2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I love it when people say there isn’t anything to do in Kuwait because it just makes me want to work harder trying to prove them wrong. This weekend I went paragliding in Kuwait and it’s just another one of many activities you can now add to your to do list.

Last week I called the Kuwait Aviation Club and booked a paragliding appointment for Friday afternoon. The meetup point was also the takeoff point and that was past Khiran City near exit 285 [Map]. Once I arrived I met with Sultan Alanizi who is the only certified paragliding instructor in Kuwait and the guy who would be piloting our flight. Since the wind was a bit strong we had to hang out a bit and wait for it to slow down. While waiting, two other paragliders joined us as well. Turns out it’s sort of a club and they usually go flying together whenever they can. After around 30 minutes of waiting the wind had slowed down and we were ready to take off.

[YouTube]

The setup is a sort of an open cage buggy with a large engine and fan connected at the back. The buggy has two seats, the one in the front is for the pilot while the one in the back is for the passenger. After doing some safety checks, I was asked to put on my helmet and strapped myself into the chair. A few moments later we took off.

[YouTube]

Right after take of we started gaining a lot of altitude very quickly and we ended up going pretty high up. It was close to sunset and it was also low tide so I ended up taking a lot of beautiful shots from the sky. We flew towards Khiran City and circled it a few times while changing altitude every now and then. It was very cool although it kinda became repetitive after circling the third time. Finally after 30 minutes we headed back to our original take off spot and landed.

If you’re interested in paragliding you can do so by calling Sultan on 66515855. The cost is KD30 for 30 minutes and you need to hurry up because once the weather gets warmer they stop flying.

Thursday afternoon I passed by the animal market right next to the Friday Market so I could look for my friends dog. I hadn’t been there in years and even though I was expecting to find puppies and other animals there, I wasn’t expecting to find so many.

The market was just full of cages stacked on top of each other and filled with dogs and cats. I saw kittens that looked like they were born last week and I saw dogs shoved into cages so small they couldn’t fully stand in. Some were lucky enough to have drinking water in their cages while the unlucky ones didn’t. If that wasn’t already bad enough, right outside I spotted three dogs tied to trees that just looked extremely miserable and malnourished. I also assumed the dogs outside being sold were most likely the stolen ones.

I’m honestly not really sure what can be done about this since I don’t believe there is any law against animal cruelty. I just wanted to bring the animals some exposure since after the incident where the municipality shut down the shops due to rent issues, everyone seems to have forgotten about the cruelty that takes place there. If you want to help then don’t purchase any animals from the animal market. If you do, the sellers end up profiting and they will just bring more animals to sell.

[YouTube]

This is another new music video, it’s by Kuwaiti rapper Arabique who’s currently signed to the Bahraini record label Outlaw Productions. I’m not trying to take anything away from him but is it me or are there too many Kuwaiti rappers? Why aren’t there more metal heads like Faisal Al Salem?

Gulf Consult in association with Atkins were engaged to develop a comprehensive detailed Local Plan for Kuwait City entitled ‘Kuwait City Urban Development 2030’. The Plan is to guide development for Kuwait City over the next 20 years to affirm its role as a national/international, financial/business and commercial centre.

Kuwait City is strategically located at the northern peak of the Metropolitan Area overlooking Kuwait Bay, surrounded by the sea to the north east and the 1st Ring Road to the south west. It covers an area of 1,200 hectares and is well connected to the rest of Kuwait through a series of arterial roads that transverse the 1st Ring Road.

The Local Plan proposes that the new development in the city be concentrated in four Action Areas: Sawaber; Mirqab West; Mirqab East and Qibla Commercial Area 1 and 2. The main development premise for these areas is to create mixed use sustainable developments which introduce new land uses into the city.

Also integral to the Plan is the integration of a Park and Open Space Strategy; Transport Strategy; and Utility upgrades and additions.

The Project was completed in six phases: Data Collection and Analysis; Detailed Planning and Traffic Studies; Planning Alternatives for Kuwait City; Detailed Local Plan; Detailed Zoning and Subdivision Plans; and Final Plans and Documents.

The area in question is around Al Tijaria Tower, opposite Al Shaheed Park. It’s currently occupied by old warehouses, an abandoned hospital, a grave yard, garages and tons of stores selling metal pots. The renderings look pretty but since this was just a study, we shouldn’t get our hopes up. More renderings and info [Here]

My friend had her dog stolen last night from her house in Shuwaikh. He’s a 5 month old doberman called Crixus. If anyone spots him please give her a call on 99902227.

Update: she’s offering a KD500 reward if found

Update2: The dog was found in Chabd

The weather this past week has been fantastic, it was sunny and the skies were a deep blue with very little wind. It’s really the best time for outdoor activities including jet skiing.

If you’ve never jet skied before it’s really very easy and not complicated at all. Jet ski has just two buttons and one leaver. The buttons are for starting and shutting down the engine while the lever is for accelerating. To slow down the jet ski you just let go of the lever. You don’t need to know how to balance a jet ski or anything of the sort, you just sit on it and pull the leaver and that’s pretty much it.

There are various locations on the Gulf Road where you can rent jet skis from and they all basically follow the same guidelines. You need to keep your Civil ID with them while the jet ski is out with you and you also have to sign a waiver/contract. Some locations offer lockers to put your stuff in others don’t. I would recommend you keep everything in the car anyway and then either leave your keys with them so they don’t get wet or get a small waterproof pouch to take with you. Some jet ski renters also give you a cheap Casio watch to wear so you know how much time you’ve been out for and when you need to be back by. Most also have a tap/shower to rinse off once you’re done.

The cost of renting a jet ski is KD10 for 30 minutes or KD15 for 1 hour. If you’re interested in renting one below are some Google Map links to various locations along the Gulf Road. If you’re planning to take pictures make sure your phone has a water poof case.

Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
Location 4

Kuwaiti author Saud Alsanousi won the 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction to become the youngest writer to win the prize. Saud won the prize for his story “The Bamboo Stalk” which is about a character called Issa who is a son of a Kuwaiti father and a Filipino mother.

On returning to his father’s homeland as an adult, Issa finds himself in a difficult position. Rather than the mythical country his mother has described to him, he discovers he is caught between the natural, biological ties he shares with his father’s family and the prejudices of a traditional society, which views a child of Kuwaiti-Filipino heritage as socially unacceptable. Skilfully constructed, The Bamboo Stalk is a story of great strength and depth which questions identity in modern society.

You can find out more about Saud and the prize by following this [Link]

I’ve had my eye on the Bang & Olufsen Beolit 12 for some time now and last week I finally decided to splurge and get it. The Beolit 12 is a portable speaker that can operate on battery or electricity. When I first got the Beolit I had buyers remorse but that feeling has since long gone.

Unlike most other portable speaker systems, the Beolit uses AirPlay instead of Bluetooth which can be a good or bad thing depending on your requirements. Setting it up for the first time took around 5 minutes and was a fairly simple process as long as you follow the instructions. A lot of people online have complained about the setup being too complicated but I have no idea why. All you need to do is download the Beolit app from the Apple App Store and then follow the on screen instructions.

The Beolit 12 looks ridiculously cool. It comes in four colors, two being fairly safe grey tones and the other two coming in either blue or yellow. Mine is the yellow model which I think looks the best. The Beolit 12 has a leather handle which makes the whole thing resemble a picnic basket but it also makes the Beolit easy to carry around while giving it a bit of a retro feel. I took the Beolit with me to the beach and also out tagging and in both occasions I thought the Beolit performed really well. On the beach the Beolit was loud sounding like a full fledged sound system. The Beolit pumps out 100w worth of power and at full blast the sound is just too loud for comfort when you’re close to it. A couple of days later I took the Beolit with me to an abandoned parking lot where I did some tagging and the Beolit was super loud again with music most likely being heard by people passing by on the outside. Even though the speaker is fairly small it still manages to pump out a decent amount of bass for its size.

When home, I keep the Beolit in my bedroom connected to electricity, turned on and connected to the wifi network. That way when I want to play music on the Beolit it’s available right away. If you don’t keep your Beolit on with wifi on then it will take around a minute for it to turn on and connect to the wifi network before you can stream music to it. According to B&O battery life is 8 hours unless you’re using AirPlay then its 4 hours. I had the Beolit on the beach for 3 hours playing music at 80% volume and battery was down to around 54% by then. So I guess at lower volumes it could last 8 hours and maybe even more.

I have two gripes about the device. The first night I had the Beolit on the table and when I tried to slide it towards me one of the rubber feet came off. I put it back on and it hasn’t fallen since but I informed the dealer and they told me to let them know if it falls off again. Hopefully it won’t. The second issue is the lack of Bluetooth. Although I love AirPlay at home when I’m out of the house I would rather stream music wirelessly to the Beolit and not have to use a USB cable.

Other than those two issues I really love the Beolit 12. It costs KD250 which is pretty pricy but there really isn’t any other portable unit that delivers the same sound quality while still looking this good.

Ecru is a local Kuwaiti homeware brand (yay! not cupcakes) that will be launching this week with a pop-up shop at Dar Al-Funoon. What I found interesting about them is that their prints are created manually. Basically the way their prints are created is an old fashioned technique where blocks are carved with the pattern and then the pattern is manually stamped onto the fabric. I did a bit of that as part of an art class back in university and I loved the technique because every time you stamped a pattern it was slightly different from the other.

Date: April 24th to April 30th 2013
Time: 10AM to 8PM
Location: Dar Al-Funoon

For more information you can visit the Ecru website [Here]

BBC have a short film on Fawaz Al Hasawi, kinda like a behind the scenes look on who he is and why he chose to purchase the football club Nottingham Forest. Although Fawaz says the club isn’t a plaything and is a serious business, I think the way the film was edited by the BBC and the way they kept focusing on his riches made it look like it’s just another toy like his cars and houses. You can watch the video on the BBC website [Here]

Eagle Rescue April 2013 from john peaveler on Vimeo.

Recently K’S PATH received a dog complaint in Ahmadi and when they arrived to the scene, they found an abandoned house that had an eagle caged up among other animals. The eagle is now with K’S PATH and it’s doing well.

If you’d like to help out and donate to K’S PATH Summer 2013 Maintenance Campaign click [Here]

Kuwaiti rapper BigMo recently featured in a music video for Saudi Arabian rapper Abz. I just watched it and I actually really liked it even though I’m not much into rap (not unless it was made in the 90s). You can watch the music video “Stress” above, BigMo comes in at around 1:15. [YouTube]

You can follow Abz on Facebook [Here]
You can follow BigMo on Facebook [Here]

Below is a comparison between the old airport taxi prices and the recently updated ones. I tried to be as accurate as possible but they’ve divided up the areas in the new pricing system slightly so it was a bit confusing creating this list. For example Hawalli and Salmiya were both KD5 previously but now Hawalli is KD7 and Salmiya is KD8.

Aldajeej – Air Cargo
Old Price: KD6
New Price: KD4

Sabhan – Almagwa – Alfarwaniya – Jileeb Alshuyoukh – Khaitan – lshbeelia – ardhiya industrial – Alrabiya – Alrehab
Old Price: KD4
New Price: KD5

Alshuwaikh industria – Alodailiyah – Alrai – Alriggae – Alandalus – Gurnada – Alrawda – Alyarmouk – Qortuba – Alsurra – Aljabriya – Salwa – Almessilah – Bayan – Meshrif – Dahiyat Mubarak Abdulla Aljaber – sabah Alsalem – Alzahraa – Alsadeeq – Alsalam – Huteen – Alshohadaa
Old Price: KD5
New Price: KD6

Alshuwaikh Residential – Alshamiya – Alkhaldiya – Alfaiha – Kaifan – Alsulaibikhat – Alnuzha – Algadisiya – Aldaia – Al mansouriya –Aldasma – Midan Hawally – Hawally – Alnugra – Alrumaithiya –Algurean – Alqussor – Aladan – Mubarak Alkabeer – Jaber Alali – Aldaher – Abu Fatira – Al Funaitees
Old Price: KD5
New Price: KD7

Hadiya – Al Rigga – Al Fintas – Al Ogailah – Abuholaifa – Alsobahiya – Almahboula – Alahmadi – Al Mangaf – Al Fahaheel – Alqaser – Alnaseem – Alnaeem – taimaa – Aloyoon – Alwaha – Aldoha – Alshedadia – Amgarah – Kuwait City – Salmiya – Bneid Algar
Old Price: KD5
New Price: KD8

Almotlaa – kabd – Abdulla port – Alshuaibah lndustrial Area
Old Price: KD7
New Price: KD8

Um Al-Haiman
Old Price: KD8
New Price: KD10

Benaider Chalets – Aldhubaeiah
Old Price: KD10
New Price: KD12

Alzoor port – Alwafra – Alkhiran
Old Price: KD17
New Price: KD19

Alabdelli – Alsalmi – Alnuwaseeb – Alsabeya
Old Price: KD20
New Price: KD20

Photo above by Crazy in Kuwait
Old prices from [Here] and new prices from [Here]
Thanks Vineeth

AVICII, the extremely popular Swedish DJ posted the following cryptic message on his Facebook page which kinda sounds like he is coming to Kuwait:

Hey KUWAIT! What do YOU think about the new album songs? I would love to hear YOUR thoughts specifically!

Hope to see you soon!

Interesting to say the least. [Link]

Update: Below is a screenshot of the message I am seeing. Some Facebook users are saying they’re seeing a different country other than Kuwait mentioned. I logged in with a New York based VPN and it still showed me Kuwait so my guess is it’s probably showing the location based on where you’ve told Facebook you live and not IP related. In any case looks like it’s a false alarm.

If you want to help the elephants at the Kuwait Zoo you now can by purchasing the tshirt above. For those of you who don’t read Arabic the tshirt basically says “Love Malek and Dalal” who are the two elephants currently at the Kuwait Zoo. All proceeds from the tshirt sale will go towards the renovation of the elephant cage at the zoo by enriching it. The tshirts are for just KD10 and you can order them by sending an email to [email protected]

To know why the elephants need help, read my previous post [Here]