Category: Travel

Back in 2019 I bought my first RIMOWA bag, a medium-sized check-in Original which is part of their aluminum series. Since then I’ve fallen more in love with the brand and ended up purchasing two more, a cabin version of the bag and a large check-in.

I bought the large bag recently, back in October when I was in Europe. I ended up shopping a lot more than I expected and so couldn’t fit all my stuff in my medium-sized bag and so decided to buy the large one to match my other two. I used the bag once on that trip to fly back to Kuwait, and then I used it again when I went to Istanbul last month.

When I got to Istanbul I removed the sticky luggage tag from the handle and noticed the paint peeled off the handle. I don’t mind my bag getting dented and scratched up, it’s part of the reason I got a metal suitcase to begin with, but paint peeling off the plastic handle just looked bad. It was also weird because it didn’t happen with my other two bags which I’ve owned for longer and traveled with a lot more. I figured it must be a production issue so once I got back to Kuwait I shot off an email to customer support on the main RIMOWA website to get the problem sorted under warranty.

In less than 24 hours I got a response back from RIMOWA asking for my bag’s serial number as well as asking me some questions and if I could share a photo. Then the next day I got a phone call from the RIMOWA dealer in Kuwait who were super nice and asked me to drop off the bag whenever I was free to their store in Avenues. When I did drop the bag off they even offered to fix the dents on my bag which I told them to not to. A day or two later I got a call back telling me the bag was ready to pick up, they had replaced the handle with a new one.

It was super easy, probably the easiest warranty fix experience I’ve ever had with any brand which is why I wanted to write about it. After living with the RIMOWA bags for a few years now, and after having dealt with the local dealer, I can’t recommend the brand enough. No competition, they’re the best travel luggage you can get.

I’ve been wanting to drive to Bahrain for years now but never actually did because I needed to get a Saudi visa which was a hassle to get a few years ago. Not anymore though which is why I ended up driving to Bahrain for the first time a couple of days back. I had some work to do in Khobar so I decided I’d try driving there. Firstly, just to point out one thing, if you’re Kuwaiti or a GCC citizen the process is obviously much simpler and has always been easy since you don’t require a visa for Saudi or Bahrain. For expats on the other hand, there are a couple of extra steps that we need to take but with the new tourist-friendly Saudi Arabia, the process is super easy.

Here is everything you need to know in case you want to do the same.

Getting a Saudi Visa
So the first step if you’re an expat is getting a Saudi visa. I’ve got the Canadian passport so the process was very easy for me. I just visited the Saudi eVisa website and applied by uploading my photo and filling out a few details in a form. I applied on Saturday at 9:35PM and got my visa approved and issued by 9:38PM. Yeah, it’s super fast. My visa is valid for 1 year with multiple entry and the cost for it was 534.98 SAR including insurance (around 43KD).

Get Cash!
This is very important, before heading on your trip make sure you get Saudi Riyal. All the fuel stations I stopped at in Saudi did not accept our debit or credit cards. They will only accept cash. A friend told me to take cash with me and this was the best tip I got.

Driving to the Kuwait – Saudi Borders
I left my place (Salmiya) around 7:45AM on Monday and headed to the Saudi border down south (Nuwaisib Port). I filled up fuel at the gas station next to my house on the 4th Ring Road and then drove straight down there which took around 1 hour. My recommendation is to fill up gas one more time before the borders since the first fuel station I found after the borders was an hour drive later.

The Kuwaiti – Saudi Borders
When I arrived at the Kuwait border control it was empty with just a couple of other cars that were also heading to Saudi. You’ll find various booths and you just drive up to the one that’s available. He needed my passport, civil ID and car registration. The car is in my name, if the car isn’t in your name you probably need to get a power of attorney (tawkeel) or something (I’m not sure). In any case, there was no issue going through Kuwait border control, but I did have an extra step I needed to take once I got to the Saudi border control.

When I got to the passport control booths at the Saudi side of the border, the guy asked me for my visa so I gave him a printout of my e-visa. He then told me I needed to turn around and head to a building at the corner of the lot so I did. It was a small building that had 4 passport counters. It was just me and a few truckers so it was empty and the truckers looked like they were waiting for someone. They punched some data on the computer, took my photo, scanned my fingerprints, and then stamped my passport and wrote down a code in my passport. That code (I’m guessing my visa number) is what they then used for the rest of the trip when punching my data at the Saudi side of the border control. So I think I need to do this process whenever I get a new visa, so like once a year.

Once I got my passport stamped, I got back into my car and headed to the first booth again. I gave the guy my passport and he let me through. Customs was next (they just look in your car) and then I had to go through the car insurance booth before leaving the borders. You need to insure your car and I ended up paying 128 SAR (10KD) to do so.

Saudi Borders to Khobar
It was a semi-cloudy/gloomy day when I did the drive and it was very chill with just a few cars on the road. The journey from the Saudi borders to Khobar is around 3 hours and it flew by quickly. The highway was mostly new, there was some construction work taking place so I got to strips where the highway suddenly became one lane but it was mostly ok. I didn’t fill up fuel before the borders and the first bunch of fuel stations I did come across in Saudi were all closed and out of business. Around 1-1:30 hours after the border, I spotted a McDonald’s sign in the distance and that was the first fuel station that I came across that was open. My fuel gauge was at the halfway point by then so I filled the car up and paid in cash since they didn’t take cards. There is a good convenience store there, a 24/7 Mcdonald’s and there are bathrooms. So a good point to stop.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and a couple of hours later arrived at Khobar. There are lots of speed cameras on the way and they look different than ours. They’re beige-colored metal boxes on the left of the highway so keep an eye out for them. I got caught by one on my way to the Kuwait border but it still hasn’t shown up on the system. I heard the tickets are expensive so not looking forward to finding out how much I have to pay.

Khobar to Bahrain
I really didn’t have any solid plans just to be clear. I wasn’t sure if after I was done in Khobar I would drive back to Kuwait the same day, or if I’d sleep in Khobar for the night or go to Bahrain. I just got a small bag with a change of clothes with me and figured I’d wing it. Once I was done with my work in Khobar, and after exploring it for a bit I realized I didn’t want to spend the night there. So I decided I’d make my way to Bahrain. I didn’t have a visa since I usually get one on arrival, so wasn’t sure if the process would be the same or not if I drove into Bahrain. It was.

The Saudi – Bahrain Borders
This was a very interesting and impressive experience. So you probably know that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are connected together by a bridge. It’s similar to our Sheikh Jaber Causway except much shorter. There is a toll booth at the start of the bridge which I paid 25 SAR (2 KD) to get on. Once you get on the bridge you drive for a short distance, maybe like 5 or 10 minutes before arriving to a small island that houses the Saudi and Bahrain border control as well as some tourist attractions. The border control here were super professional and it was very very efficient. Lots of lanes, booths and experienced employees. They get a lot of traffic going through here and they’re set up to process it very quickly.

I got my visa with no issues, didn’t have to leave my car or anything. The cost of the visa was 5BHD (4KD) and I paid for it by card. After that I needed to once again insure my car before crossing into Bahrain, the cost of that was 26BHD (21KD) 2.6BHD (2.1KD). This border experience was super easy and really impressive.

And that was it, the process of going from Khobar to Bahrain took around 20-30 minutes and that included the journey on the bridge and the whole border control experience.

The Drive Back – Bahrain to Kuwait
The next morning I left my hotel at around 7AM for the trip back to Kuwait. There were no issues along the way, it’s the same process as above just backward and I ended up at my office in the City by 12PM. I think Google sent me on a different road back to Kuwait but not really sure. There were also plenty of fuel stations on the way back but I always try and fill up before my fuel tank reaches the half way point.

The only thing worth pointing out happened once I got back to the Kuwait border control. When I got to the passport control booth the guy told me I needed to go to the passport control building instead. So I parked my car and went into the building but when I gave my passport to the guy and he punched my civil ID into the system he’s like why were you sent to me? I just shrugged my shoulder and told him no idea, he stamped my passport and gave it back to me and I was done. I don’t think they get a lot of expats through the Kuwait Saudi border so depending on the employee you get at the time you pass, your experience will vary. I then had to go through customs and the guy went through my car, looking through all my bags, asking me what the cat food I had in a container was, looked in my car compartments, etc.. I think he was either looking for alcohol or drugs or both. The cars ahead of me didn’t go through the same search, maybe I just looked dodgy.

But that was it, I then crossed the borders and was back in Kuwait.

The whole process was super simple and I’m definitely going to drive to Saudi and Bahrain more often. I love driving and this was a pretty chill ride. If you can travel in an SUV that would be optimal but a regular sedan will do just fine as well. One thing I’m not sure of is if women can enter Saudi easily or if guys and girls can be in the same car and not be related or married etc. I’m assuming it’s fine now that Saudi is super chill, but maybe if someone can confirm this in the comments. Also if you have any questions about the trip, let me know!

Correction: I originally stated the car insurance to enter Bahrain was 26BHD when in fact it was 2.6BHD.

Update: Added a snippet in the post regarding the speed cameras in Saudi

Over the holidays I went to Istanbul for vacation, my first time there since a university trip 22 years ago so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. There were two things I kept hearing about Istanbul or Turkey in general which is the food isn’t great, and people aren’t very friendly. Well, no idea what people are talking about because the food was great and I found everyone incredibly friendly (except for people in cars who seem to just want to run over everyone).

The trip was semi-spontaneous, originally the plan was to go to London but by the time I decided to book my ticket the prices had shot up a lot and it just wasn’t worth it anymore. I looked at other destinations that I could fly direct to and decided to head to Istanbul. I did some quick research on hotels and right away booked at Soho House, there really was no doubt about the choice and after staying there I’m glad I did because everything about the hotel was great. I booked their “small” room which really didn’t turn out to be that small and was really nice looking. The staff were great and the hotel turned out to be located in a great spot and less than a 5-minute walk to a subway station. Because I was staying at the hotel I also got access to the members-only Soho House Club next door. The club has two bars, one on the ground floor and one on the top floor as well as a restaurant and tons of cozy seating areas. It’s a very nice space where I ended up every night just chilling on my phone while having a drink.

Traveling around Istanbul was hit and miss. If I could take the metro to wherever I’m going then it was a hit. If I needed to take a cab then it was a miss. Uber is terrible in Istanbul and mostly because drivers kept canceling trips or messaging me after I booked asking me where I wanted to go. If the trip wasn’t in the direction they were heading they didn’t want to take it. That was the case the whole trip, drivers didn’t want to take any trip that would get them stuck in traffic or take a trip that wasn’t in the direction they were going. Their subway system on the other hand was great, very fast, very efficient, and pretty new. It’s what I used to get to most places and it’s how I avoided the terrible Istanbul traffic. The only issue I found was that their ticket machines didn’t accept credit cards so I always had to keep cash on hand which I hated.

The city itself is really beautiful, I was worried that a week would be too long of a time to spend in Istanbul and eventually I’d get bored, but it was actually the opposite. There was so much to do and see I didn’t even get through my full list of things to do, nor did I get the chance to hit up most of the museums on my list or even restaurants. I tried as much as possible to stay off the beaten path and it was fairly easy to do with so many nice areas and lots of great shops. If you want a fancy area they have it, if you want a ghetto area they have it, if you want a hipster area they have it, there is so much variety it kept me entertained till the very end to the point I’m now thinking of going back just to finish going through my list. One thing to note is that Istanbul is fairly hilly and you’re never really walking on a flat path, you’re always either walking downhill or climbing some super steep hill. It was exhausting exploring the city on foot, but because the weather was cold, it was very manageable. In the summer I’m not really sure it’s something you’d want to do unless you don’t mind sweating a lot. When it came to food I tried as much as possible to stick to Turkish food and that worked out really well. Lots of kebab, lots of tea, and lots of desserts.

I think my favorite part of the trip though was how affordable the whole experience was. It took me a couple of days to adjust to the price because I kept thinking I was miscalculating because everything was coming out really cheap. Most of the places I ate at the bill was around 10KD for two. My favorite breakfast spot was around 6KD for two and that was with a lot of food. Even the hotel which is one of the best cost me around 80KD a night. It won’t cost you a lot to have a great time in Istanbul.

Even their airport was one of the nicest I’ve been to. Their main airport opened up just a few years ago and so is really new and it shows. It also had lots of restaurants, a huge duty-free area so you can easily kill a couple of hours before your flight.

Anyway, I’ve temporarily set up a highlight for my Istanbul trip on my Instagram (@mark248am) if you want to check it out. But, I’m also sharing my shops and food list on Google Maps in case you want to use it on your trip.

Exploring Istanbul
Eating in Istanbul

I’m at the airport now waiting to board my flight to Istanbul so I wanted to post a quick update regarding flying out with the new rules that came into effect two days ago.

I’m flying Jazeera Airways and at the airport, most people are wearing masks. That hasn’t changed since the mask guidelines are still in place. What did change is that I wasn’t asked for my PCR test at any point. Turkey doesn’t require a PCR test for entry and you aren’t required a PCR test to leave Kuwait nor Jazeera require one to fly with them. Instead, they just checked to see my vaccine status. Some airlines and countries do require you to get a PCR test so just because Kuwait no longer requires one doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get one.

The only issue I did have actually today is with Jazeera themselves. For those of you traveling with them this holiday, you should be aware that they don’t have a long parking solution and their park & fly is not active. I asked their Instagram account about long-term parking and was told that park & fly was active and I should park on the 3rd or 4th floor of their parking lot. But when I got to the airport I started asking around if there was anything I needed to do other than just park my car on the 3rd floor and no employee had any information. In the end, after talking to a supervisor, I found out the service wasn’t active yet and if I had left my car in their parking lot I would have been surprised by an 80KD fee on my return (it’s 9.5KD a day). I had to take my car out of their parking and move it to the long-term parking lot in the regular airport terminal and walk back to Jazeera.

The second issue is the fact there is nowhere to sit inside the Jazeera terminal once past passport control. The terminal is tiny and there are more passengers than seats available so there is major overcrowding. People are just standing around, leaning on pillars, or roaming around. So that’s something to be aware of as well.

If anybody has any questions just let me know in the comments.

Finally! Yesterday the government announced that if you’re fully vaccinated you no longer need to get a PCR test when coming back into Kuwait from travel. I’m flying out to Istanbul next where they also don’t require a PCR test on arrival so this is very cool news. It’s going to feel like normal travel pre-covid except for the masks!

Every year an updated ranking of all the world’s passports is released based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Previously I used to use the Passport Index for the rankings but their website is a bit of a mess with mismatched data on different pages which makes it difficult to know what’s right and wrong. So starting from this 2022 edition, I’ll be using The Henley Passport Index instead which is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports. Henley’s compares 199 passports and 227 travel destinations for their list and here is how Kuwait’s passport ranks compared to some other countries:

1 – Japan
6 – United States / United Kingdom
7 – Canada
15 – United Arab Emirates
53 – Qatar
54 – Kuwait
62 – Bahrain
65 – Saudi Arabia
84 – India
91 – Egypt
102 – Lebanon

The Kuwaiti passport allows you to travel to 95 destinations without a prior visa. To check out the full rankings and to see what countries your passport allows you to travel to without a prior visa, click here.

I was at the Kuwait Airways terminal a few days ago and I spotted a robot called Airporter that is there to help carry your luggage. I couldn’t use the robot because when I touched the screen to wake it up, the robot had a message on it saying it only worked from 9:30AM to 12:30PM. But I did find a video on Youtube of a similar robot which you can watch in action below.

There were instructions on how to operate the robot which you can see here but simply put, you let the robot scan your boarding pass, put your carry-on bags onto it and press go. The robot then follows you to your gate.

There was only 1 robot that I saw so definitely just there for show and fun.

To get a sense of scale on how huge this new T2 airport terminal is going to be, if you look carefully you’ll spot people standing in the middle of this photo. For a lot more photos of the new terminal, click here.

Thanks AK

I got back to Kuwait late last night and wanted to share some info on what you need or don’t need to do when flying back. The information I found online was either outdated or not accurate so here is what I went through:

Check-in
When checking in to my flight in Amsterdam the Dutch staff had notes on what to ask for and they asked me the following questions:
– If I had a negative PCR test and I needed to share with them my result
– If I had a vaccination and I needed to show them my Immune app
– If I had shlonik installed

PCR Test
Before flying back into Kuwait you need to get a PCR test done. This was something I already knew but what gave me anxiety is some people said I needed a PCR result that had a QR code. The test I took in Amsterdam didn’t provide a QR code with the result so I was worried it wouldn’t be accepted. This turned out not to be true, when checking in at the airport the employee just asked if I had done a PCR test and then checked my result on my phone (a PDF file) and that was it. No QR code was required on my result and nobody in Kuwait checked my test once I landed.

One thing to note is to make sure you don’t leave your PCR test for the last minute. I thought getting one would be easier in Amsterdam than Kuwait and so left it till the last minute. That turned out not to be the case. There were limited places that did the test with the result taking up to 24 hours to come out. Also, it was much more expensive to get one done there.

Kuwait Mosafer
Nobody asked me about Kuwait Mosafer. Supposedly you are meant to sign up to kuwaitmosafer.gov.kw before arriving but nobody checked for it or asked me about it.

Shlonik App
Once you land in Kuwait you’ll find posters saying you should install the Shlonik app. The reason for this is you’re automatically placed in quarantine once you arrive and if you have the app installed you’ll get a notification about it. You’re meant to quarantine for 6 days unless you get a negative PCR test so on my way home I just dropped by the 24-hour Jarralah drive-thru PCR test location in Hawally (Map) and got my test done. I had the test at 2AM and by 5:30AM the result was out and the app automatically removed me from quarnatine.

It was overall a pretty simple process which means traveling for a quick weekend like the old days should be very doable. I also liked flying with Kuwait Airways because of the fact they were very lenient in regards to wearing masks on the flight. Even on arrival at the airport nobody cared if you wore a mask or not which was great since we’re all vaccinated anyway.

If anyone has any questions regarding flying in or out of Kuwait, let me know in the comments.

I’ve been to Netherlands, Belgium, and France so far on this trip and Covid precautions have been fairly different in those three places, even though they’re right next to each other.

Netherlands (Amsterdam)
As soon as I left the airport I no longer came across a place that required masks other than the Apple Store. The Apple Store handed out masks at the entrance and required you to sanitize your hands as well but everywhere else it was mask-free. Restaurants did require you to be vaccinated and I just showed them my Immune app status.

Belgium (Bruges)
No masks were required anywhere and none of the restaurants I ate at asked me for my vaccine status.

France (Normandy)
I’m spending a couple of days in some coastal towns in the North and the situation here has been very similar to Kuwait. You need to wear a mask when indoors and restaurants require you to be vaccinated. For restaurants, the Immune app can be used with no issues.

When driving across borders I did not require a PCR test and there was no border patrol anyway to check. I honestly couldn’t even tell I entered a new country, not unless I used Google Maps to check.

So far this normal life no mask thing has been really cool and weird especially when we’ve been required to wear them in Kuwait for over a year now.

Yesterday I finally left Kuwait for a vacation, my first trip since the pandemic started and the experience turned out to be much more simpler than I had anticipated.

I chose to fly Kuwait Airways to Amsterdam. I’ll be staying here for a couple of nights before I start making my way down to Paris over the next few days driving through Bruges (Brussels on the way back), then hitting up some spots in the North of France before heading down to Paris. When planning the trip I looked at direct flights, I didn’t want to deal with hubs and changing planes so my options were really limited. But, picking Kuwait Airways turned out to be the best idea.

The airport in Kuwait was fairly busy but lots of empty spots in the long term parking. A lot of people including security officers weren’t wearing masks so the atmosphere was fairly laid back. On the plane we also didn’t have to wear masks which was great. I did two PCR tests before I traveled. I did the first one and then realized for Amsterdam I needed a test taken 48 hours before the trip and mine would have expired by the time I landed so I took another one to be safe. Nobody even checked them, not in Kuwait nor in Amsterdam.

In Amsterdam nobody is even wearing masks, it feels so weird, feels like everything is normal again and I’m loving it. Places are super busy, restaurants packed and nobody has a mask on except for a the odd tourist here and there, I love it. The only two places so far that have checked to see if I’m vaccinated or not was passport control at the airport, and a restaurant I had dinner at last night. For both I just showed them my immune app.

I’ll be posting about my trip while I’m here, I haven’t done that sort of posting in forever so I’m looking forward to it. If anyone has any questions about the process of flying out of Kuwait, let me know in the comments.

This is the latest footage shared by the Ministry of Public Works showing the progress on the construction of the new Kuwait Airport terminal (T2). It looks like there is still a lot of work to do but, construction of the new terminal is currently on track to be completed by next summer, August 2022.

One of our company employees has been stuck in the US for months due to the restriction on expats coming into Kuwait and while there she got her vaccination. When the airports reopened she uploaded her vaccination paperwork to the MOH website to be validated but it still hasn’t gotten approved even though it’s been nearly a month.

She ended up missing her flight back to Kuwait so instead, she applied for a Saudi visa online since we have an office there, and in contrast, it took just 3 minutes to get her vaccination validated and visa issued!

Based on the responses under my previous post, I know a lot of you are still waiting for your vaccinations to get approved, but for those of you who already got it approved, how long did you have to wait??

The video above is the most detailed tour of the new airport Terminal 2 so far. It was shot earlier this month and the engineer in the video takes us through all the different important areas of the airport showing the current status. According to the video the terminal is meant to be completed in August 2022 which I find hard to believe based on the progress shown. But, they do mention that although the airport construction is going at full force, due to covid some of their suppliers aren’t working at 100% and so that might end up causing delays.

In any case, right now I miss traveling so much that I don’t mind our old airport, so they can take their time with T2 as long as we get to fly out again soon from any of our airports. To stay posted on the progress of the airport you can follow @t2.engineers on instagram.

Thanks LovelyKuwait

This list has never been as unimportant as it is now considering it doesn’t really matter what passport you have at the moment (well, unless you want the vaccine) because we’re all stuck here and can’t travel anywhere. But I wanted to share this years ranking since Kuwait has moved up the list of most powerful passports coming in 28th place up from 36th last year. Kuwaitis can now visit 44 countries (10 more from last year) without requiring a visa and they can also get visa on arrival in 39 other countries. Here are some countries with their rankings:

1 – Germany
4 – United Kingdom
12 – UAE
15 – Canada
16 – United States
26 – Qatar
28 – Kuwait
36 – Bahrain
41 – Saudi Arabia
42 – Oman
58 – India
62 – Egypt
67 – Lebanon
76 – Afghanistan

Want to see how your passport compares? Check out the full list here.