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The Shakshooka farmers market is taking place tonight from 6 to 7PM outside Thouq in Souk Mubarkia. If you don’t know where Thouq is @thepantrykw have a map which you can see [Here]

Note: Bring cash and a carrying bag if you will be buying stuff

Photo above by @faisalthef

In case you haven’t been following up on this story check [this post] and [this post]. Last night I passed by the store with @neatkw since they offered to help tidy up the old man’s store. Yesterday was the first time I actually got to see the store properly from behind the counter and also upstairs and I am at loss for words. The place needs a lot more than just tidying.

Originally I thought that the old man was sleeping in his studio upstairs but when I went up I realized there was no bed and there was no studio. The top floor was just full of random junk, garbage, dust and even an old fridge that was over 40 years old. From what we could gather from the old man, he was sleeping on his chair on the ground floor of the store. The whole shop is just covered with a very thick layer of dust, there is barely enough room to walk and just two chairs to sit in. While trying to talk to the old man he casually pulled out a bunch of crisp 1/4 dinar notes dating back to the pre-1990 invasion like he just popped out of a time machine. He then proceeded to rip the notes up because he said they were illegal and he didn’t want to get arrested. Randomly all over the store are black and white photos probably dating to the 60s covering random events in Kuwait like sports, fires and even a flood. Communicating with the old man is difficult, he doesn’t have a timeline and he forgets a lot. You can’t tell if an incident that happened to him took place last week or took place 20 years ago.

So this is what’s happening now. The two kind ladies from @neatkw are going to try and find his sponsor and get more details off him. Then based on that conversation figure out what to do next. I personally think the old man needs proper care, somewhere like an old people’s home. He needs people around him to talk to and he needs someone to take care of him. If that doesn’t work out the idea is to make his store (which isn’t really a store right now just an indoor junkyard) more comfortable for him like replacing the old broken down film developer with a bed and clearing out all the garbage and adding other amenities like a proper bathroom.

Bait Al-Othman Museum opened earlier this year but I only got to pass by and check it out yesterday and to my surprise, it turned out to a lot bigger than I was expecting it to be. The museum covers various aspects of Kuwait’s history and showcases them in different rooms that are spread out across the museum. I loved walking around the place because I didn’t know what I would see next, they had a room about Kuwait Airways, a room with old currencies, an old barber shop, a drama room and a lot more other ones all covering historically important aspects related to Kuwait.

Entry fee was just KD1 and there’s a ton of parking outside where you could also see some old vehicles and even a plane. The museum is located in Hawalli behind Al Othman Complex on Bin Khaldoun Street. Visiting hours are 9:30AM to 12:30PM and 4:30PM to 9:00PM. They are open daily except for Friday mornings. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

The photos above are just some of the stuff you will see there since I didn’t want to ruin the experience for you by posting everything.

I’m going to start my review by saying I don’t have any pretty food pictures to go with this post. I didn’t have my camera with me because I wasn’t planning to write a review and even though I had my phone I couldn’t use it to take pictures during dinner. Since everyone is usually anti-socially glued to their phones during lunch or dinner, me and my friends have this thing we do where we pile our phones facedown on top of each other on one side of the table and no one is allowed to check their phone until the bill comes. If you touch your phone before the bill arrives then you get to pay the whole bill yourself. Not something you want to do, especially when you’re at a pricy restaurant like The Peacock.

I don’t want to talk about the food anyway which was delicious (as expected). Most of you already know Peacock from before they closed down and their menu is basically 99% the same as it was before. For those of you who’ve never been to Peacock then it’s basically one of the best Chinese restaurants in Kuwait and also probably one of the best restaurants in Kuwait overall. It’s definitely in my top 3.

Now the reason I changed my mind and decided to review the place was because of the service. Hands down I think Peacock have the best dining service in Kuwait. It’s just ridiculous the amount of waiters that appear out of no where to service you. No one is hovering and you don’t notice them but when you need a waiter they’re there before you even call them. A friend arrived late to dinner and when he sat down at the table I just watched as four different waiters surrounded him to take care of him as he was being seated. One had hot towels, the other filled his glass with sparkling water, a third poured jasmine tea and the fourth handed him the menu. It’s like being pampered at a spa.

Another great thing is how well the waiters know the menu. One of my friends is allergic to wheat so she asked a waiter about various dishes and he knew the exact ingredients. He was able to tell her if one dish contained corn starch or if another used wheat or not. They know their stuff. Also, all the items on the menu are numbered and the waiter knew what each number corresponded to which dish on the menu. And the menu his huge with like 80 or so dishes yet I somehow can barely memorize my phone number.

The only negative really is that with the reopening they’ve also increased the prices of their dishes. That was to be expected because of inflation and so the prawns dishes for example are around KD9 now. Other than that we had an amazing dinner and I’m so glad they haven’t changed much about the place.

The Peacock is located at the newly renovated Radisson Blu Hotel. If you’re interested in passing by you need to reserve by calling them on 25673000.

Interior shot taken from the Radisson Blu [Facebook Page]

British Council is hosting their annual Education UK Exhibition which invites you to visit and speak with over 40 universities and colleges from the UK. EDUKEX 2013 will be held on the 2nd and 3rd of October in Sheraton Towers, Diamond Ballroom.

Entry to this event is free of charge but registration is required. Log on to the following website to register prior to the exhibition https://kw.edukexhibitions.org/

For more information please contact us on the following channels;

Telephone: +965 2251 5512
Fax: +965 2252 0069
Website: https://www.britishcouncil.org/kuwait-education-edukex.htm
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/britishcouncilkuwait
Twitter: @kwbritish
Instagram: @kwbritish

Note: Not related to the post below. Ok maybe just a little bit.

According to a recent ranking of top universities around the world, Kuwait barely makes the list coming in 701+ out of 800 (they just grouped the bottom 100 universities into one lump). Kuwait University was the only local university that made it into the top 800. On the other hand Saudi Arabia had 7 universities make the list including one that made it to #216, the highest amongst our neighbors. Oman, Qatar and the UAE all ranked higher than Kuwait as well.

Not good.

Check out the full rankings [Here]

Old KU photo above taken from [Here]

I passed by Sharq today to check out the prices of the iPhone 5S. Most of the shops didn’t have it yet but the ones that did were selling the 16GB from KD320 to as high as KD360. Eureka Electronics also has the iPhone 5S in stock and they’re selling the 16GB for KD300. They also have the iPhone 5C 16GB for KD220.

Prices will obviously drop once the market is saturated.

So a lot of you have a read a few of my posts discussing different crimes under the Kuwaiti Penal Law and how the punishments were in Rupees. This caused quite a stir with a lot of people with many asking why the punishments were in Rupees instead of Kuwaiti Dinars. Some of the readers even claimed that those laws no longer applied because the punishments were in Rupees. Firstly that’s not true, the laws are still valid even though they are in Rupees. Secondly, below is an explanation on why Kuwait uses Rupees instead of Kuwaiti Dinars:

The History of the Use of Rupees in Kuwait
They were called the Arabian Gulf Rupees by the people that called our area the Arabian Gulf, and they were also called the Persian Rupees by the people that called our area the Persian Gulf. I decided that I am going to call them the Penal Law Rupees in this post.

The Penal Law Rupees were used in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the Trucial States (now famously known as UAE or should I just say Dubai). They were printed by India and it was used in Kuwait from 1959-1961. You can still find them on eBay selling from a few hundred dollars and all the way up to a few thousand dollars (I am so totally going through my granddads closet today! https://www.ebay.com/bhp/india-gulf-rupee).

The laws that have rupees as punishments and their implications
The Penal Law was promulgated (published) in 1960 which is why the punishments were in Rupees since that was the currency of Kuwait at that time. The currency was changed to Kuwaiti Dinars in 1961 (thanks to our awesome Constitution) and a new law had to be promulgated to change the Rupees to dinars. But you know how things take time in Kuwait and it took a little bit longer than expected to get this sorted… around 24 years.

In 1985 law no. 9 was published “for the replacement of the rupees by the Kuwaiti Dinar wherever stated in the Laws”, and in Article 1 of the law it states that rupees shall be exchanged to 75 fils, wherever they are mentioned in Kuwaiti Law.

So this is why Kuwait uses Rupees in the Kuwait Penal Law. If you want to read more about the Rupees history check out my sources [Here] and [Here].

If anyone finds Rupees in their mums closet then please email us a photo.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

Back in May I posted that Q8Books, the used books store was closing down. Well since then a lot of things have happened. Q8Books did in fact close down but all the books were purchased by Fajer the lawyer and she’s moved the bookstore into a much larger location in Salmiya. She’s bringing back Q8Books and it’s going to be better than ever. The new location is at Bayt Lothan and it’s around four times the size of the older location.

The bookshop is nearly done and Fajer is planning to relaunch it sometime next week. Once it’s officially open I’ll have her post about it with more details including information on how you can donate books and on the bookstore’s outreach project to support a library in Gambia. For now you can follow them on Instagram to see what they’re up to @q8bookstore

Sabaidee is a Thai place that has been open for some time now only I started passing by quite recently. They have three locations around Kuwait but the one nearest to me is in Salmiya behind Villa Fayrouz on Baghdad Street. I knew there was a Sabaidee in Salmiya I just didn’t expect it to be so close to my place and I was surprised when I found out it was located in a small street perpendicular to one I always drove on.

The restaurant is small but nicely decorated. It has large windows on one side which lets in a lot of light during the day although in the summer it can be a bit annoying since there are no blinds. From what I can tell, the restaurant just has just two employees (I think), one serves the guests while the other one works in the kitchen. Service can be a tad slow especially since the waitress is always in the kitchen but I’ve learned that if I needed anything I just go up to the kitchen door and ask for it, saves a lot of time that way.

The menu is pretty big with lots of dishes to choose from and they all have their pictures alongside their descriptions. My favorite two things to order are the Gai Satay which is grilled chicken marinated in peanut sauce and the Beef Pa Naeng which is a peanut sauce curry. The prices at Sabaidee are very reasonable with both dishes for example costing KD1.750 each.

If you haven’t tried Sabaidee yet you should, it’s a great casual place for lunch or dinner. Here is their location on [Google Maps] and here’s a link to their [Facebook Page]

I am a big fan of street art and one of my favorite past times is to explore old Kuwaiti buildings looking for graffiti, taking photos and maybe collecting old bullets from the gulf war. But is it a crime to walk into old deserted buildings that the owner has neglected? Is it vandalism to tag those walls? Do the owners even know they are the owners?

I have to be honest, this topic is not something widely discussed in law school or at the office and I have never heard of a private law that discusses these matters, all I know of is the Kuwaiti Penal Law (yeah yeah yeah, the one with Rupees) include the rules for vandalism and trespassing. So let us look at the laws together:

1) Street Art or Vandalism?

First thing first, if you’re planning to tag a building you need to keep the following in mind. The building must not be a prayer place, a public office, a governmental building or a school building. The building should be abandoned with no one living in it or no one intending to fix it up to live in it (For example the amazing parking lot in old Salmiya and most of Failika island). I am also assuming your art is not just two circles with a pointy long oval in the middle.

If you want your canvas to be a new apartment complex or a mexican restaurant or a bookstore, then do what the amazing Monstariam does; get written consent from the owners first. Otherwise if the building has half a floor knocked off, no ceiling and 300 bullets have gone through it, then enjoy it. Just don’t be offensive please.

2) Exploring or Trespassing?

Article 254 and 255 both talk about entering buildings/trespassing owned by other people, but they also claim that the buildings should be in a possession of another person or inhabited by a person or is being prepared from someone to live in; and so the places that Mark (and I) have visited or intend to visit do not fall under those two articles.

PS: Does anyone have any creative ideas I could use with my collected bullets, please don’t tell me necklace.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

Kuwait Little Theater is starting off the 2013-2014 season with a short, informal evening of Cabaret. If you’re interested in attending send an email to [email protected] to reserve your free seat for this fun hour and a half of talent. Be sure to include your name, phone number, and number of tickets you’d like to reserve.

Curtain goes up Thursday, September 26th at 7:30PM.

For more information visit their [Facebook Page]

Update: Event is sold out.

A reader emailed me a couple of days back telling me about the Onam Festival which would taking place at the Caesars Dakshin Restaurant over a period of two days. I was told I needed to pass by during those two days and order the Onasadya. The Onasadya is a traditional vegetarian dish in Kerala, India and since today is Onam Day, a festival celebrated by the people of Kerala, Caesars Dakshin is serving the traditional dish today and tomorrow.

I’m going to start by saying I have no idea what I just had for lunch, but it was delicious and more importantly a lot of fun to experience.

The dish is served on a large banana leaf and consists of around 20 different sides. When they first served the leaf it kinda looked empty and I didn’t know what to really do but then different waiters started coming by and filling my plate up with various colorful curries. They also filled up my dish with rice, gravy and also gave me a milk and butter drink. All the other diners were using their hands to eat and traditionally that’s how you’re supposed to do it but I decided to use a spoon since I needed to use my camera and phone throughout the experience. I watched how other diners were eating and mixing the different curries and I just tried to emulate them. Once I was done and asked for the bill they served me two kinds of desserts in cups. They were both different kinds of rice pudding desserts and they were delicious. All this for just KD3, it’s crazy…

Throughout the whole meal I was taking photos and sending it to my friends since everything was so colorful, flavorful and so random and unexpected. It didn’t feel like I was in Kuwait and I love it when that happens.

As I mentioned, the Onam Festival is taking place today and tomorrow only. The restaurant is in Jleeb Al Shuyoukh but isn’t difficult to find since it’s located on a main road right on top of Xcite. This isn’t a hole in the wall place, it’s a proper and pretty large restaurant. Below are the details:

Date: September 16 and 17
Time: 12PM to 3PM and 7PM to 11PM
Price: KD3
Location: Caesars Dakshin Restaurant

Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Don’t miss this!

Yesterday I posted a beautiful shot of the Dubai nightscape and a commenter made me aware that the photos were taken by Daniel Cheong who happened to also take some beautiful shots of Kuwait. I’ve posted two of my favorite shots here but you can check out all his photos on his Facebook page [Here]

via sjiles8

Update: Photo by Daniel Cheong