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The above is the latest video by K’S PATH and below is the description:

This short film features the release of a Scops Owl and a Steppe Eagle. The owl was found being sold by children while the eagle was found exhausted on the beach, presumably having exhausted itself flying against the wind during the day. Our community responded wonderfully by calling K’S PATH and helping to catch and transport these majestic creatures. Both birds were promptly given a clean bill of health after being seen by K’S PATH veterinarian Dr. Madhulal Valliyatte. Thankfully, they were both released the following day.

If you find a wild bird in distress, call 6700-1622. If it’s safe for you and the bird, you can use a towel and cardboard box to catch it. Keep the bird covered in the box, in the dark if possible, and in a quiet place. Avoid heat and noise. You may give a bowl of water if necessary, but don’t attempt to feed a wild bird. The wrong food can be much worse than no food for a short time. Our phone is switched off at night but all missed calls are returned in the morning. A message will get the quickest response.

Let’s be a community that works together to take care of wildlife.

[Vimeo]

Alshaya announced today that they’ll be bringing the franchise Katsuya by S+ARCK to Kuwait and the region. Unlike the other brands they’ve previous acquired this is probably the first one I haven’t heard of before. This is the description of what Katsuya is on their website:

Featuring the dynamic pairing of Master Sushi Chef Katsuya Uechi and design impresario Philippe Starck, Katsuya by Starck is truly a feast for the senses. With specialty cocktails, unique rolls and spectacular sushi and sashimi platters, Chef Uechi skillfully translates Japanese flavors to the American palate. Signature dishes include Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna, Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño and Miso-Marinated Black Cod. With superb talent and exacting precision, Katsuya by Starck is changing the face of Japanese cuisine.

For the press release click [Here]

Update: Katsuya is now open [Link]

[YouTube]

GFC is an MMA and K1 event that will be taking place at the end of the month at Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref. The event will be organized by the kuwait kickboxing committee and tickets are currently on sale. For more information click [Here]

A friend of mine took me to Saravanaa Bhavan the other day and I’m now in love with the place. They serve authentic Southern Indian dishes and I think it was my first time having it since there were a lot of things I hadn’t tried before.

The restaurant is located in Fahaheel and overlooks the Kout Mall marina. It’s super clean and pretty big with lots of seating. I took a glance at the menu but since none of the dishes had a description my friend ordered everything for me. I ended up having the following:

Plain Dosa

Poratta Curry

Idli Sambhr Chutni

Curd Vada

Cheese Dosa

Poori Bhaji

Payasam

And yes I ate all of that. There was so much flavor everywhere I just couldn’t stop trying all the dishes. The only thing I actually didn’t like was the Idli Sambhr Chutni which is basically steamed rice pudding. It tasted like a wet piece of bread and was the most disappointing dish I tried. Everything else was delicious. The Curd Vada probably stuck out the most since it was very cooling dish. For dessert I had the Payasam which is a warm milk and rice dessert that’s very sweet and full of spices.

It’s a great place and very affordable. All the dishes cost under KD1 with only the Plain Dosa costing KD1.100. They also have lunch and dinner specials, we missed out on the lunch special since we got there around 3 o’clock. I’m actually going back again tonight with some friends, I highly recommend it.

Saravanaa Bhavan is located in Humoud Towers, Fahaheel. It’s the same building as Centerpoint and they’re on the 4th floor. Their phone number is 23929099 and here they are on [Google Maps]

I don’t go to Dubai much but when I do a friend of mine always nags me to pass by and try Zuma. Zuma is a trendy contemporary Japanese restaurant located near Burj Khalifa in DIFC. I had to book a table a few days before arriving to Dubai since it’s pretty difficult to find a table on the weekends.

The place looked amazing at night with a really high ceiling and great use of light. When we sat down we were given the menu but I already knew what I wanted since I already had some recommendations from friends. We went with rock shrimp and a salmon dish for our starters along with steamed Edamame. For our main course we went with two of their specialities, the black cod and spicy beef. We also ordered sweet corn and sweet potato for our side dishes and I finished up with their chocolate fondant.

Since I had heard so much about the place I had very high expectations and so wasn’t really impressed with our starters. The rock shrimp was similar to other rock shrimps I’ve had in Kuwait and the salmon appetizer was also very familiar. But, things quickly improved after that. The sweet potato arrived before our main course and it was crazy good, I hadn’t had anything like it before. The sweet potato was glazed with teriyaki sauce and topped with sesame, I’d order it again in a heart beat. Our black cod and spicy beef dishes arrived a short while later along with our sweet corn with shiso butter. The corn was cut into blocks around 5 kernels high and had sticks in them. They were very easy to eat (like popsicles) and were full of flavor, another side dish I’d highly recommend. The spicy beef dish was super tender and had a sesame, red chili and sweet soy sauce. Although it was great I’d probably try something different the next time I’m there. Now the black cod dish is the reason why I decided to even post about Zuma. The black cod is marinated in miso and wrapped in hoba leaf. When it arrives the waiter opens up the leaf for you and rubs a bit of ginger onto it. I really don’t think I have the vocabulary to beging to describe the flavor, I didn’t expect it to be that good and I loved it. This is really the dish you have to order if you ever go to Zuma. We ended dinner with their special chocolate fondant. For some reason they thought it was Nat’s birthday and it arrived with a candle and happy birthday scribbled with chocolate. Luckily no loud banging and singing was accompanied with the dessert.

I really had a great experience and if you’ve never been it’s definitely worth passing by the next time you’re in Dubai. Our bill came out KD95 but that included a KD35 bottle of wine and a 15% tip. Without the wine it’s basically KD30 a person which is pretty reasonable for the quality of food you’re getting. The two main dishes cost around KD12.5 each which I think is underpriced compared to some of the more expensive dishes I’ve had here in Kuwait. If you’re interested make sure you call and book in advance so you’re not disappointed. Their number is +971 4 425 5660 and here is the link to their [Website]

[Photo Removed]

Kuwait’s education ministry has launched a probe into the reasons for the extraordinarily heavy defeat of the national girls’ school football team despite spending more than $1.2 million on a training camp in the Czech Republic.

…

“Encouraged by the assurances given by the team officials, the ministry allocated KD350,000 ($1,242,060) for a training camp in the Czech Republic. However, it seems that the camp was turned into a vacation, with the players training for only three hours a day while the rest of the time was spent on recreational activities,” the spokesperson said, quoted by the daily on Monday. [Source]

The world record for the largest victory in an international football match is 31 – 0 with Australia winning over American Samoa in 2001. At one point Kuwait held the record by beating Bhutan 20 – 0. [Source]

Update: Just received the following comment:

I’ve got a few blog related things I want to highlight so I figured I’d combine them all into one post.

First thing I want to talk about is Miskan. Those of you who’ve been following the blog from the very beginning will know that 248AM started because of my Miskan project. That project ended years ago and so I felt it would be a great idea to resurrect it again. This is why starting today Miskan has been relaunched as the Arabic version of 248AM. www.miskan.com

The second thing I want to highlight is 248PM. It’s not new since it’s been up for awhile now but I’ve never really was sure if it should be a separate blog or if it should be part of 248AM. Well I’ve realized it should be separate for two reasons, the first is because it’s harder and more challenging for me to fill up 248AM with posts related to Kuwait. I’m worried if I start posting non-Kuwait stuff here I might get lazy and not bother looking for Kuwait related posts as much. The second is because 248PM is kinda like my personal space where I post whatever I want and not get bashed by you guys if something is lame. It’s a place where I have a lot of fun and I like that. www.248pm.com

The third blog is for events. When I was previously posting events on 248AM it was hard to keep track of what events were coming up. Since there really isn’t that much going on in Kuwait I felt it was important to dedicate a blog just for that. There are a bunch of other great event blogs out there but mine is filled only with ones I find interesting. www.248events.com

You can access all my blogs above from the tabs underneath the blog header. With 248PM and Events you can even see the latest posts in the side bar of 248AM.

Finally I just updated the Kuwait Blogs app again a few days ago. I’m planning to do this more often since a lot of blogs aren’t posting as much or their content has changed and I no longer find them interesting. By updating the App often it stays current so check the App Store for the update or download it by searching for Kuwait Blogs in the store.

Enjoy!

Last week I went on a tag along with John Peaveler of K’S PATH. It was a spur of the moment thing, I had emailed John during the day asking him if he had anything interesting I could tag along with him on and he replied telling me they had something that night and if I was interested I could join them but I’d have to basically sleep in the desert. So I did. I had no idea what to expect or what they were doing, all I was told was to bring some food in case I needed to eat.

I headed out to a nature reserve in Abdeliah around 9 in the evening where I met up with John and his team. This nature reserve was a small protected area in the desert with some artificial lakes and plant life that were starting to flourish. It’s a KOC funded project located right next to one of their water wells and it’s a beautiful place that’s attracting birds and other wildlife like desert mice and foxes. Since the reserve is also a few kilometers from Kabd, an area known for puppy mills and dog fighting, a lot of stray dogs from there wonder into the desert and dig their way under the fence into this nature reserve. The stray dogs end up scaring away wildlife and disrupting the ecosystem which is why K’S PATH was hired to clear the area from strays.

During the day the dogs tend to hide and take cover but during the night and early mornings they’re out and about looking for food. I was actually pretty surprised to find dogs in the desert but turns out they live in the desert because it’s safe and go into the city whenever they need food. K’S PATH had around 24 cages placed all around the reserve to try and catch the dogs and our evening was spent driving around and listening for dogs that might be caught in them. Once the dogs are caught there is a very strict procedure that has to be followed, one that is incredibly humane to the dogs:

1) Only one person approaches the cage
2) The cage is covered with a tarp so that the dog feels safe
3) No flash lights are used, only a very low intensity red LED
4) No loud noises, sticks or anything else that might scare the dogs are used

Once those steps are taken the dog is evaluated. If the dog is deemed friendly it is taken back to the K’S PATH shelter where the dog goes through further tests before being placed up for adoption. If the dog is deemed aggressive then the dog is humanely euthanized on location.

One of the dogs saved that night

Last year a program similar to this was done on a larger scale in Ahmadi. The dog problem in Ahmadi had gotten so bad that dogs where chasing people on the streets. KOC really had only two options, either get the government involved who would have poisoned the dogs similar to what they did in the Free Trade Zone. Or there second option was to get K’S PATH involved who would handle the situation in a much more humane manner and even save the dogs that could be saved. In the end over 1,000 dogs were captured and there no longer is a stray dog problem in Ahmadi.

My not so comfy bed for the night

It was a pretty interesting evening and I managed to learn a lot. Best part is on the way back home the next morning I ended up capturing the surreal “Camels in the mist” shot. I’m hoping to do some more tag alongs with them so I can try and document their work which I believe needs attention. They’re a non-profit organization are always looking for volunteers and donations so if you’re interested in helping out visit their website [Here]

Thursday night I attended the Nikon launch event in Dubai that was held at the Armani Hotel Ballroom. Based on the rumors circulating online I had a feeling they were planning to launch the D600 and that became more of a sure thing when Nikon officially announced it in Thailand a few hours before the Dubai event. The Nikon D600 is an entry level full frame camera and currently the most affordable full frame DSLR you can buy. When they announced it at the Dubai event I was hoping they’d have some display models for us to play with and surely right after the event I found a table with a bunch of D600’s for us to try.

Honestly the first thing I wanted to do is see if I made a mistake by buying the more expensive D800. Originally when I purchased the D800 I did so because I wanted a full frame camera. I wasn’t too interested in the 36MP and if the D800 was even 16MP I would have gotten it. The D600 is a 24MP camera and after playing around with it for a bit I realized it’s physically closer to the D7000. The D600 is smaller and lighter than the D800, and while the D800 has a button layout similar to the larger pro D4, the D600 has a button layout closer to the D7000. I love buttons so that alone was enough to convince me I made the right choice with the D800. DPReview have a very detailed post on the D600 which you can check out [Here]

I personally think the biggest announcement of the night was the fact that Nikon is going to start treating the Middle East like the rest of the world. When a new camera gets released we will now have it at the same time as everybody else. The D600 is going to the be first camera they do this with which is why they had this event on the same day as the worldwide launch. One thing they didn’t mention during the event was the price of the D600, according to Nikon Middle East they haven’t finalized the price yet which was odd since the price of the camera in the the States had been announced a few hours earlier (it’s going to cost $2,100). I am hoping the reason they haven’t finalized the price yet is because Nikon is trying to price the camera for us so that it’s closer to the rest of the world instead of the currently exaggerated pricing we have to deal with because we live in an oil rich region. We’ll have to wait and see.

A reader caught this spelling mistake on a flyer for a shawerma place. I’d definitely describe that as a “wow”.

Thanks Rakan

After posting about the MILSIM Failaka battle thats going to take place in November, my friend called me up and told me to pass by him at their location in Shaab Park. I posted about that location last year but never checked it out until now. The place is ridiculously cool with a battle ground littered with broken cars and random objects creating a realistic war like environment. Once I got there my friend gave me a handgun and took me to a time trial course in which I think I did fairly well in for my first time.

[YouTube]

Once I was done with that I was handed an M4 Carbine rifle and attached what looked like a silencer. Turns out the silencer had a built in UV light that lit up glow in the dark airsoft pellets on the way out. What you end up with is tracer pellets which you can see in the video above.

The Shaab Park location is like a paintball field, you just pay KD7 for the gear rental and spend the whole day there playing if you want. You just pay extra for the ammo. If you missed my post on the epic Failaka battle that’s going to take place check it out [Here]

The Powerstation is a nifty little device that can charge your phone or tablet while you’re on the go. I previously posted about my battery-powered case for the iPhone (which I still continue to use) but since then with the advent of Instagram that case is no longer enough. On my last trip to Geneva even with the battery-powered case my phone was lasting until late in the afternoon which is how me and my friend found out about the Powerstation. He picked one up from the Apple Store and we were using it to charge our phones once both our battery-powered cases ran out of juice. After that trip I knew I had to have one and ended up ordering getting it from Amazon.

The Mophie Powerstation is pretty compact and can easily slip into a back pocket and is light enough to put in your wife’s purse without pissing her off. While my battery-powered case had a rechargeable capacity of 1,700 Mah, the Powerstation has 4,000 which is enough to charge my iPhone three times. Another advantage of the Powerstation is the fact it works with any phone or tablet and not just Apple specific ones. The Powerstation has a standard USB port so you just plug in whatever USB powered device you want. It can also charge the demanding iPad 3 although it won’t be able to fully charge it.

There is one downside I faced with the Powerstation which is the fact it has only one USB port which means you need to take turns charging or you need to buy a dual iphone charging cable. Another solution is to get the larger Powerstation Duo which has two USB ports as well as a larger rechargeable capacity of 6,000 Mah but it’s also more expensive and bulkier.

If you’re looking for a compact battery powered charger to take with you when you travel or for a day away from any power sources then the Mophie Powerstation is a good option. There are other similar products on Amazon that have even more power but you would have to compromise on weight and size. The price of the Mophie Powerstation is KD18 and you can get it from [Amazon]

When I was in Lebanon over Eid a friend of mine told me about a place called La Reserve. It’s a location deep inside Lebanon where you could do a bunch of outdoor activities under the supervision of experts. We decided to turn it into a two day plan, first we’d camp for the night in a beautiful isolated area and then the next day we’d head to La Reserve which would be around a two hour drive from our campsite.

Camping was great, it had been ages since I had done it and I completely missed it.

Next morning we woke up at dawn and headed towards La Reserve.

Those of you who’ve been to Lebanon or know Lebanon, La Reserve is located in an area called Afqa and once you hit Jbeil (Byblos) it’s around an hour and a half drive from there. The road starts really great and wide but once we started hitting the old villages the roads turned narrow and slow. We finally reached the destination and we met up with the people running the place and they told us to choose our activities. We chose the zip-line, rappelling, rock climbing, mountain biking and caving.

We started with the zip-line which turned out to be pretty disappointing. The zip-line is a cable line that’s tied at both ends and you get hooked onto it and zip down the line. It was really unexciting and very short. A snoozer and I’d skip this activity. The second activity we did was rappelling. This was also unexciting. Rappelling is when you descend a rock cliff using a rope (pictured above). You hold the rope with two hands and when you open your hands you start to drop and when you close your hands you stop. The best part is your first step off the cliff but after that there really isn’t much to it. Looks harder than it is but really gravity is doing all the work. After rappelling we did mountain biking which was horrible. The bikes were rusted with deflated tires and the road was a brutal uphill filled with rocks. I kept wishing I had brought my own bike since the view was a killer and I just wanted to keep going but the bike was falling apart.

So really this whole two hour trip was starting to look like a waste and you’re probably wondering why I’m even posting about it. Well after the bike ride everything got so much better. First we had lunch which was your typical Lebanese mezza followed by grills but everything we had was delicious and unexpected since we weren’t really expecting anything good from them by this point.

Once we were done with lunch we headed to the rock climbing area. This turned out to be a lot of fun, like the best fun I’ve had in ages. It was exhausting, difficult and I personally left with a lot of cuts and bruises all over but I repeat, it was A LOT of fun. If you’ve ever done the climbing wall at Marina Waves then this is kinda similar except instead of climbing up an artificial wall you’re climbing up a real cliff. They have different cliff faces to climb each with a different degree of difficulty going from level 1 up to 7. It was such a blast that I’d go back just for that. We managed to get to complete levels 1 to 3 but by then the sun was starting to set and we had one more activity to do, caving.

We were all tired and none of us wanted to do it. We thought it was going to be a waste of time but they told us the cave was located on the road out of the village and we could try it out, 5 minutes in if we did’t like it we could leave. So we went for it and good thing we did since it turned out to be an unbelievable experience.

The cave is around 6km long and still not fully discovered. It’s not a cave that’s been prepped for tourists with lights and walking paths and it’s definitely not for anyone that feels claustrophobic. The only lights we had were the ones on our helmets. When we first walked into the cave we had to go through a hole in the wall (pictured above) that was less than meter in diameter and required us to crawl in the muddy ground for a few meters before we got to the other side. The idea of being in this dead space inside the mountain with no phone signal and no lights except for the ones on our helmets was just freaky.

We kept going in climbing down wet and slippery rocks in out of different large rooms only to go back into extremely tight and long crawl holes (pictured above) and then up steep ledges. It was scary and fun both at the same time. Since it was Lebanon the guides decided to take a smoke break half way through the trip. It’s like WTF we’re in a cave! Then at one point we had to choose between two options, a passageway with freezing water up to our shoulders or another tight low ceiling and long passageway. I think that was the only problem with the caving, is the fact we weren’t told what to expect and so we weren’t dressed appropriately.

An hour later we finally came out in another location from where we started and it was just breathtaking. After being in the dark cave for an hour we came out as the sun was setting into an open space that wouldn’t look out of place in Jurassic Park. It was so beautiful and it was a relief to finally be out in the open again. I loved the whole experience.

If anyone is planning a trip to Lebanon I highly recommend you book a day with La Reserve. I’d go back again and spend the first half of the day rock climbing and the second half freaking out in the dark cave. Lunch was also fantastic and the price for a whole day full of activities and lunch came out to be just $58 per person. That’s it. I can’t think of anything you could do in Lebanon for a full day thats as fun and for just $58. So if you’re interested in outdoor activities check them out. Here is a link to their [Website]

There was a time when open world games like Grand Theft Auto III were a big deal. Nowadays, it seems like there’s an open world game being released every year. There was also a time when open world games were flat 2D worlds like Super Metroid or The Legend of Zelda. Today, it’s vast and deep 3D landscapes with big cities (or deserts if we’re talking about the great Red Dead Redemption). The problem with most games that share this genre is that they’re automatically labeled a “GTA-clone”, so in order to be successful, the developer needs to create something unique or at least innovative. Sleeping Dogs might not be incredibly unique (a cop and gangster game set in Hong Kong), but it does take the GTA formula further by innovating it, making it its own.

Sleeping Dogs is played as an over-the-shoulder, third-person perspective action-adventure game with role-playing elements. The player controls Wei Shen, a Chinese-American police officer, as he goes undercover to infiltrate the Sun On Yee Triad organization. – wikipedia

There were a bunch of things I really liked about Sleeping Dogs. One example that pops right into mind is that the game lets you cycle through your objectives without the need to pause or go to the map screen. To add to that, it’ll show you how to get to your objective and how far your destination is. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it helps with the pacing of the game. There’s no need to pause, go into a menu, and look through a big map. One thing that bugged me about GTA was that there was no reason to pay attention to traffic laws and pedestrians, but in Sleeping Dogs you lose points if you vandalize, steal or kill pedestrians while you’re on a mission. These points can help you level up and unlock more items and moves and they’re part of your overall mission score that gets uploaded and shared with your friends. That’s another thing the developers have added: the “Social Hub”. The Social Hub basically uploads your mission scores and other stats (longest wheelie for instance) and compares them to your friends who are also playing the game.

I had lunch with two high school friends today, one of which I hadn’t seen in 16 years. We were mostly reminiscing about the past and how lame everything was for us back then. Those of you in high school today don’t realize how lucky you are compared to us kids who grew up in Kuwait back in the old days. I graduated in 1996 and back then we didn’t have any malls or restaurant chains or anything like that. For entertainment we just had a few options.

The only mall in Salmiya was Laila Gallery but we weren’t allowed in on weekends since it was families only. That was pretty common back in the day.

Even Sultan Center wouldn’t let guys in alone on weekends. It was really embarrassing. Until today whenever I go to the Sultan Center in Salmiya and I see a security guy standing outside I wonder if he’s going to let me or not.

There was a cool Hardees where Starbucks is right now in front of Al Fanar. But then they demolished it.

The ice skating rink was pretty decent in the early 90s but started going downhill after that.

Fuddruckers was like the only restaurant open on the Gulf Road back then. The place used to get crazy packed and at one point was the coolest place to be.

Then Johnny Rockets in Salmiya opened and a lot of the crowd shifted there. Johnny used to get super packed as well but most of us would go and occupy a whole table and just order one tea or one shake. So, they introduced a minimum order charge of like KD1.5 per person so everyone shifted outside Johnny to the sidewalk corner and I never saw Johnny that packed again.

Oddly that sidewalk corner became a hot spot where everyone went to meet up with other friends. It used to get pretty crowded so the cops stopped allowing us to hang out there.

McDonalds opened at around the same time over Johnny so some people started hanging out there instead.

But mostly, we just hung out at each others houses listening to music and talking. Every now and then there was a house party but really that was it.

Kinda miss the simplicity of those days now that I think about it. No cellphone, no internet, no car and just enough money to make the difficult but important decision of buying a music tape from The Video Club or having dinner.