2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Hamleys, the UK toy store has finally opened up in Kuwait at The Gate Mall. I say finally because they were originally meant to open back in 2012 but for some reason never did. It’s also kinda odd that they opened their first store in The Gate Mall, might have to head there this weekend and see if anything else interesting is open there. Check out Hamleys on Instagram @hamleyskuwait

A couple of days ago the MOI announced a ban on riding electric scooters on roads. That makes total sense if it wasn’t for the fact that the reason people are riding their electric scooters on roads, is for the same reason you see people walking or riding bicycles on roads, we don’t have sidewalks.

I live in Salmiya where I’ve noticed a lot of people have started using scooters to commute around. I’m 100% sure they don’t want to be riding their scooters on the roads but are forced to due to the lack of sidewalks. Driving around any area of residential Salmiya and you’ll also notice people walking on the sides of the roads as well because there are no sidewalks. And this doesn’t just apply to Salmiya, if you head to other densely populated areas like Jabriya, Salwa, Hawalli, etc. you’ll also see the exact same situation there.

A lot of these people don’t earn a lot of money and with the pandemic right now most would prefer not to use cabs or busses. Add to the fact these same people who are being banned from using scooters to commute can’t even get driving licenses because of the laws in place that prevent them. Scooters are a great alternative for public transportation and it’s really unfair that due to poor urban planning, these low-income workers are now not allowed to use them to commute. It’s as if we keep looking for ways to make life even harder for them here.

• Pioneer and leader in hybrid electric technology, Toyota has crossed the symbolic milestone of 15 million hybrid vehicles sold since the 1997 launch of the iconic Prius, the first full hybrid mass-produced car

• Toyota’s hybrid electric technology has reduced CO2 emissions by more than 120 million tonnes worldwide

In January 2020, Toyota passed the milestone of more than 15 million hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) sales worldwide since the Prius was first launched in 1997.

Toyota’s decision to develop hybrid electric vehicles started over 25 years ago when Takeshi Uchiyamada led a team to develop a car for the 21st century, one which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants. The first-generation Prius was launched in 1997 around the time of the Kyoto Protocol signing, which gave new momentum to the environmental movement.

Today, 15 million hybrid sales later, Toyota has made a significant contribution to the environment as its hybrid electric technology has reduced CO2 emissions by more than 120 million tonnes worldwide to date compared to sales of equivalent petrol vehicles. The company’s original vision has allowed Toyota to be the leader in meeting increasingly stringent emissions regulations around the world.

Across this period, Toyota has seen demand for its hybrid electric vehicles soar as the company has combined this innovative technology with emotional design enabled by the roll-out of its TNGA global platforms. Beyond the current 4th generation hybrid system, Toyota is continuing to refine its hybrid technology to achieve even lower emissions and ever-better fuel efficiency. Today, hybrid electric vehicles are affordable, accessible and convenient for customers in the Middle East.

Hybrid naturally leads to BEV and FCEV

While Toyota believes that HEVs are an essential part of the future overall mix of electrified vehicles, two decades of electrification experience also feed into the company’s multi-powertrain strategy. The company provides and will continue to provide various types of electrified vehicles to reduce emissions based on regulations, market infrastructure and ultimately customer demand. Toyota does not see a one ‘winner takes all’ scenario but a future where the different electrified technologies, including hybrids and plug-ins (PHEV), fuel cell (FCEV) and battery electric (BEV) vehicles, all play a part.

As a result of its long hybrid electric vehicle experience, the company has deep transferable expertise in the core electrification technologies which are common across all form of electrified powertrains, putting them in pole position for an electrified future. Over two decades of continuous development of electric motors, batteries and power control units has taught Toyota how to manage and reuse energy efficiently, providing a range of electrified options for customers through HEVs, PHEVs, BEVs and FCEVs.

In Kuwait since launching the Prius HEV model in February 2016, Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons has launched 6 popular Toyota HEV models including the recently launched Toyota C-HR Cross-over and Highlander SUV.

Mark Lowey, or AbuJack as he is known on Twitter has been fairly active recently scanning old photos of his from life back in Kuwait and Saudi during the 70s and 80s when he used to live here. Recently he published one of his journal entries from a spur of the moment trip he made to Kuwait with his friend Stephen back in 1979. Along with his journal entry, he has old pictures of Kuwait attached so it’s a really interesting piece to read (basically a blog post from 1979).

Check out his journal entry on his weekend excursion to Kuwait here and then make sure you follow him on twitter @molowey

Tareq Almulaifi is a Kuwaiti singer/songwriter who officially launched his new band Cobra Club this past summer with the 80s inspired track “Razor“. They had also previously released the single called Ghost and this past weekend they finally launched the music video for it. You can check out the video above or listen to the track on Spotify. Some really good stuff.

I don’t remember how I first found out about the Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club (ADMC), or how I came about a picture of their car badge, but when I first saw it I knew I needed to have one. It’s such a great looking badge with the cute desert mouse and beautiful colors, I ended up spending over a year looking for one to purchase and wasn’t able to find a single one for sale, anywhere and for any price! I got in touch with random people whose parents might have been part of the club, I checked small private sllers, large auction sites, I checked with car badge collectors, and nobody either had one or wanted to sell one. Finally, back in September, one went on sale on eBay, and not just any, but one that was in pristine, 10/10 condition. It looked like it had never been installed on a car before and all the enamel was still intact and vibrant. I put a ridiculous maximum bid number since I knew I’d most likely not come across another one ever that was so clean, eventually, I ended up winning the bid for a lot less than I expected, around KD75.

Now that I had the badge I found it very frustrating that I couldn’t dig up any info on the club, there wasn’t anything online except for a single photo from an ADMC Alitalia Darts event dating back to 1964 and that was it. So I got in touch with a friend at KOC and asked him if he could check their archives for any photos or articles on the club and he struck gold.

Turns out KOC had some photos related to the motoring club but they were still negatives which hadn’t been scanned. So they dug them out of their archive and scanned them so I could share them on the blog. These images haven’t been seen by anyone for over 65 years! They also shared some articles relating to the club from the old KOC newsletter called “The Kuwaiti”. The Kuwaiti was a weekly newsletter and he flipped through the 1954 and 1955 archive of the newsletter and sent me some photos of ones relating to the club and motoring in general. Some really interesting stuff.

I’ve decided to share everything in two ways. Firstly I uploaded all the photos and articles to a Flickr album. If you prefer viewing things that way click here.

I’ve also created a PDF file of all the articles and if you prefer viewing the articles that way then click here to download the PDF

For the scanned images I have all of them embedded in high resolution below. The blog will resize them automatically to fit the width of my page, but if you save the images, you can view them in higher resolution on your phone or computer. Check those out by clicking more below.

Finally, I’d like to thank Kuwait Oil Company for digging these photos out and scanning them for me. Now people looking for info on the club will be able to find some kind of information online.

The all-new Corvette was meant to launch in Kuwait back in May, but due to the pandemic and slow down in production, that didn’t happen. But, they’re now finally here.

The first shipment of Corvettes arrived to the dealership a couple of days ago and they’ve all been pre-sold already. If you want to check them out in person though they currently have them parked in the basement of their Al-Rai dealership until they’re picked up by their new owners. The new Corvette starts at KD22,000.

The General Dept of Traffic instagram account @traffic_kw should really be turned into a series of some sort like the show COPS. They’re very active and constantly posting videos of cars usually racing or drifting and then pictures of the cars impounded. In some of their videos, they’ve even had footage from inside the cop cars chasing people and it’s all pretty entertaining to watch.

If there is one government Instagram account to follow this would be it. So if you haven’t checked it out click here.

Note: They’ve got similar videos on their YouTube channel as well but their Instagram videos seem higher resolution. Link

The video above has been circulating WhatsApp showing the observation tower at Entertainment City crashing down as part of the Entertainment City demolition process. I was thinking about the park yesterday on how they could have refurbished it instead of rebuilding a new one from scratch. It wasn’t the best amusement park in the world but at least it had a history and character. Not everything needs to be completely demolished for a new version. Disney Land has been around since 1955 and is still very current, Coney Island amusement park has been around even longer since the late 1800s and has gone through various stages of refurbishment and revival.

I’ve previously gotten my PCR test done at Wara Hospital since they had a drive-thru service which is really convenient. But, they also take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to send you your test results which is fairly slow. Yesterday I decided to get a PCR test at International Clinic because I had heard they were pretty quick with the results, and they were.

I got my PCR test done at around 9:30AM and then got the result at 6:30PM. That’s 9 hours later!

I’m not sure if there is any other place that does it quicker (if there is let me know), but from now on I’ll probably be getting all my tests done at IC. There wasn’t anyone else there getting a test so only had to wait for the doctor to be free and that was maybe 10 minutes. The price of the test is KD35 which isn’t the cheapest but really reasonable for the speed you get the results in. If you want to get a PCR test done at IC, you don’t need to book, you just show up and let them know at the reception area. Here is their location on Google Maps.

Last year I posted about how I lost out on an auction for an Andy Warhol signed catalog from his Kuwait exhibit. I had put my max bid at €1005 but someone else ended up winning it for €1200. Yesterday I found out that the person who won the auction is now trying to sell the catalog for KD1,500 (around €4150).

I’m really disappointed since I thought whoever bid against me wanted the catalog a lot more than I did, and that was ok. But to lose against someone who just wanted to get it to resell it at a higher price, that kinda sucks. Oh well.

Early this year an ice skating rink opened up in Bayan called the Kuwait Winter Games Club. The 2020 Open Championship for Professional Arab Ice Hockey Clubs took place there and the Kuwait Ice Hockey team was using the rink for practice. Now they’ve also opened it up to the public.

The cost is KD5 for 1.5 hours and KD15 for the whole day and that including the rental of the skates. There are also some hockey matches going on if you just want to go and watch.

But this is the thing I don’t get. How is Kuwait Motor Town, where everyone is inside a car by themselves racing around an outdoor track closed due to the pandemic, but close-contact sports like hockey and football are allowed? It doesn’t make sense!

The American sportswear company Under Armour opened up in Avenues Phase I last month. I actually came by the store by accident while walking around Avenues to see if there was anything new. I didn’t expect to see Under Armour there especially since all the other big brand sports stores are located on the opposite end of the mall in Phase 4. The store is pretty large, they have sneakers, sportswear, a separate Project Rock section (a collection by “The Rock”) as well as a small accessories section where I spotted some cool workout gloves which I think I’m gonna end up getting.

If you want to find the store they’re on the top floor of Avenues Phase I, near Borders.

Update: Turns out they’ve been open in Al Kout since last year.

It’s been a year since I first tried 5G and so I wanted to post a quick update on how it’s been. Since my initial review last year, a lot more people have now gotten 5G and the prices have dropped considerably. When 5G first came out we got it at the office and our monthly fee was KD45. When I got mine last year, I was paying KD19 for 1TB. Earlier this year prices dropped even further and so Zain called me up and told me that they were changing my package from KD19 for 1TB to KD19 for 4TB. A cool gesture considering on two occasions I had exceeded my 1TB bandwidth before the end of the month.

But, because there are now a lot more people on the network, the speeds aren’t what they used to be. When I initially reviewed 5G I was getting speeds of 650-750Mbps on average with the occasional 1.0-1.2Gbps. For the past 6 months, the highest speed I’ve seen is 390Mbps which I was actually surprised to see this morning when I ran the speed test for this post. In full transparency, that was actually the fastest speed I achieved over a number of tests this morning with the lowest coming out to 290Mbps which is close to the speeds I’ve been getting recently. On CITRA, the highest speed I got was 366Mbps.

The fastest connection I could get where I live before 5G was 28Mbps with Zain Beam. So although I’m not getting the 600+ speeds I used to get, I’m still getting speeds 100x 10x faster than my previous connection. I think as long as it stays around 300Mbps I’m good, if it drops down to the 100s I’d still be ok I guess, just annoyed because I used to get 700Mbps. According to Open Signal real-world download speeds, the average 5G connection speed in Kuwait is 185Mbps (one of the telecoms must be killing the curve) so I’m above average. Kuwait actually has the 6th fastest 5G connection speeds in the world according to the same data.

So do I still recommend 5G? Yup, 100% especially with the current prices (10KD for 1TB). So if you’re still on 4G it’s definitely worth upgrading.

I found out about a website a few days ago called Yalla Compare which is a financial comparison website. It’s actually a website that sells insurance but is made to look like a financial comparison website but they do actually have comparissons. Using the website you can compare the different requirements and rates for personal and car loans between the different banks but more importantly, you can also see all the different credit cards offered by the local banks and compare their costs and benefits.

I’m not sure if people choose a bank based on credit card benefits, I’m assuming no. But, if you’re at least curious about what other banks are offering compared to what you’re getting, check out the list by clicking here.