2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

A couple of weeks back a video of tires burning at the tire graveyard went viral. The problem is the video of the fire that went viral was actually from the huge 2012 fire at the tire graveyard. Back then all the tires were piled up together in one large pile (check out the photos here) but after that big fire, they started separating them which you can see in the satellite photo here.

Even after separating them fires continued to break out just not as big. Even the satellite image linked above has a fire in it, thats how often fires were occurring.

But recently, after a fire broke out back in April, the EPA decided to start moving the tires to a new location and piling them into smaller piles with a much larger distance in between to try and prevent any chance of a large fire breaking out.

A follower shared a link to the @trtworld account which recently shared photos of this new graveyard and I thought the pictures looked great which is why I’m sharing them here. This is currently a temporary solution until more recycling centers are built or the tires exported. For a few more photos, check out the trtworld post here.

Thanks Nidal and Syed

Originally opened in 1983, the Kuwait National Museum was badly damaged during the 1990 invasion and had remained mostly closed since. There were plans to demolish the museum and build a new one but thankfully in 2014, they decided to refurbish and fix up the existing buildings which I think was a great idea. If only the same was done to the ice skating rink or Sawaber.

The picture above was taken by @111.street. Here are some interesting links related to the museum:

History of the Kuwait National Museum
Inside the Kuwait National Museum
The Kuwait Heritage Museum
Preopening Video – 1983

A couple of months back the Grand Mosque tours were reactivated again and this time they have a new permanent calligraphy exhibition featuring work by calligraphers from all over the world.

The tours are available by booking only for Saturdays at 10AM while walk-in tours are available on weekdays from 9AM to 11AM and then again 4PM to 6PM. UPDATED CHECK BELOW

In addition to regular Covid health instructions, there is also a dress code: no sleeveless shirts nor short shorts for men, and full-length cloaks and headscarves for women. If you’d like to book a tour you can contact Jenan on 22342367 or just head there during the middle of the week for the walk-in tours.

Here is the location on Google Maps.

Update: Saturday tours no longer require pre-booking, walk-in tours are now available on Saturdays as well.

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Alone (6.2)
Candyman (6.2)
Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman (6.6)
The Night House (7.0)
The Protege (6.6)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Quiet Place Part II (7.3)
Black Widow (6.8)
Cruella (7.4)
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (6.1)
F9: The Fast Saga (5.2)
Free Guy (7.7)
Meander (5.8)
Reminiscence (7.4)
Rogue Hostage (3.1)
Snake Eyes (5.7)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (4.4)
The Green Knight (7.4)
The Suicide Squad (7.5)

Classic Movie Showing Now:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (8.8)

The films below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Antartica (N/A)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (7.7)
Turtle Odyssey (7.2)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

A beautiful photo taken by Jules Pearson which I had to share.

A few weeks ago I decided to finally upgrade my toolbox with a proper set of tools. Over the years I’ve been buying tools as I needed them and that has resulted in a bag full of random brands, missing pieces, and duplicate items. Since I use my tools a lot because of my cars, I decided to reboot my toolbox and put together a nice set of some great brands and great tools.

There are two very popular hardware stores in Kuwait, Ace Hardware and Bin Nisf, but there are a ton of other smaller or more specialized stores in Kuwait which is mainly why I wanted to put this list together. There isn’t one store that carries everything so if you want to build a kit with the best of different brands you’re going to have to visit different locations. Below is a list of my favorite places that carry some great brands, most of them are only available in the stores they’re listed under. I’ll only be listing the brands I think are worth mentioning, for example, Bin Nisf carries a lot of brands but not many quality ones. Also, some brands like Bosch, Dewalt, Stanley, Makita, etc are sold in all hardware stores so I haven’t mentioned those as well. Check out the places below:

A friend of mine put this list together on Twitter of the various trends we’ve gone through over the years and I thought it was so on point!

2010: Year of the Cupcake
2011: Year of the Froyo
2012: Year of the Gelato
2013: Year of the Karak
2014: Year of the Pistachio
2015: Year of the Pudding
2016: Year of the Chicken Burger
2017: Year of the Lotus
2018: Year of the Coffee
2019: Year of the Healthy Diet Boxes
2020: Year of the Shawarma
2021: Year of the Matcha

The only thing missing is the San Sebastian cheesecake phase we went through back in 2018.

via @_M87

Books for Cancer is an online-based used bookshop run by girls where all the proceeds go to Al-Sidra foundation to help support cancer patients psychologically and financially. They carry mostly English books but also some Arabic ones and they sell both children’s books and adult books.

For more info check out their instagram account @booksforcancerkw or check out all the books on their website booksforcancerkw.com

Thanks Fahed

Last month I posted about a restaurant in Avenues that accept cryptocurrency as payment and now there are two more shops that accept crypto.

Outwest: The local lifestyle shop now accepts Bitcoin as payment

VI BY VOGULARITY: The local fashion label now accepts Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum as payment

Better Books: They have over 10,000 books including some really old ones and they accept Bitcoin as payment.

If you know of any other local shops that accept crypto let me know in the comments.

Negochi is already known for being the largest hunting store in Kuwait but over the years they have slowly been growing their collection of knives with the aim of becoming the largest knife retailer in the region. Their store in Dajeej has two floors with knives on display and it’s going to get even bigger once their new shipment arrives in the coming weeks.

They carry a ton of knife brands including:
Boker
BYRD
Cold Steel
CRKT
Fox
Hazen
KA-Bar
M Tech
Schrade
Smith & Wesson
SOG
Spyderco
TAC-Force
Timberline
USMC
Volcan
Z Hunter

They have hundreds and hundreds of knives on display and you really need to see it to believe it. Their top floor which is dedicated to just knives feels like a museum. If you’re interested in knives you probably already know about Negochi but if you’re looking for an interesting cool place to pass by and check out, here is their location on Google Maps. They’re also on instagram @negotchi.knives

Yesterday the popular restaurant STREET posted that they’ll sadly be closing down their Kuwait City location:

Guess it’s time to say goodbye. As much as it’s hard to look back at the beautiful 7 years in our first home, every chapter comes to an end. Every single one of you lived these beautiful years in our Kuwait City location and has great memories as much as we do. But It’s time to move on… Every young kid eventually grows up. We love & appreciate every one of you all, and for the endless support!! ❤️ ❤️ ⁣⁣⁣
On to the next!!!

I hadn’t been there since before the pandemic but used to really like the place. They’re closing at the end of the month so you’ve still got a bit of time to pass by and have one last meal there. @st_almakan

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Meander (5.8)
Reminiscence (7.4)
Respect (7.0)
The Green Knight (7.4)

Other Movies Showing Now:
A Quiet Place Part II (7.3)
Anything for Jackson (6.3)
Black Widow (6.8)
Cruella (7.4)
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (6.1)
F9: The Fast Saga (5.2)
Free Guy (7.7)
Hard Kill (3.3)
Rogue Hostage (3.1)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (4.4)
Snake Eyes (5.7)
The Suicide Squad (7.5)

Classic Movie Showing Now:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (8.8)

The films below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Antartica (N/A)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (7.7)
Turtle Odyssey (7.2)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

I noticed recently on Twitter a lot of people complaining about Aramex. I thought I was the only one having problems with them recently but it looks like it’s everyone. Yes, I’m aware a lot of you don’t like them and prefer using other services, but from my experience, they offer the best bang for the buck. You also get what you pay for, so very affordable shipping but also fairly slow shipping which is why I don’t have an issue with their speed.

Recently things have been a disaster though. Not sure if it’s because of lack of staff or what exactly but not only are packages being delivered much slower than usual which I’m fine with, the mistakes they’re making is what I have an issue with. For example, I had one package go out for delivery only for the driver to say I rejected the package which I didn’t. It then took 2 weeks, 6 to 7 phone calls, 3 complaint tickets, and contacting their social media team twice just to get the package redelivered again.

This brings me to my post. Which company has the worst or best customer service in Kuwait? Everyone makes mistakes, that’s fine but good or bad service for me is based on how you go about trying to solve the mistake.

Worst: Aramex (Shop&Ship)
Like I said, it isn’t because they’re slow, it’s because they’re just terrible at solving problems when they do happen.

Best: Babel
This was difficult to choose because of the lack of options, but in the end I decided to pick Babel. I order delivery from them and their customer service is great. They always call to make sure the food arrived or call the next day to make sure if everything was ok. But really the reason I chose them is because of the one time I had an issue with my order, they went beyond what was required to make me happy even though I wasn’t even upset. They forgot to put the tabbouleh dressing with my order so I called them to let them know just as an FYI. They were very apologetic and insisted on resending the whole order again and even included dessert to make up for it even though I tried to tell them not to. Been a big fan ever since.

I’m curious to know what everyone’s Worst and Best is. Based on social media I’d assume it’s going to be either Aramex, Xcite or one of the telecoms.

Update: I was right! Looks like the majority of readers rank Aramex Shop & Ship, Xcite and Ooredoo as the worst followed closely by Talabat. When it comes to best customer service it looks to be Deliveroo which I also agree with.

China Great Wall is my go-to hole in the wall for hot pot. Hot pot if you don’t know is a way of cooking at your table using a boiling pot of soup stock that you throw your raw ingredients into. You can order the pot in different flavors like spicy or none spicy or order a two-way pot which is a pot split in half and containing two different flavors of stock. You then have two pages worth of items you can order to cook ranging from different proteins like beef or lamb, to veggies like mushrooms and greens. It’s a lot of fun and the hot pot at China Great Wall is pretty good.

The price is also great costing just 2.5KD for a single flavored pot or 3.5KD if you want a two-way. In addition to the pot you then pay per ingredient, so a dish of raw beef for example is 2.250KD, pakchoi is 1KD, morning glory 750fils etc.. The place is fairly small with just 5 tables so it tends to get busy really quickly.

If you’re interested in trying China Great Wall, their instagram is @chinagreatwallrestaurant and here is their location on Google Maps.

The popular Australian skincare brand Aesop is now available in Kuwait at Bloomingdales. For some reason, up until now the only way to get Aesop products was to order it from the UK or US even though Bloomingdales in Dubai carried the brand.

The only downside is the products aren’t available at the Bloomingdale location in 360 Mall yet, only on their local website. But the items are in Kuwait I believe since they offer same-day delivery on them and delivery is for free. The prices of the products all seem to be standard Aesop retail pricing as well. To see all the available Aesop products available to order in Kuwait, click here.