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The Staged in Kuwait IMPROV comedy night is starting again and will be taking place on Thursday, January 25th.

This is my favorite local comedy show and if you’ve never been to one of their shows, you definitely should.

Tickets start at KD 10 and the good seats tend to sell out quickly. If you’re looking for something fun and different to do then check them out. Link

The Shagaya Renewable Energy Park is located around an hour and a half drive from the city and it’s HUGE. To give you some perspective, if you drove at 100KM/h, it would take you around 5 minutes to get from one end to the other. Last week I was lucky enough to get permission from KISR to visit the project and get a tour of the different renewable energy resources Kuwait is currently experimenting with.

The Shagaya Park is part of Kuwait’s vision for producing up to 15% of the energy from renewable energy sources by the year 2030. The energy park is a small-scale pilot project where three different renewable energy sources were installed with the objective so to be able to asses medium term costs and performances, and be able to make decisions on which technology to be employed in future plants. The 3 renewable energy sources installed are:

10 MW Wind Farm
10 MW Photovoltaic Plant
50 MW Concentrated Solar Power Plant

The wind farm uses wind to turn turbines to produce the energy. The photovoltaic plant uses solar panels to convert sun light into electricity. Finally, the CSP plant uses mirrors to direct sunlight onto a central tube filled with oil which then heats up water which drives a steam turbine to produce electricity. The advantage of the CSP plant which I discovered on this tour is that it can continue to produce electricity even during the night. That’s because there are two large tanks filled with 33,000 tons of molten salt that store heat during the day, and then continue to produce energy at night.

All the power generated from the park is fed back into Kuwait’s power grid. Since the park has been operational for a few years, they’ve collected enough data to decide on moving forward by expanding the Photovoltaic Plant. Kuwait uses the most amount of energy from 12PM to 4PM in the summer which is also when the Photovoltaic Plant’s generate the most electricity. This is why the government recently launched a tender to build a 1.1GW photovoltaic plant which will be installed at the park.

You can’t access the park without permission from KISR, but if you want to drive to it and check out the wind farm from outside the park, here is the location on Google Maps.

A couple of years ago I bought an Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor for my home and for the longest time ever, I found it totally useless. The data for my indoor air quality never changed, it was always stable, so after reading the data for the first time it felt like the device was useless. I think I actually might have even left a review on Amazon saying how useless the device was because I wasn’t using it anymore since the data was always the same. But, I just bought two more of the same devices for my home.

Recently I’ve been renovating my apartment, I had ceramics work, painters, guys doing microcement, and more. All the work took place over different points in time and the data my smart air quality monitor was collecting and showing me was actually pretty helpful, and kinda scary.

The Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor connects with my Alexa devices on the network and provides me with the following data:

Temperature
Humidity
Particulate Matter (PM 2.5)
Carbon Monoxide
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

With the ceramics people there was a lot of dust caused by the cutting of the tiles, and so the PM would spike up, with the microcement guys some of the chemicals they were using would caused the VOCs to spike, with the painters my apartment humidity level shot up and the PM levels were pretty high cause of the plastering. It was constant data and alerts to the point I went out and bought two air purifiers and a de-humidifier to try and help keep the levels down and stable. It actually got me so interested with my apartments air quality that I decided to get two more devices and plug them into some other spaces around the house.

The device is tiny, fits in the palm of my hand and runs on USB power so you can hide it pretty much anywhere. I tried to see if there were alternative options that were maybe cheaper or better but I couldn’t find any, Amazon’s device is the best bang for the buck. They sell the device for around $55 which seems like a bargain when compared to other devices on sale. IKEA have a device they sell for 17.5KD, but theirs doesn’t connect to wifi so you can’t monitor the data or check the history through the phone.

If you’re looking for an air quality monitor for your home, check it out. Amazon won’t ship direct to Kuwait so I had to ship to my Shop&Ship account.

Yesterday SALT, the Dubai based burger concept opened in Blajat and the line to get in was HUGE. Their marketing agency sent me a couple of photos of the line, and I measured the distance of it using Google Maps and the line was basically at least 70m long. Insane.

A lot of people online were poking fun out of people who were waiting in line and I don’t get why. Sometimes if you want to experience something thats popular, you’re going to have to wait in line. Thats how it is.

When I was in Paris a couple of years ago I waited in line for over an hour and a half to try out a ramen place. I also waited 40 mins in line to try Shake Shack in NY back in 2010. I waited more than FIVE HOURS in line for a Foo Fighters concert because I wanted to be up right in front of the stage. So I have zero issues with people waiting in line for things, be it a burger, a Pokémon card or whatever. There is nothing wrong with it.

Let people be.

If you want to pass by check the place out, they’re open daily from 4PM to 12AM (last order at 11:30PM). Here is their location on Google Maps.

Principale, the Italian chef-driven restaurant on the Gulf Road is launching a new seasonal outdoor restaurant in their garden right by the sea.

If you aren’t familiar with Principale, it’s the rebirth of the old popular Italian restaurant Nino, and opened up in Nino’s original location near the Kuwait Towers.

Olivio is being described as a “pure alfresco Italian restaurant inspired by coastal Italy” and will have a fixed menu serving mostly grilled food. They will be soft launching tomorrow (Sunday) but by invitation only. It will remain by invitation only until the official launch of the restaurant on January 25th.

I’m invited tomorrow so I might post updates here after. But, to stay posted on their opening, follow them on @oliviokw

Update: Here is some more info they just sent me, there will be light art installations at the pop-up and they were created by Berlin-Kuwait based architecture and design practice BBPJ DESIGN. The installations were inspired by Pantelleria Island located off the coast of Sicily.

Atyab Al Marshoud is Kuwait’s oldest fragrance company and was established all the way back in 1925. Atyab Al Marshoud also has the distinction of being the first fragrance company in the Gulf region.

It’s a family owned business and the new generation has been successful by adding a modern edge to keep the brand current, without losing the historic and traditional aspects that are at its core.

In the last 5 years, Atyab Al Marshoud has been expanding around the GCC and now has over 56 branches. A few years ago they also started venturing into Europe with their first store opening in Knightsbridge, London back in 2018. Now, they’re about to open their second European store, this time in Marbella, Spain.

Atyab Al Marshoud is expected to open in Marbella this coming February, and they’ll be located in the popular Puerto Banús area. To stay posted on the launch, follow @atyabalmarshoud

Dunes is a new project by TEC located in Blajat and its going to be a beachside kashta experience.

There will be different kashta setups to pick from and they will include catering. The menu will be two kinds of cuisines catered by Meat Moot and L’ETO

You’ll be able to book a kashta through the TEC app either for the whole day, or just for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They’ll also be open daily from 10AM to 11PM.

Dunes is expected to open in the coming two weeks, to stay posted follow them on @duneskwt

There isn’t much happening this long weekend, but if you’re in Kuwait and are looking for something new and fun to do, you could try skydiving.

Kuwait Skydive has been open since 2017 and I remember when they first launched they were charging 160KD for a tandem jump (that’s when you jump while attached to a professional skydiver). That price eventually dropped down to 99KD, and now it’s dropped even further. They currently have an end of year offer where you could skydive for just 79KD.

For comparison, I paid 80KD to skydive in Cape Town years ago, and in Dubai, it costs around 200KD to skydive right now. So 79KD is a great price, and if it’s something on your bucket list, this is a great chance to check it off.

The skydive center is located in Khiran and so the view while jumping is of the Sabah Al Ahmad Sea City. The whole experience takes less than 2 hours from start to finish. Once you arrive to the center you’ll first be asked to fill in some paperwork before getting a quick orientation and your jump harness ready. The plane ride up is around 15 mins long, and then once you jump, you free-fall for around a minute before the parachute opens. After that it’s a chill 5-7 minute ride back down.

The Kuwait Skydive center is open everyday this long weekend including January 1st. They’ll be open from 9AM till sunset and it’s highly recommended you pre-book your jump online before arrival. To book a jump, click here.

Many of you may not remember this, but the American Cultural Centre, located near the parliament building on Gulf Road, didn’t always look the way it does today.

Back in the 80s and early 90s, the building was in poor condition and looked pretty scary. When I was a kid and we used to drive by the building, I always thought the building was haunted because it gave off such creepy vibes.

The building was originally constructed in the early 1900s as the American Mission Hospital, but today serves as the headquarters of Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah (@dai_kuwait). The restoration, completed in 2011, left me with the initial impression that the building had undergone major design changes since it ended up looking so different from what I had always known. But, I later realized that this wasn’t the case and that they in fact had done a proper restoration job, restoring the building to its original design.

These are some photos I found of the building before the renovation, but there are a lot more including photos of the building under construction and the building today on the Archnet website here.

Qout Market, the market that started the whole markets trend in Kuwait is back again this year with a lineup of four exciting markets for the season:

December 9th, 2023
January 6th, 2024
February 3rd, 2024
March 2nd, 2024

The first market is this coming Saturday and will be held at the JACC gardens. Qout took place at the JACC gardens last year but this year they’ve been given double the space taking up the entire gardens from front to back with more gates open to pedestrian traffic. There is also space for lots of cool special installations, a large children’s activities area and more seating compared to last year.

To celebrate Qout Market’s 10th year, they’ve also created a limited number of collectable merchandise that they’ll be selling at the front desk. Different things will be for sale at each market so pass by the front desk to check the collection out if you’re interested.

If you want to find parking at JACC, make sure you get there early in the morning. If you’re planning on heading there in the afternoon, then I’d recommend parking in Souk Al Watiya behind the St. Regis Hotel, and then walking over to JACC.

Out of respect for Palestine, there will be no live music. Full schedule, map, and general information is available  on their website qoutmarket.com

Last night I passed by Sultan Center in Boulevard to pick up a Christmas tree, but when I got to the top floor where the Christmas decorations would be, the shelves were all empty. I asked one of the staff where the Christmas trees were and he told me that the baladiya had told them to remove them. I didn’t think much of it and decided to walk over to Ace Hardware on the other end of the mall. When I got to Ace it was the same situation, all the Christmas decorations were removed and the shelves were empty. I figured ok, someone must have been in Boulevard and seen the Christmas decorations and complained, which is why the shops Boulevard were asked to remove the Christmas stuff.

Then I decided to head to Daiso in Souq Salmiya. As I’m walking into Daiso I spotted Christmas trees on the opposite end of City Center. I was like great I can pick up a tree from here. Once I got close to the trees I noticed staff were busy packing up all the Christmas decorations as well. They still hadn’t packed the trees so I picked one up and then headed to Daiso. Once in Daiso I noticed they were also packing up their Christmas decorations. So I asked the staff there and they told me the same thing, that they were told to remove the Christmas decorations.

Looks like its going to be one of those years where Christmas is banned in Kuwait. I’m hoping the shops in Avenues haven’t been told to remove their Christmas stuff as well. There were some Christmas tree ornaments I was hoping to pick up this weekend but now have to head there today to try and get them before they get taken off the shelves.

During the camel racing season (October to March) the races take place every Saturday at the Kuwait Camel Racing Club.

The races start at a different time every week but this Saturday they will start at 1:30PM and there will be a total of 9 races.

There is no entrance fee and you can either watch the races from the sidelines, drive up to the starting lines and watch the start of the race, or just drive around the track in your car following the race (it can get chaotic).

It’s really chill, not that busy and everyone is pretty friendly. I tend to drop by anytime I feel like having a photoshoot for one of my cars or if I just feel like driving out somehwere.

Here is the location on Google Maps.

Arabella has gone through a major overhaul, half the place closed down and got rebuilt as a 5-star hotel while the remaining parts got a full refurbishing. The hotel called the Arabella Beach Hotel is now set to open next month and I got a tour of it back in October while it was still getting finishing touches.

I don’t think there is another hotel like it in Kuwait, there are definitely much nicer hotels in Kuwait, but I can’t think of another hotel where your hotel room is right on the sea.

The hotel has a few suites located at the far end of the hotel with just the sand followed by the sea as you can see from the picture above which I took from one of the balconies.

The hotel is pretty small due to the location so they’ve tried to make the best of it. There are two pools, one on the ground floor right next to the beach, this isn’t for the hotel but for the gym which is going to be run and managed by a third party. The main hotel’s pool is actually on the roof and is a much nicer place to be since it overlooks the area. But, they missed a great opportunity for an infinity pool that overlooks the sea sadly.

The hotel’s main restaurant ZO Eatery is also not located in the main hotel building, but instead it’s located across the Arabella courtyard where Ora used to be located.

I was also given a tour of all the rooms. The suites were definitely nice, not that big, but plenty of space and interesting layouts with the one pictured above being my favorite. The regular rooms on the other hand weren’t as interesting, so if I was going to stay there, the suites is where I’d want to be.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the hotel is going to do, I’d imagine it might become a popular staycation location since you have a nice pool on the roof and Five Guys right at the entrance of Arabella, so everything you need.

If you want to read more on the hotel and see more photos, here is the link to their website.

Kuwaiti artist Farah Behbehani was one of seven artists shortlisted for the third edition of Louvre Abu Dhabi ‘Art Here’.

This year ‘Art Here’ explores the theme of ‘Transparencies’ and Farah’s installation titled Hiya (She) is a homage to the 10th-century Syrian Muslim astronomer, Mariam Al-‘Ijliya who changed the face of astronomy by pioneering an early scientific instrument used to measure time and to calculate the position celestial bodies.

Farah’s installation is inspired by the Tughrul tower, a 12th-century brick tomb tower that also functions as an indicator of time. The original brick structure is recreated in colored glass, referencing the tradition of stained glass used in sacred monuments dating back to the Umayyad dynasty. The colors of the 48-paneled glass structure are based on the visible light spectrum, which varies in wavelength across the day. As light permeates the colored glass, it transforms throughout the day, painting its surroundings with a rich interplay of color and light.

Farah Behbehani is also shortlisted for The Richard Mille Art Prize 2023 with the winner taking home a $60,000 cash award.

If you’re in Abu Dhabi anytime in the next couple of months, Art Here 2023 is running till February 18th, 2024.

It’s flamingos and birdwatching season right now. Winter in Kuwait is an excellent time to observe rare birds that you wouldn’t see during the rest of the year with flamingos probably being the most popular one people like to see.

There are a number of spots across the coast where you can watch flamingos in the winter, they start from near the free trade zone and stretch up all the way to Doha. One of my favorite spots to birdwatch is the “Flamingo Observation Deck” which you can find by searching on Google Maps.

The Flamingo Observation Desk is a long stretch of pathway that takes you close to some marshes near the sea, and close to where many birds tend to hang out. Don’t expect to be able to get close to the birds since the closer you get the further they fly away from you. I’ve previously been able to watch the flamingos using my drone, but a better way would be to just watch them from a distance, or through binoculars or cameras with zoom lenses.

Sometimes the tide is low and the birds are further away, in that case I recommend a good pair of Wellington boots so that you can walk in the mud and get closer to them.

Wherever you decide to birdwatch from, please cleanup after yourselves and don’t leave anything behind. After posting about duck park last time I got a lot of people telling me they visited and it was littered. Don’t leave any trace after you leave.