2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003I got a bunch of videos forwarded to me a while ago. Turns out a pipe burst in Al Hamra Tower earlier today and flooded the basement of the mall. This hasn’t been a good week for them, just a few days ago the whole building had a power outage and now this.
I was gonna start this post by poking fun out of Saudi Arabia because they’re advertising music concerts all over Kuwait as if they’re a weekend destination now like Bahrain or Dubai. But then I found out yesterday they announced the Jeddah World Festival and now I feel sad, sad that we don’t get events like this in Kuwait.
It’s currently the Jeddah festival season and they’re holding a bunch of music concerts with artists like Chris Brown, Martin Garrix, Marshmello and Afrojack performing.
Just a few days ago Backstreet Boys performed in Jeddah to a sold-out crowd and you can watch a clip of it above.
But now Jeddah upped their game yesterday even more by announcing the Jeddah World Festival which will be one of the largest music events to be held in the region and will be broadcasted live on MTV in over 100 countries. They also announced the first wave line-up which includes Nicki Minaj, DJ Steve Aoki and singer Liam Payne. The second wave line-up will also be announced soon.
So yeah, now I’m just sad and confused.
Vinyl Destination is a curated destination for vinyl lovers in Kuwait that was created by Farah Bishara (DJ Bonita) simply because we didn’t have any record stores in Kuwait. Even though CDs are dead, vinyl is still pretty much alive and no store sells them. When Virgin Megastore closed down we kinda lost our last music store since all our favorite music shops from the 80s and 90s had closed down including:
Bells (got my first CD from there, Paula Abdul Spellbound 1991)
IVC
Soul II Soul
Subway
Swan Lake (got my first tape from there, Ghostbusters soundtrack 1984)
The Video Club
White House
Vinyl Destination started off as a pop-up event back in October and since then it popped up a couple of times before going into hibernation for the summer. But recently, Vinyl Destination launched an online store. There is a pretty decent selection for sale, not too many and mostly one of each vinyl, but not a bad start and they’re also priced pretty reasonably from 10 to 15KD.
So if you’re looking for vinyl this is your best bet unless you want to go rummage through random piles in the antique basement. www.vinyldestinationkuwait.com
I haven’t posted a shawarma review here in nearly a decade but that’s mostly because no new shawerma place has really interested me until now. Recently a new shawarma place opened up in Al Rai called Shakir and there has been a lot of hype surrounding it which is why I wanted to pass by and try it out. I think what grabbed my attention the most about the place was the fact they used freshly baked breadrolls for the shawarma, and after trying it out yesterday, I think that’s my favorite thing about the place.
Shakir is located pretty much walking distance from The Avenues, on the same street as Party Land and True Value. It’s a super busy area all day long so by the time you walk into the place you’re already stressed out from traffic. Your stress level will only get worse once you’re inside since there will most likely be a really long queue to order food. I stood in line at 5:47PM and got back to my car with the food by 6:22PM. That’s over 30 minutes just to pick up shawarma!
The place doesn’t have chicken shawarma, just meat with two sauces, either the regular tahina or the spicy tahina sauce. Other than that the menu only has fries, juices and laban. Pretty simple which I like although as a chicken shawerma guy, I would rather they have chicken instead of meat or the option to choose between either. While waiting for my food I spent most of my time watching them bake the breadrolls and I think that’s just the smartest idea and I don’t know why no other place does it. Plain fresh bread tastes good as is, so imagine how much better it would taste stuffed with juicy meat and tahina.
I ordered the regular shawerma as well as the spicy one along with fries and juice to go on the side. I think the regular shawerma tasted just ok with the spicy one tasting a lot better because of the more interesting spicy sauce. The best part about the shawerma was the bread as expected, and that’s what would probably make me go back, BUT, only after the hype dies down. It was definitly not worth waiting 30 minutes and I went at an irregular hour, so I can’t imagine how long the line would be during regular lunch or dinner timings. At 650 fils per shawerma I’d also expect the breadroll to be stuffed with a lot more meat which they weren’t. They’re pretty stingy with the shawerma which is a turnoff.
Shakir is on instagram @shawarmashakir and here is their location on Google Maps.
My brother sent me this yesterday and it’s such a sad story. Laila who is a cat owner came back to Kuwait from the States with her cat and at the airport was told the cat would need to be seen by the airport vet. So they took the cat from her and three hours later tell her that the cat ran away when they were on the way to see the vet and the couldn’t find it. You can check out her instagram post on this below:
Im fucking crying my ass off while i type this. Winston is missing. When we arrived Kuwait the officer stopped us at the airport and told us we needed to get a paper signed to get winston in kuwait (even though i showed him all the correct paperwork specifying winston is healthy and up to date in all his shots, ect). Since they are too lazy to accept the documents they made me sign a paper. As i picked up winston’s bag they stopped me and told me that he needs to go see a doctor at the airport to make sure hes not carrying any diseases and apparently thats what happens to all animals that arrive the country. I fought with them and begged them not to take him but the officers said those were the rules.
I waited for 3 hours and in the end they told me that he fucking ran away in the cargo on the way to the doctor. He ran away out in the open where all the planes and trucks are. Ive been crying screaming and hysterical ever since and im not authorized to go search for him. We begged the guards to let us in and we were able to scout the area but i wasnt allowed to leave the car. It’s currently 95 degrees and will continue to get hotter to 114 degrees . I am so devastated and destroyed. I dont know what else to say. I am charging my phone and will be back at the airport in a few hours. If you are in kuwait and can help please let me know. .
They wont even let me SEARCH FOR MY OWN CAT please if anyone has authority and can help please let me know this cat is my entire life please help me
I think the worst part for me is the fact it took them three hours to tell her they lost her cat and then wouldn’t let her in to help them look for him. I understand there are security procedures since it’s an airport but there must be ways around that like by having airport security accompany her. Pets generally will panic in an environment like an airport and there would be a much higher chance of finding the cat if the owner was involved in the search. Cats especially aren’t like dogs and won’t just come to a stranger when been called for.
Laila is constantly posting updates on her pets Instagram account so if you want to know more about what’s happening, check @leya_and_winston
Update: Sadly, the cat was found dead at the airport earlier today. The National Aviation Services (NAS) who were responsible for transporting the cat to the vet posted the following statement on their instagram account:
We regret the unfortunate turn of events with Winston.
We extend our deepest condolences to Ms. Laila and her family during this difficult time.
We are very sorry for their loss.
We are conducting an in-depth internal investigation into the matter.
People will be held accountable.
We will also be putting in place more stringent procedures under “FOSTER” rules to ensure this does not happen again.
To ensure higher safety standards for each animal in our care, we are creating a $100,000 fund – “Foster” towards improvement of animal care facilities at the airport.
We carefully handled over 700 household pets last year without incident. We understand that each animal is unique and precious.
The popular Kuwaiti hip-hop duo Sons of Yusuf are joining forces with TrashTag Kuwait in a beach clean up this Tuesday. The TrashTag challenge has been pretty active in Kuwait cleaning up beaches and growing quickly with more and more volunteers taking part.
If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow (it’s a great way to meet new people), they’re meeting up at Abo Hassaniya Beach at 6PM. Check out the TrashTag instagram account for more info @trashtagkuwait
I’ve been a fan of Shure earphones ever since I got my first pair back in 2004 and have owned a number of different pairs since. But, I’ve always had to order my Shure’s from Amazon because I could never find them locally until now. Last week I found out that the local musical instruments store Salmeen carries Shure earphones and for the most part, they aren’t that overpriced. Here are the prices compared to Amazon (not including tax or shipping):
Shure SE215 Wired
Salmeen: KD49
Amazon: KD30
Shure SE215 Wireless
Salmeen: KD55
Amazon: KD45
Shure SE425
Salmeen: KD85
Amazon: KD82
Shure SE425 Wirless
Salmeen: KD99
Amazon: KD91
Shure SE535
Salmeen: KD150
Amazon: KD136
If you’re interested in getting Shure’s, Salmeen has two locations, one in Salmiya and one in Avenues but they also have an online shop with all their items.
I’ve used the US mail forwarding company MyUS on and off since 2001. Originally they were the only option available, then Shop&Ship by Aramex came about so started using them, and it’s been a back and forth relationship with them ever since. I usually jump ship whenever I find a better deal since I ship a lot of items and the savings do add up. For the past few years, I’ve been using the MyBox service from PostaPlus since they were the most affordable offering but then last week I remembered one reader had previously told me MyUS had reduced their prices and were now cheaper than PostaPlus.
A couple of weeks ago I had ordered and shipped a bunch of parts for my Datsun 240z to my PostaPlus account and the total package weighed around 40lb. When I had originally checked the rate calculator on PostaPlus it told me I would pay around KD75 which I figured was ok. After I shipped the items, I decided to check the rate calculator on the MyUS website and was surprised to get KD45. That’s a pretty huge difference which is why I’m now thinking of moving back to MyUS.
But I have a few questions for those of you who currently are using them:
– Other than the shipping cost, what are usually the custom clearance fees you pay, for example with PostaPlus it’s KD1 for custom clearance and then 5% of the total shipment value for customs.
– Can you pay the customs fees online or is it cash on delivery?
– Are there any issues you’ve had with MyUS?
On a side note (and coincidentally), MyUS recently published an article about the top influencers in Kuwait and yours truly made the list. You can check that post out here.
Update: I tried them out and they’re more expensive than MyBox. Click here for details.
Not sure why there is a sudden influx in car storage facilities in Kuwait, but it doesn’t really matter since the more facilities like this the more competitive their prices will have to be. Last week I posted about a new car storage facility called Curated, and now this is another brand new facility called Serv.
Serv is also located in Kuwait City, specifically in the basement of the multistory lot behind Behbehani Complex, in the block across the street from Arraya Tower. I dropped by last week to check it out and it was actually pretty cool. If The Vault is the gold standard for these facilities in Kuwait, Serv comes pretty close to offering nearly all of their services.
Other than the usual offerings like air-conditioned parking, 24h security, and power sockets all around to connect battery trickle chargers to, Serv also has a dedicated parking area for bikes, private garages of different sizes in case you don’t want to park next to other cars or need car privacy, and probably most importantly, Serv is also fully insured so in case something happens to your car it’s covered by their insurance. To top it off their parking lot also looks pretty cool design-wise and so the cars parked there also end up looking good.
When it comes to pricing it’s closer to Curated than it is to The Vault. At the time of publishing the prices at Serv are as follows:
Normal Parking
1 Month: KD95
3 Months: KD255
6 Months: KD450
12 Months: KD780
Boxes (Private Garages)
12 Months: KD1,380 and up depedning on box size
Bikes Parking
1 Month: KD40
3 Months: KD111
6 Months: KD210
12 Months: KD360
If you’re looking for a car storage facility for your car and are interested in Serv then check them out on Instagram @serv.kw.
Cinescape recently launched what they’re calling their “first ever boutique cinema”. 1954 Film House is a retro-looking cinema that reflects the history of cinema in the golden era when theaters were much more glamorous.
The cinema is decorated with posters of old films and contains three different theaters with distinctive looks, each representing a different story on the history of cinema. I haven’t visited this new theater yet because of the fact that it’s located in Al Kout Mall which is pretty far from where I live, but it’s definitely an interesting idea although it would have made more sense if it also played older films and not just the current commercial ones.
If you want to find out more you can check out their Instagram account @1954filmhouse
Annabelle Comes Home
The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:
New This Weekend:
Anna (6.7)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Yesterday (6.5)
Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Child’s Play (6.8)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (7.4)
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (8.1)
Men in Black: International (5.6)
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (6.9)
Red Joan (6.3)
The Dead Don’t Die (5.9)
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (6.5)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)
Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
I recently found out that it’s the British School of Kuwait’s 40 year anniversary. What not everyone knows is the little fun fact the school used to be called Sunshine School when it first opened in the late 70s up until 1990. I was in Sunshine School from 1980 to 1990 and I was part of the last class to graduate from it before the Iraqi invasion, after that, things got a bit messy and I ended up bouncing a lot from school to school and country to country until I finally graduated high school.
Because of the 40th anniversary, the school is publishing a small book and asked me if I had any photos to contribute since I’ve previously shared photos on the blog. I did of course and so had my sister mail me all the Sunshine School photos we had stored in our family home in Lebanon so I could scan them.
What’s cool is I posted some of my karate club photos taken in the early 80s and one of my followers recognized the karate instructor and sent me a link to his Facebook account. Turns out up until recently, he was still teaching karate in Kuwait.
There are 58 pictures and you can check them out after the link below. If you want the hi-res scan they’re also available to download on Flickr.
If you recognize yourself in any of the photos let me know!
Recently I decided to upgrade my TV life to 4K. It wasn’t something I planned for, I was at Xcite picking up something and decided to take a walk in the TV aisle and got amazed at how sharp the footage was on their 4K TV’s. Since Amazon Video, Netflix and YouTube now support 4K, I decided I might as well get a new 4K capable TV. I ended up with the Samsung NU8000, it cost me around KD260 for the 55″ which is pretty reasonable compared to some other TVs.
So what I didn’t know about upgrading to 4K was that I’d need to upgrade a whole bunch of other things as well to get 4K working. At first, I thought I could just upgrade my Apple TV to the new 4K version and that would be it, but then I found out my sound system receiver which I plug everything into wasn’t 4K compatible. So I had to go out and buy a new AV receiver that was also 4K compatible. Then I found out that my HDMI cables also weren’t 4K compatible (surprisingly 4K HDMI cables aren’t a marketing gimmick!). So I had to go back out and buy new 4K capable HDMI cables. In the end, to get 4K working at home I had to buy a new TV, new Apple TV, a new AV receiver, two new HDMI cables and then on top of that, upgrade my Netflix membership to the more expensive 4K package ($15.99). So was it worth it?
After fiddling a ton with a bunch of settings on my TV and AppleTV (mostly the HDR settings), I finally got everything working the way I wanted it to. Not everything is shot in 4K (or HDR) but most of the new shows and movies are. I think the most impressive things visually I’ve watched in 4K were David Attenborough’s new Netflix documentary “Our Planet“, the documentary series “One Strange Rock” that’s directed by Darren Aronofsky and hosted by Will Smith, and finally the Netflix Sci-Fi film “I Am Mother“. All three were 4K and had HDR so the footage was super crisp and impressive, especially some of the darker scenes in “I Am Mother” where HDR I think made a lot of difference. HDR is a technique used to get a more dynamic range of luminosity in the footage and most TV’s nowadays I believe have it. You can clearly see HDR at work in some scenes, but it’s difficult for me to put in words (but I’ll try). If you’re watching TV in the dark and there is a dark scene and suddenly a beam of sunlight shines through a crack in a wall and hits the camera, the sunlight looks super bright to the point you squint because HDR helps keep the dark areas of the screen really dark. Not sure if that made sense but basically you can get a lot more range of darkness and lightness in the same scene at the same time.
Should you upgrade to 4K? If you’re looking to get a new TV then yes it’s a no brainer. If you don’t have an external sound system or a device like Apple TV and are instead, just planning to use the streaming apps that you can install directly on the TV, it’s not gonna be too expensive to get 4K working. But on the other hand, if you do have a full setup like mine and one that you purchased a while back, expect to spend quite a bit to get 4K up and running properly. If you play videogames you’ll also have the added expense of having to upgrade to the 4K capable PS4 or Xbox as well on top of all the other expenses I mentioned earlier. But, I do think the combination of having 4K and HDR is worth it since it has elevated my TV viewing experience a lot more than when I had upgraded my TV from 720P to 1080P. So do it.
Not sure what’s with the latest car storage trend in Kuwait but right now I’m aware of four of them and three just popped up recently. A car storage facility is basically a managed parking lot for people who don’t have a place to park their nice cars but don’t want to park them in random public parking lots. Different facilities offer different services like trickle charging for your battery, air conditioning, 24h security and more.
Last year I posted about a car storage facility called The Vault which was aimed towards the high-end market, but recently a more affordable place opened up called Curated. Curated is located in Kuwait City behind Al-Awqaaf Center, in the multistory lot next to Centerpoint. The lowest basement level is closed off from the rest of the parking and only members are allowed to use it. Their prices are as follows:
Monthly = KD65
6 Months = KD360
1 Year = KD660
Currently its the most affordable managed car storage facility I’m aware of but there are two more I need to visit, SERV which I think is priced similarly, and Cartel which is described as a luxury car hotel so most definitely more expensive.
If you’re interested in Curated, they’re on instagram @curatedkwt
Back in February Zain hooked me up with Zain Beam to test out. Previously I had been using B Wirless (WiMD) but my direct line of sight with their tower had been blocked and so my connection was no longer stable. A regular LTE connection in my area was also unstable with speeds varying between 2Mbps to 4Mbps, maybe a bit more sometimes. After trying out Zain Beam in February for a couple of weeks, I loved it so much I decided to commit for 2 years and subscribe to it. This is now my follow-up review around 4 months later.
If you want to read my previous post on Zain Beam including details on the installation process, click here.
Since I installed Zain Beam the internet connection has been pretty flawless. I subscribed to their 20Mbps service but I rarely get speeds less than 27Mbps, in fact, it’s usually always around 30Mbps. For those of you with LTE connections in fancier less congested areas, you’re probably not impressed with my internet speed, and that’s understandable. I find it frustrating that my phone’s speed can reach 120Mbps in some areas, but yet my Zain Beam connection at home gets me only 30Mbps. It’s even more frustrating now to see my friends get upwards of 600Mbps with 5G as well. But, 30Mbps is the fastest connection I’ve ever been able to get in my apartment.
That’s the thing you need to be aware of when comparing Zain Beam to other internet services in Kuwait. Not everyone has fiber optics or fast LTE in their areas. Zain Beam is meant for people like me living in heavily congested areas with no fiber, no decent 4G connection, and no 5G either. So 30Mbps is super fast for me, it’s three times faster than my previous 10Mbps connection I had with B Wireless, and the only other connection that I can get which is faster than mine… is the 40Mbps Zain Beam package.
Another thing I want to point out is that Zain also limits the amount of Beam users in an area, I guess to keep the experience consistent. A friend of mine wanted to get Beam in my area but Zain told him all the slots had already been filled.
In the 4 months I’ve had Beam I did run into one issue. Around a week or two after signing up I woke up one morning and found my internet down. No biggie, I called up Zain to talk to support and this is where I ran into a problem. With B Wireless, if I had a problem I’d call support and someone would pick up right away. The support guy would then try and solve my problem over the phone and if the problem was more complicated, he’d either tell me he’d call me back or that a technician would be sent over. Fairly simple and the whole process of solving my issue would take less than 5 minutes. With Zain, on the other hand, you don’t talk to a support persona, instead, you have to call up the regular Zain call center and leave a complaint and then someone gets back to you. Wouldn’t be that big of a deal but the process to leave a complaint takes forever! It took the call center guy over 10 minutes (not exaggerating) just to file my complaint. Their process for taking complaints is excruciatingly long, that’s over 10 minutes just to tell them my internet is down and for them to tell me someone will call me back. Other than that I didn’t really have any issues and that day it turned out my connection was down because they were doing maintenance.
With the launch of 5G last week the only thing that I’m bothered with right now is the price vs speed ratio compared to 5G. Viva, for example, offers 5G at KD25 a month (although with a 250GB limit) which is how much I’m paying, so I now feel like my connection is starting to feel overpriced. If 5G in my area can get me speeds over 100Mbps I’d be super upset that I’m committed to two years of Zain Beam and just getting 30Mbps. What I’m hoping is that Zain will eventually upgrade the speed of their two Beam packages in the coming months from the current 20Mbps and 40Mbps options right now, to maybe 40Mbps and 80Mbps instead. That would make things more palatable when compared to 5G.
If you have any specific questions on Zain Beam you can ask me in the comments below. If you’re interested in signing up to Zain Beam, here is a link to their product page.