Search: “kuwait”

The British Bank of the Middle East was originally called the Imperial Bank of Persia and operated out of Iran. In 1952 it abandoned the Iranian market and renamed itself to British Bank of the Middle East. In 1959, BBME was acquired by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC).

Last week while looking for information on an old photography studio called “Studio Sharq”, I ended up coming across old photos of BBME in Kuwait (they were credited to Studio Sharq). HSBC scanned old photographs of two of their old branches, the first location that opened in 1952 as well as their second location that opened in 1964.

Along with photos of the exterior of the bank they also have photos of the interior and of the opening ceremony.

If you want to check them out, click here.

Comedian and television host Bassem Youssef is coming to Kuwait to co-headline a comedy night alongside popular standup comedian, Maz Jobrani on May 25th at the Kuwait International Fairground.

Bassem Youssef went viral late last year after his appearance on the Piers Morgan show and it will be his first time performing in Kuwait. Maz, on the other hand, has performed in Kuwait multiple times and was part of the popular ‘Axis of Evil’ comedy group.

Tickets will go on sale later today at 5PM and will be available on eventat.com

The show will be in English, and tickets will start from 30KD.

This past weekend I picked up the Apple Vision Pro and since then I’ve been using it daily, mostly exploring it and trying to figure out what to do with it.

First things first, if you’re planning to pick up an Apple Vision Pro in Kuwait, you need to know that you won’t be able to pick the proper sized light seal. Before purchasing the AVP from the Apple Store, they ask you to scan your face so they could recommend the proper light seal. You can do that through the Apple Store app and according to the scan, I needed a size 21W. If you’re buying an AVP from the grey market, there is no way to know what size light seal you’re getting since Apple doesn’t mention the size on the outside of the box. So it depends on your luck, I ended up with the light seal size 33W which was what Apple recommended for my wife. It doesn’t fit well on my face but I’m dealing with it till my light seal arrives. I got a brand new one off eBay for $150 but Apple sells them for $199. So just something to keep in mind.

Secondly, the AVP prices in Kuwait are quite a bit cheaper than Apple prices in the US. The cheapest price I found locally was 999KD at Best Electronics. In comparison, it costs around 1,160KD in the States with tax, but without shipping to Kuwait. Expect to pay around 20-30KD on top of that to ship to Kuwait since the box is pretty heavy. But then again, if you don’t end up with the correct light seal size you’ll have to pay for that, but it would still be cheaper to buy it locally and you’ll end up having an extra light seal.

Other than that, if you already have a US Apple Store account which I assume everyone already has, then you’re pretty much set. If you have a Kuwait Apple Store account it won’t work in the AVP since the AVP is only available in the US at the moment. If you want to use streaming services like Disney and Max, you also need a smart DNS proxy. Disney Kuwait won’t work (uses app from Kuwait store) and I don’t think there is a VPN option on the AVP, but smart DNS is easier to set up anyway.

My first impression of the AVP? It’s difficult to explain. I love it, it’s definitely the future, but if you’re asking me if you should get one, then the answer is no. If you already got one or are planning to get one, then you made the right decision. It’s confusing I know but if you already decided on the AVP it’s most likely for the same reason as me, to be there at the start of what I think is the future, and not because it’s worth getting one now.

It’s such an incredible device, using it and doing things with it is like nothing else I’ve experienced, so much so that I keep wanting to share my experience with someone else. That’s what’s also so weird about the AVP, it’s such a solo device but yet the experiences are ones you want to share with others. I’ve been constantly annoying my wife asking her to put on the AVP so I could let her experience various things I got to experience.

I will have to do a proper review of the device, but right now I’ve mostly been using it for two things, watching TV and playing ToXun. ToXun is a game that randomly puts you somewhere on Earth in Google Street View, and you need to guess where you are in the world. It’s pretty difficult but I’ve been quite good at guessing at least which country I’m in.

Watching TV on the other hand is just a really really incredible experience. For one thing, you can now have a TV anywhere. I have just one TV by choice in my apartment, but with the AVP I can now set up a large Cinescape movie theater anywhere I want in my place. I’ve watched a variety of content so far from simple TV shows to what Apple calls Immersive Videos. I’m not sure how to describe immersive video because until I experienced it I hadn’t experienced anything like it anywhere. Imagine a super large Imax screen that towers above and below you but is also in 3D. Actually, I don’t think that describes it properly. Imagine, you’re standing inside the film watching, that’s what these videos feel like. There aren’t many of them but my favorite is called Adventure and takes place up high in the mountains where a female climber sets up a high line to cross over a cliff. It’s really well shot, the 3D scenes make me feel like I’m right there, and anywhere I look I see beautiful views. They’re not 360 videos, but they do wrap around your peripheral vision.

But your regular 3D movies look great as well. I was never a fan of 3D movies because of the glasses you had to wear and how they darkened the screen. With the AVP they’re much much better. I watched the movie Gravity last night in 3D inside my theater and it was incredible, I felt like I was up there with them in space.

So far the AVP has been a great experience. I just ordered a compact carrying case for it from Waterfield in case I want to travel with it and use it on the plane. Not sure I’d be comfortable doing that just yet, but will see how it goes.

If there is anything specific you want to know or want me to try out, let me know in the comments.

The popular car vlogger Shmee was in Kuwait last week to film the car collection of Dr. Adel Quttainah, the plastic surgeon. I had assumed it was his first visit to Kuwait but in the video he mentions it was his second time although I couldn’t find any details of his first visit. If you’re into cars, check out his video on YouTube

Young Po is a new Pan-Asian restaurant opening soon, created by local chef Khaled AlBaker (@chefkb). When I found out he was opening an Asian concept I was pretty excited since I love Chinese food and there aren’t that many “nice” Chinese restaurants in Kuwait. I had the opportunity to try out Young Po last week, and I had a great overall experience.

Young Po isn’t limited to just Chinese food but also covers a wide range of Asian food including Japanese and Korean. The menu was divided into six categories:

• Starters
• Dim Sum
• Sushi & Sashimi
• Special Quests
• Robata
• Wok

The special quests category is for items like roasted duck and shabu shabu, while the rest of the categories are pretty self-explanatory. I ended up ordering the following dishes:

• Master Garden Salad
• Lobster on Toast
• Deobokki (Rice Cakes)
• Prawn Jiaozi (Dim Sum)
• Not-so California Roll
• Chu Toro Nigiri
• Wagyu Tenderloin (Robata)
• Baloul Clay Pot (Robata)
• Brocollini (Robata)
• Sweet & Sour Shrimp
• Egg Fried Rice

It was a lot of food for just two people, but it gave me a chance to try out a variety of dishes I usually wouldn’t order. I ended up loving everything I tried but, my go-to dish is always sweet & sour (I’m boring like that) and the one at Young Po might be the best I’ve ever had.

There were no prices on the menu when I was there, and of this post they’re still being finalized. But, it will be an “upper” casual dining experience.

If you want to try Young Po they’re opening in Shuwaikh this Wednesday, May 1st. Reservations are currently open on their website but there will be tables available for walk-ins as well.

The Instagram account is @youngpo.me, but to reserve a table, head over to youngpo.com

Over the weekend there was a bit of drama in Kuwait. Word got out that a PlayBoy model called Lina Bourghol was in Kuwait last week, and although it didn’t look like she did anything wrong while here, she still managed to ruffle some feathers.

Lina posted a photo of her in front of the Kuwait Towers which exacerbated the controversy. That photo now has over 3,000 likes but no comments since she closed it due to the abuse she was getting. In a video that popped up on my Tiktok feed she mentions that she doesn’t understand why authorities had a problem with her being in Kuwait, but were fine with Kim Kardashian being here. She denied that she was here because a guy paid her to come, and she brought up a good point that why would he bring her to Kuwait when they could fly out to a more interesting play like Miami. She said she came in here on a visit visa and that she wore the abaya everywhere she went out of respect for the local culture.

In any case she ended up leaving Kuwait, some people were saying she got deported but she mentions in her video she had left on her free will. The whole coming in on a visit visa thing I can believe since every now and then Tiktok pops up videos on my feed of what I assume are escorts temporarily in Kuwait. Don’t think there is a way to stop them from coming in unless you stop issuing visit visas completely.

Last week Kuwait came second in the IIHF World Championship Division IV, but a couple of days ago the Kuwait under 18 team lost 57-0 to Thailand in the opening game of the U-18 Asian and Oceania Championship. source

57 to 0!

It’s now considered to be the 5th worst beatdown in international hockey history. Kuwait only managed 1 shot at Thailands goal while Thailand had 122 shots on Kuwait.

Keep in mind hockey is composed of 3 periods of 20mins each, so Thailand basically scored 1 goal a minute. Pretty crazy but the good news is, it’s not the worst beatdown ever. The worst beatdown ever goes to the South Korea vs Thailand match from 1998 where South Korea beat Thailand 92-0. 57-0 would put the Kuwait game 5th on the list.

Kuwait’s goalie actually managed to make 65 saves, so the blame can’t all go to him. This was also Kuwait’s debut at the tournament.

The tournament is taking place in Uzbekistan, with nine teams – Thailand, Kuwait, India, Indonesia, Iran, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia and the United Arab Emirates. You can watch the full game above.

Update: In their second game, Kuwait were losing 17-0 against Uzbekistan in the first period when they decided to forfeit the game.

This past Friday was the opening of the Ascend Rock Climbing Center in Hawally. Ascend initially started off as a small local community for climbing enthusiasts in Kuwait by a climbing enthuisiast, @ali.ascends.

I’ve been posting about Ali (and Ascend) for nearly 10 years now. I first found out about him in 2014 after he moved back to Kuwait from university and started recording videos of himself climbing random rock walls in Mutlaa. His aim from the very beginning was to build a climbing community in Kuwait and so he started the group “Kuwait Climbing” (later became Ascend).

The group used to meetup in Mutlaa as well as whatever climbing walls were available in Kuwait at that time. Ali eventually built a small climbing wall outside his family home which became popular, and later expanded it to meet the demand. Now I imagine the community is going to grow even larger with this new climbing center which he was able to open with the help of his partner Hanan, and the help of the climbing community.

The Ascend Rock Climbing Center located inside Emall in Hawally, across the street from Andalus Complex. The climbing center boasts the tallest climbing wall in Kuwait at 14.5m tall. I passed by yesterday for the opening and it was pretty busy with a lot of climbers from the region who had come to Kuwait to check out the center. There were even climbers who flew in from Europe, that should give you an idea of how much Ali is loved by the climbing community.

If you’re interested in getting into the sport of climbing, the center is open daily from 11AM to 11PM. The first hour of climbing costs 5KD and its then 2.5KD for every additional hour. There are also day passes as well as monthly memberships. For more information, check out @ascend.kw

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

Thursday, April 18th
KASA’s 18th Annual Students’ Exhibition
Ice Hockey World Championship

Friday, April 19th
MACBETH
KASA’s 18th Annual Students’ Exhibition
Ice Hockey World Championship
Brainiac Live

Saturday, April 20th
MACBETH
Augmented Reality Treasure Hunt
KASA’s 18th Annual Students’ Exhibition
Trash Tag Beach Clean Up
Brainiac Live
Fusion Fitness

Dalal Khajah is a Kuwaiti author and the Co-Founder of Manservants, a US-based company that allows women to order chivalrous gentlemen for launch events, red carpets, or just for a girls’ night out.

The company started off as a joke that Dalal and her colleague took too far, but then it went viral and took off to become a serious and successful business that now serves Palm Springs, Los Angeles, San Diego and New York. Each ManServant is trained in their signature service, which includes, but is not limited to, pouring drinks, serving compliments and adoration, taking photos, and waiting on the women hand and foot.

“ManServant Guide to Modern Chivalry” is a book that was born out of the business. It’s a book that details how men should treat women in the 21st century from doing laundry, carrying shopping bags, cleaning the bathroom, or watching the kids.

The book has just been released and is already garnering media attention, including Dalal being invited onto the show “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” a few days ago. If Andy looks familiar, it’s because he also hosts “The Real Housewives.”

I downloaded the book on my Kindle and it’s fun little book thats not meant to be taken too seriously. It’s also reasonably priced, at just $10.99 for the Kindle version and $20 for the hardcover.

If you want to buy the book or just find out more about Dalal and Manservants, head over to @manservants_co or their website manservants.co

Starting tomorrow (April 16), Kuwait will be hosting the 2024 World Ice Hockey Championship Division IV. Four countries will be participating in this tournament, Mongolia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Kuwait.

The IIHF World Championship Division IV is an annual sports event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The winner of this championship will progress to the higher Division III. Last year Kuwait finished 3rd while Philippines finished 1st.

The tournament is running from April 16 to 19 and taking place at the Kuwait Winter Games Club’s ice skating rink in Bayan. If you’re interested in attending and watching the games, here is the schedule (no tickets required):

Tuesday, 16 April 2024
14:00 – Mongolia v Indonesia
18:00 – Malaysia v Kuwait

Thursday, 18 April 2024
14:00 – Indonesia v Malaysia
18:00 – Mongolia v Kuwait

Friday, 19 April 2024
14:00 – Malaysia v Mongolia
18:00 – Kuwait v Indonesia

I had Ferdi for the first time back in 2013 when I visited a couple of friends who were studying in Paris. They were both regulars at Ferdi, a hole in the wall restaurant that was starting to become a hotspot for celebrities and a place to be seen during Paris Fashion Week and other high-profile events. I remember the second time I was having dinner there, Kim and Kanye were also there just a couple of tables away. It was surreal, mostly because everyone there was so casual about it.

But that was then, today Ferdi has become a popular tourist destination and they now have locations around the world as well as a spinoff brand called Dinand par Ferdi. They also just opened in Kuwait, and last night I was invited to try it out.

The best way to describe Ferdi’s food is unpretentious comfort food. My usual order includes corn on the cob, mac & cheese, French fries and their famous cheeseburger. Nothing about their food is special, they don’t have the best cheeseburger in the world or the best fries, but when in Paris, it’s the combination of good simple food, decent prices, cozy space and the ambience that makes Ferdi, Ferdi. Not sure that concept works in Kuwait since we all have our favorite comfort food spots and we all definitely have our favorite burger places, but we’ll soon find out.

Ferdi Kuwait is located at JACC right next to White Robata. Their prices are similar to Paris with their Mac Ferdi’s Cheeseburger costing KD5.850 and KD2.000 for a side of fries. Reservations at the moment are required and as of this post, it looks like the next available date is May 29th. So good luck getting a table until the hype settles. @ferdi.kuwait

Bassem Youssef (@bassem), is coming to Kuwait next month to co-headline a comedy night alongside popular standup comedian, Maz Jobrani (@mazjobrani).

If you don’t know Bassem Youssef, he’s an Egyptian-American comedian and television host who went viral late last year after his appearance on the Piers Morgan show. Maz, on the other hand, has performed in Kuwait multiple times and was part of the popular ‘Axis of Evil’ comedy group.

The show hasn’t been officially announced yet, but Maz Jobrani was able to confirm to me that they are indeed coming. The date is currently being finalized, and they will announce it soon. Both will be performing together in Abu Dhabi on May 24th, so I’d expect them to be in Kuwait around that date.

Amer Zahr, the popular Palestinian American comedian is coming to Kuwait to perform his hilarious stand-up show, “The Truth”.

Amer has previously headlined at New York City’s world-famous Carnegie Hall and John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. He also served as a national surrogate for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders back in 2016. His comedy tends to draw on his experiences growing up as a child of Palestinian refugees, performing on topics like politics, society, culture, Palestine, and more.

If you’re looking for a night out full of laughter, he’ll be performing in Kuwait on April 23rd at 6:00 pm and 8:30 pm. The show will take place at the American University in Kuwait Theater in Salmiya and tickets start at KD15.

Amer is proud to partner with the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

To get your tickets head over to tktfox.com

Last week artist Jad El Khoury was brought back to Kuwait to create a new mural in place of his erased one, that project was just one of many that the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters have in the pipeline.

NCCAL recently underwent a leadership transition that is instigating significant changes. They want to transform the public art scene starting with a commitment to providing increased opportunities for both local and international artists. By fostering trust between artists and the public sector, they hope to cultivate a vibrant public art community in Kuwait.

Their first project launched earlier this year and they called it “Al Fenn Al Thalith Murals Project” (roughly translates to “The Third Art Murals Project). The project is an open platform for artists that streamlines the process of obtaining permits to create murals on public property and spaces. They launched the project with an open invitation for people to submit their designs and if chosen, they’d then be able to paint them onto the electrical substations in that area.

With their first projects out of the way, NCCAL are now working on the next ones. One of the future projects targets what they call “trouble zones” all over Kuwait, breathing life into them with mural art. They also want to collaborate with a variety of entities such as Jedareyat, the Australian Embassy (future project in the works), and various private sponsors/collaborators.

I also found it interesting that NCCAL supports all local artists, regardless of where they’re from. Additionally, they aim to continue inviting international artists so they could bring diverse perspectives and experiences to the local scene.

NCCAL are currently in the process of setting up social media pages and an official website that will encompass all these projects, but for now, if you’re interested in obtaining a permit to create a mural on public property, you can do so through the NCCAL website, nccal.gov.kw