refund me the extra months they have taken and make sure they cancel my subscription for sure. Finally!

Auction it TODAY is basically a company that will take care of selling your stuff on eBay. A Kuwait branch was announced awhile back but they just very recently opened up shop. I called them up to get an idea of how their service works and this is what I found out. Just a note, I am not 100% positive about the information below because the person I spoke to wasn’t very clear over the phone. But this basically what I understood from him.

1) You bring your item to them

2) If you don’t have an idea how much your item is worth they will research and find out how much its worth on the market

3) They will take a picture of your item, post it on eBay and take care of shipping the item to the buyer and everything else

4) In return they take a commission fee. If your item sells for under $500, they take 38% commission. If your item sells for more then $500 they take a 30% commission. The commission fee is negotiable if you have a lot of items.

5) If you list your item without a reserve and no one buys it. You pay them only KD2. If you list and item with a reserve price and no one buys it, you pay them KD7.

Auction it TODAY is located in the Free Trade Zone near Movenpick , Building D-14. You can call them on 4613325.

I personally think its a cool service but the commission rate is just absurdly high. Is this normal? I have never used a service like this before so 30% could be the standard rate and I wouldn’t know.

Since the weather is good it might be the perfect time to try the Marina Climb. Its located in the center of Marina Waves and although I have never tried it before it looks like a lot of fun. One hour of climbing will cost you KD4 which isn’t that bad. For more pictures click [Here]

I passed by the Skate Park today while I was on my way to Maki. There was a guy in charge there and I asked him a couple of questions. I found out that it costs KD1.5 per hour to skate, rollerblade or bike in the park. They don’t rent out the gear nor do they have any gear to rent out. What they will provide you with though is the safety equipment like a helmet and elbow and knee guards. For more pictures click [Here]

Mac & More in Marina Mall have the red iPod Nano in stock but they are selling it for KD95 for some reason which is too expensive. Probably because they have a limited quantity, when I checked they had just 2 left.

Taken from the description of the video:

shamlan known as the BEST DANCER in Kuwait , have never bin defeated, Shamlan has bin dancing at the age of 6 , now at the age of 20 he achieved his goal to become the greatest dancer of ALL!!!

Watch Shamlan dance and try not to laugh too hard [Video]

Thanks again RJV for the link.

BONUS: What Shamlan’s friend, K-Lib dance. [Video]

This is a video someone called Youfes did for a school project. The video is about how Kuwaiti teenagers are different and have different interests. My favorite part was “The Geezes”. [Video]

Thanks RJV

I just read in the forum that half a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme costs KD2.750. Can anyone confirm that? I find that ridiculously overpriced if it is.

Update: seem these are the correct prices, but I still need to confirm it myself:
Original Glazed: 350fils for 1 / KD2.100 for 6 / KD3.000 for 12
Assorted Donuts: 400fils for 1 / KD2.400 for 6 / KD3.500 for 12

Awhile back k.thekuwaiti posted that he saw the Amazing Race reality show guys in Kuwait. Well the episode finally aired, its episode 6 of this season Amazing Race. I am currently downloading the episode as I am writing this. ForzaQ8 has a preview of the episode. [Link]