Search: “kuwait”

The Animal Friends League in Kuwait recently rescued 15 dogs that were living outdoors on a farm in Kebd. The dogs were never taken indoors not even during the extreme summer heat. AFL have some pictures and more information on their website plus a YouTube video. Fourteen of the dogs were Saluki’s and are now being prepared to be transported to the USA where they will be handed over to the Saluki Tree of Life Alliance. They are seeking donations to help with this and you can get more information about that on their website [Here]

I also found an article on the Saluki Tree of Life Alliance website on this rescue and on other rescues in Kuwait. The article contains a slightly graphic picture. [Link]

If you would like to help them out with donations please call them on 7001622

Houston we have a problem! When I first started this burger challenge I thought it was going to be a pretty easy task but now that I am approaching the end I’ve realized I am going to have a difficult situation on my hands.. who to crown the winner. Originally at the start of the challenge I anticipated either Fuddruckers or Burger Boutique would win but as it stands both of them are out of the picture and its Burger Hub and Slider Station that are currently rated the highest. So I had my hopes in the Gaucho Grill burger to make my decision easier and it didn’t.

I’ve only been to Gaucho Grill during the evening but for the burger challenge I’ve been trying to have the burgers during the day so that I could have decent pictures to attach to the reviews. Gaucho Grill during the day is a completely different experience, its quieter, emptier and of course much more brighter. There was only another table occupied so finding a place near the window wasn’t a problem.

Once I got the menu I flipped through it till I got to the burger section and decided I would order the Gaucho Burger with Roasted Mushrooms and Cheese (medium well). I ordered a side order of baked potato but no appetizers since I have yet to try any appetizer at Gaucho Grill that I liked. The burger arrived soon after and my first impression was whats up with the bread? The bread didn’t look very appetizing and actually looked a bit burnt so that put me off. But, once I took a bite I realized the bread in fact wasn’t as bad as it looked and the beef patty was actually really good. The burger was very juicy and the thickness of the patty was perfect. The burger came with lettuce, tomatoes etc.. on the side and thats where I kept them because the burger really didn’t need them. The bread although as you can see in the picture was slightly burnt on the edges really didn’t bother me much and it was crunchy or anything of the sort. I do think though that if they had used a better kind of bread this burger could have been the winner.

While thinking of what to score this burger I considered the fact if I’ve been too hard with my ratings. I tried some incredible burgers and so far the highest score has been a 4 out of 5. I was actually starting to believe that I’ve been too hard until I realized there was one burger I had that I would have given a 4.5 but that burger isn’t in Kuwait sadly. While I was in Jordan back in April I had the most amazing burger at the Four Seasons hotel. I think it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. I truthfully don’t think I could give a burger a perfect 5 out of 5 but at least I know I could give a 4.5 rating if needed be. The Gaucho Burger although a great burger was let down by the bread and if it wasn’t for that I do think it could have gotten a higher score. The final score is another 4 out of 5. There are only two or three more places I still need to try out so there is still hope that a burger in Kuwait will get higher than a 4.

Gaucho Grill is located at The Palms
The cost of the Gaucho Burger with Roasted Mushrooms
and Cheese is KD6.750

I got an email from the Kuwait & Food group on Facebook today and according to the email The Butcher Shop & Grill will be opening in Kuwait soon specifically at The Avenues. I tried it before in Dubai and it was ok (I’m not a steak guy) but I keep hearing that The Meat & Wine Co. is even better.

Picture by Amro ABDOUN

My advertising agency (JWT) is currently looking to hire a Senior Art Director and a Kuwaiti Copywriter. If you’re interested send me an email and I will get back to you. [Email Me]

Has anyone by any chance seen a store still selling the original iPods? I suddenly have the urge to get one. I found one still shrink wrapped in the box on eBay but I think its going to end up selling for over $300 easily which is more than what I am willing to pay for one. If a store in Kuwait still has one though they might be willing to let it go for cheap. I remember back in the day Eureka was selling the 5GB one for KD220. I wonder if they still have them in stock somewhere gathering dust?

Update: Wow, found an old post on Gizmodo where there was a competition called “Show us your iPod”. I don’t remember this but it seems I submitted a photo of my iPod mini autographed by the iPod inventor Tony Fadell and it actually was a finalist in their giveaway competition. Don’t know how I missed that, its from back in 2006.

Update 2: While I am being all retro here. The picture above is of Nibaq taken back in November 2002. I took the picture so we could submit it to iLounge for their iPods around the world gallery. Back then they didn’t have any submission from Kuwait. [Link]

When I was in Bangkok I got to try out the Thai version of Red Bull and I loved it. I am not a big fan of Red Bull but the one in Thailand just tasted wayyy better. Firstly their version isn’t carbonated or at least not the one I had. The Red Bull I had came in a cough medicine like bottle and was actually syrupy like medicine and it even tasted like cough medicine! The only strange thing I found was the fact that it had the Halal logo on the side which meant there was something from an animal inside the drink. Didn’t want to know what, didn’t care to ask. Supposedly there is a store in Kuwait that sells them and I am just trying to find out where so I can get a hold of some. Anybody know?

Photo by joeannenah

A bunch of people now have the new iPhone’s here in Kuwait and if you are wondering how to get a hold of one well it seems the easiest solution is eBay. You have two kinds of iPhone 3G’s you can get, you can get the regular locked version which is the one thats being sold in most parts of the world like in the US or you can get the Italian version which at the moment seems to be the only one that is officially unlocked.

The regular locked iPhone 3G is cheaper and sells for anywhere from $700 to $1000. Most users on eBay list them as unlocked iPhones but at the moment thats just not true. If you read the posts carefully they all promise to have the unlocking done a week after purchase… they are basically just waiting for the unlocking software to get released. You can go ahead and buy this version if you want but as of this post you won’t be able to use it in Kuwait at the moment. Very soon though with the next update of the unlocking software Pwnage you should be able to unlock it.

The Italian version is currently the only version available “officially” unlocked. This means if you buy the Italian version of the iPhone you can use it in Kuwait without needing to hack it or anything. This version is available for sale on the regular ebay.com but a larger collection is available on the Italian eBay which is ebay.it. The Italian iPhone sells on average for around $1400 which is pretty expensive but the advantage is that it works in Kuwait without a hitch.

If you’ve got the extra cash it might be a better deal to fly to Italy, spend a night or two there, buy an iPhone and then come back. If you don’t have the extra cash just wait a couple of months and the prices will probably drop down but I doubt they will go down under $500 or $600.

Just found out from q8loco’s blog that there is a new radio station launching in Kuwait called Mix FM 98.4. No one get their hopes up though its an Arabic station so BBC and VOA News are still our only other options over 99.7 for now. [Link]

A few days ago there was a news article that took many by surprise. A young Kuwaiti football player called Ibrahim Al Faresi got signed to a top Italian football team, the problem is no one had heard of him before. Well by sheer coincidence my good friend choowy goowy guy turned out to be friends with Ibrahim and was involved in the organization of the signing event that took place here in Kuwait. So who exactly is Ibrahim Al Faresi?

A couple of years ago Ibrahim was playing football with his friends in front of the Bulgarian embassy here in Kuwait when an employee at the embassy took notice of Ibrahim and told him he should go play football in the Bulgarian league. He offered to help him and hook him up with the right people so Ibrahim decided to take the chance and traveled to Bulgaria where he tried out for a football team and ended up joining them.

After awhile Ibrahim realized he wanted more and so went to the FIFA website and sent an email to a licensed agent so he would be able to travel and play in any club without issues. His new agent took him to England first where he was going to get signed to Crystal Palace F.C. But due to the fact that if you want to play in the English Premiership you need to have a work permit and also need to have played in your countries league at one point, Ibrahim couldn’t join them.

His agent then took him to try out at A.C. Siena in Italy. While there a very famous goalkeeper scout called Senior Silvano who had previously discovered the worlds best goalkeeper Gianluigi “Gigi” Buffon told him not to sign up with A.C. Siena and instead offered to have him trained more so he could get him signed up in a better team. Ibrahim accepted and went and trained under the guidance of Senior. After a short period Senior took him to try out for A.C. Milan and ACF Fiorentina. Fiorentina where right away impressed and instantly offered him a spot on their team.

And thats basically the story of Ibrahim. In a weeks time he is leaving Kuwait and heading to Italy for some medical test and some more training before officially signing for the club. Its a great story and it just goes to show that there are a lot of untapped talents here in Kuwait. I’ve always believed that there are some amazing football players here in Kuwait but I think the football league here is just not as strong as it used to be to draw in these talents. Hopefully this story will prove to be an eyeopener.

Picture from Al Azraq

Just found a bunch of videos that show the horrifying living conditions of some workers in Kuwait. The video above is of their sleeping quarters, they are ten to a room and it doesn’t look like they have AC. Here is a link to the rest of the videos. [Link]

A Qatari Sheikh sent his Lamborghini by plane all the way to London for an oil change and back. It sounds fishy because if there isn’t a Lambo dealer in Qatar why didn’t he just send the car to Dubai or Kuwait? [Link]

Thanks Rashid

I landed at the Qatar Airport awhile ago and since I had some free time before my connecting flight to Kuwait I decided I would walk around and check out the airport. While doing so I spotted A&W which is my favorite burger and root beer place and I automatically fell in love with the airport. Even though their duty free section is crap, even though the airport is small, even though its over crowded and even though the bathrooms are dirty as hell, they had A&W which quickly made everything better. So I quickly went and ordered a double cheese burger and root beer combo. Guess what? The place is a fake! It seems once upon a time maybe in the 80’s the place was an A&W but they left a long time ago and now all thats left is their A&W signage. I didn’t find out until I got my burger and it was wrapped up under a different brand. The burger turned out to be really nasty and I felt cheated. Whats worse is that I paid over $10 for this crappy combo which would have been worth it if it had been A&W but definitely not for this crap.

This airport has officially become my least favorite in the Gulf. Luckily my stop over is really short so I should be back in Kuwait very soon.

I am at the Bangkok airport waiting to board my Qatar Airways flight back to Kuwait. I slept in total only 4 hours in the past 3 days because of the workshops and last night when it was all done and over with I only managed to get 5 hours of sleep so I am still extremely tired. Once I get back to Kuwait posting should resume normally and I will also fix the serious problem with the forum.

It seems my posting will be sporadic in the next few days since I will be held up in all day workshops. I’ve been up since 7am and just got back to my room awhile ago (its 10:45PM now). I need to get some rest since the next two days the workshops are going to last past midnight which is going to be really exhausting.

On the bright side breakfast is great at the hotel and for dinner I showed everyone how much we eat back in Kuwait. I totally massacred what had to be the largest buffet I had ever laid my eyes on. Since the hotel is located on the river its like mosquito city and I am covered with bites all over.

Check safat.kuwaitblogs.com for other blogs while I am away since there is always something interesting to read there. You can also pass by the 248AM Forum and mingle with other readers or just sit back and read what others have to say.

My flight arrived to Bangkok yesterday night at 8:30PM which is around 3:30 Kuwait time so other than the fact I had a long 7 hour flight from Qatar I also ended up losing around 5 hours of my day because of the difference in timezones. Isn’t it supposed to be a 4 hours difference actually? I don’t know maybe. The point is by the time I got to my hotel I was exhausted with no sleep so I didn’t get to see much of Bangkok. Today is my day off to go explore but I just woke up now and its nearly 2PM so half of today is also gone. Its not raining so I guess thats a good thing. Quick notes about my trip. I flew Qatar Airways economy class. The plane was really great, decent legroom great entertainment system with video on demand and live news feeds. The food was also great. Qatar Airport on the other hand sucked. It was over crowded and once you get off the plane you need to do a security check even if you are going through transit, that took like 20 minutes of waiting in line. Also it seems you need to take a bus from and to all the planes. Bus ride to the plane seriously took 20 minutes also. Not a very nice airport..