Search: “kuwait”

Taken from Skyscraper City:

This is a proposal for a Hyatt Regency hotel and full-fledged convention center that was proposed way back in 1975. I can’t help but be completely floored by this concept – the hotel and overall complex look absolutely massive! The hotel building itself has a timeless classicism to it; I think it would cohesively fit in with all the modern, glassy buildings we have today while retaining its 70s feel. This could have been our equivalent of the Sheraton in Doha, which began construction way back in 1978 and opened in 1980. That Sheraton is one of Doha’s iconic landmarks today, something Qataris are proud of. –ChaoticTranquility

Client: Kuwait Hotels Co.
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait
Starting Date: 1975
Completion: 1977
Cost: 33,000,000 KD

Project Description:
The site of Hayatt Regency Kuwait on Kuwait Bay, overlooks a traditionaly landscaped Arab park in downtown Kuwait City. The focus of six floor, 586 room luxury hotel will be a large landscaped atrium lobby. Restaurants, commercial space, recreational facilities, service amenities and the hotel rooms will face on the atrium. The fully air-conditioned hotel will feature 16 special duplex suites on thetop two floors in addition to its many luxury suites. An adjoining conference center, similar in character to the United Nations General Assembly Hall, will provide seating for 700 presons. Fixed seating for 400 will be placed on the main floor with 300 filling the balcony, which can be subdivided for smaller conferences. Parking for 885 cars will be below grade. Recreatinal activities such as swimming and boating and the hotel’s health club will be linked to the hotel by an underpass to the beach. [Source]

Last month I posted about how a friend ordered photography gear from DigitalRev.com and ended up paying just KD12 for customs. Shipping was free, they cover warranty in Kuwait and more importantly their prices are either similar or cheaper than Amazon. Since I posted about them I know of at least 3 other friends who ordered gear from DigitalRev as well as two other forum users and everyone reported the same thing, that DigitalRev is basically the best place online to order photography gear from.

There are a few advantages to ordering with DigitalRev over for example Amazon. First of all shipping to Kuwait is for free and they use DHL to ship the items so they arrived in just a few days. That’s quicker than the Amazon+Aramex combo. Plus you have to pay Aramex while they ship the stuff for free. Secondly on average people are paying just KD8 for customs which is pretty cool, I was expecting at least double that. The items are also wrapped as if DigitalRev are aware of the state of the postal service here because their packaging are drop proof. The items arrive in a box and inside that box the item is rolled in a ton of bubble wrap. So if the box is thrown around you don’t have to worry about anything getting damaged.

Not sure why I only recently found out about DigitalRev but I guess it’s better late than never. They’re selling the D800 for example for $150 more expensive than Amazon but with Amazon you pay tax which is $320. That means DigitalRev are selling the D800 for $170 cheaper and that includes DHL delivery to Kuwait. If that’s not a good deal I’m not sure what is!

Anyway you can check them out [Here]

Update: Ignore my last example since I can’t calculate to save my life!

Jay King is an American Security Expert and trainer living and working in Kuwait. His real passion though is Parkour and he is a superb Traceur. He is also a funny, loyal and well liked guy. He is close friends with and constantly traines with the PK Jaguars, Kuwait and the Middle East’s premiere Parkour team. Keep your eyes open and you are bound to see him running around Salmiya or Sawaber at any given time.

My favorite shot is the one pictured below. Reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock movie for some reason. [YouTube]

A short documentary by TJC Films on Bruha Eve, a talented artist from the Philippines living in Kuwait. I found it a bit slow but I’m not into art myself so I’ll let you be the judge. [YouTube]

I love watches so when I was given the opportunity to get a preview of the new Behbehani Luxury store I was very interested, not because I was going to get to see the store but because I knew there would be a ton of watches I would get to play with and try on. It’s always a very strange and exciting feeling holding a watch that costs as much as my house.

The Behbehani Luxury store is located in the Hamra Tower Luxury Center opposite Hermes. The interior actually looks pretty good and very tastefully done. From what I understood the store was actually designed and built overseas in Europe then dismantled, shipped and rebuilt again here in Kuwait. Everything is imported from the lights to the walls. The way the shop is structured reminded me of Harrods watch court because once you walk into the shop there is a space in the middle with some displays and then small boutiques for various brands all around. Some of the brands they carry in their new store are Blancpain, Breguet, Cartier, Hublot, Omega and Roger Dubuis among others. My favorite brand from the bunch is easily Hublot not only because their watches are sportier then the rest but because their CEO Jean-Claude Biver actually contributes and participates in the Time Zone forums (his nickname is jcbiver). He’s a very cool down to earth guy.

So anyway about the watches, I got to play with a whole bunch and I took some pictures of some of my favorites. They had four limited edition Formula 1 Hublot’s I got to check out as well as the new Maradona edition. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this before but Maradona wears two Hublot’s at the same time one on each hand (picture).

The Hublot’s looked great but at 48mm they’re just ridiculously big on my skinny wrists. I also got to check out a Breguet Tourbillon and a Blancpain with a flying sapphire carrousel (super tiny movement floating in the middle of the watch on transparent glass. Both are definitely too classic for my taste (and cost as much as my house) but it’s hard not to appreciate the engineering.

If you’re interested, the Hamra Tower Luxury Center as well as the Behbehani Luxury store open starting from today. For those of you who are into watches I’ve got something very cool coming up next week (at least I think it’s very cool) so stay tuned.

If you guys remember around 3 years back I posted about Smoke House who at one point I thought had the best burger in Kuwait (that’s pre-OFK, Elevation, Fatburger and Shake Shack days). Well things went from perfect to a mess, they had consistency issues, they changed their burgers and some people ran into issues with their management.

But it seems things have finally been sorted out. They posted a very honest and fun to read update today on their website where they talk about some of the problems they had and how they’ve gone ahead and changed or improved things. After reading their post I actually have a much better impression about them and I’m now interested in going back and trying them out again. Why can’t more businesses be this down to earth and honest with their customers? Check out their post [Here]

I heard that BoConcept the trendy furniture store that recently closed down might be reopening again in Avenues Phase III (possibly under new ownership). I was kind of surprised when they originally announced they were closing down but the fact they’re planning reopen in Avenues Phase III (if the rumor is true) might explain why they shut down their small Marina Mall location.

The brand should do a lot better in Phase III specially since there should be a lot more foot traffic. Also previously they were located inside THE One which is a completely different brand with a different pricing structure and I’m sure it wasn’t helping BoConcept’s brand. If they do indeed open in Phase III it would be their third store location in Kuwait since for a short period they were also open in Tilal Complex but that location must have not done so well because it didn’t take long to close it down.

While I was at the Violet Concept Store checking out the Wolf Designs watch winders (check previous post) I got to see something else that was very very cool. The Violet Concept Store have an “OriginTimes’ Big Block Winder” on display! The Big Block Winder was featured in Robb Report’s “21 Ultimate Gifts” back in 2010 and while the Wolf Designs watch winders are on the affordable side, this watch winder lies in the other end of the spectrum.

The Big Block Winder is a large watch winder that’s made from an actual Bugatti Veyron engine block. The watch winding mechanism are located in each of the 16 cylinder locations and the whole thing is controlled with a futuristic looking control panel. This thing is a beast! The price? KD35,000. Expensive I know but this wasn’t built for us. If you have 16 decent automatic watches which cost on average say KD7,000 and up then you probably already have an actual Veyron in your garage and this watch winder is just pocket change. It’s for the person who has everything. You can check out some more cool pictures below or on the Robb Report website [Here]

A reader emailed me this old Video Club membership card he found dating back to the mid 80’s. Back then you’d pay to be able to rent a certain amount of videos and every time you rented a video they’d punch a hole in the card. That was back when The Video Club was one of the coolest video rental places in Kuwait.

Thanks Kyle

Persons who barbecue at unallowed public locations will be fined KD 1,000, the Director-General of Kuwait Municipality warned yesterday. Ahmad Al-Sebeeh, in a statement to KUNA, indicated that the authority, after realizing that some citizens and residents do not abide by public cleanliness laws because of soft penalties, decided to increase the fine for such a violation from KD 100 to KD 1,000.

There are specific locations for barbecuing in 144 public parks, he said, stressing that grilling is restricted to these places. Municipal teams will monitor such violations, he re-stressed, urging the nationals and expatriates to abstain from inflicting damage on public properties, such as the seaside green spots, with such random barbecuing, dumping of ashes on plants and littering. Beautification of the public spots costs the State millions of dinars for entertainment and well-being of the people, thus these properties must not be target of such harmful acts and conducts. [Source]

How come the fine for BBQing is KD1,000 but running a red light is just KD300?

I watched Battleship earlier tonight at the movies and I thought it sucked. The movie was filled with every cliche you could imagine and it also felt like a Transformers movie mixed in with the movie Armageddon. Once you get near the end of the movie it goes from bad to worse with some of the most cheesiest scenes I’ve ever seen which is why I have no idea how it scored a 6.5 on IMDB (it’s too high a score).

On the bright side there isn’t anything to be cut from this movie, I don’t even recall a kissing scene so it’s Kuwait safe. Still, that shouldn’t be an excuse to go and watch it. It’s not worth it. [Movie Website]

Yesterday after my visit to MRC I decided to pass by the tire graveyard which was located around 5 minutes down the road from them. The road that takes you to the tire graveyard is unpaved and unmarked but with the help of Google Maps I didn’t have any trouble finding it. Once there I was awestruck with the amount of tires that were piled up on top of each other, literally millions and millions of them.

To get a better look at the tires I first had to climb a tall wall of tires but once I got to the top the sight was spectacular. I know it’s not a good thing because these tires are an environmental disaster but still you can’t deny it’s a scene like no other.

I didn’t know if I was allowed to be there of if I was allowed to take pictures so I quickly snapped a few shots and got out. I really need to go back since it’s full of photo opportunities. On the bright side I did end up with a cool desktop wallpaper (pictured above) so that was worth it. If you want to use the picture above as a wallpaper as well you can download the higher resolution version from [Here]

There’s a new burger place called Hashtag that opened up next to Solo Pizza in Kuwait City and I got to try it out tonight. I don’t usually have burgers in the evening but since I had been eating super healthy and clear for nearly 3 weeks I kinda had a weak moment when Fahad posted about it on Instagram. Once I was done with the gym I headed to Hashtag to try it out. I was actually hoping the place would be packed since it would have given myself an excuse not to cheat and drive off but it wasn’t so I parked my car and went in and ordered a burger.

If I was to open a burger place it would be very similar to Hashtag. It’s a very tiny joint in the middle of no where with just 4 burgers on the menu (my place would probably have just one). I ordered a double Hashtag which is 2 beef patties, 2 slices of cheese, grilled onions and their special sauce. I also ordered water as my drink and no fries since I didn’t want to cheat too much.

The burger didn’t take long to make and I sat down and quickly dug in. First impression it looked messy, juicy and delicious. Taste wise it also didn’t disappoint. The bun was soft the patties very juicy and tender and the onions were grilled just the way I like them which is slightly raw. The sauce on the other hand wasn’t that great and I didn’t think it did the burger any justice. Next time I’d probably have it with just ketchup and mustard instead.

My biggest issue is that the place is fairly expensive. A double burger and a bottle of water came out to KD5.250 (4.5 for the burger, 750fils for the water). I think that’s pretty pricy for what should be a small casual burger joint. If you’re interested to try them out (you should), they’re located in Kuwait near Solo Pizza in the building behind Tatami. Here it is on Google Maps [Link]

Over 7,000,000 tires! I should have passed by last weekend since I was pretty close to it but didn’t know it was nearby then. [Link]

Spain – World Cup Winner
UAE – Highest Building in the World
France – Best Picture Winner
USA – Highest Winner of Noble Prizes
Kuwait – Winner of Best Red Velvet Cup Cake

This is a picture of wall graffiti here in Kuwait done by a group called Leap. Not sure who they are but they’re funny. Check them out [Here] and [Here]

Thanks Farah