Search: “kuwait”

This amazing and rare footage was shot with an 8mm camera back in the late 60’s early 70’s here in Kuwait. I think Kuwait looked better back then, I mean we had white picket fences! (Ignore the last minute of the video since that’s Lebanon not Kuwait) [YouTube]

The below is taken from the Boulevard project about us page:

Nestled in the heart of Salmiya, the vibrant area southeast of Kuwait City, with rich demographic diversity, Boulevard is an emerging oasis in the middle of the city, a fabulous world full of real facilities!

Once a large desolated plot of land, the area is now one of the most wonderful green places to visit in the State of Kuwait, benefiting from excellent road access on all sides principally from the Fifth Ring Road and Arabian Gulf Street.

Today, Boulevard is the largest touristic hub in the country, including more than 353 thousand square meters of fabulous year-round family fun, and offering a splendid range of cultural and recreational events and activities and a constant source of wonderful delights.

Notice anything strange? Well below is a picture of Boulevard today. I don’t think it looks that green and popular but I could be wrong… [Link]

As an expat am I allowed to own a hunting rifle? What about a handgun? Are hunting rifles and hand guns counted as two different things? The video above is supposedly of the largest hunting shop in Kuwait. Lots of rifles on display but can I own one? I am not planning on hunting anything and not sure what people actually hunt in Kuwait but I’m just curious to know the laws of owning a weapon. [YouTube]

Gallup World Poll surveyed thousands of people and then came out with a list of the happiest countries in the world. Kuwait came in at 23rd, the second Arab country on the list, the first being UAE which came 20th. Lebanon came in at 73 while Togo came in last and Denmark first. For the full list click [Here]

Thanks Nancy

Getting an iPhone 4 is pretty simple but you need patience since the iPhone 4 is currently in short supply and can take up to 3 weeks to be delivered. To order an iPhone 4 you also need the following:

1) Local credit card
2) Aramex Shop&Ship account (not sure if it works with others like DHL)

Then what you need to do is go to the UK online Apple Store which is located at the following link address:
https://store.apple.com/uk

Once there click on the iPhones and then select the iPhone you want and check out. If you never ordered from Apple before you will have to create an account. Put your US Aramex mailbox as your billing address as your Kuwait base credit card address and then put your Aramex UK mailbox address as your shipping address. The UK iPhones are officially unlocked.

I placed my order on June 25th for a black 16GB iPhone 4 with a black Apple iPhone 4 Bumper. I paid the following:

iPHONE 4 BLACK 16GB 424.68 GBP
IPHONE 4 BUMPERS BLACK 21.28 GBP
——–
VAT 17.5% 78.04 GBP
——–
Final Amount (VAT included) 524.00 GBP

I paid with my NBK credit card and according to my bank statement the amount I paid in Kuwaiti Dinars was 236.570.

My iPhone 4 shipped on July 9th and arrived to my Aramex mailbox on July 15th. It showed up in my Aramex mailbox the same day and then shipped from the UK on July 16th. I received the iPhone today July 21st after being held in customs for 3 days.

The Aramex shipping charges were KD5.750 and that included the customs clearance fee. This was only for my iPhone 4, my iPhone Bumper is still held in customs. On a side note when the iPhone arrived it was unopened. Not just the actual iPhone box but the larger box the iPhone came inside had not been opened neither by Aramex nor customs.

I also passed by Zain and picked up a micro-sim card which you need for the iPhone 4. The sim card cost me KD5.

If you have any questions ask it below. Regarding antenna and reception problems, I believe this was blown out of proportion by the media and as Steve Jobs said it’s not a problem and 0.5% of the 3 million iPhone users have had reception issues. Many popular phones have similar reception issues which you will never have to experience if using the phone normally. If you have any questions regarding antenna problems click [Here]

Update: Some examples of phones that have a similar antenna issues
Samsung Galaxy S
Palm Pre
Google Nexus One
Google Droid
Nokia E71
Blackberry Bold

Does anyone know where the indoor RC track in the video above is located and is it open to the public? [YouTube]

Update: Here is some more information about the track provided by Nawaf from the Kuwait Science Club.

The track is located at the Yousef Bin Eissa School in Tha7yat Abdullah Al Salem area, the track is for members of the Kuwait Science Club, you pay 20KD and year unless you are still a student then you pay 10KD a year.

To use the indoor track you only need to be a member of the Kuwait Science Club, though this is our first year in Kuwait to have something like this so we are still testing the grounds to see the feedback. More information can be found on https://www.rccck.org about the rules and regulations of these events.

In terms of the track costs the Kuwait Science Club has undertaken the costs and not the members, yes the members have paid in advance so as to speed up the track building process but they are returned the investment by the club once completed.

Track timings can be checked on the official club website https://www.rccck.org

I got an email from a tipster (which was confirmed by another source of mine) telling me that Alshaya have acquired two new food chains to bring into Kuwait. The first chain is called Potbelly Sandwich Works which sells submarine sandwiches similar in style to Subway except supposedly better. The second chain is called Texas Roadhouse which specializes in steaks and has a western theme. I hadn’t heard of these two places until a few moments ago but I guess most of you will be glad the two chains are not burger joints. On the other hand I am still trying to find out some kind of information regarding the status of Shake Shack.

I was also told by another source that Pinkberry will not be opening in the Casamaroc location at Avenues like I had previously mentioned since the owner has refused to sell the place. But, they will still be opening a second branch of Pinkberry in that area.

Cinescape uploaded pictures of old movie theaters here in Kuwait to their Facebook group with the oldest theater dating back to 1954. I hope they upload pictures of Cinema Salmiya and the drive through cinema as well. [Link]

Thanks Mohammed

I thought this was odd yet interesting. Found the picture above embedded in an article on Gizmodo about Hitatchi’s new LifeStudio hard drive. The picture above was used to show the Cooliris media browser. [Link]

My favorite mountain bike brand is Cannondale and I’ve posted about the local Cannondale dealer a few times including on my Miskan blog 5 years ago. Thing is since I first got my bike in the winter of 2004 until now the dealer really hasn’t expanded, improved or changed in any way. It’s very sad and not sure why specially since more people bike today than they did 5 years ago. Maybe the dealer doesn’t care about the brand anymore but it’s very disappointing. I passed by yesterday to get my bike and Nat’s serviced and they didn’t even have transmission cables available. Luckily GoSport has a good collection of Shimano bike parts and so was able to pick up some cables from there and dropped them off to the dealer. The dealer doesn’t have many Cannondale bikes for sale as well, they had only 2 models available. I guess thats a good thing since if I did see a bike I liked I might have ended up buying it.

On the bright side I’m glad that GoSport carry a good collection of bike accessories and parts. Nothing hard core like Fox shocks or disc brakes upgrade kits but still a lot better than nothing. For everything else there is Amazon.

Back in 2006 I got introduced to Sumajin’s Smartwraps that did an amazing job of tidying up my headphone wires. Since then though I’ve somehow managed to lose all my Smartwraps. Instead of ordering them again from Amazon I was wondering if 5 years later someone in Kuwait now sells these. Does anyone know if I can find Smartwraps in Kuwait?

The update for the Kuwait Blogs App is now available in the store. If it isn’t there yet give it a few hours while all the App stores world wide sync. Anyway it fixes the incompatibility issues with iOS4 and I’ve also added the Some Contrast blog back. Now someone this morning made me aware of the fact that the Some Contrast blog was actually loading the feeds of Tidbit Du Jour in the updated App. That’s my mistake, I was in such a rush to get out the update I didn’t test the App and this mix up slipped by. So, I just submitted update 1.21 which fixes their feed. That should be available sometime end of this week. [Link to App Store]

Just had the new iPhone 4 delivered to me to try out by X-Cite. First thing I noticed is how bulky and ugly my “old” iPhone 3Gs looks next to the new iPhone 4. Second thing I noticed is how the new screen doesn’t look too different from the older screen. From the way everyone has been talking about it online I was expecting a much bigger difference but my first impression is they look the same. I will play with the phone all day until I have to give it back to X-Cite and then later in the day post a more detailed impression on it.

If you want to check out the iPhone 4 yourself you can pass by X-Cite at the Avenues this afternoon. They will be taking pre-orders as well starting at 5PM. The price of the 16GB iPhone4 is KD299 while the 32GB is for KD359. These are officially unlocked iPhones. First shipment of iPhones will arrive to Kuwait in 1 to 2 weeks.

Update: I am guessing I currently have one of the first iPhone 4’s in the Middle East (and probably Asia) since I couldn’t find a post by anyone else about this. That’s pretty cool.

I found this local website by mistake and I’m actually impressed. Not at the design or anything like that but on the items that are listed… luxury watches! There seems to be a good range but I am struggling to find out whats used, whats new, whats from the local dealers and what’s gray market. I am guessing the Rolex Deep Sea for example is used since it’s listed for KD2,250 while it retails for KD3,250 locally before discount. They have the Audemars Piguet Offshore Diver listed for KD4,250 but it retails for KD4,500 at the dealer although they’re out of stock. The Panerai section is beautiful, they’ve got my favorite which is the very limited PAM 26. The Hublot section… lets not even go there. Basically I would have to agree with their tag line, it has to be Kuwait’s premier luxury site since I am not aware of any other one. [Link]

For those of you who’ve updated to iOS4 and noticed problems with the Kuwait Blogs App like the back button missing I am working on the fix right now. I should have checked and seen if there were any issues with the app and iOS4 earlier but I’ve been really busy. The update should be available in the app store in the next few days.

Update: Here is a quick temporary fix until the update is available in the App store. To see the back button again just click on Leave a comment at the end of the posts. Thanks Aziz for the tip.