Category: Kuwait

Wayne Carini from the Discovery Channel show Chasing Classic Cars was in Kuwait last February for the Concours d’Elegance and since then I’ve been watching every episode hoping to catch the one on Kuwait. Well turns out Kuwait won’t be showing up until this fall according to a source of mine. Once it does get released I’ll link it on the blog but for now here is an interview Wayne did at Marina Crescent when he was in Kuwait. [YouTube]

I know many of you feel we already have too many burger places in Kuwait but I have to obviously disagree with that. I think we still have room for a couple of more burger joints and the couple being Five Guys and In-N-Out. From what I was told by one of my readers, it looks like Five Guys is coming to Kuwait.

According to the reader him and his partner were trying to strike a deal with Five Guys and after getting all the paperwork, doing a feasibility study and agreeing on all the terms, they contacted Five Guys again only to be told that they had given the franchise rights to someone else in Kuwait. The rumor is Al Homaizi got the franchise rights and I’ve already sent an email to my contact there hoping to get a confirmation on this but I still haven’t received a reply yet.

What does that mean? It means all we need now is In-N-Out and we will officially be the burger capital of the world.

Thanks Fahad

Last month I posted about a recently graduated high school student who decided to start a campaign called “Be Aware” to raise awareness on mental health issues. Well they’ve now put together a video for their campaign which you can watch above. [YouTube]

Website: www.beaware-campaign.org
Facebook: facebook.com/BeAware.EndTheStigma

LoYac will be holding their Summer Program Expo tomorrow (Saturday) at 360 Mall. They will be having a bunch of different activities including a performance by DJ Miro from Marina FM, a performance by a Flamenco Band, a singing performance by Eisa Al Marzouq, Poetry, an acoustic guitar performance, break dancing and Nagy Souraty theatrical performance with LoYAC students in addition to booths for the different departments showcasing their work.

Date: Saturday, July 30th 2011
Location: Exhibition Hall, 360 Mall
Time: 4:00pm to 9:00pm

According to the video this happened a few days ago. [YouTube]

I’ve previously posted about old cinemas in Kuwait but I’ve got some more old photos to share, ones that aren’t on the Cinescape Facebook page. The picture above for example is of the Hawalli open air cinema. I can’t imagine sitting on this hard metal chairs for 2 hours and in this heat, not sure how they used to do it before. Below are all the pictures I got:

If you want to see some more old pictures you can check out the ones that are on the Cinescape website [Here]

Thanks Ali

This is a cool site where you type in an airport and you get a birds-eye view of it along with pictures taken at there. The funny thing is when you search for Kuwait you get 4 pictures, 3 of which are of McDonalds. That’s not a good sign. [Link]

I haven’t been to Failaka since the late 80s but looking at these pictures taken by Kenneth I’m thinking I should really pay a visit and maybe even spend the night since the hotel above looks great. [Link]

Multi-talented Kuwaiti artist and musician Fatima Al Qadiri is the producer and vocalist behind Ayshay. I just heard her latest track called WARN-U and although I didn’t like it I do like the remix of it which you can hear at the bottom of the post. From what I heard her music has been gaining a lot of recognition lately in the underground scene in New York but haven’t really heard anything about her locally.

Fuelled by her fascination with the sacred songs of Islam ‘WARN-U’ is a homage and reinterpretation of the sounds that have haunted Al Qadiri since she was a child. Constructed entirely out of her own vocals, which she filtered and layered upon one another ‘WARN-U’ is Al Qadiri’s attempt to reconfigure the concept of ‘sacred’ music as inspiring divine love and divine fear.

She’s always been pretty weird (in a good way) so it’s no surprise really she would come up with something like this. For more information on her upcoming album click [Here]

Ayshay – WARN-U (Nguzunguzu Remix) by TriAngleRecords

Update: You can check out the music video below, looks like it was shot in Kuwait. (Note: turns out it was shot in Qatar)

[YouTube]

There are three buildings I bike past on my way to the gym and it looks like they’re nearly completed but I have no idea what they are. The structure is located right outside the Green Island entrance and they look like they will be turned into restaurants but I couldn’t find any sign or logo hinting to anything. Does anyone know what will be opening there?

The Kuwait National Planetarium is one of those things that not a lot of people know too much about. I personally like the planetarium for two reasons, the first is because it’s located in the Kuwait National Museum which is a must see. Most of the museum is closed because it was never repaired after the Iraqi invasion but even so I love going there and remembering how beautiful it was back in the 80’s. It also looks a bit creepy at night all burnt and abandoned which can also be nice in it’s little weird way. The second reason I like the planetarium is because it’s actually interesting and well taken care of. Since not a lot of people go there the place is in great shape and the tech is pretty up to date since it only got rebuilt around 10 years ago and just recently they installed a new projection system.

They’re open Monday to Saturday with morning and afternoon shows at the following timings:

Morning Shows
9:30 / 10:30 / 11:30 / 12:00

Afternoon Shows
5:00 / 5:45 / 6:30

No morning shows on Friday. Saturday mornings shows are at 9:30 and 10:30 only. Sundays they’re closed. For more information you can call them on 22451195 and 22456534 The entrance is free!

Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Information and photos collected from Mathai and My Travels, My Experiences.

I found out about this app from His&Hers and I think it’s pretty practical. We don’t have a lot of gas stations in Kuwait so they’re a lot harder to find when you really need one. Now the next time you’re hitting empty you just launch the app and look for the closest station to you. The app is called KNPC and it’s available in the App Store for free. [Link]

Thanks His&Hers

If you’re spending your first Ramadan in Kuwait then this seminar by the AWARE Center should be helpful:

Description: During the Holy month of Ramadan, many changes occur in Kuwait. Restaurants will change their working hours as will most workplaces and shopping malls. Traffic patterns also change and one may find their paperwork halted. There are laws and many tips that will help the western expatriate better understand the etiquette and rules associated with this month. Join us for a guideline of how to best experience the month of Ramadan with your Muslim neighbor and colleagues. Dr. Teresa holds her PhD in Information Science from the UK and is now assistant professor at Kuwait’s teachers college. She held the position as manager of the AWARE Center for three years and returns often to host presentations related to Arab and Islamic culture.

Date: July 26th, 2011
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Villa 84, Surra Street, Block 3, Surra Area

For more information you can call them on 25335280

I found out about the website “Kuwait Invasion – The Evidence” and I’m really surprised I didn’t come across it before. The website contains over 1,200 pictures taken right after the 1990 invasion as photographic evidence to all the destruction caused. The pictures are organized into galleries but each page has only 12 thumbnails at a time so you will need to do a lot of page flipping to see them all. In case you’re looking for something specific you could try the search feature on the website but I’m not sure if all the images are tagged properly.

I flipped through 80% of the photos and managed to find a picture of Safeway and Showbiz but I wasn’t able to find any pictures of Kids R Us for some reason. I also saw a lot of pictures, the kind I hadn’t seen before like the one above of a residential door barricaded to keep the Iraqi’s out. Most of the photos feel very eerie and I only wish there was an easier way to view them all. Here is the link to the website [Link]

Photos by Adel Al-Yousifi

TIME Magazine have an article titled “Extreme Heat: 10 Worldwide Spots With Tough Temperatures” and Kuwait was included as the hottest city. That’s not surprising at all considering how everyone has been recording temperatures over 50 degrees.

Here is the [Link]