2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The Kuwait Zoo surprisingly has a twitter account. Not only that but they’re actually pretty active posting photos and videos. You can check out their twitter page [Here]

Looks like a student film but it’s the first locally produced thriller I’ve seen. What we need is a Kuwaiti zombie movie since I don’t think I’ve ever seen a zombie wearing a dishdashe. [Video]

Thanks Salem

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their support. Other than the tons of comments offering assistance I got a lot of emails and calls offering to help the old guy out. Regarding his residency that’s been sorted out. He’s just been running around a lot trying to get it done and as an 80 year old traveling by bus from location to location it can be extremely exhausting in this weather.

I passed by him tonight to get a better idea on how we can help him out and I honestly still don’t know what we can do. The only service his shop currently offers is photocopies for 100 fils. I was there for 2 hours tonight and only 1 person came in to get a photocopy done so that’s not really a source of income. There are two things he seems to be bothered about, one is the fact that he doesn’t have a store sign. The second is the fact he bought a small Minolta DiMAGE X1 for like KD10 from this lady who was traveling and he can’t get it to work. It took me a few seconds to figure out the battery needed charging and she hadn’t given him a charger with it so that’s why it wasn’t working. I need to find a battery charger for it and then teach him how to use it. He doesn’t have a computer so not sure what he is planning to do. Oh and I also brought along my laptop with me and introduced him to the internet. It was pretty weird trying to explain how the internet works and helping him pronounce Google which he kept calling Googen.

Anyway I’m going back again on Wednesday, I told him to think about what he needs or what would help him out and he promised to think about it and get back to me on it. While there he insisted on inviting me to a cold drink which was an RC Lemonade which I thought was pretty old school. I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted if there is anything we can do but for now I think everything should be ok.

Spotted this right outside the airport after you exit the parking lot. It scared the hell out of me…

I was wondering around tonight when I stumbled across an old photography store. Some pictures in the display grabbed my attention and when I looked inside I spotted an old man sitting reading the Koran and two other interesting photos. I decided to go in and check the photos out and I ended up spending around an hour there talking to the old man.

I won’t mention the photographers name or the shop location since I want to give him his space and privacy but he’s a Lebanese guy who ran away from an abusive father and took the bus and came to Kuwait in 1959. He hasn’t left since… not even once. He worked a variety of jobs here and there and in the end became a journalist and took some really great photos, some of which many of us have come across in one point in time or another. He ended up opening up his own photography shop and it’s been there ever since. Today the shop doesn’t sell anything, he doesn’t have any customers nor even a store sign. He broke the sign ages ago because to keep it up he would have to pay a fee of KD25 a year which he didn’t want to. He sold all his negatives to a newspapers years ago for KD200 and has a few photos he kept which he was selling framed for KD25 a piece but someone bought his photo and then made copies and started selling them for KD1 so that income stopped.

While there I spotted some old cameras behind an extremely dusty display that looked like it hadn’t been open since the 80s and my God what a beautiful camera collection. He had cameras from the 70’s and early 80’s still boxed brand new! He even had the beautiful rangefinder Konica S3 from 1974 which I had purchased used off eBay for KD60 last year, except he had a brand new one all boxed up and priced at KD45! He also had two brand new Nikon F3’s from 1980, a Vivitar 35EE, a Vivitar 35EF, Mamiya 135AF and boxed up Hasselblad but I couldn’t tell what model it was. I really want to buy them all but I don’t think he wants to sell them. He’s pissed off at the whole world, he’s depressed, he’s really old and he doesn’t want to sell anything. He told me 5 months ago his residency expired and he’s now living in Kuwait illegally. He feels that he’s been forgotten and no one cares about him or remembers him. How could someone who’s been in Kuwait for 50 years non stop still require an ikameh to live here? It made me realize that if I lose my job tomorrow I would have to leave Kuwait as well except I am young and I could always move to Lebanon and start a new life or something but this old man, where would he go? He’s easily at least 80 years old, he doesn’t have any family, never married, no relatives and he hasn’t been to Lebanon in over 50 years neither does he want to go back…

I had to leave but told him I would come back again since I wanted to listen to his life story and maybe give him some recognition with my blog. I also promised him the next time I go back I would bring my laptop along since I was telling him about the Internet and he told me he had heard about it but had no idea what it was. I told him I would come back and show him since he seemed eager to know how it worked and who invented it and how it looked. I asked him what time to what time I could find him at the shop he told me 24 hours. Turns out he lives in the shop.

Not to be confused with The Shark of Kuwait, Sharks of Kuwait is a 22 minute long documentary by AlJazeera English.

Fifty years ago, the Arabian Gulf was full of sharks. Witness joins an expedition to find out how many have survived years of ecological damage.

[YouTube]

They look like they have a lot of fun. [YouTube]
If you don’t know who the Kuwait Kites Team are click [Here]

I’m a huge fan of Victorinox Swiss army knives and if I wasn’t so clumsy with sharp objects I would probably have a nice huge collection at home. Thing is I have three Swiss army knives and have managed to cut myself accidentally with all three (one of them pretty deep) so I’ve kinda kept my distance from them.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t admire the knives. They have some really great looking ones with my favorite being the bright emergency yellow RescueTool which I’ve had my eye on for a while now. Majority of people don’t know this but we have a pretty good Victorinox dealer here in Kuwait. The shop isn’t in the best location and the interior design is pretty crap (check photos below) but they do have a pretty huge collection.

The shop is called Shalimar Stores and they’re located in the ground floor of the mall right behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. Prices of knives vary with the majority falling in between KD5 to KD15. They also carry Victorinox scissors, bags and watches as well. Their phone number is 22451270

Hamburger expert and filmmaker George Motz meditates on meat and makes the perfect burger. [Link]

Yesterday BuYousef emailed a link to an article in LIFE about Kuwait dating back to 1959 which contained a good amount of pictures and information. He had found that article by using the search feature in Google Books and it made me realize I might be able to find other hidden treasure and I did. Since his email I’ve been reading old articles none stop and I’m still not 0.0001% through them all.

A search for Kuwait in Google Books will get you tens of thousands of results but I managed to narrow down the search a bit and found the ones below:

1952 Venus is a crook in Kuwait
1955 Proved in the Blazing Heat of Kuwait!
1958 Fresh Water from the Sea
1959 Kuwait: the fabulous sheikdom
1961 A dusty vigil
1965 Everything’s up to date in Kuwait
1975 What happens when the oil is gone?
1979 Bite that tiger
1980 Solar power station for oil-rich Kuwait

Some of the interesting stuff I read weren’t just articles about Kuwait but articles that mentioned Kuwait. I didn’t post them above because there were too many but I did read some interesting stories like I was reading an article from 1961 about a Nazi war criminal that was hiding in Kuwait and then I read another small snippet from someone in Kuwait who had sent a letter to Boys Life. It’s just random bits like that which I found really entertaining to read. Google Books is just amazing.

Not sure if many people have noticed this but street lamps have unique numbers on them. I remember reading once that these numbers are used to identify the location in case of emergency like say you get into an accident and you call for help, you could read them the number on the lamp post and they would know exactly where you are. I wonder if that applies in Kuwait.

I was on my way back this morning from walking my dog when I noticed a lot of dust coming out from the empty sand lot near my house. When I got closer I realized the local baladiya were there with two trucks. They were filling up the hole I posted about two days back! One large truck dumped sand in and around the pit while a larger bulldozer proceeded to fill it up until the hole disappeared.

That absolutely made my day. Thanks to everyone who helped out, I am sure the whole neighborhood really appreciates this. I also suddenly feel like I am in a real life scene from the hilarious TV show Parks and Recreation which means I should now try and convince the baladiya to turn the empty lot into a park.

Update: The Governorate of Hawalli responded with the following:

Dear Mark,

The Governorate of Hawalli would like to thank you for your kind efforts in pointing out an issue that has been causing distress to the surrounding residents of the area around the “hole”.

After receiving instructions from the Governor of Hawalli, Governorate officials contacted the appropriate officers at the Municipality of Kuwait – Hawalli Division – and notified them of the issue.

The Governorate has made sure that the issue has been dealt with immediately and accordingly, and followed up with the Municipality to ensure that the issue was resolved appropriately. We would also like to confirm that the hole, that was unfortunately used as a waste disposal site by many, had been thoroughly cleaned and the waste removed before being backfilled.

The Governorate of Hawalli has always tried to be on top top of such issues, and hopes that this would only be just one part of a cumulative effort that symbolizes a greater collective awareness, taking us one further step for a cleaner, and hopefully greener, Kuwait.

It is refreshing to find that such a sense of responsibility and care is still active in our beloved country. On behalf of the entire Governorate team, we would like to thank you all for your support, and the Municipality for their great work and quick response. Please rest assured that the Governorate of Hawalli will always try to tackle such issues in the future head on.

Of course, there are important lessons to learn from this experience. The strength of Kuwait is not found only in its government, but through the dedication of the people of Kuwait as a whole. It is truly found in the compassionate and caring hearts and the dynamic spirit of our citizens, residents and visitors.

Thank you.

I have to say I am EXTREMELY impressed! I am really at a loss for words. I thought no one actually cared about “old” Salmiya but it seems there are some people who do. I did not expect this. I’ve lived on the street for 30 years now and I’ve posted about my frustration before (here and here for example) but now I feel there might be hope. Thank you!

Ok this might sound weird but one of the things I remember the most about Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport was the hand dryer in the bathroom (video above although it really doesn’t do it justice). It was just incredibly powerful, like it must have been connected to an extra airplane jet engine they had lying around because it was just vicious.

I never found another hand dryer as powerful until recently while I was in Lebanon I was washing my hands in a bathroom at a mall when I spotted the Dyson AirBlade (video above but there are like a million others on YouTube). Dyson if you don’t know make some very cool vacuum clears and fans so it kinda makes sense I guess that they make hand dryers. Anyway although the AirBlade wasn’t as powerful as the Terminal 5 hand dryer it looked really cool and it currently ranks the second most powerful hand dryer I’ve ever used. So I was checking to see how much it costs cuz it would be cool to get one for the house and it turns out they’re selling on eBay for over $1,200!

I passed by Pinkberry last night and noticed they’ve increased the amount of staff from the usual 4 to 15. I am guessing the majority are being trained for the other two new stores that are opening up but with 15 employees the line was nearly non-existent.

In other frozen yogurt news, I spotted what looks like a frozen yogurt machine being installed and tested at IKEA!

This is just amazing! I can’t stop laughing. The Arabic lines read:

Istanbul in Hawalli
Restaurant and coffee shop under Turkish management
Hawalli – Beirut Street
Next to Al Ameed Coffee, in front of the Pakistani School

Thanks Phoenix