Search: “ace”

The Red Fort (also called the Red Palace) is one of my favorite historical sites in Kuwait. The fort was built in 1897 with the primary purpose to defend the agriculture farms in Jahra. In 1920 it was also the location of the famous Battle of Jahra.

Not a lot of people know about the fort, and most people who do haven’t been there. I’ve always found the fort to be very photogenic and visually interesting since we don’t have anywhere else in Kuwait that looks like it. I’ve also always loved how the fort was open to explore, you could enter any room you wanted, walk up any steps and just wander around the place enjoying the outdoors.

However, the fort needed some TLC. Last year, a team of local experts were assigned to revive and restore it, and they’ve been hard at work ever since.

The project has multiple stages, with the final stage being the complete restoration of the fort to its original state. However, the road to this goal is long, so the team began by enhancing the current visitor experience. For example, they added aesthetically pleasing lighting throughout the fort, making it more nighttime-friendly, which is important since the fort is open until 8PM. They also constructed new raised pathways to allow visitors to explore the main courtyard without having to walk in the dirt. But the most significant addition to the Red Fort is the brand-new ‘Arms & Armory Museum’.

The team took over an existing building right outside the walls of the fort and repurposed it into a new museum that will house more than two centuries of artifacts. The new Arms & Armory Museum will reflect the Kuwaiti society’s complex relationship with arms, serving as tools for self-defense, aiding in hunting, symbols of status and wealth, and ornate works of art to be admired.

I was given an early sneak peek of the museum and was pleasantly surprised by how beautifully it was coming together. The team managed to procure artifacts from the National Museum and private collectors but, since the display cases were only recently installed, the exhibit is still a work in progress. The aim is to have it ready to open by the end of summer, around the time schools start again so that students will be able to explore the museum when they visit.

The Red Fort is currently closed to the public while it’s being worked on. Once the museum is ready and the fort reopens, I’ll let you know or follow @kw_nccal for updates.

This post is for my Lebanese readers, Malak Al Tawouk is opening in Kuwait right next to Johnny Rockets in Salmiya.

Malak Al Tawouk and another similar place called HaJal were my goto restaurant when I was studying in Lebanon during my university days in the late 90s. They served HUGE tawouk sandwiches for super cheap, like 600fils cheap. The sandwiches were usually filled with coleslaw, tawouk, fries and ketchup. Very budget friendly, very filling and tasted delicious which is why it was one of my favorites places.

Since they first opened in 1996, they’ve grown and opened multiple of locations in Lebanon, as well as locations around the world, mostly where Lebanese reside so Montreal, Paris, Dubai etc. I’m not to sure about their choice in their first location in Kuwait though, that strip where they’re opening has a pretty long history of restaurants failing. Only Johnny Rockets has survived there and nothing else.

Note: I found an old post of mine from 2006 where I mentioned Malak Al Tawouk was opening in Kuwait. Not sure what happened back then but they’re finally opening now. I also found a photo from 2006 of the sandwich next to my phone back then (pre-iPhone). I tried to find the original photo in my archive but I just wasted an hour of my life looking for it and eventually gave up since I have a more important post I’m working on.

Fashion Way, the complex right across the street from Fanar Mall in Salmiya is getting demolished. I personally don’t have much attachment to it but I know a lot of people do.

Construction on that building started in the late 80s and it was rumored to be Safeway the supermarket chain opening there, right next to Sultan Center. The building wasn’t covered in the ugly grey alucobond panels like today, I think I remember it being white ribbed metal panels. But then the 1990 invasion happened and the main Safeway store in Farwaniya got burnt down and they never reopened in Kuwait again. I also just realized while digging up old photos of Safeway that Americana owned it in Kuwait. I never knew that even though it clearly says Americana right next to Safeway on their sign. It now makes sense why Americana had their fast food brands there 90s onwards.

The building eventually finished construction and opened in the mid 90s I think. I remember Sbarro Pizza opening there, it occupied the whole area where Americana was today, but back then it was just Sbarro and it was a dine in experience. Hardees was located in a blue and white colored standalone building next door where Starbucks is right now. When that Hardees building got demolished, they eventually moved in with Sbarro and KFC into Fashion Way.

Inside Fashion Way was Mothercare with their huge animated tree inside. Mothercare was still there until they closed down a couple of months ago as well.

I just tried finding out when Sbarro opened in Kuwait but couldn’t find anything. I found an article from 1995 in the New York Times which mentions Gennaro (Jerry) Sbarro being 29 years old when he came to Kuwait to open Sbarro. I tried to find his date of birth online and I found multiple Jerry’s but the closest one might be 1966 which means Sbarro opened in 1994-1995. I contacted Jerry to find out and see if he has any photos, will see if he responds.

Anyway, the building is getting demolished. Not sure what the plan is, but my guess is they’re going to build an office tower in its place.

If you work at Americana, get in touch with me since I’d love to dig up old stuff with you together. I previously got in touch with the Wimpy social media team because I was working on a post about the history of Wimpy in Kuwait and they were a disaster. Firstly they replied saying they would get in touch with me if there was a potential for future collaborations. I told them they misunderstood and I wasn’t looking for them to advertise with me or send me free food. I explained that I just needed some information for a post I was working on. So then they gave me a phone number to call.. the Wimpy delivery phone number. I called them out on that move and they just copy pasted the same information all over again about how they would get in touch with me in the future if there is potential for a collaboration.

This past week I watched the film “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” starring Nicholas Cage (as himself) and Pedro Pascal (from The Last of Us and Mandalorian). The film was really entertaining, hilarious and my favorite Nicholas Cage film since Face Off and Con Air. I had to rent it on AppleTV but was totally worth it. Nicholas Cage is such a great actor, but we tend to forget that since he’s in tooooo many b-rated films.

Other than that I started watching Presumed Innocent, I’m only one episode in (started last night) and although it started off a bit slow it picked up right at the end and I now am looking forward to watch the next episode. I also got to finally watch the last episode of Under the Bridge, a show that should have ended two episodes ago. I haven’t started on House of Dragons yet, I’m going to start this weekend along with season 4 of The Boys.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

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

New This Week:
Breathe (3.8)
The Bikeriders (7.3)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Classic) (9.0)

Other Movies Showing:
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Dragonkeeper (5.8)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (8.1)
IF (6.8)
Inside Out 2 (8.2)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (7.4)
Tarot (4.9)
The Garfield Movie (6.0)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Classic/2002) (8.8)
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (4.7)
The Watchers (5.7)

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

There is a rumor going around that Lana Del Rey is planning to come to Kuwait and perform as part of her Middle East tour. Turns out the rumor originated from a couple of popular instagram accounts that posted an audio file where Lana supposedly mentions she will be performing in Kuwait and Qatar. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s not true.

The audio file is actually from a really old Lana Del Rey interview with an Australian radio station from back in 2015. The funny thing is, Lana doesn’t even say she is coming to Kuwait. During the interview Lana mentions that if she was going to do another real tour, Australia would be one of the first places she would think of, other than the Middle East. When the host asks where she would like to tour in the Middle East, Lana then mentions she’d like to perform in Kuwait and Qatar.

You can hear the audio snippet that has been going around above. Don’t believe everything you read online, even if they have over 100,000 followers.

This week I started watching the new Star Wars series The Acolyte. It has a 4.1 rating on IMDB and I have no idea why because it wasn’t bad at all. I also watched the movie Godzilla Minus One. I found it on Netflix and started watching it not realizing it was actually a Japanese movie dubbed in English. But something about the way it was shot caught my attention, it was a really beautiful looking film and it’s why I continued watching it. Turned out to be pretty good so glad I watched it.

This long weekend I’m going to watch Presumed Innocent which just got released on AppleTV+ and I need to start the new season of The Boys and finish up Clarkson’s Farm and Palm Royale (have like 2 episodes left I think). I might also watch Bad Boys at the theater, but need to find out first if anything is cut or not.

Oh and Netflix just announced “CHESTNUT VS. KOBAYASHI: UNFINISHED BEEF”. I’ve been following their story since before Kobayashi got banned from the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, and this past week there was a lot of drama because Chestnut was also banned this year because he signed a deal with Nathan’s rival, Impossible Food. In my head yesterday I was thinking both should team up and do their own thing and I woke up this morning to find out Netflix is doing exactly that. It’s going to be such an exciting face-off!

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

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

New This Week:
Inside Out 2 (8.2)
The Strangers: Chapter 1 (4.7)

Other Movies Showing:
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (6.8)
Dragonkeeper (5.8)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (8.1)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (6.5)
IF (6.8)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (7.4)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (6.4)
Tarot (4.9)
The Garfield Movie (6.0)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Classic/2002) (8.8)
The Watchers (5.7)

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

There are plenty of public beaches in Kuwait but not that many swimming pools you can access without being a member or staying at a hotel. But, some hotels do offer day passes to their pools so I called as many hotels as I could until I had enough to put a list together. This is the 2024 edition list so the prices are current.

All the pools on this list are singles friendly except for Seashell Julaia Resort which isn’t. None of the pools require you to be invited by a member except for SVN. SVN gets an exception for this list because it’s the nicest place with lots of very cool facilities. So for a very premium members only club, it’s actually great value compared to a lot of other places, so find a friend with a membership.

The list below is arranged from least expensive to most expensive:

Al Jahra Copthorne Hotel & Resort
Telephone: 24590000
Price: 10KD

Seashell Julaia Hotel & Resort
Telephone: 1844444
Price = 15KD

Crowne Plaza
Telephone: 1848111
Weekday/Weekend: 20KD

Symphony Style Hotel
Telephone: 25770000
Weekday: 20KD
Weekend: 25KD

Holiday Inn Salmiya
Telephone: 25760000
Weekday: 20KD
Weekend: 29KD

Hyatt Regency Al Kout Mall
Telephone: 23931234
Weekday/Weekend: 25KD
Ladies only on Monday and Wednesday

Millennium Hotel
Telephone: 22050505
Weekday/Weekend: 25KD

Mövenpick Hotel Resort AlBidaa
Telephone: 22253100
Weekday: 25KD
Weekend: 30KD

Hilton Resort
Telephone: 22256222
Weekday: 30KD
Weekend: 35KD

SVN Club (member invite required)
Telephone: 1876777
Weekday: 30KD
Weekend: 40KD

Marina Hotel
Telephone: 22230030
Weekday: 35KD
Weekend: 40KD

Four Seasons
Telephone: 22006000
Weekday/Weekend: 40KD (70KD Couple)

Waldorf Astoria
Telephone: 24774444
Price 1: 40KD (Inc. 1 Mocktail)
Price 2: 50KD (Inc. Food + Mocktail)

If I missed a place where you can access a pool with a day pass, let me know in the comments.

I hadn’t heard of “F1 in Schools” before so was confused when I found out they were opening in The Avenues. I thought it might be a racing school but it turned out to be engineering related. This is how it’s described on Wikipedia:

F1 in Schools is an international STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) competition for school children (aged 11–19), in which groups of 3–6 students have to design and manufacture a miniature car out of the official F1 Model Block using CAD/CAM design tools. The cars are powered by CO2 cartridges and are attached to a track by a nylon wire. They are timed from the moment they are launched to when they pass the finish line by a computer.

While researching I found out that in Kuwait, BSK were already involved with F1 in Schools (Check the post above). With The Avenues location opening the program will become accessible to more children. The Avenues location will be managed by the non-profit organization Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity and KFAS.

I’ve reached out to find out more about this and when they’re planning to open, but for now you can check f1inschools.com for more information or watch the video above to watch the 2023 world finals

Here is a feel-good story to start the week. Six lions rescued from Kuwait finally have a new home at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa. Known as the ‘Kuwait 6’, the males Muheeb, Saham, Shujaa, Saif, and females Dhubiya and Aziza were victims of the illegal pet trade. All the lions were less than two years old when they were either surrendered, confiscated, or captured in Kuwait after being abandoned by their owners.

Staff and volunteers at the Kuwait Zoo nursed the lions back to health and looked after them until they were able to find them a home. After a long 15-hour journey, the lions arrived in South Africa last week.

Animal Defenders International (ADI), the non-profit organization that campaigns against animal cruelty and exploitation, offered the lions a new life at the 455-acre ADI Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa. Qatar Airways Cargo assisted ADI in transporting the animals as part of their WeQare ‘Rewild the Planet’ initiative. Qatar Airways Cargo has an amazing and very caring program where they offer free transport to organizations involved in returning wild animals to their natural habitat.

For their first two weeks, the lions will be in quarantine before being released into the main habitat. ADI have been posting photos and videos of the ‘Kuwait 6’ on their instagram account @animal_defenders_international and it looks like the lions are in a really good place.

If you’d like to donate for the care of the ‘Kuwait 6’, you can by clicking this link. But, you also have the option to adopt one of the lions starting from just 20KD. For more on adoption, click here.

Ten years ago, Kuwait held the largest sand sculpture festival in the world, the Remal International Festival (@remalfest). The festival took place at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds and covered an area equivalent to six football fields. Now a decade later, Damon Langlois, the creative director behind the project is releasing a book called “Stories in Sand” that documents his experience.

Damon was a five-time world champion and Guinness World Record holder for the tallest sand castle before getting hired to come to Kuwait and lead the project that would be based around the Arabian Nights. He spent over seven months researching and designing the scenes before bringing together 72 of the world’s best sand artists to reimagine the stories from 1001 Nights.

The sculpture park was constructed out of only sand and water, it was a major artistic feat, and extremely risky. The artists were all reminded of this when the park was destroyed by a devastating three-day storm halfway through the build. At the time, it was the worst storm to hit Kuwait in over 50 years.

I remember reading that “some” sculptures had been damaged, but now I realized how bad it really was. The destruction caused Damon and his team to feel defeated after all the hard work had been washed away. But, they were able to recover and complete the project, and the park eventually opened in January 2014 before closing 4 months later in April.

Damon’s book “Stories in Sand”, is part art and part storybook. The initial print run is set at only 260 books and contains 276 pages filled with behind the scenes and final creation photos and stories. There are limited copies of the book so if you want one you need to act fast. I’m assuming they will get sold out quickly after this post which is why I already ordered my copy. The book doesn’t ship to Kuwait directly so I had to put my Shop&Ship address instead.

If you want to pre-order a copy, here is the link to the Kickstarter.

For my old posts on the Remal Festival, click here.

I didn’t watch a lot of shows or movies this week since I’m saving them for my long flight next week. But, I did finally get to watch “The Iron Claw“, not the storyline I was expecting so caught me by surprise, but damn it was such a good movie.

I also started and stopped watching Dark Matter. I think I made it to episode 3 before realizing I didn’t like the storyline and wasn’t interested in continuing it.

I watched the last episode of Under the Bridge yesterday, I thought last week was the last episode but turned out there was one more. It was a forgettable episode and the series didn’t really need it. Wait, I just checked and turns out there is still one more episode next week. wtf?

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

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

New This Week:
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (8.1)
Prey (3.8)
Sting (5.7)
The Garfield Movie (6.0)

Other Movies Showing:
Abigail (6.8)
Civil War (7.6)
Dead Racer (5.7)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (6.5)
IF (6.8)
Inception (Classic/2010) (8.8)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (7.4)
Knox Goes Away (6.9)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (6.4)
The Fall Guy (7.3)
You Can’t Run Forever (N/A)

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

When I first started this blog I was posting maybe 5 times a day? It was constant content but mostly non-Kuwait related. Then overtime I realized people were more interested with the Kuwait content so my topics because Kuwait focused and I dropped down to around 2-3 posts a day. Then, it dropped down to 1-2 a day. 14,000+ posts later and now I’m barely managing 1 post a day.

A lot has changed obviously in the 20+ years since I started. Back then the only other source for content were physical newspapers and magazines. Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok didn’t exist and so my blog was the only source of interesting Kuwait related content that was fast/live. Magazines you had to wait till the end of the month to read about something and newspaper were just not interesting and still aren’t interesting.

But now with soooo many sources for content I’m still finding my way of how to still be relevant and interesting. I think 99% of the content out there is trash, and I still don’t get this yelling salesman style of tiktok videos that people seem to do.

It’s been over a year since I launched my Instagram account and I really don’t think there is anything like it in Kuwait, mostly because of the wide range of content I cover. I at least think it is all interesting. Well based on the engagement people are also finding it interesting. But I really haven’t changed my content style much, it’s always been random. Scrolling through my Instagram account now makes me more aware how my brain is all over the place.

But, content is also taking a lot longer to put together. I use the app Simplenote for my blog, basically anytime I have a topic idea I create a new note. Then as I collect information on that topic I fill in that note. As of right now I have 203 potential future topics to post about, with some of those topic ideas even broken down further. For example, I have a “Design Highlights” note but under that I have 9 future posts. And these are solid topics, not random restaurants I’m invited to try, which I have zero interest in going to.

Yet I can barely scrape together 1 post a day for some reason. I’m trying to understand why and I think that’s mostly because it’s taking me longer than before to collect the information for posts. I’m now turning 46, I was 25 when I started blogging. I have a lot less free time, I have more responsibilities now and I don’t think I can do slapstick posts, basically random posts without substance. I understand that because of my Instagram account where I’ve set a personal benchmark where every post needs to be a blockbuster hit, but I should be able to post random shit here. My Instagram posts take a lot longer to put together than my blog because I spend so much time on the photo, and so much time getting the headline interesting without having to clickbait, and then I need to manage my writing since I’m limited to just 2,100 characters on Instagram. But, I do a lot of random posts on twitter than I do here.

As I just wrote that last sentence, I think I answered my own question. It’s a lot easier to post on twitter than it is on my blog where I need to sit down in front of a computer and do it. I no longer get on my computer in the evenings, I don’t have a laptop open in front of me while watching TV. Maybe that’s what I need to change, either start getting on my laptop again in the evenings, or just get comfortable posting on the blog through my phone.

I tried posting from my phone maybe 10 years ago and it would mess up the look of the post. But the WordPress app has changed a lot since then and so has my blog theme so maybe it’s not an issue anymore. I’ll try to post from my phone again and if it works it should hopefully improve things moving forward.

This week I finished watching Under the Bridge which turned out to be pretty good. I also started watching The Veil which isn’t that great but I’m curious to see where it goes. I’m traveling in 10 days time so kinda watching b-rated shows for now and saving the rest for the plane. Currently have the following I’m saving for my trip:

Hacks (Latest season)
Clarksons Farm (Latest season)
Loot (Latest season)
Mr & Mrs Smith (Halfway through)
The Iron Claw (Movie)
Dream Scenario (Movie)
A Man in Full
Ripley
Unfrosted (Movie)
Obliterated
The New Look
The Sympathizer

Let me know in the comments what you’ve been watching or planning to watch this weekend.

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

New This Week:
Abigail (6.8)
Dead Racer (5.7)
IF (6.8)
Knox Goes Away (6.9)
Memory (6.6)
You Can’t Run Forever (N/A)

Other Movies Showing:
Bloodline Killer (7.5)
Civil War (7.6)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (6.5)
Inception (Classic/2010) (8.8)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (7.4)
Kung Fu Panda 4 (6.4)
The Fall Guy (7.3)
The Little Mermaid (4.6)

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

Last week a video popped up on my feed that I thought was fascinating. A guy called Hamad AlMuzaini (@hamad.muzaini) had spotted a little piece of architecture history at a scrap yard in Amghara, the Maison Bulle (Bubble House) by French modernist architect, Jean-Benjamin Maneval.

The Bubble House which was conceived in 1963 is considered to be one of the most successful designs for “futuristic plastic houses“. Only 300 of these prefab homes were ever built and so it’s pretty incredible that not only did one end up in Kuwait, but the fact that it survived and is in fairly decent condition is a miracle.

Hamad is an architect and designer who lived and worked in the US for roughly 13 years. Most of his work experience revolved around modular and prefabricated construction, which is why when he spotted the Bubble House roughly two years ago, he immediately recognized that it was a novel system and had immense value. But, Hamad only realized recently what he had spotted when an account he follows posted a similar Bubble House. So Hamad went back to Amghara and called the number of the scrapyard asking if it was for sale. From there he purchased the house and started planning its relocation.

Most of the images online consistently depicted the Bubble House set against nature, making a really beautiful composition of something quite futuristic. So he decided to move the Bubble House out of the scrap yard and onto his family’s farm.

Currently Hamad is focusing his efforts on restoring the structure without permanent and damaging procedures. He wants to restore it as close to the original as possible but without an interior layout, leaving it as an open floor plan. He hopes to one day host events with some community engagement surrounding the Maison Bulle, but for now his focus is to restore it.

How the Bubble House ended up in Kuwait in the first place is still a mystery, but at least it’s in good hands right now.

There are a lot of great Thai restaurants in Kuwait but my favorite by far has to be Phet Phet. I think they have the best Pad Thai and Panang Curry in Kuwait, but I also really love their Spicy Potato Noodles. They have been delivery only since they launched a few years ago, but today they’re opening their first dine-in location.

Phet Phet was started by two female friends who used to go to Thailand a lot. When covid hit, they missed Thailand and the food they used to have there, and since delivery wasn’t available at one point, they decided to make their own recipes and cook their own food. Eventually, they decided to open up a restaurant and called it Phet Phet.

Their new location is located in Salmiya, on the same street as %Arabica and Joe and the Juice. It’s a very cute space and so close to where I live which is great for me. They’re open from 3PM to 11PM daily except for Sundays when they close. Here is the location on Google Maps, and their instagram account is @phetphetkw