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If you’re a UFC Arabia subscriber then you probably already know they’re shutting down the service at the end of the month. UFC Arabia was the best way to watch UFC fights if you live in Kuwait (or the GCC). The service and features were great and the price was cheap, like 2KD a month and it included pay per view events which cost around 25KD each in the US.

But, they’re now shutting down the service and telling everyone to sign up to STARZPLAY, the new home of UFC Arabia.

I signed up to it and watched the last PPV event (UFC 299) on STARZPLAY and it SUCKED. I had two major issues:

First issue, you can’t rewind a live event. Most of the pay per view events start in the middle of the night and by the time I wake up around 7AM they’re nearly done. What I used to do with UFC Arabia is get on, press play, and quickly rewind to the start of the event so I don’t see any spoilers. I can even pause after rewinding so I can then make my coffee, sit down and start watching the fights.

With STARZPLAY you can’t do that, you have to watch live where the event is and you can’t rewind. So if I get on and it’s in the middle of the fight it’s like tough luck, I can’t do anything about it except maybe just not watch the fights in the morning as they’re happening and instead wait till after work or something. 
The second issue I had was that midway through the fights the STARZPLAY video stream died and didn’t come back. Thankfully UFC Arabia was still functioning so I just got on that and continued to watch the event there.
The whole STARZPLAY interface also sucks and it’s just too busy with so much going on. I tried watching old fights but it wouldn’t even let me change the commentary language, so I was forced to watch it in Arabic. It’s just a horrible experience compared to UFC Arabia.
So basically, if you’re a UFC fan living in the GCC you’re pretty much out of luck now.

Someone is selling a 2 day old Apple Vision Pro in the classifieds section for 800KD which is a pretty good price considering it also comes with the $200 travel case. If you’ve been wanting one but didn’t want to pay 1,200~KD for it, this could be a good option.

The size of the light seal it comes with is 31W, so if you need a different size you’ll have to buy one from Apple for $200. Finding out what light seal fits your face is easy since Apple will use your phone to scan your face and recommend you a size.

If you want to buy this used Vision Pro, here is the link.

Not sure why, but putting together this annual list of Ramadan buffets in Kuwait was exhausting this year. I think it’s definitely me since everyone answering the phone this year was actually prompt. Just a quick example, I realized I didn’t have Holiday Inn on my list so I sent them a DM at 7:30AM this morning and they replied back a minute later. Everyone seems to be on top of their game this year which made my life easier.

As usual, I’ve also highlighted the price variation from the previous year if applicable. You’ll find the variation in brackets after the price. More places increased their prices than decreased. The highest increase was Stambul at the Grand Hyatt, they increased their buffet price by KD5 this year. The biggest decrease was KD2 and four places did that.

Below is the full list divided into two parts, hotels and restaurants. If I missed a place let me know in the comments. I’m looking for really cheap buffets to add, I have a few listed but if you know of a place where the buffet is less than KD5, let me know in the comments.

HOTELS

Al Jahra Copthorne Hotel & Resort – Taima’a Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD9 (-0.900)
Telephone: 24590000

Courtyard by Marriott – Atrium
Buffet Price: KD16 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22997000

Crowne Plaza – Al Ahmadi Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD16 (-2.000)
Telephone: 1848111

Crowne Plaza – Al Noukhaza Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD17 (-2.000)
Telephone: 1848111

Crowne Plaza – Sakura Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD18 (Weekends Only)
Set Menu Price: KD14 (Weekdays Only)
Telephone: 1848111

Four Seasons – Jawaher Tent
Buffet Price: KD26 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22006000

Grand Hyatt – Stambul
Buffet Price: KD20 (+5.000)
Telephone: 22007698

Grand Majestic Hotel
Buffet Price: KD8
Telephone: 22254700

Hilton Garden Inn – The Avenues
Buffet Price: KD20
Telephone: 22262000

Hilton Resort – Teatro Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD19.9
Telephone: 22256222

Holiday Inn – Al Diwan Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD15.950
Telephone: 1847777

Inn & GO Hotel – Al Dallah Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD7.5 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22436686

Jumeirah Messilah Beach – Badria Tent
Buffet Price: KD22 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22269600

Jumeirah Messilah Beach – Garden Cafe
Buffet Price: KD22 (indoors) KD24 (outdoors)
Telephone: 22269600

Kuwait Continental Hotel – Darbar Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD5.5
Telephone: 22527300

Marina Hotel
Buffet Price: KD16
Telephone: 22230030

Millennium Hotel – Lamar International Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD15
Telephone: 22050505

Movenpick – Free Zone – Bays Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD13.9 (+1.900)
Telephone: 66100710

Movenpick – Al Bida’a – Breeze Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD15 (indoors) KD17 (outdoors)
Telephone: 22253100

Radisson Blu – Al Bustan Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD18.5
Telephone: 25673000

Safir Hotel – Fintas
Buffet Price: KD13.9 (+1.000)
Telephone: 25455555

St Regis – Diamond Ballroom Tent
Buffet Price: KD28
Telephone: 22422055

Symphony Style Hotel
Buffet Price: KD12 (-2.000)
Telephone: 25770000

The Regency Kuwait – Silk Road Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD24 (+1.000)
Telephone: 25766666

Waldorf Astoria – Al Kubbar
Buffet Price: KD27 (+1.000)
Telephone: 24774414

RESTAURANTS

Almayass
Set Menu Price: KD11.5 (-0.500)
Telephone: 25761001

Assaha Lebanese Restaurant
Buffet Price: KD12.5 (-0.500)
Telephone: 22533377

Avanti Palace
Set Menu Price: KD4.750
Telephone: 25751081

Babel
Set Menu Price: KD14.950 (-0.050)
Telephone: 22081111

Baker & Spice
Set Menu Price: KD12.5
Telephone: 96962816

Big C Restaurant & Cafe
Buffet Price: KD1.900
Telephone: 65683111

Dar Hamad
Buffet Price: KD12 (360 Mall) KD16 (Gulf Road)
Telephone: 22275555

Dean & Deluca
Set Menu Price: KD9.750 (Min 4 People)
Telephone: 22242224

Em Sherif
Set Menu Buffet Price: KD25
Telephone: 90977997

Francescas At The Top
Set Menu Price: KD18
Telephone: 90003858

Gulf Royal Chinese
Buffet Price: KD8.5
Telephone: 22622770

IKEA
Buffet Price: KD2.95 (+1.000)
Telephone: 1840408

Jihan Khanah
Buffet Price: KD10
Telephone: 1819991

Joori Min Beirut
Buffet Price: KD12 (-2.000)
Telephone: 22062068

Kuwait Towers
Buffet Price: KD15 (+1.000)
Telephone: 24965500

Leila Min Lebnen
Set Menu Price: KD15
Telephone: 22996414

Mughal Mahal – Hawally
Buffet Price: KD7.45
Telephone: 22626782

Palm Palace
Buffet Price: KD11.5 (+0.500)
Telephone: 67009575

Paul
Set Menu Price: KD10.5 (+2.000)
Telephone: 22208204

Saraya Palace
Buffet Price: KD9.5
Telephone: 25712998

Vapiano
Set Menu Price: KD7.950 (+1.000)
Telephone: 22597171

Villa Fayrouz
Buffet Price: KD12
Telephone: 22650052

Wok and Grill
Buffet Price: KD2.995 (-0.505)
Telephone: 64440089

Last month the first phase of the waterfront refurbishment was completed from Green Island to the Kuwait Towers, and now they’ve started the second phase which is from SVN all the way to Green Island.

They’ve already started bulldozing all the greenery and it’s really sad to watch. It didn’t really show much when they did it in the first phase because that strip wasn’t that green to begin with, but the strip from SVN to Green Island is actually very green with dense trees in some areas. The refurbishment although looks really nice lacks much greenery and so it’s going to be a pretty grey view on my way to work once the second phase is completed.

One thing I’m worried about is the wall of peace sculpture by Jafar Islah which is located next to Burger King. I saw them working in that area today, hopefully they’re not planning to remove it.

Update: Looks like a lot of people are up in arms about the removal of all the trees so TEC issued a statement about it which you can read here.

Update2: According to TEC, the Wall of Peace will NOT be demolished.

Here are this weekends events, let me know if I missed anything.

Thursday, March 7
Astronomers Diwaniya
IMPROV Comedy: The Last Laugh
Kuwait Inspire Drag Race Championship
Murouj Graish Market

Friday, March 8
Cleanup & Kashta
Kuwait Inspire Drag Race Championship
Murouj Graish Market
Spring Bazaar

Saturday, March 9
Red Bull Quicksand 2024
Madang Market
Shakshooka Market
Murouj Graish Market

While in London this week I watched Dune 2 in the cinema and it was the worst experience. I looked for a cinema in central London that was showing it in the IMAX 70mm format, and I think I found 3 or a handful of cinemas that were showing it in that format. The two best places for IMAX in London according to Reddit were BFI and the Science Museum, but I was booking on Saturday to watch on Sunday and both those theaters had Dune 2 sold out for the whole week. Eventually found seats at Odeon in Leicester Square. Wasn’t too excited about it since I hate that area because it’s so busy and packed with tourists, but whatever.

I wish I watched it anywhere else, even if it wasn’t in IMAX. The theater was huge, and the screen was probably huge, but because the theater was much much larger than the screen, the screen looked tiny. I swear I was like wtf, I could have just watched it on my iPad or at home on my TV, you can see in my photo above how small the screen looked like.

When the movie started I thought about leaving and just watching it once I was back to Kuwait, but thankfully I didn’t because it looks like Dune 2 was removed from the cinemas here. Both Cinescape and VOX are no longer showing Dune 2, most likely because it’s been banned due to scenes and a storyline related to religion? Not sure, but it’s not showing anymore. Oh well…

Update: Never mind, it turns out Cinescape removed Dune 2 from the cinema and will show it again in April, I guess during Eid. I don’t think I’ve ever understand this thinking process, but for those of you in Kuwait you now have to wait till April to watch Dune 2 while the rest of the world is watching it and talking about it now. On the bright side, at least it’s not banned, but by April it’s probably going to be available to stream for free on HBO MAX anyway from what I’m reading as well.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve watched anything interesting this week.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Phoenix (5.1)

Other Movies Showing:
Argylle (6.2)
Bob Marley: One Love (6.5)
DarkGame (5.9)
Fast Charlie (6.2)
In the Land of Saints and Sinners (6.1)
Madame Web (3.8)
No Way Up (5.3)
Red Right Hand (5.3)
The Beekeeper (6.8)
The Holdovers (8.0)
Wish (5.8)
Wonka (7.4)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Kuwait Airways is currently celebrating their 70 year anniversary, so I decided to share some old photos my mum took back when she was a Kuwait Airways flight attendant.

Back in the early 70s, my mum traveled to Iran via Kuwait Airways from Lebanon. On the way back while transiting at the Kuwait Airport, she saw a Kuwait Airways ad looking for flight attendants. So once she got back to Lebanon, she applied, got the job, and ended up moving to Kuwait a few months later.

Anytime my mum brings up her experience as a Kuwait Airways flight attendant, she always mentions how great it was, and how she got to travel to so many places and meet a lot of people.

Some of the photos I’ve shared here, I previously posted on the blog around 18 years ago, but in low res. I’ve now rescanned all the photos including new ones I hadn’t shared before, and then tried to restore and recover as much of the details and colors as possible without over editing the images.

Just to add a bit more context, the photos here range from 1974 to 1976, with the oldest being the one of my mum in the orange colored uniform. The uniforms in the photos were also designed by Dior, except for the orange one which was designed by Nina Ricci. Finally, the last photos which look like they were taken on a private jet were in fact taken onboard the Emir’s plane (Emir Sabah al-Salim Al Sabah) which she served on during the last period of her career.

I’ve uploaded all 16 photos to my Flickr account, to check them out click here.

I’m currently in London for the week and I haven’t been here since 2022, before we got Apple Pay in Kuwait.

One cool benefit I realized I now have on this trip is that I can use the London Underground by just tapping my phone on the yellow card readers. I don’t even need to double tap the side button or even activate Face ID, I just take my phone out of my pocket, touch the yellow card reader and it automatically takes the money from my account and lets me through. It also works if you have Google Pay but I haven’t tried that.

Another cool thing I got to try on this trip is the eGate at the airport. Because I have the Canadian passport and I was alone, I was able to use the egate at passport control which meant I didn’t have to wait in any line and was through passport control in under a minute. Anyone who’s had to wait in line for an hour at LHR knows going through in under a minute is just insane.

Other than that its freezing and wet over here right now. I keep forgetting how cold it really gets outside of Kuwait and so I never pack enough winter clothes.

I started watching Constellation this week. Not sure I like it, there are some interesting moments, but there’s a lot I also find really boring, mostly the none space scenes.

Dune: Part 2 is out this weekend, I’m at the airport now heading to London so I’m planning to watch it there. I’ve also filled my iPad with a ton of shows to watch on the plane including Mr & Mrs Smith, Obliterated, House of Ninjas, and the latest season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

Let us know in the comments if you’ve watched anything interesting this week.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
DarkGame (5.9)
Dune: Part Two (N/A)
Inside Man (5.5)
Fast Charlie (6.2)
Stopmotion (6.4)
The Holdovers (8.0)

Other Movies Showing:
Argylle (6.2)
Bob Marley: One Love (6.5)
In the Land of Saints and Sinners (6.1)
Madame Web (3.8)
No Way Up (5.3)
Red Right Hand (5.3)
The Ancestral (4.3)
The Beekeeper (6.8)
Wanted Man (4.7)
Wish (5.8)
Wonka (7.4)

The classic film below is currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Goldfinger (7.7)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

UPDATE: Due to the bad weather, the air show has been postponed till tomorrow, February 26.

The Kuwait Army has a number of events taking place today at the Kuwait Towers on the occasion of National & Liberation Day:

2:00 PM – Military Band Performance
4:00 PM – Airshow
4:30 PM – Folklore Band Performance

The Kuwait Army are also displaying some of their military vehicles in the Kuwait Towers parking lot for the public to explore.

If you want to head to the towers but don’t want to get stuck in traffic, then it would be a good idea to park in the city, in the area around Hamra Tower for example, and then walk over. @kuwaitarmyghq

Over the past couple of days there have been rumors floating around about Elon Musk coming to Kuwait. It’s being reported by some local news sites which I hadn’t heard of before, which is why I’m marking this as a rumor for now.

Allegedly, Elon Musk is expected to visit Kuwait in the next few days for discussions aimed at establishing Kuwait as a global hub for artificial intelligence.

This is where things gets strange, there is a secretive GPU cloud startup in Kuwait called Omniva that have plans to build a huge data center in Kuwait. The company is headed by big names who came in from companies like Amazon AWS, META and Microsoft. The data center which is under construction is located at the entrance of Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City (Road 278). source

I reached out to Elon Musk and Omniva to confirm all this, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

The first phase of the new refurbished waterfront has now officially been completed. The first phase stretches from the Green Island all the way to the Kuwait Towers and has been given a complete facelift with new sidewalks, dedicated jogging and bicycle paths, as well as new lights, bins, benches and more.

The second phase of the project is from Green Island to Al Shaab slipway and is expected to be completed in October.

Runners will be glad to know that the running track is cushioned so it will be easy on your knees. Both the running and bike paths have distance markers so you can also tell how far you’ve run or cycled. For more pictures, click here.

A reader left a comment recently letting me know that F1 TV Pro now works in Kuwait. If you’re an F1 fan, F1 TV Pro is the best way to watch the races. It costs around $80 for a year and you can watch the practice, qualifications and the races live, as well as the pre race and post race shows among other things.

The app also allows you to also pick between two different English commentary teams, different driver cameras and access to lots of data.

Previously F1 TV Pro would only work in Kuwait if you used a VPN, so this is really good news.

The largest and most prestigious cat show in the Middle East is taking place this weekend in Kuwait. The 2024 K-Cats Show is taking place at the Boulevard Ballroom tomorrow Friday, February 16th, and on Saturday February 17th.

The show is held in association with the prestigious Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) with judges coming in from the US and Europe for this event.

The show starts at 1PM tomorrow and 10AM on Saturday. If you’re looking for something random and unique to do this weekend, this is it.

For more info, click here.

I went to the show back in 2016 and thought it was fun, so definitely not going to miss it this year.

Kuwait’s National Planetarium was one of the first in the Gulf Region and originally opened back in 1986. But a lot has happened to it since then.

During the 1990 Gulf War, the planetarium was destroyed and the signature dome remained visibly damaged for many years after. Eventually, the planetarium was rebuilt and it reopened again in 2002 but then closed down again in 2016 due to the major renovations that were going to take place at the National Museum. Now, 8 years later, it’s set to reopen again.

The technology at the planetarium has been fully upgraded with a new system consisting of nine 4K video projectors, new computer technology and the modernization of the sound system. But, at the heart of it all is the Zeiss STARMASTER projection system which has been at the planetarium since the reopening in 2002. The STARMASTER replaced the Zeiss SPACEMASTER which was installed in 1986 and was badly damaged during the 1990 invasion (It’s now displayed in the planetariums lobby). Only 19 STARMASTER projection systems are installed worldwide and they’re known for their high level of brightness, pinpoint sharpness, and providing a realistic starry sky.

Work on the planetarium is basically complete with only minor maintenance work left. Their aim is to open it as soon as the work is complete, but most likely it will be right after Ramadan.

If you’ve never been to the planetarium before, it’s located on the Gulf Road, opposite Seef Palace and is part of the Kuwait National Museum.