2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
If you’re ever in the Beirut Souk in Downtown Beirut then you have to check out the old Greek and Roman (I think) ruins which are preserved underneath the souk. Instead of demolishing the ruins they built on top of them so while you’re walking in the modern souk there are openings and spaces where you can can see the old ruins. I think thats a great way of preserving the old without sacrificing the new.
YOU CAN HELP US SAVE ANIMALS IN KUWAIT
DIWANIYA AT AWARE CENTER
Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.
by Kuwaiti animal-rescuer Nadia Al Kandari and local photojournalist Claudia Farkas Al Rashoud
With the inhumane ongoing official policy of poisoning stray dogs and cats, the status of animal rights in Kuwait has reached a new low. Added to that, the widespread practice of dog fighting, illegal importation and breeding of wild animals that are unsuitable or dangerous as pets, dismal conditions in the animal section of the Friday Market, and other unpunished acts of animal cruelty all tarnish Kuwait’s reputation in the international community. However, there are caring and active Kuwaitis, along with compassionate expats, who are striving to make things better for these innocent creatures.
Are there alternative, more human methods of stray animal population control? Of course there are! Are there laws to protect animals in Kuwait? Yes, they do exist but need to be enforced. Is there anything you can do to help prevent cruelty to animals? Yes, definitely! Please attend our diwaniya on animal rights in Kuwait, add your voice to the discussion, and become part of the solution. The AWARE Center is in Surra, Block 3, St. 50, Villa 84
For more information, call 25335260, ext 0/104/105 or log onto www.aware.com.kw or email [email protected]
Looks fun. Too bad their timings conflict with my Core Fitness schedule. [YouTube]
I received the below from K’S PATH and thought was important to share:
K’S PATHS’ animal shelter and sanctuary houses around 200 animals from over 10 species. The effort that goes into the daily care of these animals is great and the finances needed exceed 6,000KD per month. With summer approaching fast, experience tells us that our income is going to decrease greatly while the number of animals needing our care will grow. For K’S PATH to be able to survive through the summer months, we need to raise 10,000KD. We ask our community to rise up to the challenge and help us insure our work for the next few months. Our goal is to raise 10,000KD by the end of April. Remember every little bit helps, so please donate today to this worthy cause.
Options for donations:
1. Transfer money directly into our bank account.
Bank Name: Ahli Bank of Kuwait
Branch: Galleria 2000
Name:Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Account: 0626-468911-001
IBAN:KW42ABKK00000000006264689110 01
2. Drop off donation at:
a. Our shelter in Wafra
b. Animal Care Office in Mangaf
c. Animal Care Kennels at Royal Animal Hospital
3. Call 6700 1622 or e-mail [email protected] to arrange pick up
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions
It’s taking place on April 27th in Dubai so hopefully I’ll be able to make it. [Link]
Kuwait 5 Aside is a new sporting venture, one that builds on the success of the outdoor football pitches. Salem Haidar the owner of Kuwait 5 Aside noticed a lack of structured football in Kuwait so he came up with the idea to start a 5 aside league.
By being part of a league you can playing more competitively but what I thought was more interesting is the fact you get to play in a large flood lit indoor and air conditioned football pitch. That means you could play football all year round no matter how bad the weather is outside.
According to the league rules, each team should have minimum of 7 players and they’re hoping to get a maximum of 140 teams to provide leagues running 6 days a week. The games are from 6 to 11pm and each game lasts 45 minutes. The cost is KD156 per player which would come out to around KD3 a game since there will be 52 games a year. If you’re interested to find out more check out the Kuwait 5 Aside website [Here]
Since Mark is back on his strict diet he asked to review a Chinese place called China Garden. I really enjoy good Chinese food but when it comes to Chinese take-out in Kuwait I’ve become quite skeptical with the options we have. I’ve tried a bunch of places and there doesn’t seem to be one that really stands out, a place that serves good Chinese food that isn’t overly greasy and that isn’t overly expensive.
China Garden is a place that has been around for a while (it’s located next to Showbiz/Holiday Inn), but was purchased by two Kuwaiti restaurateurs, revamped and reopened around a week ago. There are a few things that make China Garden stand out from their competitors. First off, they’re “Green”, meaning they’ve gotten rid of all their styrofoam boxes, got rid of the majority of plastics and aluminum and replaced them with paper take out boxes that are made here in Kuwait. Their plastic bags have been replaced with fully recycled and biodegradable brown paper while they ditched their plastic eating utensils and replaced them with sustainable bamboo forks and knives. Even their menu’s are made from recycled material.
When I usually order Chinese take-out I like to place an order for an appetizer, a chicken dish, a beef dish, and some noodles. I typically finish all the food on my own so when it came time to ordering from China Garden I decided to go with Sweet Corn Chicken Soup, Shrimp Spring Rolls, Orange Chicken, Beef Black Pepper, Mixed Noodles and Nutella Wontons for dessert (who can say no to anything Nutella?). The first thing that struck me once the food arrived is that there is no way I could eat all this food by myself. Their quantities are pretty big and the food I ordered could have easily fed two or three people and definitely not just one person. I basically had a lot of food leftover for dinner.
The food was generally pretty good and I did’t have any complaints. The soup wasn’t too watery and wasn’t too sweet with a good mix of chicken and corn. The Shrimp Spring Rolls were 6 decent sized pieces and they were nice and crunchy. The Orange Chicken was the most impressive, the dish is sweet and spicy and cames mixed with orange peels, chili peppers, ginger and chicken. It looked really appetizing. My “safe” dish that I always order is Beef Black Pepper because it’s really difficult to screw up a simple dish like this. China Garden’s Beef Black Pepper was pretty juicy, the beef wasn’t overly cooked and it wasn’t too saucy. My only complaint is that there were way too many large pieces of onions, something which they can easily fix (and should do so). The Mixed Noodles were the last things I ate and I found them neither bland or greasy and actually hit the spot quite nicely. Finally the Nutella Wontons were the perfect way to end the meal, the moment you bite down on the crunchy wonton you’ll be welcomed with the taste of delicious Nutella, not to the point where it feels like you’re drowning in chocolate, but enough to satisfy your Nutella urges.
The total for my meal was KD10.700 which seems like a lot for one person but like I previously said this meal could easily feed two or three people (if not more) and if I had two other friends over, it’d come out to around KD3 per person, which seems like a really reasonable price to pay for the quality of food you’re getting. I would definitely order again from China Garden, they have a decent sized menu with a lot of choices, not to the point where you feel overwhelmed but enough where they can satisfy everyone’s needs.
They’re open Saturday to Wednesday from 12PM to 12AM and Thursdays and Fridays from 2PM to 2AM. To order you can call them on 25720010 or 25720070. They’re also available on 6alabat.
Posted by Patrick.
The same friend who shot the picture of the “Desert Dance Floor” also shot the video above he took at one of the campsites. That’s a lot of crap all over the place and surprisingly it’s not an isolated incident. It’s like not one single camper cleaned up after themselves. [Link]
A friend just took the picture above and I thought it was very cool. Seriously I’m finding it really weird and sadly funny how people are finding sofas, tiled floors and toilet seats just randomly in the middle of the desert. [Link]
I read about the state of the desert after the camping season finished but I didn’t think it was that bad until I saw it for myself today. I was heading south on the 40th when I noticed a huge plot of desert with trash as far as the eye could see. I went off-road and headed towards the area and was completely shocked at what I saw.
Campers had left all their trash behind including full sofa sets, toilets, trash bags and just random items like wood and god knows what else. And it wasn’t just one campsite it was the whole area filled with sofas and toilet seats all over the place. It’s absolutely disgusting.
Personally I think the municipality should just leave everything the way it is and not clean up after the campers. As long as someone is picking up the trash people are not going to learn to cleanup after themselves.
I’m at the airport right now and I just noticed the Alshaya section past emigration is going to be huge. Their section will have Starbucks, Potbelly and Pinkberry but I just noticed they’ve actually built a second floor on top of the place. Pretty cool.
Zaydoun hadn’t posted on his blog for over a year but he came back today with a simple and legitimate question aimed towards the expat community… Why are you still here? It’s an honest and curious question and he doesn’t mean it in the if you don’t like it get the hell out kinda way. With all the problems in Kuwait what keeps you here? Here is why I’m still here:
I’m an expat but I grew up here so I don’t see myself as an expat although Kuwaitis do. This is my home. I’ve lived here all my life so even if there are a lot of problems I stay and deal with it. I adapt and I get used to it. Sometimes things really piss me off which is when I come here on the blog and rant but most of the time I just take it all in and try to ignore the problems. There’s always the “hope” that things will get better (although with the way things are going I’m finding it harder to believe that).
I’m not Kuwaiti but I do feel frustrated in the same way many Kuwaitis do. When I see all the trash scattered all around my area in Salmiya its really depressing and frustrating because with all the money available why isn’t Salmiya cleaner? When I see people running red lights in front of the cops I find it frustrating because again with all the money available why don’t we have better law enforcement. I guess it’s unfair to connect everything with money but I believe everything can be solved with money and since we have a lot of it here we shouldn’t have any of these issues.
But, with all these problems, as an expat I have to say one of the most frustrating things is the fact I can’t get a permanent residency. I’ve lived here for over 30 years and my visa still gets renewed year by year. If I want to quit my job and take a break I can’t. No job means no visa and I’m out just like that. I think that’s extremely unfair.
Anyway check out Zaydoun’s post on his blog and tell him why you are still here. I’m curious to read all the answers as well. [Link]
According to the first World Happiness Report launched at the United Nations, Kuwait came 31st in the world but behind UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They used a number of measurements to come up with this figure and I downloaded the full report to find out more details but honestly it’s 158 pages long and it wasn’t written by Stephen King so I skipped it.
Now the reason I’m posting this is I found it a bit surprising that Saudi Arabia scored better than both Kuwait and Qatar. I would have imagined UAE first followed by Qatar, Kuwait and then Saudi but that isn’t the case. You can read the Arabian Business article on this [Here] or you can download the full report from [Here]
Picture taken by Patrick
Are there any schools in Kuwait that teach Chinese as part of the curriculum? When I was in school French, Italian, German and Spanish were all languages I could learn if I wanted to but really it actually makes more sense to have kids today learn Chinese.
If you’re into photography you’ll be interested to know that The Shot Lounge is organizing the biggest photography event in Kuwait called Fototalks. The event which will be taking place on April 16th and 17th will include workshops, seminars and photography challenges. If you’re interested to find out more or to register for this even check out the Fototalks website [Here]