2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Burger & Lobster, one of my favorite restaurants in London in opening up in Kuwait at The Avenues. It’s so very odd since they’re only located in England and New York at the moment. As the name suggests, they only serve two things, burgers and lobsters. There is no food menu just a drinks menu since the food menu consists of just 3 dishes, a hamburger, a whole lobster and a lobster roll. All three dishes are priced the same, £20 in the UK and $20 in the US.

No idea how it’s going to work here since lobster prices in Kuwait are insane. They can’t seriously charge KD20 for a lobster roll here, can they? £20/$20/KD20? Burger & Lobster will be opening in Grand Avenues on the top level right next to Figs. So if you’re standing outside Cheesecake Factory just look up and you’ll spot it.

Below are some important Ramadan timings, if you’d like add anything leave it in the comments below.

Banks: 10AM to 1:30PM (Airport 24 hours)
Government: 9:30AM to 2PM
360 Mall: 11AM to 3PM & 8:30PM to 1AM
Avenues Mall: 10AM to 4 & 8PM to 1AM
Gate Mall: 10AM to 3PM & 8PM to 12AM
Marina Mall: 11AM to 4PM & 8:30PM to 1AM
Salhiya: 10:30AM to 2:30PM & 8:30PM – 12:30AM
Souq Sharq: 10AM to 4PM & 8:30PM to 1AM

The Daily Mail have published an article on the popular Kuwaiti bodybuilder ‘Shredded Diesel’. I used to come across his photos on instagram often and thought he was just another musclehead, but turns out he’s actually a personal trainer and has worked with the likes of Timbaland, Madonna and Justin Timberlake. One interesting thing in the article is that he encourages taking candy after workouts. It sounds a bit iffy but I’m probably going to research it a bit more after this post and see if that means I can have my favorite chocolate after the gym. Anyway check out the article with loads of photos on the Daily Mail website [Here]

Cruising Kitchens, a company that specializes in building food trucks just uploaded a video of a truck they built for Chilis Kuwait. The truck is pretty huge but what caught my attention is something the presenter says. According to the video, the Chillis food truck will be “the first food truck allowed to operate in Kuwait”. Not sure what that means exactly since there are already a number of food trucks operational in Kuwait.

My guess is that there is probably a new food truck license in Kuwait and Chilis would be the first food truck to get that license. Previously the food trucks in Kuwait were operating in a grey area so if this is true, then I imagine more food trucks will start popping up. [Link]

The blogger Crazy in Kuwait posted a few pictures of some interesting looking houses in Kuwait and the one that caught my attention was the house that looks like an American suburban house complete with a white picket fence. Check out the other houses [Here]

A bunch of people sent me the link to the story below today about two expats getting deported because they fought over a parking lot:

Two Asian men who fought over a car parking spot were arrested by police. The fight started in a Salmiya parking lot, and police were called to break it up. One of the Asians sustained a head wound, so he was taken to Mubarak hospital, while the other man was sent to the police station. Both will be deported. [Source]

Should they be punished? Yes. Deported? No way.

In the paper a day earlier there were two other reports of fights as well (pictured above). One was related to a husband beating his wife and another related to three girls fighting at a cafe. Were they also deported? I doubt it. This whole deportation thing is unjust, confusing and it doesn’t look like it will be applied to everyone.

Last Wednesday exactly 4 weeks after my ankle surgery, I left the house without crutches for the very first time and it felt amazing. The simple act of walking is something I’ve learned to appreciate so much more because I couldn’t do it while I was recovering. Going around in crutches was such a pain in the ass experience but it could have been a lot more difficult if it wasn’t for the fact the majority of the places in Kuwait are disabled friendly.

The most disabled friendly places in Kuwait are probably the malls especially the new ones like Avenues and 360 Mall. In Avenues I found out that some stores even had elevators in the back that you could use if you wanted to (like Williams Sonoma) and that’s not including all the other elevators located all around the mall. Actually the only place in Avenues I couldn’t access was the men’s section at COS. The mens section at COS is on the top floor and can only be accessed by stairs. So if you’re a disabled guy in a wheelchair or crutches, tough luck you can’t shop at COS.

Once you step outside of malls things generally take a step down but not too badly. I think there is a law that stipulates all buildings are required to have ramps for people in wheelchairs and I think most places do. It’s probably one of the few laws that is actually enforced. Only issue is some of these ramps are so steep that I can’t imagine anyone in a wheelchair being able to go up them without any help. If there was a place I wanted to go to and wasn’t sure if they had handicap access I would call ahead and check. Its how I found out Almakan has an elevator. One place that susrprised me and I’ve already mentioned this before is Sultan Center Shaab. Even thought they aren’t required to do so, they have a regular wheel chair and an electric scooter available at their main entrance for anyone to use. Avenues also have these scooters available.

I obviously can’t speak for everyone and I only had to use crutches for a month but from my short experience, I’m actually impressed at how accessible Kuwait can be to the disabled. Parking though is definitely another issue all together. It’s not the lack of disabled parking spots but the lack of respect for these spots by the general public. The best example of this I could think of is a short video made by Hasan Bomejdad, a player in the Kuwaiti national table tennis team. I posted that video back in 2010 but the issue is still relevant today, people continue to park in disabled spots when they shouldn’t be. You can check out that video [Here] If you have anything to add on this subject based on personal experience, let me know in the comments below.

Top photo by Sara

Last week me and some friends rented out the cinema room at Cinemagics and watched episode 9 of Game of Thrones. It’s a small VIP theater with 12 reclining leather seats, a large 5×2.5m screen and a dolby digital surround system. It was pretty fun since we all had dinner at my place first and then walked over to Cinemagics which is just down the street from me. I wasn’t planning on posting about the room until after the finale tomorrow since I was going to book the room again. But, I decided to travel for a couple of days so I won’t be here anymore for the final episode.

The room is very cozy and the seats really comfortable. They provide you with water and popcorn and they also will stay open late for you since last week we ended up heading there are 10:30 at night and leaving around midnight. The only thing I would recommend is if you’re 10 people NOT to try and take the lift up to Cinemagics together. We got stuck for a few minutes and it wasn’t fun. Anyway if anyone is interested in booking the cinema room tomorrow, you can contact Yousif on 67001250.

Ghaliah for those of you who don’t know are a locally established social media agency that launched back in 2011. Today they’re the largest digital agency in Kuwait handling the majority of the social media accounts of companies in Kuwait as well as manage most of the local celebrity instagrammers. Early last week they sold 40% stake in the company to a local investor (Al Bahar Group) for a sum of $20,000,000. That makes Ghaliah the latest web related startup in Kuwait to hit it big. The other two I could think of right now are Talabat and FishFishMe. Ghaliah will now be using most of the new funding to expand their services to New York and Dubai (they’re already in Saudi Arabia and Qatar) as well as introduce new services.

As I’ve said before, a good idea is a good idea even if you’re based in Kuwait. If anything, I think because of the amount of free time people have in Kuwait, it makes perfect sense to start a side business here (and many people do). On a side note does anyone wanna pay me a few million for my blog? Will include lots of Shani in the deal.

I was talking to a friend yesterday and somehow we ended up talking about the popular Munchos chips from the 80s. He was telling me they’re nearly impossible to get nowadays because they sell out before they even hit the supermarket shelves. They’re in real high demand and so they’re always out of stock.

But, turns out there is a way to get them by using a Munchos dealer.

So the Munchos dealer is basically a Fico mandoub and the way it works is pretty simple. You add him on whatsapp and you send him a message letting him know how many boxes of Munchos you want. Once he gets a supply he’ll contact you and you’ll then be able to pick up a box. So if you’re interested in Munchos, the number you can contact is 50273636. I don’t know what his name is I just have him saved as Munchos Dealer. So now I have a Munchos Dealer to go along with my Mango Dealer. I love Kuwait.

Photo from Kaifii

This weekend, specifically Saturday is just insane with a ton of interesting events taking place. Probably the most oddest thing however is the K-Pop World Festival thats taking place in Mishref. That’s definitely something worth checking out. Check out the full list below:

Thursday
Study for a Domiciled Gallery
Family Exhibition
Ramadan Food Exhibition
Sukar Ramadan Sweets Expo
Health Informatics

Friday
Family Exhibition
Ramadan Food Exhibition
Sukar Ramadan Sweets Expo

Saturday
Family Exhibition
Ramadan Food Exhibition
Sukar Ramadan Sweets Expo
Yoga for K’SPATH
Concert: Taksim Trio
Ride With Us
It’s Story Time
K-Pop World Festival
Reddit Meetup

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

Update: The K-Pop World Festival venue has changed, the event is now taking place at the Korean Embassy

I canceled my medical insurance around three years back because I wasn’t really using it. Dumb move obviously since I got raped with the hospital bill last month for my broken ankle. I paid KD450 just for the two screws alone and thats not including the surgery, hospital stay or anything else! So now I’m back looking for an insurance company to sign up to. If you guys can recommend an insurance company based on your personal experience that would be super helpful to me and to anybody else who might be interested in getting medical insurance.

Last year British Airways aired the first part of its four part series on Kuwait onboard all their flights. The film was well received and since then the team has been busy working on part two of the series which they just released last night. Check it out above or on [YouTube]

If you check the sports page on CNN.com right this moment, the current featured article is on Kuwait’s abandoned Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium. The stadium which was completed back in 2007 has only been used once since then for an officially sanctioned match.

I just read the article and I’m still confused to why the stadium is closed. Supposedly what I heard is what everyone else had heard which is the stadium had a structural fault. But, according to the article, the contractor and the stadium’s security chief have both denied there is any kind of fault in the building. Yet the article also states that the Amiri Diwan have now taken over the project and have hired a new contractor who is currently in the process of repairing the building. So was there a fault or wasn’t there a fault? I don’t get it. Check out the article on CNN [Here]

A couple of days back I posted a letter from a British teacher who was deported for driving without a Kuwaiti license. The post ended up gaining a lot of attention (nearly doubling my blogs traffic) as well as creating a heated discussion in the comments section of the post.

I managed to stay out of the conversation but I just wanted to clarify a few points. Firstly the teacher never said he was an English teacher, people assumed he was an English teacher or that he even taught in English just because he mentioned he was British. Originally when the teacher first contacted me, he shared a photo of a letter he wrote when in the prison cell. The letter was in Arabic which I couldn’t read so I told him to resend it in English which is what I ended up posting on the blog.

If you’d like to read his original letter in Arabic click [Here]

Based on the amount of attention the letter garnered it’s clear that deportation is a sensitive issue. Having your life taken away from you for a minor wrongdoing is just too extreme and it puts everyone on the edge. I’ve personally highlighted these overkill punishments a number of times on the blog and I’ll say it again, I find them ridiculous. How does barbecuing get your deported? Unless you’re barbecuing a wild boar outside the gates of Bayan Palace while cracking open a 6-pack of beer with some friends, barbecuing shouldn’t get you deported. It certainly doesn’t deserve a stiffer and harsher punishment than a person caught running a red light.

One final thing I’d also like to say, just because expats complain doesn’t mean they hate Kuwait. “If you don’t like it leave” is a bullshit statement. If people accepted everything that was given to them then there wouldn’t be any progress or improvement. If you’re out dining and you find a bug in your dish do you not complain? It doesn’t mean you hate the restaurant if you do, and the manager definitely wouldn’t tell you to leave and never come back if you don’t like it (insert Benihana joke here). Expats are as much part of Kuwait as Kuwaitis are and we all want to see it get better. We’re all on team Kuwait.