The first time I heard about this project was back in 2011 but it looks like it got approved and is going to be constructed since it’s currently in a tendering stage.
The Kuwait Olympic Village development comprises a Stadium, Team Games Hall, Individual Games Hall, Racquet Games Hall, Swimming Complex, Training Field & Track, International Zone, Athletes Residential Block, Mosque, Olympic Flame Tower, Concourse and Existing Substation.
Bonchon Chicken is a popular Korean fried chicken and wings restaurant and it’s opening in Kuwait soon. They’ve got locations mostly in Asia but they do have branches in New York and Bahrain as well.
I’ve never eaten there but a friend has and told me their fried chicken is really good so now I’m curious to try it out. They’re opening at the new Dhai Complex in Bida’a which I thought was a sort of a high end food complex so that location choice seems a bit odd. I don’t know when they’re opening exactly so if you do, let me know in the comments below.
Update: According to a reader they might be opening end of February.
A couple of weekends back I went camping in the desert and nearly got completely lost on the way there. I usually go camping with a friend of mine in this secluded area around an hour plus drive into the desert from Al Salmi. This time around my friend headed into the desert first since I had some errands I needed to get done during the day and then headed into the desert in the afternoon. The whole journey takes around two hours from Salmiya so by the time I got close to camp it was dark and I couldn’t see anything except the road in front of me. I had Google Maps coordinates of our camp site on my phone and was following it without issues until I hit what I think must have been Kuwait’s Bermuda Triangle.
As I got close to our camping spot my phone just started messing up. I’d be driving towards my blue dot on Google Maps and then 15 minutes later the map suddenly rotates and so now the blue dot is behind me. So I’d turn the car around and head the other way, 20 minutes later the map rotates again and now the blue dot is on my right instead of straight ahead. It did this a couple of more times before I realized I was driving around in circles wasting precious fuel in the empty desert and completely lost. I was about to give up and just camp in this random spot in the middle of nowhere until the sun comes up when I remembered I had a little Garmin eTrex 20 in the trunk with my camping gear.
I had bought the Garmin for exactly this situation, to use if I ever get lost when hiking or camping. So I dug it out of my gear, turned it on, entered the coordinates of my campsite and right away the Garmin pointed me to the right direction. I was so off course I had to drive another 30 minutes to get to camp. Moral of the story? If you’re ever heading into the desert don’t rely on your phone for navigation. Instead, invest in a dedicated GPS device since it could save your ass one day.
When I was a kid I remember visiting the Buffalo Bill’s show that (I believe) was held at the Mishref Fairgrounds. I posted about it a few years back asking if anyone remembered it and not many people did. None of my friends remember it either but, the internet is amazing sometimes and a few days ago one of the Buffalo Bill’s performers who came to Kuwait in 86 sent me a few pictures of when they were in Kuwait. He was 24 at that time and he’s still got more pictures which he’s going to send but for now here are three.
Their setup was pretty legit so I imagine they were here for some time and not just for a few shows. Kinda like when a circus would come into town. You’ll also notice a number of brands in the background including Hungry Bunny, Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Alghanim Philips (now Xcite) and KNPC.
According to a source, Al Yasra are in talks to try and bring Pret a Manger to Kuwait. Pret is already available in the UAE and so it would make sense to expand around the region. I always used to wonder where one would open a Pret in Kuwait since it works well in an area with some foot traffic that isn’t a mall. Now With all the coffee shops in the city creating a bit of foot traffic, that might actually be a great location for a Pret especially since its surrounded by office buildings as well.
It’s been super warm all January during the daytime, I’m in a t-shirt most of the time and at night I even have the air conditioning on when I go to sleep. It feels like the warmest January ever but I just went through the Kuwait weather history on wunderground.com, and it turns out it’s just an average Kuwait January. The coldest January in the past 10 years was in 2009 and the warmest was in 2010.
Mubarak Almubarak is a Kuwaiti director who I’ve actually posted about before since he’s also a special effects artist and a pretty good one. His previous short film I posted was called “My Life” which I’ve gone ahead and embedded again below. I loved that short film because the crumbling and destroyed Kuwait City landscape reminded me of a scene from the movie “I Am Legend”.
Well Mubarak is back with another short this time featuring our favorite Japanese super robot, Grendizer. In the short film which I’ve shared above, you’ll see a destroyed Kuwaiti neighborhood as well as a bunch of short robot battle scenes that takes place in the middle of Kuwait City.
According to Mubarak he’s going to start working on a bunch of new fun personal projects and fan films and he’s starting off with this one. I love it, makes me wish it was a much longer film. His production house by the way is called [NGU Productions]
I don’t know what took so long but Sonicare electric toothbrushes are now finally available in Kuwait. I used to use Oral B toothbrushes previously but I read so many great things about Sonicare I eventually picked up the Sonicare Flexcare model 3 years ago and haven’t looked back since. Only issue I was having was that I was ordering replacement heads online which was adding to the already expensive cost of the heads, now I can get them locally. If you’re interested they’re available at Xcite.
Last July I posted the video below as well as renderings of the proposed Kuwait Motor Town race circuit. Not only did the project finally get a green light, but construction is already on the way and 92% of the digging has already been completed. The video below for some reason has been circling social media the past week as if its something new but it’s not new and its no longer accurate.
Kuwait Motor Town will be a world-class race tracking that will feature seven racing circuits. The track will be FIA Grade 1 circuit designed by TILKE, the same people behind a number of popular F1 tracks including Yas Marina and the Baku City Circuit. The circuit will be a state-of-the-art facility that is able to host Formula One and MotoGP races in the future.
The project is being handled by the Amiri Diwan who are behind projects like Al Shaheed Park and the new cultural centre. The circuit is expected to be completed sometime next year and will be located off highway 40, across from Ali Sabah Al Salem. [Google Maps]
The rendering on the very top of this post is currently the latest available rendering but it’s not the final one. I’m trying to get a hold of the final renderings but for now if you’d like to check out videos of the construction work and stay up to date on the project, check out the instagram account @afs_q80
I can’t believe we’re finally getting a race track in Kuwait and not just any race track but a state-of-the-art one. I guess I’m going to need to replace my Datsun with a new car I could use on open track days. This is so exciting!!!
Update: I managed to get the latest renderings of the circuit from Ali Fawaz Al Sabah (@afs_q80) who is the president of the Basil Al Sabah Motor Racing Club. These are the latest but not the final final renderings since more modifications were made. Ali and his team have been working day and night on the project for 9 years trying to get it approved. In the visuals below you’ll find the karting, moto-cross, rally-cross, super-cross, 4×4 technical and ATV circuits as well as the main F1 and Moto-GP circuits. You’ll also see renderings of the mall and hotel. Once you click on a thumbnail you’ll see the description on the bottom left of the image.
You can find the full resolution of the images above [Here]
The Shakshooka farmers market is back this weekend and instead of their usual location at the Secret Garden, they’re instead heading over to Al-Khaled Complex a few streets further down. A few other cool events are happening this weekend so check out the full list below:
According to a source of mine, the Kuwait Airways flight attendants will start wearing their new uniforms starting next month. The new uniforms are supposedly by Armani and feature a number of different variations for the crew to choose from. Kuwait Airways posted the picture above on their instagram account but I was also able to get the images below that show the variations. If you’ve got clearer shots let me know since the ones below were photos taken off another phone.
For the past five years, WiMD has been my home internet provider. Before they came about, the fastest connection I could get at my place was 2Mbps so I’m a huge WiMD fan and feel I owe my sanity to them. When I first met them five years ago I was told they were working on setting up a WiFI network all around Kuwait, and now that project is finally launching.
WiMD is launching a new product next month called “Sama” which will cover various areas around Kuwait providing free internet to the public over WiFi. Currently Sama is covering Souk Mubarakiya, Al Shaheed Park and around 8km of ocean front. In the future Sama will cover Al Shaheed Park phase 2, around 40km of ocean front and other various projects around Kuwait.
Sama will officially launch next month but they’re currently testing out the Souk Mubarakiya location and have given me a code to share on the blog so my readers could access the network and try it out. Here is the information required to connect to Sama in Souk Mubarakiya:
Network Name: Sama Mubarakiya
Access Code: 7550682976
This code can be accessed by multiple users at the same time and the login screen will look similar to the screenshot above, depending on the time of day you’ll see a different sky. If you do try it out please share some feedback.
Also a little bit of information. Last year WiMD bought Gulfnet and this Thursday they’re actually launching the new brand for both companies at a private press conference at the Gulfnet head quarters. So I’m looking forward to that as well.
