Search: “kuwait”

That was too long a holiday to spend all of it in Kuwait. I don’t think I’m doing that ever again.

Back in March, I posted about my trip to Khobar and Bahrain along with a detailed step by step guide of the requirements and the journey. This morning I drove to Saudi again but this time I headed to Riyadh. I left my apartment in Salmiya around 6:20 AM and made it to our office in Riyadh by 12:40 PM. This included a bunch of tops along the way for treats, fuel, bathroom breaks and photography. Not too bad.

The most surprising thing was the fact that 95% of the trip was on a two-lane two-way road. Right after I entered Saudi, Google Maps made me exit the main road onto a small side road. I thought it must have mixed up or that this small road would lead to the large highway but it didn’t. The road stayed that way till I got to Riyadh. It was pretty freaky at first since cars would be speeding toward me going over 120km/h and I’m just hoping they don’t hit me head on. But after an hour into the trip, there were no more cars on the road. It was very serene.

It was such a nice drive and the scenery was pretty nice in some parts. There was one long strip of road that lasted maybe two hours where there was nothing around except for red sand dunes. No people, no gas stations, no buildings, nothing. It felt great being out there alone.

The trip didn’t feel like it was 6 hours long and I would definitely recommend it if you like to drive.

I’ve had my Toyota FJ Cruiser for over 12 years which is why I recently started looking for a replacement. My requirements are really simple, a bit more comfort, something I can abuse and still survive 10 years with me, it has to be a 4×4, it has to have 4 doors, and finally, it has to have an automatic gearbox. I don’t like the way the 4-door Wrangler looks, the Ford Bronco is nice but being a Ford I’m not sure about the long-term reliability. The new Defender is great but impossible to get right now, costs over KD20,000, and it’s a Land Rover so can’t imagine it being very reliable. The new Land Cruiser is too big and expensive, the G-Class is crazy expensive, the Prado too boring, and the Jimny too small. I really wanted the Toyota LC76 and was so close to buying one last year but I really do need my main car to be automatic and they only come as manual.

I had kinda given up on finding a replacement until a couple of weeks ago when I spotted the new Toyota Hilux on the road. I had seen them when they first came out a few years ago, but last year they got a facelift and I hadn’t seen one until now. The new model looked pretty nice on the road and I couldn’t get it out of my head all day. So I got in touch with my contact at Toyota and managed to borrow the car for a few days to try out.

Two thoughts came into my head as I drove out of the Toyota dealership and headed to work. The first was my amazement at how comfortable and quiet the car was. The second thought was on how uncomfortable and noisy all my cars must be that I thought a Hilux pickup truck was quiet and comfortable. Seriously, it was very puzzling, I think it must be because the rear wheels are outside of the cabin which is how come it was very quiet. Whatever the reason, my first impression was great.

A lot of people might not know this but the Hilux is actually one of the most popular cars in the world. In Australia for example, it’s their #1 selling car and it’s also a best seller in a bunch of other countries. It’s a durable go-everywhere commercial vehicle and if my FJ could survive over 10 years with me, the Hilux should be able to survive even longer. My whole experience with the car over four days was very positive. Everything from the ride quality to the seating position impressed me. I’m going to start driving to Saudi once a month for work so I need a car that would be comfortable on long trips. That’s why I tried to spend as much time in the car over the weekend and at no point did I feel exhausted or tired. The Hilux ticked all the boxes for me, it pretty much has everything I’m looking for in a new car. Surprisingly the car didn’t feel that big. Since my FJ is wider the Hilux felt a bit more nimble and compact even though it’s a longer car.

It doesn’t have much tech so no features like lane change assist, autonomous emergency braking, or even digital gauges, but I don’t mind that. What I do wish it had was dynamic radar cruise control so it could slow down and speed up depending on traffic. That would be super helpful on my long road trips to Saudi but we don’t get it as an option in Kuwait. Another thing I wish it had was a better sound system, it has Apple CarPlay, but the speakers are pretty crap. In other countries, there is an option to upgrade to a better JBL system, but we don’t get that here either. But, it shouldn’t be too difficult to upgrade the sound system eventually since some manufacturers like FOCAL have made upgrade kits for it. One odd thing is the fact there is just a single USB port in the car and it’s the one I need to use to connect my iPhone so I can get CarPlay working. That means other passengers can’t charge their phones unless I get a USB adapter for the 12v socket. I guess I should be glad it at least has CarPlay.

The model I took out was the Hilux Adventure model which costs KD9,700 KD11,400. They also have cheaper models and a more expensive GR model. I think at this price point there really aren’t that many options and the fact it’s a Toyota is great. I’ve only had good experiences over the past 12 years with them and my FJ has been very reliable and the service costs very low. I actually think the price is a steal compared to the prices of other cars on the market. I was meant to drop off the car back to the dealer on Saturday but ended up keeping it for an extra day just because I really didn’t want to get back into my FJ. When I eventually did take it back I ended up putting my name down on the waiting list for the next shipment. I liked the car so much I’ve decided to get one.

The only issue is because I’m an expat I can’t own a pickup truck so I either need to put it under my friend’s name or the company I work for. They really need to update this law… If you want to find out more about the Hilux, there are a ton of videos on YouTube (I watched ALL of them) but here is a link to the Hilux page on the local Toyota website.

Update: Just a correction with the price. The Adventure model costs 11,400 a different model costs 9,700. I just found out while putting a deposit down on the car 😅

If you’re an illustrator you might be interested in this. The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters is asking local artists to share illustrations with the theme of Cosmic Fantasy. There is no prize, it’s not a competition, but the best illustrations will eventually get featured on their Instagram account.

If you’re interested, more details are available here.

One thing to be careful of, according to the rules, they might choose to use your artwork for future campaigns and you won’t be paid for it. So you’d be providing campaign artwork for free which doesn’t seem very fair to the artist.

The first indoor skydiving in Kuwait is set to open soon in Sabah Al Salem. The indoor skydiving place is called Ozone and is part of a larger complex that will house a huge indoor climbing center, a crossfit gym and a spinning studio.

The project is still under construction but they’ve already finished installing the windtunnel and looking at the photos and videos they’ve also been playing around with it.

The climbing wall also looks pretty huge as you can see below. The only thing that sucks about this project is that it will be located in the already heavily congested Sabah Al Salem area.

If you want to follow Ozone, their Instagram account is @o3_kw and here is the location on Google Maps.

Thanks LovelyKuwait

The other day I was walking in old Salmiya and noticed they had removed another tree, the 26th one on the street. And yes, I’ve been keeping count. Previously, 25 large trees had been removed when they turned the street into a pedestrian-only one and I posted about that here.

It was bound to happen since whoever worked on the project decided it was a good idea to bring the road right next to the tree and I guess the low-hanging branches might have been causing an issue with traffic so they removed the tree. I still don’t understand why they couldn’t have kept all the trees and integrated them into the street like the tree in the picture above?

There is still a line of trees left which I’m expecting to be removed any day now, I should probably take pictures from now so I could post before and after photos once they remove them.

A few days ago a very interesting episode of the Darknet Diaries podcast was released discussing the “service disruption” that Gulf Bank had back in 2019 in which they supposedly lost $9 million. Back then, a local cyber security consultant, Mohammed Aldoub (@Voulnet) discovered evidence that led him o speculate that Gulf Bank might have been hacked similarly to how some other banks around the world at the time that were getting hacked through the SWIFT system. Gulf Bank denied they had been hacked and although Mohammed never mentioned Gulf Bank in his tweets, they ended up suing him and taking him to court. Mohammed eventually won the case last year but only after it cost him a lot of money and time.

The podcast episode is fairly short at around 30 minutes and is pretty interesting. I listened to it on Spotify but you could also listen to it on the Darknet Diaries website. The interview starts 5 minutes into the podcast.

If you found this story interesting, the cyber security website Cyberscoop published an article on the subject last year titled “Trial & Error in Kuwait“. The article has a bit more details and is also fascinating to read so check it out.

Ascend is a rock climbing club that has been fairly active in Kuwait for a few years, and a couple of months ago they opened up a climbing wall. Their plan is to eventually open a climbing center but for now they came together as a community and built this wall at their headquarters.

The climbing wall is outdoors and opens to the public every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. A single session costs 5KD, 10 sessions for 30KD, and 20 sessions are for 40KD. It’s not a very large wall but it’s a great start considering there isn’t really another good alternative. The only climbing mall we had was at Marina Waves but that closed down years ago.

If you want to find out more or are interested in trying climbing out, check them out on Instagram @ascend.kw

If you haven’t been to Monoprix yet you’re missing out on a lot including their Water Bar. The Water Bar is their selection of premium water and it’s similar to how Dean & Deluca had a nice premium waters section when they first opened that looked like a vodka section. But, what makes Monoprix different is how expensive some of the bottles are with their most expensive one costing 40KD for a bottle of “handcrafted water” called Bling H2O which was voted the best tasting water in the world.

I’m not about to drop 40KD on a bottle to find out how good the water tastes but I might get a less fancy 5KD water the next time I get invited to dinner at a friend’s place. It could be the Kuwait equivalent of bringing a bottle of wine. Although, since we are on the subject of alcohol, Monoprix does carry a good selection of non-alcoholic wines, Champagnes, and even whisky.

AAB World, everyone’s favorite photography and videography store is expanding! When I first started buying from AAB World they had a small kiosk-like store in the basement of Shamiya Coop (it’s still there) and what made them special back then is how specialized they were. They carried different camera brands and also brought in some of the best photography accessories so they quickly became really popular.

In 2014 they opened their Symphony Mall location a few years later they doubled their size by taking over the shop next door. Now it looks like they’re going to more than quadruple their size by moving to the old DXL space right across from them. I love how they’ve grown over the years and I still continue to get all my camera gear from them even though I don’t shoot as much as I used to.

Yesterday the Ministry of Commerce issued guidelines to differentiate between a regular rainbow and LGBTQ+ flags with the hashtag ‘participate in censorship.’ At first, I was like is this the most pressing issue they have right now? But then a friend pointed out they might have done this because people were probably flooding them with complaints about LGBTQ+ flags being sold in Kuwait when in reality, they’re just products with regular rainbows.

How to Tell a Good Rainbow from a Bad Rainbow:
🌈 = Rainbow and has 7 colors = Good Rainbow
🏳️‍🌈 = LGBTQ+ flag and has 6 colors = Bad Rainbow

World Music Day (or Fête de la Musique) is an annual music celebration that takes place on June 21st and is celebrated worldwide. In Kuwait, it’s going to take place on June 22nd and will feature regional acts from UAE alongside some of our local musicians and artists.

The event will be taking place at Yarmouk Culture Center from 6PM to 9PM and tickets are KD12. If you want to go then you can get tickets from this Link

Not sure how many of you have experienced the Assima parking lot but it might be the worst mall parking in Kuwait right now. It doesn’t help that the building is located on a super congested street, but I also think it has to do with how you get in and out of the parking as well. Even when there isn’t traffic, navigating the parking lot is tedious with a lack of proper signage, too many aggressive speed bumps and a layout that’s very confusing. At night the situation is made worse with the higher footfall, last week a friend of mine was stuck for over an hour just trying to get out of the parking lot and that seems to be a normal occurrence.

Supposedly this past weekend the mall was going to try something new to help reduce the parking issues but I’ve already given up attempting to even go there at night. When a friend called me asking for tips on where to park I told them to park across the street in the KIPCO parking lot and walk over, they called me later that evening when after leaving Assima telling me how ingenious that idea was because the Assima parking was so packed and chaotic.

Every now and then I get comments under old recycling posts or emails asking me who they can contact to pick up stuff for recycling. It’s usually paper waste or old electronics that they want to recycle because they care about the environment. Well, I finally have an answer to that question now.

Enviroserve is a recycling facility in Kuwait that originally started off focusing on e-waste. I posted about them a few years ago but since that post they’ve grown to offer full recycling services and last year they introduced it to individuals and companies.

Enviroserve now recycles the following:
– Electronics
– Paper and Cardboard
– Plastics

Their pick-up rates are pretty decent. If you want a one-time pick up its 5KD, if you want a weekly pick up it’s 10KD a month, and if you want a monthly pickup it’s 48KD a year.

To find out more or to book a pick up, click here.

One thing a lot of people like to do in the summer is head to one of the islands off the shore of Kuwait and chill there for a day. If you don’t have a boat or yacht that wasn’t so easy to do before but now there are a lot of different ways of finding one to rent.

The easiest way to get a boat is probably using the app WAVES. I just counted 36 yachts available for rent in the app with prices starting from 25KD. The starting prices listed are a bit misleading since most yachts have a minimum hours you need to rent. If you’re planning a trip to Kubbar for example, expect to pay 200KD and upwards for the trip. There are smaller boats for cheaper, but they won’t be as fast or comfortable. The WAVES app is fairly easy to navigate and book with and most importantly, you don’t need to create an account if you just want to browse.

To check out the WAVES app, click here.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to use the WAVES app and prefer contacting the yacht owners directly, there are a lot of different Instagram accounts that offer boats and yachts for rent. Here are some of them:

7 Oceans Yacht Rental
Adventure Icon
Aloha Beach Boat Rental
Aquarium Boat Rental
Deverano Kayak Rental
Jigging and Fishing Cruises
Luxury Yacht Rental
Maria Luxury Yacht Rental
Neom Yacht Rental
Queen Nina Boat Rental
Sanpedro Fishing and Sea Trips
Sea Adventures Q8
Soud Yacht Rental
Summer Winter Trips
Uber Marine

I’m sure there are more accounts I’ve missed so if you know of any more let me know in the comments. Also if you’ve tried any of them and had a good or bad experience, let us also know in the comments.