Search: “kuwait”

Two weeks ago I posted a letter from Aramex Shop and Ship saying that due to customs regulations they will be charging 5% customs fee on all shipments not including a KD1 handling charge and a KD1 government stamp. From what I understood this was going to apply to all shipping companies but today I received a package via DHL Borderlinx and to my surprise there was no charge. According to the DHL employee they’re not charging 5% customs on shipments. But does that make DHL cheaper? I’m not sure.

The problem (the only problem actually) with DHL’s Borderlinx is they charge based on volumetric weight. What this means is if a small box weighs 1KG and a large box weighs 1KG, the large box is going to be more expensive than the small box even though they’re the same weight. In my case my package weighed around 2KG but the volumetric weight was around 5.35KG. If I had shipped it with Aramex they would have charged me for the 2KG but with DHL I had to pay more than double the actual weight. On the other hand unlike Aramex, with DHL you don’t pay the 8% New York State tax and you also don’t pay the 5% Kuwait customs tax so which comes out a better deal?

Item cost: $187 (KD51)
Actual Weight: 2.2KG
Volumetric Weight: 5.35KG

Aramex Shop and Ship
8% NY tax: $15 (KD4.1)
Shipping cost to Kuwait: KD13.75
Kuwait customs: KD6*
Approx time from US to Kuwait: 8 days**
Total shipping cost = KD23.85

DHL Borderlinx
No NY Tax
Shipping cost to Kuwait: $110.60 (KD30.8)
No Kuwait Customs
Time from US to Kuwait: 4 days
Total shipping cost = KD30.8

So even with the new 5% customs fee Aramex is charging and even with the NY State tax they still somehow end up cheaper than DHL. This mostly has to do with the fact that DHL charges on volumetric weight. If they charged on actual weight than they’d be considerably cheaper. On the other hand DHL is practically twice as fast as Aramex so that alone could be worth the extra cost for many people.

My conclusion
Large (not necessarily heavy) packages ship to Aramex
Small or regular sized packages ship to DHL

So basically I’m still going to be flip flopping between the two companies for now.

*Calculated using their customs calculator
**Based on a different shipment just received from Aramex

I’m currently in the process of reviewing the Sony NEX-7 camera so I was in Souk Mubarkia over the weekend taking some photos when I found the Mubarak Kiosk open and decided to check it out.

The function of the kiosk changed a lot over the years, originally in 1934 the kiosk was the first independent legal court in Kuwait. Later it was rented and used as a pharmacy an then as a post office run by the British. At the end of the 1950s the kiosk was used as a public library and 60s forward the top floor was used as a photography studio while the ground floor was turned into a samboosa shop. In 2010 the National Council for Culture Arts and Letters took over the kiosk and renovated it from ground up and turned it into a museum.

The museum is pretty small but that doesn’t really matter. The fact that the kiosk was renovated and turned into a historical site is what’s important and they really need to continue renovating more and more old buildings. It’s not worth driving all the way to Souk Mubarkia just to visit this museum but if you’re in the area it’s interesting to see. They have an iPad on the top floor in the back corner that has a photo gallery of old pictures of Kuwait as well as pictures of the kiosk from the outside and inside before and during renovation. I thought that was very interesting and even tried emailing the photos to myself using their iPad but failed (didn’t have access to the home button).

If you want to pass by here are their opening hours:

Summer Visiting Hours
Saturday to Friday
9AM to 12PM – 4:30PM to 8:30PM
Saturdays and Fridays they’re closed in the morning
Sunday they’re closed in the evening

Winter Visiting Hours
Saturday to Friday
9AM to 12PM – 4PM to 8PM

Ramadan Visiting Hours
Saturday to Friday
9AM to 12PM – 8:30PM to 11PM
(First days of Eid they’re closed)

Update: Below is a picture of the kiosk taken by John Newton back in 2009. I can’t believe how much the whole area has changed.

Spotted the above sign on the Gulf Road seaside path. I guess they’re either keeping their eye out for car thieves or more serious criminals like illegal barbecuers.

Had lunch today at OFK and tried their new no-frills burger called The Emperor. It comes with a thick 8oz beef patty, cheddar cheese, roasted onions and a soft milk bun. No ketchup, no mustard and no special sauce, just a pure real burger. The verdict? Right now I think it’s the best burger in Kuwait.

His&Hers found a video of a short interview with Kuwaiti Olympic swimmer Faye Sultan whom I posted about early on in the week. As of now the Kuwaiti athletes will still be competing under the Olympic flag due to Kuwait being banned by the IOC. But, I also heard that a delegation got sent to Switzerland yesterday in hopes of getting things sorted before the Olympics begins. You can watch Faye’s interview [Here]

According to American designer George Hull, Oscorp Tower in the new Spiderman movie was actually inspired by Kuwait’s Al Hamra Tower. On his website George mentions the following:

“Early tower design inspired by architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill”

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are the architectural firm behind Al Hamra Tower. So that’s basically Al Hamra Tower in Spiderman. Very cool.

Thanks @3ZOZMEGA and M7MD

Kuwaiti sailors fix the old Kuwaiti flag on a dhow during preparations in Kuwait City on July 11, 2012, for the upcoming annual Pearl Diving Festival, meant to honor the nation’s former trade mainstay.

Kuwait’s on the main page of cnn.com under “Daily Snapshot” [Link]

Lulu are opening a new location in Dajeej Farwaniya right next to Sears. From the outside the location looks pretty huge although I’m not sure if it’s going to end up being their largest branch in Kuwait. What I like about the location though is that it’s closer to Salmiya than their Al Qurain branch which is currently my favorite. This would be their fourth location in Kuwait and according to a worker I spotted on site they should be opening right after Ramadan.

After posting about On Cost the other day I decided to pass by and check it out myself. From the pictures (and logo) it looked like Kuwait’s version of Costco and on some level it is but mostly it isn’t. The place turned out to be a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be. There also isn’t an electronics section, a clothing section or a hardware or home-ware section. The way everything is displayed thought make it looks like a Costco but it’s more of a supermarket then a full fledged all in one retailer. I picked up a label maker from their small office supply section. I got it for around KD3 less than I had seen it somewhere else.

Finding the place was easy. Just take the 6th Ring Road and if 360 Mall is on your right keep heading straight past the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium. Keep driving until you pass the new Kuwait University campus on your left (currently just hills and hills of sand) and then after that in a bit you’ll see a sign for the 604 exit. Once you take the exit stop at the traffic light and then take a left and pass under the bridge. Then keep driving straight until you get to a roundabout, you should spot what looks like a huge ass mall in the middle of the desert on your right, that’s the vegetable market and On Cost is located there.

Update: Here is a link to the location on [Google Maps]

Originally I was planning to write a small post on my experience with the Synology backup drive and maybe compare it to my Drobo but in all honesty, the thing turned out to be a lot more than just a simple backup drive and so the tiny post has turned into a much bigger one.

Synology DS1511+ Web Interface

Firstly a quick brief about what the Synology DS1511+ is. In it’s most simplest form it’s an external backup hard drive that can take up to five 3TB hard drives and has data protection which means if one of the five hard drives fail my data is still protected. But the DS1511+ (from here on I’ll just call it the Synology) is also a mini server and so doesn’t require to be connected to a computer.

Xbench disk test

Performance wise the Synology turned out to be a lot faster than my Drobo. How fast? Copying a 2.48GB file from my computer over FireWire 800 to the Drobo took 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Copying the exact same file over gigabit ethernet to the Synology took just 42 seconds. That’s over 10 6 times as fast!

So yeah if you’re looking for a backup drive to put all your important files onto it and still have your data protected in case the drive fails, the Synology is great. But, the Synology is also more complicated to setup than the Drobo. Cost wise they’re selling the Synology drives in Kuwait for cheaper than Amazon and you can find them at either Blink (where I got mine from) or Cameo. Cameo also has the newer but slightly more expensive DS1512+.

Now that I got all that out of the way this second part is what REALLY makes the Synology cool. Continue below for the second part of this review.

The AlJazi Villas are the villas located right in front of The Village in Abulhasaniya. I always thought they looked interesting from the outside but was curious to know how the inside looked like as well. Conveniently, I just noticed ArchofKuwait have pictures of the interior as well as some information on how the project originated. They’re pretty cool villas and you can check out the photos [Here]

Back in January I posted that Kim Kardashian would be coming to Kuwait for the launch of Million of Milkshakes by the end of the year and last night she confirmed on twitter that she’s coming in October. I think that’s pretty cool since we don’t get that many celebrities in Kuwait.

Gizmodo has a visual showing where the majority of the world’s tweets come from and Kuwait is ranked high. Not only that but Kuwait is one of only two other countries with high ratio of tweets to interent users. That’s pretty extraordinary, you can check their post and full uncropped visualization [Here]

Thanks Naveen

iBadala is a local phone directory app on the iPhone and one that I use frequently. I’ve posted about them before [Here] and my biggest complaint back then was regarding the app’s design which looked prehistoric.

Turns out they read my post since I got an email from iBadala yesterday telling me that based on my feedback they’ve released a new revamped app with a completely new look. I downloaded the app awhile ago and the app does look better but more importantly the ease of use and speed is still there so they haven’t broken anything. In fact, they’ve made two minor changes to speed things up even more:

Search as you type
According to iBadala this feature was supposed to be in the original release but it never worked properly. What this feature does is it starts searching for results as you type so if you’re searching for “Open Flame Kitchen” by the time you’ve typed “Open” you already have two results displayed with the second one being Open Flame Kitchen.

Search results ranking
Another new feature to speed things up is how the results order changes the more people use the app. For example as I mentioned above a search for “open” will result in two results with Open Flame Kitchen being the second. If a lot of people are searching for open and then clicking on Open Flame Kitchen more than the first result which is Arab Open University, then the app will start displaying Open Flame Kitchen as the first result instead.

I was also told they’re releasing an Android version of the app in the next few days so that should please some people as well. If you want to download the iPhone version it’s available right now in the [App Store]

Big D’s on a roll, this is his second video this week but this one’s produced by our friend TJCfilms. Here’s the YouTube description:

Big D is on a mission to open the minds of people all over the world and educate them in regards to the citizens, places, religion and culture of Kuwait and the Middle East. With Relevant Existence he is shining a light on what the people of Kuwait suffered through in the Iraqi invasion.

[YouTube]