2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Al-Hashim demanded the implementation of her proposal to impose fees on expatriates for using roads “because it is time to apply it” while reiterating the need to collect fees on remittances. “We have to take a fee even on the air that the expatriate breathes,” She added. Source

Sadly, this is not the Onion.

A couple of weeks back I posted my first impression of Zain 5G at my apartment in Salmiya. I was having issues with speeds fluctuating from 3Mbps to 350Mbps and I couldn’t understand why. After my post, Zain ended up sending over a technician to look at the issue and it turned out to be a fairly simple fix.

This might get a bit nerdy but basically the 5G router has two kinds of wifi connections, a 2.4ghz and a faster 5ghz. The router I had received had been set up to combine the two wifi signals to one and depending on where I am in the apartment, the router would decide which connection I should be on. Whenever I was getting slow internet speeds it was because the router was connecting me at 2.4ghz. So we fixed this issue by having two separate wifi connections and I manually connect to the 5ghz one. We tried it out and it worked and after that issue was sorted I decided to just plug the 5G router to my home network which was already running at 5ghz and I’m really loving it now.

The lowest Zain 5G connection speed I’ve been getting is around 500-550Mbps. The connection usually hovers at around 650-750Mbps and on occasionally hits 1.0-1.2Gbps. It’s incredibly fast, like so fast I have no idea how I’m going back to my 30Mbps Zain Beam connection once I’m done with this review unit. I used to think my Beam connection was the fastest thing I could get in my apartment but I’m so blown away by 5G!

The only reason I haven’t posted a full review of the connection yet is I’ve now come across another issue. For some reason, my 5G connection at home currently dies on average once or twice a day and I need to restart the 5G router for it to come back to life. I spoke to support and we think something is wrong with the 5G router itself so I’m going to get it swapped out for another unit. My Zain 5G router at the office in comparison, I had to restart just once in the past 2-3 months since I’ve had it.

If you guys want me to try anything out or run a specific speed test then let me know in the comments below. Here is a link to the Zain 5G page.

Ikarus Technologies is a local startup with a passion for astronomy and the cosmos. I found out about them from a reader and they seem to cover everything related to astronomy from selling telescopes and camera gear to training. They have telescopes ranging from KD30 to over KD1,000 so they’re pretty much covering all kinds of astronomers from first-timers to the more experienced.

If you’ve ever wanted to get into astronomy this could be a really good starting point so check out their website ikarustech.com.

Thanks Pat!

Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) took feedback from the popular TripIt app and determined the results of the Passenger Choice Awards and the Official Airline Rating. Kuwait Airways ended up getting an5-star airline rating which sounds like a big thing, but technically, the lowest it could have scored on this list was a 4. Still, a 5-star rating puts it ahead of airlines like British Airways and Etihad Airways which both scored a rating of 4. It’s a small victory but still an important one since it shows how quickly Kuwait Airways has changed for the better now that they’ve got the newer planes and a dedicated terminal.

Here are the results of the Passenger Choice Awards:

Best Seat Comfort – Qatar Airways
Best Entertainment – Emirates
Best Wi-Fi – Delta Air Lines
Best Cabin Service – Qatar Airways
Best Food and Beverage – Qatar Airways

On a side note, Kuwait Airways also came ninth in flights timing accuracy between 175 airlines according to the UK’s Official Aviation Guide (OAG).

For the full APEX results click here.

I spend more time on YouTube than I do Netflix which is why when YouTube launched their Premium ad-free service a few years ago in the US, I signed up to it right away. The cost was $9.99 a month and it was worth it since it meant I no longer had to watch long ads before and in the middle of my videos.

But last week YouTube Premium became available in Kuwait and for a cheaper price! YouTube Premium costs $5.99 if you live in Kuwait and a family account for 5 people costs just $8.99. So this morning I canceled my YouTube Premium on my US YouTube account and signed up to it again from my Kuwait YouTube account. $5.99 is a really good price if you hate all those YouTube ads.

If you want to sign up to Premium then click here.

via Reddit

Barbecue that spreads over the entire terrace of Al Bustan Restaurant of Radisson Blu Hotel promises an amazing dining experience and offers variety of freshly grilled specialties inspired by local, European and South Asian urban cuisines. Innovative setup of the ‘all you can eat buffet’ features live grill, cooking and carving stations. The terrace hums with live music throughout the evening to complement that soothing ambiance.

The outdoor terrace is transferred into a live cooking / grill show and our Chefs make sure the food is prepared exactly the way you like it! From live BBQ grill section that offers everything from kebabs and grilled meat to selection of fresh fish and seafood including prawns, sea bass, salmon, hamour to live carving section offering whole stuffed lamb, short ribs, prime ribs and more. The special ethnic stations showcase the best of Chinese and Indian cuisines. The buffet will be seasonally updated by the specials of the season bringing even more variety to the menu.

Wrap up the perfect evening with a scoop of ice cream or glass of delicious mocktail while you just sit back and listen to the live music produced by our band. Al Bustan Restaurant is a place to be, make sure you won’t miss it. BBQ is held every Wednesday night at Radisson Blu.

Al Bustan Restaurant & Terrace, Radisson Blu Hotel, Kuwait
Wednesdays from 18:30 to 23:00
E-mail: [email protected]
T: +965 2567 3410

Not a super busy weekend but the events season still hasn’t really started so it will get busier as the weather cools down. Below are this weekends events:

Thursday
Exhibition: 100 Grams of Reality
Kuwait Game Jam 2019

Friday
Kuwait Game Jam 2019
Staged in Kuwait Welcome Lunch
Q8 Readers Book Club: The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Saturday
Kuwait Game Jam 2019
Yoga at the Park
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Q8 Walking Club
Ultimate Frisbee

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from The Goldfinch

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

New This Weekend:
Official Secrets (6.7)
Strange But True (5.7)
The Goldfinch (6.0)

Other Movies Showing Now:
47 Meters Down Uncaged (5.3)
Aladdin (6.5)
Angel Has Fallen (7.0)
IT Chapter Two (7.7)
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (5.9)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (7.5)
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (8.4)
Playmobil: The Movie (4.5)
Ready or Not (7.3)
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (6.8)
The Big Trip (5.8)
The Final Wish (4.2)
The Lion King (6.2)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

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

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

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

Onam is the biggest and most important festival of the state of Kerala in India and it’s also celebrated here in Kuwait. Today and over the weekend some Southern Indian restaurants in Kuwait will be offering the traditional vegetarian dish Onasadya and I’ve listed some of those restaurants below:

Sangeetha Veg Restaurant – Salmiya
Price: KD2.250
Telephone: 56503003
Facebook: SangeethaKuwait

Saravanaa Bhavan – Fahaheel/Salmiya
Price: KD2.500
Telephone: 23929099 / 25716686
Facebook: SaravanaaBhavanKuwait

Thakkara – Fahaheel/Salmiya/Farwaniya/Dajeej/Abbasiya
Price: KD2.000
Telephone: 23920699
Facebook: ThakkaraKwt

Udupi Restaurant – Fahaheel/Kuwait City/Salmiya
Price: KD2.000
Telephone: 22423021 / 25456565

If you know of any more places serving Onam, let us know in the comments.

Earlier this year, Korea Grill, the small Korean restaurant in New Park Hotel closed down along with the hotel and so they were forced to relocate. Last week they finally reopened but this time at the Radisson Blu and they’ve rebranded to The Kimchi.

The Kimchi took over the location of the Polynesian restaurant Kon-Tiki which had opened back in 2004 when Radisson Blu used to be the Radisson SAS. I believe Kon-Tiki closed down over a decade ago (not sure) and I think its been empty ever since. I remember I saw the place when I got a tour of the hotel after they refurbished it, but I don’t recall what this space was being used for back then. The interior was always nice looking with lots of wood and bamboo and private rooms built to look like small Asian structures. The restaurant is located underneath the Al Boom ship and the hull of the ship is integrated into the interior. The Kimchi updated the space a bit and it still looks good although I do wish the lights were dimmed a bit to give the space a moodier feel.

The menu is pretty huge now so I’m assuming everything that was on the menu at Korea Grill is still there along with a lot more new items. I went for some Korean BBQ and ended up ordering their set menu of assorted cuts for 2-3 people. It was good but I felt it was overpriced at KD28 considering neither of us left full. I actually contemplated passing by Peacock to continue dinner there because I was still hungry. I didn’t want to order any more food at The Kimchi since the service was incredibly slow and disorganized. I know that’s normal for a place that just opened but it was still frustrating having to ask for things multiple of times or watching people get their drinks or food before us even though they had come in later. I couldn’t wait to leave honestly.

I’ll give the place at least month or two before I head back again, hopefully by then they would have worked out all the kinks. Right now The Kimchi is open daily for lunch from 12PM to 3PM and then again for dinner from 6PM to 10PM. The place is big with lots of seating so I don’t think you need reservations. For more information and photos check out their instagram account @q8koreagrill

I canceled my live TV cable connection around 5 years back and signed up to Amazon Video, HBO, Hulu and Netflix for my TV fix. In addition to subscribing to those 4 I also have a YouTube, F1 TV and a UFC Arabia subscription bringing the total number of subscriptions to 7. But, even with all those subscriptions, I was still missing out on a lot of content, mainly shows on the History Channel and Food Network so I recently decided to sign up to Philo.

Philo is an internet television service that allows you to stream live TV channels as well as watch them on demand. There are over 50 channels on Philo including Food Network, History Channel, HGTV, Discovery and Motortrend. Since I signed up I’ve been mostly binging on Forged in Fire and Wheelers Dealers, two shows I like but previously only got to watch in hotel rooms during my trips.

I downloaded the Apple TV app for Philo and I found it fairly easy to flip through the channels and watch stuff, but it can be a bit overwhelming when there is so much TV. You can choose to watch shows currently playing live or watch older episodes that are archived and the combination of the two means you spend a lot of time just flipping through a ton of channels trying to figure out what to watch.

There are two main issues with Philo with the first being the price. Although it’s one of the cheapest options you can sign up to for watching live TV, it still costs $20 a month. That’s the most expensive subscription I have at the moment and to make matters worse, it’s full of commercials! At first, I didn’t mind the commercials because I hadn’t watched any in ages, but then when I realized I couldn’t skip through them and that they popped up frequently, it started getting really annoying very quickly. I wouldn’t mind paying $20 for live TV but to pay $20 and be forced to watch commercials I don’t think I can handle that.

It’s been less than a month since I subscribed to Philo and I am yet to decide if I will continue with my subscription or not. I’m still enjoying a bunch of shows and so I might keep the subscription going for another month or two before I make my decision. Like other subscription services, you need to use a VPN or a Smart Proxy service (which is what I use) to trick Philo into thinking you’re living in the US or you won’t be able to access the service.

If you’re looking for ways to stream live US channels, Philo is currently the most affordable route I’m aware of. For more info you can visit their website here.

A couple of weeks back Ice Breaker gum got banned for containing non-halal ingredients and now a bunch of protein bars were also banned for containing non-halal ingredients:

Public Authority for Food and Nutrition (PAFN) has called to ban all imports of several protein bars as it contained non-halal ingredients. Secretary General Adel Al-Suwait said that it was found that products like Snickers, Mars, Bounty and Milky Way protein bars contained non-halal ingredients. Source

The odd thing is I looked through the ingredients and can’t figure out what the non-halal item can be. For example, this is the ingredients list for the Mars protein bar:

Protein Blend (27%) (Soya Protein Isolate, Milk Protein Isolate, Skimmed Milk Powder, Whey Protein Concentrate (from Milk), Egg, Albumen, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin)), Caramel (16%) (Sweetened Condensed Skimmed Milk, Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar Syrup, Palm Oil, Butter (from Milk), Sugar, Emulsifier (E471), Stabiliser (Pectin), Salt, Natural Flavouring), Milk Chocolate (15%) (Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Skimmed Milk Powder, Cocoa Mass, Lactose and Protein from Whey (from Milk), Palm Fat, Whey Powder (from Milk), Milk Fat, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Natural Vanilla Extract), Hydrolysed Collagen (12%), Humectant (Glycerol), Fructo-Oligosaccharide, Humectant (Maltitol), Flavourings, Fat-Reduced Cocoa Powder, Barley Malt Extract, Salt.

So bizarre.

via Reddit

Kuwait ranks last once again, a position it also held in 2018 and from 2014 to 2016. It still places last and second to last for the ease of settling in and quality of life, respectively, though it has improved for personal finance (from 50th to 38th in 2019). Results for working abroad remain bleak, though: Kuwait places 60th. While expats are mostly satisfied with the state of the economy (63% positive ratings vs. 63% globally) — the majority (59%) moved there for work-related reasons — 36% are unhappy with their work-life balance. All in all, Kuwait is the country expats would recommend the least. Source

I really think all this has to do with the simple issue that expats are made to feel unwanted in Kuwait.

I recently joined the Rimowa world by purchasing my first Rimowa suitcase last month and I loved it so much I ended up buying a second bag when I visited the Rimowa store in Dubai. Their stores are pretty cool (for a suitcase store) with lots of different accessories you can buy from limited edition stickers to customizable parts. Now Kuwait is getting it’s first store and it will be opening up in Avenues Phase 4, right next to the VOX Cinema escalators.

Yesterday night I dropped by Calma, the first float center in Kuwait. Float centers (sometimes called spas) use large pods called isolation tanks that you float inside of in complete darkness to deprive your mind of external senses. The pods are soundproof and filled with extremely salty shallow water that is heated to your body temperature. The saltwater allows you to float effortlessly on the surface while zoning out in complete darkness and silence.

People use flotation tanks for muscle relaxation, to lower anxiety and to help with depression.

When you first walk into Calma it feels like you’ve just walked into a spa. After a small introduction on isolation tanks you’re led into one of their four flotation rooms where you’ll have access to your own pod and private shower. There you’re given some more instructions before you’re left alone to start your float session.

Although I had heard of flotation tanks before, I only got to try it for the first time yesterday. I was curious to know how it would feel floating in the tanks but I was also curious to see if it would feel claustrophobic or not. I did an MRI scan once and it felt extremely uncomfortable and so was worried this would feel the same. It surprisingly didn’t! The pod actually feels spacious once you’re inside, even after you close the lid. Then, once you turn off the lights it no longer feels like you’re inside a pod, it feels like you’re floating in the ocean in complete darkness or even in space.

The flotation sessions last one hour and cost KD30. Compared to prices abroad that’s fairly reasonable considering we’re in Kuwait and that Calma is located in the basement of Symphony Mall and not some shady first-floor building in Salmiya. Right now they’re in their soft launch phase and only accepting bookings through direct message on instagram. So if you’re interested in trying this out you can find them on instagram @calma_kw