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It looks like the cop cars are getting a graphical facelift. The images in this post have been circulating social media showing four new car graphics for the cop cars. I kinda like the current blue and fluorescent yellow combo we have right now, the new colors seem a bit dull.

Not that busy a weekend but there are a bunch of interesting events taking place including a Show Jumping Competition, the Gulf Jazz Festival and the Shakshooka Market is back. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Kuwait Dino Park
Exhibition: New Species by Hunt Slonem
Show Jumping Competition
Kuwaiti Story Night
Rooftop Movie: Chinatown
A Night In

Friday
Kuwait Dino Park
Show Jumping Competition
Culinary Event: Farmers’ Market Finds
Shakshooka Market
Gulf Jazz Festival

Saturday
Kuwait Dino Park
Yoga in the Park
The First K-Pop Youth Festival in Kuwait
Guided Tour: Arab Organization Headquarters
Madeenah Tour: AGi Architects
Rooftop Movie: Agora
Peak – A Vertical Race
Shakshooka Market

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Update: Due to bad weather, Shakshooka has been rescheduled and will now take place Saturday night at The Secret Garden instead.

Today I picked up a package from the post office for the very first time and I was pleasantly surprised with my experience.

A few weeks ago I ordered an item from an online store in Germany and chose DHL as my shipping option. Little did I know that DHL also had postal mail which is how the store mailed my package to Kuwait. When I found out they had shipped it by regular mail I almost had a heart attack. The item was limited (just 1 of 5) and I thought it was gonna get lost for sure because I kept hearing how screwed the local mail system was. It took around 10 days for the package to get here and I finally had the time today to go pick it up.

I took my tracking number and headed to the Kaifan Post Office where all international mail gets delivered to. Package pickups are in the basement and all I had to do was give a woman behind a counter my tracking number which she then typed out on a computer and told me that it had arrived and to wait while they get it. Five minutes later my name was called and I showed them my civil ID card and signed a paper that I had received the shipment. My shipment was then passed over to the customs agent who opened to see what was inside before handing it over to me.

It was such an incredibly easy process that I think I’m going to be shipping stuff to Kuwait via regular mail much more often. Things to note, they’re open from 8AM to 1PM and once a package arrives to Kuwait they store it for 40 days before sending it back or destroying it. If you want to know where the post office is, here it is on [Google Maps]

Update: They’ve changed the location. To pick up mail you now need to head to Al Sadiq, block 5 near the police station and boubyan bank. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Yesterday, local activist Bashar Al-Huneidi set out on a 200km kayak journey around Kuwait’s islands to raise awareness about our local maritime environment and the issues affecting it, especially the many forms of pollution. This morning Bashar ran into an issue with his support boat and now the journey has been postponed a bit.

Bashar is documenting and sharing his journey via his instagram account using solar powered internet from his sponsor Gulf Telecom, so he’s got internet even out in the middle of nowhere. Make sure you follow him not only as encouragement but also because this is for a good cause and any exposure will help. His instagram account is @kayak4kuwait

via Red Paddle Co Q8

I found a cool vintage gaming store hidden in one of the many alleyways in Rihab Complex. There were a couple of other stores selling vintage consoles and games but this one had the largest collection by far.

The store had a ton of stuff including the NES, SNES, N64, MSX (Sakhr), Dreamcasts, 3DO’s, Gameboys, Ataris, Master Drive, Saturns, Game Gears, and a whole lot more. The store also had old games and accessories to go along with the consoles.

It’s difficult to explain how to find the shop but I’ll try my best to at least point you in the direction. If you take the escalator to the top floor of Rihab Complex, the store would be in one of the dark alleyways in front of you. It’s shop #4 and their phone number is 22626811.

Every year I like to post an updated list of the hottest places in Lebanon to check out. Since I know a lot of people are heading to Beirut at the moment I figured it was time to post this list. The venues are posted in the order I went to:

The Bus Station
When I first heard about this place I thought they meant The Train Station which I had posted about [Here]. Turns out The Bus Station is located right next to The Train Station except it’s an indoor venue. It’s literally an old bus station which they’ve turned into a giant club and there are a bunch of busses scattered all around as a reminder. The night I went to it Red Bull were hosting the evening and live bands were performing. The Bus Station is located in Mar Mikhael and is a project by überhaus.

Twenty Seven
After The Bus Station I headed to another new place that opened up called Twenty Seven. It’s located in the Beirut Souks and is run by the Skybar Group. DJETTE (pictured above), one of my favorite Lebanese DJ’s is a resident there so it’s definitely a place I would want to hit up on my trips. They also bring in a lot of international acts so there is always something going on. Follow them on instagram to stay updated on their upcoming events. [Link]

The Grand Factory
Located on the rooftop of a factory in the industrial Karantina area of Beirut, The Grand Factory is one of the hottest venues at the moment. The space is obviously very industrial looking and the journey begins with a fun ride in a giant industrial elevator to the top. It’s the new home of C U NXT SAT. [Link]

OFF / ON
OFF & ON is a barbershop by day and a crazy club at night. Walking by the shop you can’t even tell there is a club right on top of it but if you’re in the know, a guy sitting in the barber chair will hit a hidden switch revealing a hidden door that leads to the club upstairs. Would have taken a better picture but by this point in the evening I was already too trashed. OFF & ON is located in the back of the An-Nahar building, same building that has Iris on the roof. [Link]

B018
For frequent travelers to Beirut, this place doesn’t need an introduction and they just celebrated their 21 year anniversary a few nights ago. B018 is a place I highly recommend heading there after clubbing, preferably around 5AM. The best feeling is when you’re completely wasted and they open up the roof so you can see the sun come up, and then they close it again so you could continue to party. It’s really what makes B018 special, it’s the club everyone goes to after a night of hard clubbing and just before going to breakfast. [Link]

Have you checked out the 248AM Community? It’s an online discussion forum and with over a quarter of a million posts so far, it’s a great space to ask questions and debate topics. You can access the community by clicking the link in the navigation strip on top or by typing community.mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com in your browser.

Oman completely blows all its neighbors out of the water coming in at 13th place.

1 – United Stated of America (147 visa free countries)
1 – United Kingdom (147 visa free countries)
7 – Canada (140 visa free countries)
13 – Oman (134 visa free countries)
47 – United Arab Emirates (72 visa free countries)
52 – Qatar (66 visa free countries)
54 – Kuwait (64 visa free countries)
57 – Saudi Arabia (61 visa free countries)
59 – India (59 visa free countries)
61 – Bahrain (61 visa free countries)
64 – Egypt (53 visa free countries)
73 – Lebanon (44 visa free countries)

Check out the full list [Here]

Update: It seems they had made a mistake with Oman’s ranking, they’ve updated the list and Oman is now ranked 63 (54 visa free countries). Bahrain was also moved to position 57. Not sure if any other changes were made.

Thanks Musaed

I was checking Reddit earlier this morning and a redditor posted about how he passed by Boulevard Mall and was impressed. At first I thought damn I’m so out of touch, a huge ass project like Boulevard which is pretty close to where I live opens up and I end up finding out about it from Reddit. So I asked the user if Boulevard was open and he told me it wasn’t to the public but I could go there and tell them I’m inspecting the location for leasing. Smart idea so I left the house and headed to check the place out.

Boulevard is located in Salmiya opposite Souk Salmiya and it’s a huge project which I’ve posted about a number of times before. The project is composed of a number of elements including a mall, a dinning boulevard, a gigantic park, artificial lakes, an amphitheater, basketball courts, football courts and much more.

I was lucky that as I was driving into the park there was a car in front of me who stopped at the gate first and spoke to the security guard to have him open it. Once he opened the gate I drove in right after pretending I was with the car in front of me. Once I was in I was basically able to go and explore the grounds without anyone hassling me.

The first area I explored was the main mall. The mall is the largest building in the project and consists of two floors with a very large centre court in the middle. None of the shops had started construction yet but the mall looked pretty much complete and they were just working on the escalators when I was there.

Once I was done with the mall I decided to explore the park outside. I headed to what looked like the dining boulevard which was an area where single story units surrounded a large artificial lake.

From there I headed further inwards into the park and found a large green field with a few rows of stadium seating on one side. I didn’t understand what this field was going to be used for since it was round but after checking the satellite view of the field on Google Maps I now realize it’s going to be a cricket field.

From there I continued walking inwards and spotted the amphitheater followed by the basketball and football fields.

I was getting hot with all the walking and it was starting to drizzle some mud so I decided to head back to the car before the weather got worse. There was still quite a bit of park to explore and a few buildings but I figured I already had a general idea of how the project was turning out. I didn’t have high hopes before especially considering how long it’s been since the project started but now I’m actually excited about it. I have no idea when it’s going to finish or what the hold up is. They have electricity and it looks like the shop owners could come in any day now and start working on their stores so I don’t really know what the delay is. Hopefully it’s going to end up opening really soon.

I usually post about the events that take place over the weekend but there are tons of other events that take place in Kuwait during the middle week. This month for example there is practically an event every day so check out the events page for the full list [Here]

Healthy Feast is a new restaurant that soft launched last week. As you can tell from the name, it’s a healthy restaurant and they pride themselves in having fresh, locally grown, organic and gluten free dishes. Even their menu starts off with the following introduction:

We support local, organic and sustainable practices wherever possible. Our menu is always changing according to what is available and seasonal. This is today’s menu:

So right off the bat I was pretty excited to try out their dishes.

The restaurant is located in Bneid Al Gar and although the exterior doesn’t look like much the interior is very cute and bright with lots of natural daylight coming in. The walls were rough and painted white with natural wood being used everywhere. I would have taken a photo but a couple of tables were already occupied so I couldn’t. Once I sat down I was given the menu and after going through it I decided to go with the following:

Raw zucchini with almond thai dressing KD1.950
Pumpkin & avocado maki roll, with beet brown rice KD2.500
Root vegetables in curried lemongrass coconut milk KD3.500
Green Wellness juice: spinach, cucumber, apple, celery and lemon KD1.850

While waiting for my dishes I was also served a complimentary bowl of cheesy kale chips which usually costs KD1.500.

The first dish to arrive was my raw zucchini which looked like a small bowl of spaghetti. This dish completely caught me by surprise since it was so full of flavor. It tasted like an intricate starter I would have at a Japanese restaurant and I loved it (I later found out the chef was Japanese). The second dish I was served were the maki rolls. They were also pretty good although I was worried they would fill me up before my main dish arrived. I really wish they had chopsticks though since my first two dishes could have used them. When I asked the waitress for chopsticks she went into the kitchen and came back and told me the Japanese chef said I should use my fingers. I thought that was a hilarious soup nazi moment and proceeded to eat the rolls with my fingers, I had no problem with that. Once I was done with the rolls I was served the curry bowl. For the curry bowl I had three choices for the base, cauliflower rice, brown rice or quinoa. I went with quinoa although I haven’t been having quinoa for awhile now since I’m so over it. But, the curry was so flavorful and delicious I don’t think it would have mattered if I had gone with quinoa or any of the other rice options.

It’s a new restaurant, I ordered three completely new dishes I hadn’t tried before and I ended up loving all three. The chances of that happening are pretty rare which is why I fell in love with the place. It kind feels like an evolution to Gia or what Gia should have become. I did have two minor issues though. The first was with my juice, it was served in a beaker but it was filled less than half way which made it look like either someone had already drank from it or they had run out of juice while filling it up. The second thing is the lack of chopsticks. Again it’s not a big issue but two out of the three dishes I had were Japanese like and my guess is there are more dishes like that on the menu so why not have chopsticks as well?

In any case as I said I loved the place and I’m actually going back for lunch today. Healthy Feast is located in Bneid Al Gar and right now they’re open daily except for Sundays from 2PM to 7PM. Here is a link to their instagram account @healthy_feast and here is their location on [Google Maps]

Around two weeks back I was in Lebanon for the weekend and stayed at a hotel called The Smallville. When I’m in Lebanon I usually stay at one of the beautiful guesthouses like Beyt, but because I was booking last minute I couldn’t find any availability which is why I ended up booking at Smallville. The hotel is fairly new having been open for around a year now and going by the pictures online it looked like a trendy place to stay. More importantly though it was fairly affordable compared to some of the other options I was looking at.

After spending two nights there I can easily say it’s now one of my favorite places to stay when I go down to Lebanon and it’s incredible value for money.

The hotel itself is located in a quiet neighborhood but its still very close to Achrafieh, Gemeyze and Downtown. The room was fairly large and I had the regular “Premium King” room yet it came with a small kitchen, a seating area and a balcony with a view. The staff where really friendly throughout the stay even when I stumbled into the hotel lobby at 6AM from a night out and started mumbling to them about my checkout time (which they replied telling me I could checkout whenever I woke up no issues). It feels like a hotel made for fun party goers and I like that because you feel comfortable even when you do silly things.

My room cost me $118 a night and I booked last minute so you could probably get it cheaper if you book earlier. When I was checking out the manager gave me his card and told me to contact him the next time I want to book since he could offer me an even better deal. I’ve already recommended the hotel to some friends who ended up loving it as well so if you’re looking for a trendy and affordable place to stay in while visiting Lebanon, then I’d highly recommend The Smallville. Here is a link to their [Website]

Assaha isn’t a new place, they’ve actually been open for around three years now but I only discovered it a few months back when I had a business lunch there. It’s now become one of my favorite Lebanese restaurants which I frequent often alongside Leila.

Assaha is a Lebanese chain with locations around the world including Lebanon, London, Qatar, Sudan and Iraq. The building on the outside looks like an old Lebanese house and once you’re inside that look continues. There are a lot and I do mean a lot of seating space all around the inside of the building, but my favorite is the courtyard space in the back which also happens to be the no smoking area (pictured above). Once you’re in the courtyard you no longer feel like you’re in Kuwait anymore.

The food is obviously good or else I wouldn’t be recommending the place and the service is even better. They also have raw meats for those of you that are wondering. If you’re interested, Assaha is easy to find since they’re located on the Gulf Road, right next to Steak and Shake. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

The LOYAC series Mishwarna is now being produced and released every two weeks instead of a weekly basis because the producers want to spend more time on the production. I didn’t notice an improvement in production quality this week and the content still seems very short, especially for two weeks worth of work. Personally I think they should go back to doing this weekly because 4 minutes of content every two weeks just seems a bit lazy.

In this episode of Mishwarna, Rawaf and Tamara covered Souk Mubarakiya but they barely share anything. They didn’t recommend places, share an interesting little spot they found or even share their favorite spots. So what was the purpose of the video? For something as busy and packed with interesting things as Mubarakiya, I am surprised they weren’t able to create a much longer video with so much more interesting content.

For those of you who’ve been questioning why I’ve been sharing these videos on a weekly basis even though they’re not great its because I’m supporting them. A lot of people create content but then get demoralized and kill the project when they don’t get enough viewers. I wanted to send viewers their way in hopes of getting them more excited about these videos so they could work on improving them. But 7 episodes in I still haven’t noticed an improvement and it’s actually taken a step backwards by now taking two weeks to produce the same content they were producing weekly. This is why unless there is a dramatic difference in the next episode, this will probably be the last video of the series I share. [YouTube]

Awhile ago as I was pulling up into my street and into my buildings underground parking, I noticed a cop car parked on the side of the road. I then noticed a bunch of cars that were parked legally on the side of the road had tickets on them. So I pulled up next to the cop and I asked him if this was a no parking street, he replied saying no he’s ticketing them for “عرقلة” which means obstruction.

What exactly are these cars obstructing (for example the 4 pictured on top)? I checked the tickets and noticed he left the space where he’s supposed to explain what the ticket is for blank. That can’t be right or fair can it?