There’s an old story from back in the 70s about a man who wasn’t dressed well walking into the Rolls Royce dealer in Kuwait to check out the cars. The man asked the salesman how much the car cost and the salesman replied that he wouldn’t be able to afford it. The man left the dealership upset but came up with an idea for payback. A few days later he went to the dealership again and purchased the Rolls Royce. He then registered it as a taxi cab and had it painted orange with a white stripe.
The man then put the taxi into service and was regularly picking up passengers and he even used to park it in front of the dealership just to mess with them even more. Eventually the dealership reached out to the man apologizing to him and offered to buy back the car from him and give him a more expensive one in return.
The man accepted and he handed the orange Rolls Royce to the dealership and got a new one in return. The orange Rolls was thought to have been repainted back to its original color and then resold, but, the car was recently found at a scrapyard in Khafji, Saudi Arabia, complete in its original orange paint and still had the original red license plates!
That’s pretty insane! You can check out the video by Bin Zuayd on YouTube embeded above or visit his Instagram account @khalid_eisaa to watch it there.
Last night I finished watching the last episode of The Idol on HBO and I loved it. It stars Johnny Depp’s daughter Lily-Rose Depp as Jocelyn and The Weeknd as Tedros, both of which are the main characters on the show. The Idol is also created and directed by Sam Levinson who was behind the other great (and controversial) HBO series Euphoria. He’s the reason why I watched this show since I was a huge fan of Euphoria and wanted to see more of his work.
The Idol is a drama series about Jocelyn, a pop star aiming to reclaim her fame after a breakdown. Her life takes a turn when she meets Tedros, a nightclub owner with a dark past. The show explores her journey in the music industry and personal life.
The Idol is disturbing. It isn’t a show you binge watch since you want time between the episodes to just recharge. The Weeknd’s character “Tedros” is also the worst, a lot of people have said he’s a bad actor but I don’t think thats true, I think they just really really hate his character and it’s The Weeknd’s acting that brings it to life. And I’m not saying that because I’m a fan of his or anything, I actually didn’t care much for him before this show and I even only realized now while writing this post that it’s actually written The Weeknd and not The Weekend.
If you check the shows rating on IMDB it actually has a 5 out of 10 rating which is pretty terrible. But that’s understandable, so ignore it. The show isn’t for everyone and going through the reviews you can easily spot that. If you have the stomach for it and are willing to plow through the shows 5 episodes, I think you’re in for something really different and great.
Mo Amer, the Palestinian American comedian known for his hilarious performances in the Netflix show ‘Mo’ and the award-winning Hulu sitcom ‘Ramy,’ is set to bring his comedy to Kuwait this September.
Mo was actually born in Kuwait and lived here till the age of 9. He only left Kuwait because of the 1990 Iraq invasion which is how he ended up in the US. I’m not sure if he’s been back to Kuwait since then, but if you went to a British school in the 80s, I’d pull up an old yearbook and see if I could spot him.
According to the information I have, Mo will be performing his standup on September 8th at The Arena. More information will be officially announced soon.
The Ikarus Astro group is hosting an astronomy event tonight at AlKhout Mall sea side from 7 to 10PM. It’s a free event and open to the public to observe the moon and planets. Ikarus will be bringing a few telescopes with them including the biggest mobile telescope in Kuwait so you should be able to get a pretty good viewing.
If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary to do tonight, this is it. @ikarustechnolog
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.
The pools guide list below is singles friendly, and arranged from least expensive to most expensive:
The American School of Kuwait have digitized all their yearbooks from the 1970s onwards and published them online. I went through a few of the early copies hoping to get a glimpse of student life in Kuwait back in the early 70s, but sadly they didn’t contain many lifestyle photos. They are still interesting to flip through especially if you were an ASK student so if you want to check them out, here is the link.
Last week Apple unveiled their VisionPro VR headset and a couple of days later I ended up experiencing free roam VR and so now I’m really excited about the future.
If you don’t know what free roam VR is, it’s virtual reality in a large room in which you can walk around and navigate freely in. Unlike conventional VR, you’re not just wearing a VR headset and sitting in a chair or standing in one spot, instead you’re walking or running around a room in both the real world and in VR. As a Star Trek fan, the best way to describe it is like being on the holodeck.
I was never able to experience VR properly before due to the fact it would cause me motion sickness. So, when an old friend got in touch with me and invited me to try his new free roam VR business, I was hesitant to go. But he promised me I wouldn’t get motion sickness and he turned out to be right. Zero Latency is an entertainment franchise specializing in multiplayer VR gaming. It’s a cordless experience where you put on the headset and carry a weapon without having to be connected to anything in the room. The room itself is fairly large at 12x12m and the games you get to play take advantage of this.
We played two games, the first was a zombie shooter that took place inside an arena. I’ve been playing video games since the early 80s and from the thousands of games I’ve played they never felt like this. I felt like I was inside the game. Being able to run around to the other side of the room to help my friend shoot up some zombies, and then run back to the other side of the arena to ward off an attack was so much fun, I wasn’t just controlling a character inside a video game, I was that character.
The second game we played was Far Cry VR, one of my favorite video game franchises. This game was a completely different in style since it mostly took place in the jungle and in a larger world. The games mechanics helped enhance that open area feeling because for the first level of the game took place in a small 5x5m area where we were taking cover while shooting the enemies. Once we finished from there the game would make us walk to another area which was say 10x10m. When done we would then walk to another area and that kept happening every level so the game felt really large and so did the real world space.
I had a blast and time just flew by. I thought the first game was 5 minutes long and the second 15, in reality it turned out we played the first game for 15mins and the second for 30. That’s how much fun and immersive the experience. I actually kept thinking about the whole experience for days later. There was a part of Far Cry where I walked to an edge of a cliff and saw a beautiful view and it got me thinking about the potential of the Apple VisionPro once it comes out. It’s very exciting time to be alive.
Zero Latency is located at the new Al Andalus complex in Hawally. Prices start from KD6 and each game can handle up to 8 people. For more information and to book here is the link. They’re also on Instagram @zerolatencyvrkw
“ABC’s of Kuwait” is a new alphabetical rhyming book about Kuwait which I picked up before my vacation at the Ecru Pop Up. It’s written by Bibi Salem Al-Sabah and illustrated by Nada Dalloul and it’s a book for both children and adults alike. Every spread is a different letter with multiple words and tidbits relating to Kuwait.
Ecru, the Kuwait-based lifestyle brand inspired by the ethos and culture of Arab hospitality is celebrating their ten years milestone with a pop up at Sadu House. I remember when they launched back in 2013 it felt like a sigh of relief that someone was opening something other than a cupcake business (If you’re too young to remember, back then everyone had a cupcake business).
I dropped by the pop up earlier to pick up a copy of the book “ABCs of Kuwait”, (more on that in a separate post) and the Ecru setup was really something. They completely transformed the space and as you can see in the photo, it looks really really beautiful.
If you’re looking for something to do, tomorrow is the last day for the pop up. They’re there tonight till 8PM and tomorrow (Thursday) from 11AM to 5PM. Also make sure you check out their retrospective highlight on their Instagram account for their story on how it all began. @ecruonline
Formula One picked up in popularity over the past few years because of the Netflix documentary “Drive to Survive” so a lot of new (and some old) F1 fans in Kuwait will find this tidbit interesting.
Back in 2014, Red Bull brought their junior driver Carlos Sainz along with their F1 car to Kuwait and then had him race up and down the Gulf Road. I managed to get some photos as well as a video from that day which you can check out here.
If you’re an F1 fan then you know that Carlos Sainz is now Ferraris main driver and so you might be kicking yourself for not meeting him back when he came to Kuwait as just a young Red Bull junior racing team driver.
In 1960, Ian Fleming the British writer best known for his James Bond series of spy novels was invited to Kuwait by the Kuwait Oil Company. He was commissioned to write a book on Kuwait which he did and called “State of Excitement: Impressions of Kuwait”. However, the Kuwaiti government disapproved of the final manuscript, which they found condescending, and the book was never published.
There are two known copies of the book, one at the Lilly Library in the Indiana University, and another carbon copy sold at auction in 1997 to a private collector. I was given a photocopy of the book last year after trying to get access to one for nearly 5 years. Even though I never have the time or patience to read a book, I made sure I read this one because I knew how lucky I was to get a copy. As difficult it was getting a copy of the book, it was as difficult trying to find any photos of Fleming’s visit. Like the book, they seemed not to have existed, until now.
The photo on top is of Ian Fleming in Kuwait in 1960 on a hunting trip. I got the photo from the British novelist Louise Burfitt-Dons who recently published a book called “Our Man in Kuwait“, a fiction spy thriller based on true events from 1960.
Chapter 13 in Flemming’s book is called “Hunting the Hubarra” in which he discusses a hunting trip he went on in the Kuwaiti desert. Louise’s father, Ian Byres is the one who arranged that trip and took the picture above. In the photo is Ian Fleming on the left, John Collins on the far right who was the public relations officer at KOC, and I believe the person in the middle is a Kuwaiti called Khalid based on what I read in the chapter. Fleming didn’t enjoy the hunting trip, they weren’t able to catch a hubarra (a kind of bird) and blamed it on overhunting in Kuwait. He found the trip a total waste of his precious time and the chapter ends with him going off on a tangent criticizing Lebanon for over 2 pages.
I obviously can’t make copies of the book or upload it online, but I have shared the contents page above you can get an idea of what the book contains.
I’m a fan of the post-apocalyptic television series “The Last of Us” so when I stumbled into this area by accident, the first thing I did was shoot a video and send it over to a couple of friends who I knew watched the show as well. I felt like I had walked onto the set of the show with the only thing missing being the zombies.
The area is deserted with shrubs growing unchecked and walls covered with graffiti. All the buildings are crumbling because they’ve been neglected for decades, just like on the show. It was also eerily quiet except for the chirping of the birds.
If you want to film a short TikTok zombie flick or something, the area is located behind the abandoned buildings on Fahed Al Salem Street, next to Salhiya Complex. Google Maps
Back in February, I got a tour of a 2,000KD-a-night hotel room but a friend told me there was a more luxurious 4,500KD-a-night room at the St.Regis. So I got in touch with them and after a bit of back and forth getting all the approvals, yesterday I finally got a tour of their 4,500KD-a-night Amiri Suite.
The 400sqm suite was designed to be a luxurious home away from home for royalty, diplomats, and celebrities. The suite can’t be booked online only by phone. It has a beautiful view of JACC and a lot of features including:
Master Bedroom
Barber Area
Meeting Room
Video Conference Room
Large Dining Area
Massage Room
Fitness Area
Sauna and Steam Room
Unless someone proves me wrong, I believe this has to be the most expensive hotel room in Kuwait. If you want to see some nicer photos of the room, they a few on the @stregiskuwait website. Link
There used to be a pool hall in Salmiya behind Hungry Bunny called Shark or Sharx, not really sure. I can’t seem to find any information about it online or that it even existed. But a reader sent me the snippet above from a Russian news channel that had filmed a short report in the place and you can watch it above.
Update: Turns out it wasn’t behind Hungry Bunny but instead next to Zahra Complex. Here is a photo of the building that was in taken from msmooretravels.com
Update2: Here is a photo of the entrance but taken after it had shut down
I’m not really sure how I initially found out about this specific yellow pages directory from the American Women’s League of Kuwait, but it was on my watch list for some time and one eventually popped up for sale a few weeks ago. I tend to find out about random books and then add them to my watch list and wait patiently, usually, years before a copy eventually/hopefully pops up somewhere online and I get a notification. When this book popped up on eBay and knowing how difficult it is to find because it really isn’t a book you’d generally save, I quickly purchased it without even trying to negotiate on the price. I like directories because they usually help me connect various things together.
For example, on the Salmiya map on one of the pages it showed a “Camping Area” which confused me, how did Salmiya have a camping area? Then a follower on Instagram helped me figure out where that area was (Google Maps) and I realized that was the location of the Salmiya Youth Hostel which was supposedly run by the Kuwait Boy Scouts.
Then under the grocery store section, it listed various supermarkets, many I actually need to research especially New Supermarket because I remember the Salmiya location from the early 80s. But one of the supermarkets listed was Khalaf, which last year I happened to find photos of their Salmiya location.
Since I felt this was worth sharing, I took photos of the most significant pages and turned them into a 44MB PDF. You can download it here.
