2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

One thing I’ve noticed recently is a lot of people complaining about the slow service of many online local businesses. People ordering items and having it take longer than expected to be delivered, people complaining about items being out of stock or even complaining about slow customer support.

People really need to chill a bit because these aren’t normal circumstances.

Before the pandemic, local shopping websites weren’t being used a lot. Sure you had some exceptions but majority of the sales were done at the store and a lot of businesses didn’t even have an online option. But, because of the lockdown, a lot of the places were forced to shift their business online. So imagine having an infrastructure meant to handle 10 online orders a day and now they have to handle 100 or 1,000 orders a day. Imagine if you had just one delivery car for those rare occasions someone would order online and now suddenly you’re getting 100 orders a day. And now imagine the stores that were never online to begin with and had to scramble to set up an online store quickly so they can try and survive this situation. Those guys never had the time to practice or experience online orders before being flooded with them. Everyone is overwhelmed, even giants like IKEA are struggling to cope with the influx of online orders to the point they had to post a message apologizing to their customers. Supermarkets, electronic stores, makeup stores, gaming stores, everyone got caught by surprise.

Add to that a lot of businesses are also operating with a reduced timeframe because of the curfew and some businesses are operating with a reduced workforce. This is why whenever I order anything locally I’m not even following up or asking when the items will be delivered. I know they’re all working as quickly as possible to get the order to me, so I’m being patient and understanding and you should to.

If you want a list of local shopping websites then check out my list here. I’m updating it constantly as new stores pop up so bookmark it.

I tried to find an answer online but couldn’t. Does anyone know what the situation is for people who entered Kuwait on a tourist visa and couldn’t exit? I remember hearing that all tourist visas got extended since the airport closed but I can’t seem to find any official (or even unofficial) source mentioning it.

Update: According to an Arab Time article from last month, all visit visas have been extended by a further two months.

Update2: According to some readers the Arab Times article is wrong based on what the British and American Embassy have communicated to their citizens.

This is related to yesterday’s question on if you had to pay your rent this month. I got the impression from some of the comments that people were either not getting their salaries or getting partial salaries. So here is another poll:

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Yesterday they started barricading and fencing up Jleeb and Mahboula as part of an area lockdown in hopes of preventing the spread of the Coronavirus. Nobody will be allowed to leave those areas without permission.

Both those areas contain a lot of unskilled workers and you could notice the effect of this lockdown pretty much right away. The gas station I frequent the most on the Gulf Road had only one worker this morning. Even the mini Sultan Center Express at that station was closed. When I asked the only employee working there about this, he told me it was because the rest of the employees were stuck in Jleeb.

Should be interesting how this will play out and if it will eventually be implemented in other areas.

Along with hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial wipes, one of the hardest things to find right now is gym equipment. Everyone is stuck at home and looking for ways to stay fit so most sports shops are sold out on items like dumbells and yoga mats. But, even larger more expensive gym equipment is impossible to come by nowadays. When the lockdown happened I started considering different options to staying fit, I even considered the possibility of shipping a Peloton bike all the way from the States but in the end, I decided to get a rower since they burn the most amount of calories compared to other gym equipment.

Before the whole Corona thing hit my gym had gotten new equipment and so wanted to sell a few of their beautiful looking WaterRowers (similar to the one on House of Cards) to make more room. Nobody was interested in them and they were just sitting there gathering dust. When the lockdown happened I got in touch with my gym thinking I was clever to have remembered the rowers, to my surprise I was too late. Other gym members had got in touch first and they ended up selling all of them. I then decided I wanted to get a Concept2 rower since they’re considered to be the best rowers you can get (you’ve probably used one at your gym). They’re pretty expensive costing anywhere between KD400-470 in the local market but I figured it would be a good long term investment since they last a lifetime. But, I couldn’t find any for sale. All the local suppliers had not only completely sold out their Concept2 inventory, but some had even sold all the rowers they had coming on their way still to Kuwait. To add to the issue, Concept2 shut down their factory in the States because of the pandemic so they’re not producing any more rowers for the time being making it even hard to find anywhere in the world. They even had to post the notice below on top of their website because of the number of inquiries they were getting:

4/3/20: We are currently out of stock of all Model Ds, all Model Es, the Dynamic RowErg, BikeErgs, SkiErgs and the SkiErg Floor Stand due to high demand and temporary production stoppage to fight the spread of the Covid-19 virus. US and Canadian customers can fill out the wait list form so we can keep you informed as we get more information in this rapidly changing situation. If you need to speak to us, please contact us during regular business hours (M–F, 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m. EDT) or email [email protected]. We are doing our best to respond to after-hours inquiries within 1–2 business days. Thank you for your patience.

Luckily through a friend, I ended up finding a gym that had one lying around not being used that they wanted to get rid of. I ended up getting it and it’s now sitting right next to my TV so I can Netflix and row.

One cool thing I’ve noticed recently is some gyms now are renting out their equipment since they’re not being used. One of those gyms is Gym37, they posted on their story yesterday they had equipment for rent which is pretty smart. This is a good alternative to buying and in some cases could be your only option. You can contact them on 90911733 to enquire. Another gym that’s also renting equipment is The Burrow. They are renting out spinning bikes and rowers and their prices are as follows:

2 weeks – 100 KWD
3 weeks – 125 KWD
4 weeks – 150 KWD

You can get in touch with them on instagram @theburrowlife if you’re interested.

Finally, if you want to buy any sports equipment (or at least see what’s still available), here are some links you can check out as well:

AlNasser Sports
Explorers Base
Extreme Sports
Gym Doctor
Kuwait Watersports
ProSports
Rent a Gym
Sportsman
Sports World (Instagram)
Wawan

A lot of people have been getting in touch with me regarding apartment rents if they have to pay them or not. Honestly, I have no clue, I don’t think anything was announced regarding rents so I’d assume it’s up to the landlords.

Some landlords are still asking for the full rent this month, others waived the rent completely while some have reduced the amount. I’m still waiting to find out if my building will be taking rent from us as usual this month or not but I haven’t gotten the payment link yet. I know the tenants of my building submitted a request for the rent to be waived or reduced, but we haven’t gotten any notice about it yet.

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Green Rubber Recycling is a local initiative where they recycle used tires to create a variety of rubber tiles including fitness ones. I found out about it by mistake while helping someone who was looking for workout mats and thought it was a very smart idea. Loads of people are working out from home at the moment so the GreenRub fitness tiles are a good way of converting a home space into a mini gym.

If you have neighbors under you it’s a good way of silencing your workouts but even if you don’t have neighbors under you, having a rubber surface provides cushioning to your joints during workouts and you also won’t worry as much about dropping your weights on the floor.

Their fitness tiles start at KD6 for a square meter and you can get more information on their online shop or by visiting their Instagram @greenrubq8

Over the weekend Kuwait kicked off a sanitization campaign to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Trucks were going up and down the streets spraying disinfectants on the roads but I’ve got two questions which hopefully a reader might explain to me:

First question, why are roads being disinfected? I tried to find an answer online but can’t seem to find any solid answer to why it’s effective, I’ve found articles explaining why it’s useless but nothing that supports it. It’s not just Kuwait doing it, other countries are also sanitizing the roads like China and the UAE. In Dubai, they’re even using drones to do it although that might just be a PR stunt. So if anyone has a theory or an article on this please share it in the comments. I’m genuinely curious.

My second question is, why are they using ice cream truck music? You can hear it in the video above. It’s kinda funny because whenever I heard the music yesterday I ran to my window. It reminded me when I used to spend my summers in the States as a kid because I’d run to the window whenever I heard the ice cream truck music as well.

Interestingly, the baladiya are on my street today cleaning up the area around the garbage bins. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while then you know I’ve had lots of drama with the baladiya and the garbage on my street. This is the cleanest I’ve seen the bins area and I think it’s part of this sanitization campaign which is great!

There is a book I’ve been wanting to post about since September, but I held myself back since I wanted to at least get a copy of the book for myself before I tell everyone about it. The book is called “Aftermath” and was originally published back in 1992 in French under the name “Fait” (which means fact) and a year later published in English. The book is by the French photographer Sophie Ristelhueber who came to Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War to document the traces of conflict. Her series of photographs were then published in her book as well as being exhibited in galleries and museums around the world include the TATE Modern Museum. In the short video below by TATE, Sophie discusses her photographs, her journey to Kuwait and why she captured what she captured.

SOPHIE RISTELHUEBER (French, b. 1949) traveled to Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War to record the physical traces of the conflict. Entitled Fait or Fact, the resulting series of photographs—aerial and ground-level, in color and black-and-white—depicts trenches and tank tracks, bomb craters, dense smoke rising from blazing oil wells, battle detritus scattered in the sand. Ristelhueber hangs the large prints in an expansive grid that at first reads as a beautiful abstract field, then reveals itself to be a reconstitution of the battlefield on the gallery wall. –MoMA

The book isn’t that difficult to come by if you’re willing to throw money at it. Right now there are three copies on AbeBooks but with prices ranging from KD150 to KD230, you might find them for slightly cheaper at around KD130 if you look around the web. Personally, I didn’t want to pay so much since I tend to buy a lot of old books and trust me, it adds up. So I waited and waited for the right copy until a few weeks ago a bookseller in Germany put an original French version up for sale for around KD90. I guess due to the current situation I was able to negotiate the price and bring it down to a much more reasonable KD50.

Unlike other books and photographers of the 1990 war, there is something beautiful in the way Sophie captures the scars. You really need to watch the video above to understand why she captured it the way she did but the end result is breathtaking.

The fact it’s the French version isn’t an issue since the book is filled with photos and just has one spread that actually has any text on it. If you have the chance to purchase it, I highly recommend you do. If you don’t want to spend so much for the original, there is a publisher called Errata that has published the book as part of their books on books series. It doesn’t come in the original form factor, but it does contain all the photos and is priced at just KD15. You can find more info on that here.

There are around 70 photos in total but if you’d like to see more then check out Sophie’s website here.

Update: Sorry video wasn’t embedded properly, just fixed it

If you’re wondering if Aramex or other companies are still delivering packages during this pandemic, they are! Even though commercial flights in and out of Kuwait have stopped, cargo flights are still operating. And even though places like New York have been hit hard because of the virus, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down or stopping our packages from being shipped to us. So far I’ve had packages ship from the US, the UK, and Germany. Packages are taking around 10 days from arriving at my Shop & Ship mailbox to being delivered to me at my home which is normal.

For example, yesterday I had my Odroid Go Advance delivered to me (pictured above). A reader had told me about it in the comments under one of my posts on March 14th. On March 15th I ordered the device and on March 19th it arrived to my New York mailbox. Yesterday (March 30th) it was delivered to me. So 9 days from arriving to my mailbox in New York to being delivered to me here in Kuwait. Customs in Kuwait are also working normally which is pretty impressive. There is something very comforting knowing I can continue to buy stuff online and have them arrive to Kuwait.

A friend recently shared an instagram account with me that contained a lot of cool old photos of Kuwait, many which I hadn’t seen before. The account is called @badshaiji and the guy doesn’t mention the source of the photos, but I don’t think they’re his since I’ve seen a few in other places. I also think he converts a lot of colored photos to black and white for aesthetic reasons.

From all the photos on his account, three stuck out for me. The two above are from 1969 and of seaside casinos (basically coffee shops or social clubs not gambling casinos) that were located in Salmiya on Blajat street. I had never seen these before nor did I know they had existed. The third photo below is of a music shop on Fahad Al Salem street dated 1961. If you want to check out a lot more photos like this then check out the Instagram account @badshaiji

In case you weren’t aware, the MOH Instagram account posts Coronavirus updates daily. What I especially appreciate about the MOH is the fact they breakdown the new cases with details on how the people contracted the virus. They’re being transparent which I like and I’m also pretty sure the lockdown is making it easier for them to track down all the people who were in contact with the positive case.

If you want to see these daily updates then follow them on Instagram @kuwait_moh. For more local official Coronavirus news sources, click here.

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A post shared by The British School of Kuwait (@bsk_kw) on Mar 28, 2020 at 4:14am PDT

Some British School of Kuwait band students got together virtually and performed the Kuwait National anthem online as part of a virtual ensemble. Check out the video above.

Over the weekend I got outbid on some Harvey Llyod slides of Kuwait dating back to 1979. They were being sold as part of an estate find and according to the seller, there were 180 film slides of Kuwait covering a wide range of subjects. I didn’t think anyone would be interested in them but I ended up getting outbid on them by someone I’m guessing is some kind of collector in Kuwait since their bidding history involves a lot of old Kuwait stamps.

So in case whoever won these slides reads my blog, can you please get in touch with me? I was planning to scan all the slides and share them here so maybe we can still do that.

Yesterday the Kuwait Municipality announced that starting today you can only get your coffee delivered. Up until yesterday you could still pick up a coffee from your favorite coffee shop or use their drive-thru service. I’m guessing the reason behind this decision is that having your morning coffee isn’t considered essential and so no reason for you to leave the house or wait in a busy line just to get it. On the bright side, most coffee shops are now on the delivery apps and Arabica have started delivering hot coffees as well.