2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

At the start of the curfew, one of the things I did was sign up to Discovery+. Since I watch so much TV I had pretty much already gone through all the content I wanted to watch on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, Disney and AppleTV+. Desperately needing new content to watch I found out about Discovery+ which at just $4.99 a month (with ads) seemed like a good deal. Two weeks in and I love it!

Discovery+ is the perfect background TV content with tons of great shows (the above is my list). The subscription gives you access to content from A&E, History Channel, Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, TLC, and more. If you’re a fan of House Hunters like me then you get access to all variations of the show in addition to a House Hunters channel that is live and just plays one episode of House Hunters after another… indefinitely. Thanks to Discovery+ I now know living on an island or in the Alaskan wilderness is not for me.

If you want to access Discovery+ you need to use a VPN or what I recommend, a SmartDNS service. I also purchased the subscription through the US Apple Store so no US credit card needed. If you want to sign up start off with the $4.99 membership and if you like the service and want an ad-free experience, you can then upgrade (it’s $6.99 a month). That’s what I did and I think it’s worth it.

Around a week before they closed restaurants in Kuwait for dine-in, 360 Mall opened up their foodhall. A foodhall is similar to a food court except instead of fast-food restaurants they’re more upscale or artisan. I passed by to check the space out and I thought it looked great with a good variety of places to eat at including some brand new places.

Even with dine-in closed it’s still worth passing by it and picking up food to go. The new foodhall is located at the end of the new 360 Mall extension near Ikea and Nike.

Here is a list of all the places open inside the new foodhall, hopefully I didn’t miss anything:

Alto
Apizza
Bakehaus
Bao
Chotto
Doh!
Elate Tea
GoFresh
Junas
La Maison Du Fromage
Nabat
Natureland
November Co
Off The Menu
Prime Cuts
Raha Stone Mill
Soucolat
Taboonat
Twarrad
Texture
Vol 1
Wachamean
Woop!

I’ve previously mentioned a place in the city where they still develop film but 35mm.kw has compiled a list of other studios around Kuwait where you can develop film. I’ve copy-pasted his list below but check out his website if you want to know their prices:

Shamia Studio
Location: Shamia co-op Shamia Mall (Google Maps)
Contact: 96644934
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Yes
Print: Yes

Ashkanani Studio
Location: Rumaithiya Co-op, outside shops (Google Maps)
Contact: 55654050
Film development: 35mm format only
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Yes
Scan Slides: Yes
Print: Yes

Iris Studio
Location: Salmiya, Easa Al-Qatami Street (Google Maps)
Contact: 67647879 – 66990058
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Yes
Print: Yes

Ghadeer Studio
Location: Qurtoba Co-op, Qurtoba mall (Google Maps)
Contact : 25319648
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: No
Print: Yes

Kashmir Studio
Location: Kuwait City just before Al-Shamlan Mosque (Google Maps)
Contact: 97896914
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Unknown
Print: Yes

The luxury hotel Waldorf Astoria is expected to open towards the end of the year at The Avenues and over the weekend they announced that one of the restaurants that will be opening in the hotel is Roka. Roka is a Japanese restaurant centered around a robata grill and was created by the same restaurant group behind Zuma (a very popular Japanese restaurant).

There is no mention in the press release of where in the hotel it is opening but me and a friend were discussing it and we think it would probably the location overlooking the pool which I’ve highlighted in the photo above.

If Roka does well (which I’m assuming it will do), then I wouldn’t be surprised if Zuma eventually opens in Kuwait as well.

Yesterday a friend of mine had her dog stolen in Messila. Her nanny was walking the dog around 8AM and two men in a white Honda Civic with a broken front bumper stopped and snatched her dog before speeding away. According to the nanny, there was another dog in the car, a pug and there were two guys. What’s scary is the fact that two weeks ago, the same white car with 2 guys and a girl stole another dog in Jabriya.

I think thieves are going after dogs since cops don’t seem to care and the dog owners tend to offer rewards but dogs are also pretty easy to sell at the moment. I had a friend whose dog got stolen a few weeks ago, through the help of social media he was able to find the person who had his dog. My friend then went to the police station for their help to get the dog back and they laughed him out of the station (He wasn’t an expat). In the end, he had to go confront the thief himself to get his dog back.

If you have a dog, be extra vigilant for the time being. Maybe get them a collar with a GPS device or at least have your contact info on their collar.

I thought it was just me but I’ve been made aware that a lot of other people are facing the same issue. During the day my Zain 5G connection is around 400-500Mbps which is great. At night on the other hand I’ve been getting anywhere from 2Mbps to 10Mbps. 10Mbps is pretty high actually since I’ve been mostly averaging around 2Mbps at night which as you can imagine is frustratingly slow. Oddly, Netflix works perfectly and streams at 4K but I can barely load a story on Instagram or even load photos on Reddit. A follower on twitter told me that’s probably because Netflix is cached locally through Zain which could explain why it’s still performing well.

Have you been facing a similar issue? If yes share your details since maybe there is a pattern, here are mine:

Location: Salmiya, Block 9
ISP: Zain 5G
Day: 400-500Mbps
Night: 2-10Mbps

To run a speed test click here.

Brilliant Company is a local online children’s bookstore with a subscription service that delivers hand-selected, quality books that match the age, gender, and interests of your kid. They deliver 3 books gift wrapped every month and have 4 plans that are priced reasonably:

1 Box (11KD)
3 Months (30KD)
6 Months (57KD)
12 Months (108KD)

In addition to the subscription service, they also sell books individually and quality toys focusing on children’s sensory-motor skills and cognitive development. If you want to check them out they’re on Instagram @brilliantcokw and their website is brilliantcokw.com

CityBus has introduced 80 new eco-friendly buses onto our roads and one of the new features of these buses is that they now have a ramp for special needs passengers. I actually didn’t realize that up until now our buses weren’t wheelchair friendly, and other than these 80 new buses, none of the other public buses have ramps.

Although it’s kinda odd that we’re only just now introducing wheelchair-access to buses, it’s still pretty cool that we are. If you’re interested in public transportation make sure you check out @kuwaitcommute as well if you haven’t already. Also, check out the Alqabas video below where one of their journalist’s decides to use public transport and share her experience.

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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.

With curfew starting at 5PM, videogames are a great way to pass time which is why it’s created an even bigger shortage on new generation consoles than there was before the curfew was announced.

Pre-curfew, the PlayStation 5 was already impossible to find, even with the inflated grey market prices. The Xbox Series X on the other hand was fairly available but because of the curfew, whatever Xbox was in stock also got snapped up.

One cool way to find out when the PS5 or Xbox Series X is back in stock is by following the twitter account @Ryukersblog. Ryukers has been tracking the availability of both consoles and tweeting whenever they get back in stock somewhere. So if you’re hoping to pick up a new generation console, keep checking @Ryukersblog for updates.

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There has been a bit of a debate recently regarding the recent Chocolate Bar ads with many women calling the ads sexist and misogynistic. A friend of mine asked me what I thought of the ads and I personally just saw them as funny without thinking much more of them. But then again, I’m a guy and so I might be part of the problem here. I didn’t even know what misogyny really meant until a couple of days ago.

I like to think of myself as a feminist, so I was kinda disappointed in myself for not seeing anything offensive in the ads. But I think that has to do more with the fact I generally don’t read too deep into things. While watching the ad above all I was thinking about was the 80s aesthetics and while watching the ad below all I could focus on was the car (a manual BMW E30 Touring).

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I don’t think I’m sexist just because I didn’t see the ads offensive to women at first, but looking at them again, I can see how they could be considered wrong. I’ve had this debate internally in my head a lot, anytime I read in the news about similar issues around the world (well mostly in the States). I always ask myself if maybe we’ve become overly sensitive? or are we just more informed and aware now? Are we overdoing it, or were we not doing enough?

Do you find the Chocolate Bar ads offensive? Or do you think people are just overreacting?

[poll id=”16″]

I’ve seen a few people online ask where to find weighted blankets in Kuwait before and it didn’t seem like they were available here. But, yesterday while picking up some items from Ace Hardware I noticed some weighted blankets while on my way out.

I spotted the Bell + Howell weighted blanket pictured above, it weighs 12lbs and was priced at around KD36 which is not bad. On the Walmart website the same blanket sells for KD18 without tax but because of its weight, expect to pay over KD20 on top of the price just to ship it to Kuwait. According to the Ace website, they have three different weights of blankets with the lightest being 10lbs and selling for KD27 and the heaviest 15lbs and priced at KD45.

Weighted blankets are considered to be therapeutic and can benefit people with anxiety, autism, and insomnia. Some people find sleeping with a weighted blanket very calming.

There is a juice place currently on Carriage called “Juice Rotana Refreshment” that is selling a drink called VIP Rdball Mix that has one of the add-ons as vodka! Obviously, it’s some kind of lost in translation mistake and a really funny one. I’m currently out of their delivery zone so maybe someone can order it and let me know what they get?

There is more than one “Juice Rotana Refreshment” on Carriage so make sure you search for the one pictured below with the green logo.

Pretty great price if it’s legit!

There is this beautiful building I’ve walked and driven by for years and had always been curious to how it looked like inside. It’s located in the area behind Scientific Center and it was an old palace. Blogger Maha Alessa along with photographer Bedour AlAwadhi managed to get access to the palace and take some photos. Sadly the photos are a bit abstract and leaning towards the artistic side instead of journalistic so you can’t see much. A bit of a missed opportunity so I’ll see if I can get permission to visit the place and take photos myself. For now though you can check out the photos they took by clicking here or viewing Maha’s Instagram story here.

There’s a new drive-thru-only Starbucks that popped up overnight in front of AUK in Salmiya. I think this might be the only Starbucks in Kuwait with just drive-thru and no seating option. The location is pretty great for them, they’re right next to Arabica and Toby’s while also being right off the Gulf Road so it should get pretty packed.