Search: “kuwait”

After going to sleep early last night I woke up around 9AM today and decided I would go out for a ride. By 9:30 I was downstairs in full gear warming up my bike. Today I even put on my Alpinestars Knee Guard which I should have worn the day I had my crash because it would have saved my knee from getting road rash. Its kind of bulky but its not about the looks, its about the protection. One thing I forgot to do with all my excitement was brush my teeth which was a big mistake because I ended up spending the whole ride smelling my Friday morning breath inside the helmet.

I had 3 rules for my ride today:
(1) Keep off the Gulf Road
(2) On traffic lights, go straight or right but not left (since I had my accident while going left)
(3) Stay clear of roundabouts

Well I broke one of the rules. I ended up going out onto the Gulf Road but just for a tiny bit. My bikes gas light came on and I figured I might as well fill it up with gas, something I hadn’t done before. But before I got onto the Gulf Road I rode into the AUK parking lot and decided to do some riding exercises which involved lots of driving around in circles and braking and accelerating. Once I felt comfortable with the bike I rode out of the parking lot and headed towards the Gulf Road. I ended up going to the gas station opposite Pizza Hut. I was hoping I would find some of that ultra super high octane gas (the green one) but turned out they only had the regular and super versions. It was my first time filling up gas in my bike and I felt awkward. First I didn’t know how to open the gas gasket, the key wasn’t turning in the gasket lock so I called up Marzouq who told me I needed to push the key in and turn which worked. Second I didn’t know how much gas the bike would take but I kept filling it slowly until I could see the gas line in the tank. I filled up 550fils worth of super gas and rode back out onto the Gulf Road and then back into Salmiya.

In total today I rode for around an hour and a half. I would have stayed out longer but my wrist started hurting so I had to come back home. The weather was amazing and I spent most of my ride riding with the helmet visor open so that the wind blew in onto my face . I really had a lot of fun, can’t wait for my next ride.

I just came back from a short ride on my Ducati. It was my first time back out on the public roads since my crash 2 months ago. I was kind of nervous which is natural but not afraid which is a very good thing especially after a crash. I rode in Salmiya in the area around my building but there was a bit more traffic then I thought there would be. For my first ride I think I did fine.

Before I rode out on the streets I rode my bike a bit in my buildings underground parking. I did some 8’s with the bike and also some braking and moving, braking and moving. I still need to get the hang of my bike.

My wrist by the way still hasn’t heeled healed. I passed by Razzi Hospital two days ago and they told me I had a torn ligament in my wrist and still needed two months to heel heal. They told me I should rest my wrist for these two months and I shouldn’t ride the bike. Thing is in Kuwait there are only like two months of the year where you can actually ride the bike so I am not going to waste them giving my wrist a rest.

I am going to do a bit of riding everyday, small sessions not to kill my wrist but also just enough to get me the hang of the bike and give me some practice before I decide to go back out onto the main road again. Can’t believe I am riding again, it feels amazing..

Someone told Badar Al Badoor opened up in Salmiya in the restaurants road. The new branch is called Badar Al Badoor 2 which is pretty cool.

Here are the driving directions:
If Platinum gym is on your right, drive towards the sea side. After Platinum there should be a speed bump and a left turn. Take a left and drive straight and you will get to Badar Al Badoor 2.

Two nights ago while sitting with friends for dinner I was told to try out the Iranian kebabs at Malak Sajj in Souk al Moubarakiya… the old souk in Kuwait City. So yesterday for lunch I went with 2 friends to try it and it turned out to be fairly decent.

The place is located in like the food court of the renovated old souk. There is only open air seating but the weather was really good so it wasn’t a problem. Once we sat down a waiter came and asked us what we wanted. They don’t have a menu so the guy just verbally tells you what they have. Everyone ordered something, I ordered a plate of kebabs, a plate of hummus and a coke. While we were waiting for our main course they gave us complimentary soup of the day. A few minutes later our food arrived with a lot of Iranian bread on the side.

The kebab was pretty good and filling. The hummus wasn’t bad either except a fly fell into it and drowned in the oil so we had to maneuver our bread around it. I didn’t like the soup but it was free so it really didn’t matter. Now I was told this was the best kebab in Kuwait so I was expecting it to be the best, but it wasn’t. The kebabs were good but not better then Baba Taher or Kebab 7ejat.

A ma3oon of kebab which is made of 3 kebabs cost only KD1. hummus cost 500fils and the Pepsi 100fils. Service also was good, fast and friendly. A nice combination.

Now for the final rating. I was having trouble deciding what to give it but in the end I decided I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. The kebab was nothing to write home about but the service, speed, friendliness and the price helped keep the score up. Also I tried a piece of chicken taouk from a friend and it tasted pretty good. I would probably visit Malak Sajj again but not before I try the fish and chips from Sha6er 3abbas which is also located in the same place.

Today morning on my way to work I noticed there was a demonstration outside the House of Parliament. I don’t know what they are demonstrating but I hope they are trying to legalize alcohol.

This very unappetizing picture is of a Shrimpy meal which K.theKuwaiti ordered. Although I have been craving Shrimpy for a while now, after reading his story and seeing the pictures I think I will focus my attention back to donuts or cookies. They should never have shut down Long John Silvers, it was like a better version of Shrimpy. Anyway you can read his experience by visiting his site. [Link]

Who makes the best fish and chips in Kuwait?

note: title of this post is an inside joke which no one will get

I posted about Auction it TODAY last month. They are a company in Kuwait that take care of selling your stuff on eBay. Well I was checking out what they were currently auctioning off on eBay and I ended up finding some strange items. Keep in mind all this stuff is located in Kuwait which makes the actual items strange. Like the Food Dehydrator or 35mm camera. If you check their previous sold items you will find even stranger stuff.

You can check out their auctions by clicking [Here].

Tonight at 10PM local time Amazon had a special deal on the Xbox 360. The were offering it for only $100, the catch.. only 1000 pieces. I knew I didn’t have a chance when I saw that deal plastered all over the web including places like Digg and Gizmodo. Still, I decided to give it a shot and see if I could be one of the lucky 1000.

At around 9:45PM I started refreshing the offer page every 20 seconds. By 9:58 Amazon’s servers got overloaded and the page stopped loading. So using two computers I started opening the same page in like 20 tabs on each computer. Finally two of my tabs loaded and I saw the Get this deal button. I quickly pressed it but my other tabs started loading and I noticed the same page now was saying Sold Out. I was hoping that since I clicked the button already I would be counted as one of the first 1000. Around a minute later one of the tabs where I had clicked the Get this deal button loaded and Amazon was asking me what 11+16 was. I quickly loaded up the calculater (yes I suck) and calculated their question and entered it and pressed Get this deal for a second time.

Sadly, by the time the third page loaded around 10:13PM I got a message telling me the product didn’t exist. The 1000 Xbox 360’s got sold out in under 15 seconds. With our lousy internet connection here in Kuwait I didn’t stand a chance. But, at least it was a fun experience.

Here are some screen grabs of the two pages aftr I clicked the first Get this deal button.

Second page message
Third page message

Late last month I posted about how Showtime were still taking money from me every month even though I canceled my account. Well I finally spoke to a guy at Showtime who told me he would solve my problem by making sure they cancel my subscription and then refund me two months worth of subscription fees by the next day. I was like fine, great.

A few days later I call the guy up again telling him that I still hadn’t received the refund. He told me he had deposited the money into my account and it should be there. After further investigation it turns out the guy deposited my refund in the wrong account! He told me that its too late now and he couldn’t take it back and that I should contact the other person and try to get my money off of him. I told him I wouldn’t do that and that he should solve the problem. He then sarcastically told me fine, he would pay me the refund from his salary. I was like whatever you want to do, do it. I just want my refund.

Since that day I haven’t been able to get a hold of the guy again. He won’t return my calls and I have been leaving messages on his voice mail and still no reply. I don’t think my troubles with Showtime will ever finish.

update: I just got off the phone with the COO of Global Direct. He told me I will get my refund within the next 2 days. I told him that it wasn’t about the money but the actual process I had to go through to get my account canceled. He assured me that Showtime was going through a major restructuring of the customer service department and all the problems I faced will be fixed.

I found out last minute I had to go down to Dubai for work and since Gitex had just started, finding a room was practically impossible. Finally though the travel agent came through and found me an empty room and booked it. I have to say it was the crappiest hotel I had ever been to. The whole place looked like a bathroom and smelled like one that had just been cleaned. They had these air fresheners that spray perfume automatically located all over the hotel but they just reminded me too much of bathrooms.

If the look of the hotel wasn’t enough to put me off, before we got the room key they made us sign a paper which said if any of our stuff goes missing in the rooms that they wouldn’t be responsible for it. Not only that but inside the room there was a framed photocopy of a similar paper stating the same thing and another A4 sheet located on the table also saying the same thing. As you can imagine I didn’t want to leave anything in the room and I didn’t, I kept my backpack with me the whole time.

Traffic in Dubai because of Gitex was just a disaster. It was always at a complete standstill, a real mess. One cab driver told me things get even worse in February during the shopping festival.

The weather in Dubai was also a lot hotter then Kuwait. Its currently freezing here. Froze my ass off tonight while leaving Maki at Marina, even had a jacket on and it wasn’t enough!

I wanted to visit Gitex but I finished my work around 8PM and Gitex closes at 7. Why can’t they stay open till like 10 or something like exhibitions that are held in Kuwait? Its like people need to take a day off work to pass by them.

I went to Ibn Battuta mall. Its not as big as Mall of the Emirates but its still a lot bigger then Marina Mall and the whole thing felt very Las Vegasishy.

I still can’t believe I was in Dubai and didn’t get to pass by Gitex!

I found this at the Dubai Duty Free. If beer was legal in Kuwait I would definitely setup a draught beer system at home. This one cost only $250.

I think everyone in the Dubai Duty Free figured I lived in Kuwait because I was walking around taking pictures of the bottles of alcohol. Moskovskaya is my favorite brand of vodka. Its the only one I can drink straight up without mixing it with anything.

Someone posted this comment under a Jazeera Airways post of mine:

dear sir,
i m an indian i like to go back to india for 45 days i m in kuwait now. is there booking open 4 dec 2006 2nd and third week & what are the fare rates two way or a single way coming from india back can i book it online. pls give me a complete detail and easy way to check the online fare rates to india from destination and from kuwait to uae that is ras al khaimah. thanking u. waiting 4 ur reply.

and this is an email someone sent me regarding the new Symphony Mall opening in Salmiya:

Savio wrote:
could you send us some information on the space available at the symphony mall along with area and prices.

Just finished checking in to my flight. Airport security today is just overboard. Jazeera Airways and British Airways check in stations are located in the same area and it seems because of British Airways security was extremely tough… not the usual laid back chatting with friends while ignoring the metal detector beeps. I had to actually take off my belt while some other guys were told to remove their shoes. Had to wait over 30 minutes in the security check line. Usually the lack of decent security at the Kuwait Airport pisses me off, but after seeing what good security involves, I am glad we lack security “most of the time”.

Just found out I have to leave to Dubai tomorrow morning for one night which means I will be back on Monday night. I am traveling with Kuwait Airways so pray for me.

update: Luckily Jazeera Airways have a better timed flight, so I am going to be flying with them instead.