2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

It’s going to take place on January 26 and be a mixture of a trail run, off-road cycling and and an obstacle course. You can sign up individually or a team (max 3) but you should be part of a gym since this competition is going to be a challenge between local clubs. I’m signing up to this for sure since it sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. They told me there will be mud!

If you want to sign up you can call the following number: 65778598

Mr Babu is a website that belongs to a friend of mine and I think it’s an interesting idea that should make shopping much easier for a lot of people. It’s an online shop but the way it works is different from other local online shops. Mr Babu is connected to a bunch of international online shopping databases and when you search for an item on their website it will find it for you, convert the price to Kuwaiti Dinars, add a shipping fee to Kuwait and then displays the price. You then place an order and they’ll get it for you. The price you see on their website is the price you pay for the item including shipping to Kuwait. There are no extra hidden shipping costs or anything of the sort.

I ordered the Bug-A-Salt (video above) from their website and since they had some local stock it was delivered to me the next businesses day. Most items though will take a week or more similar to when ordering using Shop & Ship or Borderlinx. The website is still in beta so it’s running a little slow but other than that its working fine. You can check it out [Here]

Update: In case the website isn’t working here is an explanation from Mr Babu:

We are overwhelmed by the traffic generated by your post which caused our site to crash (as you mentioned being in Beta stage we learn a thing everyday). Our team is working on the issue and will resolve it very soon. Thank you for using Mrbabu

GulfRun 7 takes over the Bahrain International Circuit from GulfRun

Since GulfRun 8 is approaching next month the team decided to release a video highlighting last years event. GulfRun is an event in which guys from Kuwait send their cars to Bahrain and spend two days racing on the Formula 1 circuit with other drivers. For more information on GulfRun you can check out their website [Here]

That’s a nasty accident. [YouTube]

Last night I got to discover and try Mandi for the first time. I hadn’t heard about it before so was pretty intrigued when my friend told me about it. Mandi is a traditional dish of lamb and rice. The way they cook the lamb is they lower it into a pit in the ground filled with hot coal. Right underneath the hanging lamb is a large pot of rice. They then close the hole and cover it with sand so that the smoke doesn’t escape. The lamb then starts to cook slowly with all the fat dripping into the rice underneath. Finally once the lamb is ready it’s raised from the ground and served. The meat was super tender and absolutely delicious. Even the rice was just incredible.

Below are some pictures I took when they were pulling the lamb up from the ground. If you ever get the chance I highly recommend you try Mandi out.

Camel in the back of a Supercharged Range Rover. [Link]

I was contacted by Alghanim Automotive asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the new Camaro ZL1. I’m honestly not a big fan of American cars and if they were asking me to review the regular Camaro I would have most likely said no, but… the ZL1 is a different kind of Camaro, it’s a Camaro with a V8 6.2L 580-freakin-HP monster engine. So I said yes.

There’s a popular saying that people don’t change, well that’s not true. I’m usually a law abiding, non-agressive and courteous driver, but once I started driving the ZL1 I changed. In my neighborhood I became the asshole down the street with the loud car who tries to run down all the cats. On the highway I became the jerk that cuts everyone off, at u-turns I became the douche that slides his car at full thrust and at red traffic lights I was the dipstick who kept revving his engine loudly. This car is dark and evil. It changes people. All I wanted to do is drive around with my middle finger sticking out the window while doing donuts in the middle of every intersection on the Gulf Road. Oh and a large FUCK YOU sticker on the rear window would have been nice as well. I really loved this car.

The ZL1 I picked up was pretty aggressive looking. The color was a very dark gray (jet black), the 20inch wheels were black and the interior was also black. If I was to choose a color combination for my car this would have been exactly it. I am really thankful to Alghanim for not providing me with a bright yellow Camaro with black stripes running down the middle since I would have most likely puked all over it. The interior as I mentioned was also black but they also used Alcantara (suede like material) for the steering wheel, gear stick and dash which made the interior very sporty looking. I had a choice between an auto and manual but since my stick shift skills are as good as Kim Kardashians acting skills, I chose the auto to the dismay of all my friends. I don’t regret I did. Although the automatic gearbox has a lot to be desired in term of responsiveness and speed, it didn’t really matter to me since I wasn’t on the track and I was just having too much fun with the car to notice. The car really is a lot of fun to drive. The first two days when I picked up the car it was raining so obviously the roads were wet and a 580HP rear wheel drive car on a wet surface is asking for trouble (the good kind). You really do need to respect the power which I wasn’t really doing hence why I got the scare of my life when I was driving at around 110KM/H and gave the car a kick down which to my surprise slid the ass sideways so much I nearly hit the car on my right. This car is a beast. It’s loud, it’s angry and it wants to kill you. I have no idea how I didn’t get stopped by the cops and deported in the five days I had the car. It was crazy good times.

I do have a bunch of negatives about the car though. For one thing the seats aren’t sporty enough. I would have wanted them to be deeper bucket seats and tighter since I was sliding left and right on my seat without much side support. The stereo was also a disappointment even though it was a 250w Boston Acoustics sound system, it just didn’t have the oomph. Externally, the front and sides of the car look pretty aggressive but the rear not so much. If I bought this car the first thing I’d do is replace the rear wing with a carbon version to match the carbon on the front hood, I’d also black out the chrome around the rear lights and more importantly replace the rear bumper with one more aggressive looking and possibly one with a rear carbon skirt. Finally gas consumption. If you drive the car like an old women the gas consumption is actually not that bad. On the other hand if you drive the car like it’s meant to be driven then you’re going to consume a lot of gas, and I mean A LOT of gas. There was one day where I filled the gas tank full three freakin times! I’ve never done that with ANY car before not even on long road trips.

The price of the auto ZL1 in Kuwait is KD19,695. The manual version is for slightly less at KD19,195. If you’re looking for a very fun monster but one that’s still comfortable as an everyday car then I can’t think of anything better than this. I want this car.

Note: No cats were harmed during the making of this review

Gallup measured positive emotions in 148 countries and areas using the following five questions:

– Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
– Where you treated with respect all day yesterday?
– Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
– Did you lear or do something interesting yesterday?
– Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment?

The percentage in Kuwait who answered yes to all the questions above was 79% placing Kuwait in 17th place. Impressive. [Link]

Thanks Othman

I spotted the Ballpark hot dogs above at Sultan Center. I guess they’re no longer banned.

This time it took place at a gas station. I don’t have any details on why the altercation took place or what happened to the victim. If I find out anything will update this post. [YouTube]

Note: Sorry for the bloody photos below but The Avenues cleaners weren’t available to mop up the mess.

Update: I added a second video below

Update2: Kuwait Times has “some” information on this attack. [Link]

Update3: The attackers were arrested. [Link]

The Forum’s For Sale section always has interesting items for sale and usually for very good deals. Right now someone is selling the limited Kuwait edition Panerai with the Al Hamra engraving on the back for what could be a good price. If you’re interested you can check it out [Here]

I got an email from a reader saying that KDD products are now available at the Qurtuba Co-op. Only at the Qurtuba Co-op and not any other Co-ops as of this post. Usually the Co-ops are all united with their decisions but it seems there is some sort of internal conflict taking place right now and the Qurtuba Co-op was the first one to breakaway from the Co-ops KDD boycott and put KDD back on the shelves. I’m curious to see where this is going.

Thanks Kuwait Lover

[YouTube]

The video above is a TV interview with Colonel Adel Alhashash who shared facts regarding the stabbing that took place last night at The Avenues. According to the Colonel the incident started over a parking spot at around 10PM. The victim and the killer got into a heated argument over a parking spot in the basement and the confrontation then continued inside the mall. The victim was a Lebanese citizen, Dr Jaber Yousef who’s a dentist while the killer was with three other friends. During the confrontation in the mall the killer went and purchased a knife from Carrefour and then headed towards the victim and proceeded to stab him. Dr Jaber Yousef passed away an hour after arriving to the hospital.

According to the Colonel, The Avenues helped the investigators out a lot by providing them photos and CCTV footage of the aggressor. Because of those images the investigators were able to identify the killer but when they went to his home they didn’t find him there. They finally found him at a campsite in Bnaider where he was arrested. He’s 22 years old. The three friends who were with him have still not been caught but they will be soon.

When the Colonel was asked about the lack of presence of police officers at the mall the Colonel responded saying that with private locations such as malls the security is provided by the malls themselves and not the police. But, from what I understood in the interview this might change soon because of this incident and previous violent incidents that have taken place at malls.

There is a memorial page set up for the victim on Facebook and you can visit it by clicking [Here]

Update: Below is the photo of the killer

No idea what happened, supposedly it was over a girl but that’s still unconfirmed. There are also some graphic pictures of the victim currently circulating Whatsapp, Instagram and Twitter but I won’t be sharing them here.

Picture by Fajer188x

Update: A friend sent me the following video, no idea who the source is but that’s a lot of blood.

[YouTube]

Update2: Just posted the facts on the stabbing [Here]

Desert Tycoon is an iPhone game created by two guys one of whom is Kuwaiti Abdullah Al Zabin. The game is similar to SimCity but in this case you are based in the Gulf and you start off as a humble Bedouin. Step by step you build your business empire of real estate, business, energy, and tourism assets with the aim of basically turning your city into an Arabian metropolis like how Dubai is today.

The cartoon graphics are great and the music fits the game perfectly. More importantly the game is free and available to download from the iTunes store right now. [English Version] [Arabic Version]

Update: I got an email from Abdullah with some details regarding who they are. This is what he had to say:

A brief background about us. Myself and my business partner Ali Diab started Lumba in January of this year with a simple premise: build the next generation Arab mobile entertainment company. We are based in San Francisco, actually in the same shared office where many of the [now] large mobile game developers (Pocket Gems, SuperCell, Kabam, etc.) started over the past 3 years.

Our team consists of:
– Product Managers that worked for AdMob, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Bain
– Artists and Illustrators that worked with Pixar, Dreamworks, Fox, and Disney
– Software Engineers that worked for Google
– Music composer and producer who scored music for console game titles on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. He also produced music for Kelly Rowland, Rick Ross, Black Eyed Peas, and Nicole Scherzinger

We are taking it upon ourselves to tastefully fuse Silicon Valley tech with our Arab cultural roots for all our mobile games. We hope our first, Desert Tycoon, is representative of that.