Search: “kuwait”

On Friday I visited the Liberation Tower for my first time ever after booking an appointment earlier in the week. I had booked a 4PM spot back when you could book a time slot, but decided to pass by at 2PM instead. The process to enter the tower was very simple. I parked in the underground parking across the street and then headed to the main tower entrance on the main road. There was a guy standing at the gate who was scanning the ticket QR code, he wasn’t checking the time slot just that you had an active QR code or not. Once I got through him I just needed to show my vaccination status to another counter and then was pointed in the direction of the elevator.

I’d never been to the Liberation Tower before so I was really excited to get to the top. I saw the tower being built as a kid, and as an adult I drive by it all the time so I was really looking forward to finally be able to go inside. Once I stepped out of the elevator onto the observation deck I was actually surprised, it looked nice. Because it’s an old government building I think I was just expecting it to look rundown but instead it was actually very clean and looked brand new. As part of this one month opening of the deck they had some vintage telecom and postal service related items on display but without any explanation or information. They also had an old phone booth which was cool and viewing binoculars spread out around the deck. It was very chill, I liked it.

When I posted photos of my experience on Instagram a lot of people messaged me to ask if it was worth visiting or not. That’s difficult to answer. My office in Hamra Tower was higher than the observation deck at Liberation Tower so you are’t going there because it’s the tallest structure in Kuwait. I think it’s one of those places worth visiting just because of what they are, an important Kuwaiti landmark.

To book tickets you can do so by visiting LiberationTower.com but like I mentioned in my previous post you’ll get a “Sold out” error if you do so. Instead, you need to get tickets through the loophole I found which is by booking through this page. People who booked through that page have confirmed they were able to visit the Liberation Tower at the day and time of their choosing and were let in without any issues. Just make sure you have a QR code for every person in your group.

Kuwait will ban a new film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s whodunnit “Death on the Nile” with a cast of Hollywood stars including Israeli actress Gal Gadot, authorities said Sunday. Source

Can someone with free time on their hands get the domain bannedinkuwait.com and just start listing all the things banned here so we can keep track? Thx.

This past weekend there was a lot of drama surrounding a women’s only yoga trip to the desert that was banned for being a danger to society. The irony is that last week Saudi Arabia held their first yoga festival (pictured above) which attracted over 1,000 people.

Do you remember the days when things got really bad here we’d think “at least we’re not in Saudi”? Do you think Saudis now think “at least we’re not in Kuwait” when they go through a rough patch?

One thing I’m really appreciating though is how vocal everyone is on social media whenever they see something wrong. When I first started blogging, there was no Instagram, there was no Snapchat and there was no Twitter. There weren’t that many blogs either and so I always felt that it was my job to bring to light issues which brought on a lot of hate from readers who felt because I wasn’t Kuwaiti, I had no say in anything. But now, because of the popularity of social media, I no longer have to carry that burden on my shoulders.

I’ve always been very fascinated with compact computers I guess ever since I saw the original Nokia Communicator 9000 with Val Kilmer in the 1997 film, The Saint. Since then I’ve had a bunch of mini computers including the Nokia Communicator 9110, Sony Clie UX-50, Asus Eee 900, and the MSI Wind. I think this is why I’ve always wanted an iPad Mini and after spotting the purple one at an Apple store in Amsterdam while on vacation, I decided it was time I got one. So after getting back to Kuwait I got in touch with Xcite and managed to get my hands on one.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this iPad. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

Firstly right off the bat, I’ll tell you that I tried my best to capture in the photos how beautiful the purple color of this new iPad Mini is, but I’ve failed at doing so. The purple Mini combined with the dark cherry Apple cover I got for it looks amazing, you really need to see it in person because my photos don’t do it justice. Color aside, I also love the new form factor of the Mini which now follows the updated design language of the larger iPads and new iPhones. Gone are the curvy soft edges which are now replaced with the sharper sides that I think give it a timeless look. One reason I felt so comfortable with the Mini right away is that it feels like a Kindle in my hands, and side by side with one, you’ll see below they’re pretty close.

The iPad Mini is tiny and incredibly light, especially when compared to my huge 12.9″ iPad Pro. It’s not as light as my Kindle, but it’s light enough that I can hold it for an hour while reading magazines and not feel bothered by the weight. And yeah, I’ve mostly been using my Mini to read magazines, RSS feeds, and documents. Although my iPad Pro’s larger screen makes the magazine experience more natural due to the size of the pages on the screen, it’s a much more comfortable experience on the Mini because of how lightweight it is. One thing I found surprising, the iPad Mini is actually small enough to fit into the front pockets of my pants. I wouldn’t walk around with an iPad in my front pocket, but the idea that I could, if I needed to, makes it very convenient.

I’ve had the iPad Mini for a few weeks now and it’s replaced both my laptop and iPhone for casual browsing while watching TV. It’s kinda like having a phone in your hands but better because of the larger screen. But, it is a very odd size and I’m not sure who I would recommend this iPad for. It’s not going to replace your phone since it’s not a phone, but it’s also really small so if you’re thinking of getting an iPad, it wouldn’t be the size you’d want to get. It’s not even the cheapest iPad so it wouldn’t be the one you’d get for your kids either.

I think the iPad Mini is meant for people like me who already have a regular-sized iPad and a regular-sized iPhone and are looking for something in between. It’s not something I need, but something I’m finding uses for. For example, I currently take my iPad Pro with me when I travel so I can watch shows on the plane. But I don’t like taking my MacBook Air with me when I do that since my backpack becomes too heavy. Now I can take both my MacBook Air and iPad Mini with me and the weight is fine. I’ve also started using the iPad Mini when working on my cars to load up documents. Previously I was using my iPhone, but the Mini’s larger screen makes reading instructions from a distance much easier. If you get a Mini you’ll find uses for it.

One issue I should mention I have with the Mini is the battery life. According to Apple, both my larger iPad Pro and new iPad Mini have a similar battery life, but that can’t be the case because I feel my iPad Mini’s battery drains a lot faster. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time on it, more than I would on the Pro, but I don’t think so. Another thing I’m kind of disappointed about is the fact Apple doesn’t make a keyboard for the iPad Mini. It’s the one thing I really wish it had because my idea of a mini computer always involves a keyboard. There are some third-party ones available, but I haven’t found one yet that I liked. I do have the Apple Pen which works with the Mini, but I rarely use it. Finally, the last issue I have with the Mini is the Touch ID. The iPad Mini doesn’t have facial recognition and instead uses Touch ID which is located on the power button to unlock the iPad. You’re meant to touch it and it scans your fingerprint and then unlocks. It’s been a few weeks and I still haven’t gotten used to it yet and I tend to spend a lot of time accidentally turning off the iPad when trying to unlock it. It’s super annoying.

When I spoke to Xcite about getting an iPad Mini I requested the entry-level 64GB model because that’s really more than enough for my needs. Also, because this is going to supplement my various Macbooks, iPads and phone, it doesn’t really make sense financially to get anything more expensive than the entry-level model which already costs quite a bit at KD160. So that’s the model I’d recommend, I also wouldn’t bother with the 5G models since you can always tether your iPad to your phone.

In conclusion, I’m loving my Mini. Not sure who to recommend it to but if you’ve been thinking about getting one I’d pull the trigger and get it. It’s fast, the speakers are loud and the size is perfect. To check out the various iPad Mini models and colors available, here is a link to the Xcite website.

Every year an updated ranking of all the world’s passports is released based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Previously I used to use the Passport Index for the rankings but their website is a bit of a mess with mismatched data on different pages which makes it difficult to know what’s right and wrong. So starting from this 2022 edition, I’ll be using The Henley Passport Index instead which is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports. Henley’s compares 199 passports and 227 travel destinations for their list and here is how Kuwait’s passport ranks compared to some other countries:

1 – Japan
6 – United States / United Kingdom
7 – Canada
15 – United Arab Emirates
53 – Qatar
54 – Kuwait
62 – Bahrain
65 – Saudi Arabia
84 – India
91 – Egypt
102 – Lebanon

The Kuwaiti passport allows you to travel to 95 destinations without a prior visa. To check out the full rankings and to see what countries your passport allows you to travel to without a prior visa, click here.

If you’re interested in taking part in a Staged in Kuwait play, they’re holding auditions tonight (Sunday) from 6PM to 9PM for their upcoming performance, Arms and the Man. For more information, click here.

There is this pothole in Qurtoba that I pass over when leaving my friend’s place and it’s been like that for three years, maybe longer. I usually tease my friend on it and ask them when they’re planning to fix it or that they should bring it up in the next town meeting ala Parks & Recreation. Then yesterday while I came across a post on @q8needsyou about the pothole because it turns out someone living on that street (not my friend) decided to finally fix the pothole themselves.

If a huge pothole on a prime street in a nice Kuwaiti neighborhood like Qurtoba isn’t getting fixed, you can imagine the state of the roads in other less nice areas like Salwa or Salmiya. This has got me thinking that maybe I should just fix the potholes that bother me myself as well. There are two construction sites on my street and I’m sure I can just pay a worker to go around filling up potholes in the neighborhood with concrete. But maybe someone needs to start a pothole-filling business. Customers would WhatsApp the location of the potholes, they then get a payment link and within 24hours of paying, someone will go fill up the pothole. Easy-peasy so please steal this idea and then get in touch with me!

Photos were being shared last week of the old KPTC bus station in Kuwait City (Al Baloush) looking like it was being demolished. After demolishing Al-Sawaber, Entertainment City, Shaab Park, the ice skating rink and many more important buildings, it wasn’t a surprise that the old station was also next on the chopping block. But, turns out that wasn’t the case. KPTC ended up publishing a post stating that the KPTC old bus station is currently under restoration and will soon turn into a museum. Now THAT is surprising, an old beautiful building being repurposed again.

The Al-Baloush bus station was interestingly designed by two Polish architects living in Kuwait back in the 80s, Andrzej Bohdanowicz and Krzysztof Wiśniowski. They both designed the Kuwait Port Authority Complex in Shuwaikh and later the Al-Baloush bus station in 1986.

KPTC also recently finished restoring one of their first busses dating back to 1965 which I’m guessing will be part of the museum display.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been preoccupied researching, interviewing, and scanning photos related to Kids ‘r’ us and I think I’m finally ready to share all my findings. For those of you too young to remember, Kids ‘r’ us was a huge and very popular toy store that opened in Kuwait (Dajeej) back in the early 80s. They later opened smaller locations around Kuwait including one in the old Salmiya souq which was popular after the 1990 invasion. A few weeks ago I got a comment under one of my old posts from a person called Khaled Al-Qutub saying he was part of the original team that opened Kids ‘r’ us. So right away I got in touch with him by email and later by Whatsapp to get his story. Here is everything I’ve managed to gather over the past few weeks.

Background
Firstly let’s get some background information out of the way. Kids’r’us was not an imitation of Toys “R” Us nor was it inspired by it. Kids’r’us was Toys “R” Us. Why we have a different name, logo and mascot isn’t very clear, from what I was told they wanted to create a new more relatable brand for the Middle East, but if that was the case then why would you go with a koala bear for a mascot and not say a camel or another animal from our region? Alghanim was granted a limited right to open Toys “R” Us stores (Kids R Us) in Kuwait and 13 other countries located in and around the Middle East that included Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (source). From 1982 to December 1993, Alghanim opened four toy stores, all in Kuwait. Kids R Us lost over 2 million Dinars over the 11-year period from 1982 to 1993, and turned a profit only in one year of this period. (source).

The Begining
Khaled Al-Qutub was a Jordanian expat born in Kuwait back in 1964. Like many of the original Kids’r’us employees, he was young when he joined the team. According to Khaled, they were around 25 employees and 6 managers that helped launch Kids’r’us (most pictured above). When they joined and visited the store for the first time it was completely empty with just tiles and columns. Over the next months, they had to install all the gondolas (what they call the store shelves), receive the containers, and unload items into the warehouse and onto the shelves. The store was composed of three floors. The warehouse was located in the basement and was 2,500sqm, the main store was on the ground floor and was also 2,500sqm, and there was a small 500sqm mezzanine floor that originally held offices but later got turned into a buy-as-is damaged goods area. The original location is still in Dajeej, it’s now where Sears is located.

Two or three guys from Toys R Us (USA) came to Kuwait to train the Kids R Us staff. They brought floor layouts with them and showed the staff where to put everything. When the toys arrived in the containers they had Toys”r”us labels on them.

Dabdoub
One day while they were busy setting up the store Khaled got called into the office by the manager back then, Rawi Alkhatib, and his deputy Amal Haddad. They had gotten delivery of a large blue box that morning and it was now in the office and they asked Khaled to open it. That was when he saw the dabdoub costume for the very first time. It was huge! Khaled was told that he would be dabdoub and was given some basic set of rules to follow, feel free to do whatever you want to make the kids happy, but you’re not allowed to make a sound or talk. Later after Khaled left Kids’r’us other people took over the job, but he was the original mascot.

The Opening
Before the store opened the employees went around giving out bumper stickers to people on the street telling them about Kids’r’us. A while back I found some newspaper ads for the opening and you can see one of them above.

Kids ‘r’ us officially opened on November 10th, 1983 it was considered to be the largest toy store in the region at that time with over 10,000 toys. According to Khaled, the first day was crazy with thousands of people, families, and children all visiting the store. You couldn’t move inside.

The Work Environment
Khaled only stayed with Kids’r’us for 2 or 3 years and then left. After talking to him I realized I might be able to find other Kids’r’us employees who might also have information and photos to share with me. So I did the most basic thing, I searched LinkedIn. I wasn’t expecting to find anyone but somehow I did, I found another Khaled, Khaled Saqer.

Khaled Saqer joined Kids’r’us around the same time Khaled Al-Qutub left and one thing I found fascinating is how both of them talked so highly about their experience working at Kids’r’us. The Kids’r’us managers must have been really great because the work environment seemed incredibly fun. All the employees were similarly aged, and all with similar mindsets. According to Khaled Saqer they all used to play football together and they used to even come into the store on their off days just to hang out in the back.

Khaled told me he was part of a Whatsapp group with around 14 ex-employees who were still in touch with each other which I was invited to join for research. It’s a group where they shared old photos they come across of Kids’r’us, but mostly it’s just like every other Whatsapp group where they share random videos and memes. During the Gulf War everyone ended up leaving to different places and since then over the years they’ve been slowly reconnecting and finding each other. For example, I ended up connecting them to Khaled Al-Qutub who is now part of their ex-employees Whatsapp group.

Not a lot of them have any photos from back when they used to work there except for Khaled Saqer. Not only did he have photos, but he also had documents and sketches all archived in an old photo album. He even still has his uniform. Khaled was one of the lucky employees to get training in the US, Alghanim sent him to Toys”R”Us in Atlanta for three months where he learned everything and came back and applied it to the store. Most of the photos I was able to gather were from him.

The Demise of Kids’r’us
As I mentioned at the start of the post, Kids’r’us wasn’t a profitable business. During the 1990 Iraqi invasion the Dajeej store was looted and burnt down and after the war, it was never restored. Alghanim also never ended up fulfilling their end of the deal with Toys”R”Us, so in 1993 when the contract was up for renewal, Toys”R”Us handed over the franchise rights to the UAE group Al-Futtaim. But, Toys”R”Us made a mistake and handed over the franchise a bit earlier than they should have so Alghanim took them to court for breach of their agreement, and on July 11, 1996, the arbitrator awarded Alghanim $46.44 million for lost profits (source).

So that’s the story of Kids’r’us. I’ve uploaded all the photos and documents including the floor plans for the Dajeej store to my Flickr account so they’re available to download in high resolution. You can check them all out by clicking here.

Last month the Environment Public Authority officially opened the Jahra Nature Reserve to the public. The reserve is considered to be the first eco-tourism project in Kuwait with the aim of increasing environmental awareness and appreciating the landscape.

There are two different observation outposts at the reserve and you will be able to visit one of them during your trip which is limited to an hour and a half. The cost of visiting the reserve is KD10 for up to 5 people and increases the larger the group it. Because it’s a reserve the visit will be guided and so you won’t be able to wander off on your own and are limited to visiting just selected areas.

If you want to visit the reserve then you need to request an entry permit from the EPA and pay the fee. Here is the link to the form on the EPA website. Link

Top photo by sam_blue, bottom by Oboch

Back in September, the Ford dealer brought in some demo Broncos to display in their new showroom but the actual cars are now finally being delivered to customers who pre-ordered. I’ve seen one on the road so far and two are currently up for sale at a used car dealership in Sharq. As expected, the prices are currently inflated due to high demand and not enough cars. The Sharq dealer was selling the 2-door ‘Big Bend’ model for 16,500KD and the 4-door for 17,500 while the actual dealership price is 12,400 and 14,400 respectively.

If you don’t want to pre-order a car and have money to splurge, here is the location of the used car dealership on Google Maps.

Aisha Al-Saif, a friend of mine opened up a ceramics design studio last year called From Mud (@frommud) and it recently got featured on ArchDaily. The studio space was designed by Kuwaiti architect Rawan Muqaddas and is located on the first floor of a 1967 Modernist building in Blockat. I was with Aisha when we found the location and I wish I knew where the photos of the space I took were because you wouldn’t recognize it today and would make a great before and after series.

If you want to read more on the design of the space and check out more photos (taken by Mohammed Ashkanani), here is the link.

It’s been a year now since the DJI Mini 2 got launched but I just got mine a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been wanting the DJI Mini 2 ever since it was released so a few weeks ago I got in touch with Xcite and asked them if I could get one to review. I’m not a drone expert so this review is directed at other people like me, beginners basically. The Mini 2 shoots in 4K, is pretty tiny, and it’s also really light weighing just 249g. If you want more detailed specs of the Mini 2 there are tons of videos on YouTube that do just that. Instead, I’m going to give you my opinion on why I think this is the best drone a beginner can get right now.

Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this drone. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.

I’m not sure where to start this review since I’m really excited about the drone, and I wasn’t expecting to be. If you’ve never owned a drone before it can be a bit intimidating at first and even if you have had a drone before, maybe a basic one like the original Mini 1 or the Spark, then flying probably still intimidates because of certain limitations like the battery life and connection issues. At least those were the two things that kept me from flying my drone often and both those things no longer are an issue with the Mini 2.

The last drone I had was the DJI Spark which was pretty good but most of the time I’d have connection issues once it got to a certain height, distance or if I was flying in an area like Salmiya which caused a lot of interference. It was freaky because I didn’t want to lose the drone and it made me a lot more cautious whenever I wanted to take it out. The DJI Mini 2 on the other hand uses a different connection technology called OcuSync and I think this is my favorite new feature. I haven’t had a single situation, not even for a second where I had a connection problem. I’ve flown it out far and as high as it can get and haven’t had a signal drop or even a low signal warning. It’s made flying the drone so much more enjoyable and it’s given me much more confidence.

The other feature I’ve been loving on the Mini 2 is the battery life which now lasts up to 30 minutes. That’s a lot of time which is great cuz I always felt so rushed with the Spark which only had around 15 minutes of battery life. Last week I headed out to Sulaibikhat to film the flamingos and I actually spent a lot of time just hovering my drone low near the water just watching them on my screen. It would take around 5 minutes to reach them since I was parked pretty far from their location and another 5 minutes to get back but with that, I still had around 20 minutes left of just pure stalking time. It’s enough time to get completely immersed and zoned out, I literally spent all my time just watching flamingos catch their food and eat as if I had my own private National Geographic channel. Whenever the battery was going to die the drone would just let me know and then start flying back to me. Really easy.

OcuSync and the battery life together have made me want to take out the drone more often and not have to worry about anything which is why I think it’s the perfect beginner’s drone. I can just focus on shooting and not worry about the other things. When the weather was misty this past weekend I just parked next to the Kuwait Towers and casually took the drone out to see if I can capture the towers coming out through the fog. It’s such an easy thing to do now and it’s because I’m no longer worried about flying the drone. After reaching a height taller than the towers I realized the fog was too high and had completely engulfed it, so I decided instead to fly towards the city to see if I could capture Hamra Tower. I didn’t end up getting a good shot but just the fact that I was able to on a whim head into the city with my drone is something I’d never have done with the Spark.

The DJI Mini 2 is really everything I’ve wanted into a drone. Something small, light, have a long battery life, and no connection issues. It’s made me want to fly the drone much more and given me the confidence to do so. If you want to get into drone photography, this has to be the best drone to start off with. I got the DJI Mini 2 “Fly More Combo” pack which comes with three batteries, a charging hub, extra propellers, and even a nice carrying case. The price of the full package is 175KD and you can get one from Xcite.

Yesterday I was stuck in traffic on the First Ring Road due to an accident and I had to watch a fire truck struggle to get through on their way to the accident. Unlike some other highways, the First Ring Road still has an emergency lane on the left side with the rumble strips but people were on the lane preventing the emergency vehicles from getting to the scene of the accident.

I know most of the emergency lanes in Kuwait have been removed but I’m curious to know if hospitals, police and firefighters have voiced their concerns with this decision. They can’t be ok with this can they?

“When the Sheikh Met the King” is a new investigative ebook by Kuwaiti Award-winning journalist Motez Bishara. Not sure if some of you remember but at one point Michael Jackson moved to Bahrain and lived there for some time. It was all really bizarre and I mostly remember photos of Michael Jackson going around Bahrain dressed in an abaya.

The ebook which comes out today digs into:

• The fate of the Jackson / Sheikh Abdulla co-written song “I Have This Dream,” recorded at London’s Metropolis Studios for $2.2 million

• Jackson’s battle with depression, brought on by his unpayable $270 million personal loan and custody battle with ex-wife Debbie Rowe

• A drug-induced near-suicidal incident on a hotel room balcony in Oman

• Details of Jackson’s $7 million expenses; the Sheikh provided everything from a flashy recording studio to a Ferrari

• Jackson’s contractual break from the sheikh that led to his demise; AEG Live’s buyout resulted in the fatal O2 concert dates

If you want to get the eBook, it’s available for 3 KD on Amazon. Link