Search: “salmiya”

While prepping for my previous post on Pinot, I was going through some old emails and found one where he sent me photos of the old Al-Manara Bookshop that was located in Salmiya next to The Video Club.

Al-Manara was a fairly popular bookstore but there aren’t any photos of it available online. It’s one of those places you never thought about photographing and eventually it’s gone. The photos were taken on March 28, 2008 with a Nikon Coolpix P1.

via Pinot

I used to be a huge Subway fan back when I was in university in Lebanon and then again once I moved back here and started work. Then around 10 years ago I stopped eating there until just a few weeks ago.

Back in April, I posted about how the Subway brand changed ownership in Kuwait and moved to Kout Food Group. They ended up opening their first location in Salmiya next to AUK and it’s probably the nicest Subway I’ve ever been to anywhere.

Firstly there is a drive-thru, but more importantly, the branch is super clean. It’s tiny but everything inside looks really appetizing and the store smells of freshly baked bread. I tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and since then have been back a bunch of times. So if like me you wrote off Subyway years ago, its worth giving another shot now. Here is their location on Google Maps.

Aqua Motif is a local business that creates custom aquarium reefs. Just going through some of their work on Instagram makes me want to get an aquarium even though I have zero interest in fish. The one pictured above is their Kuwait skyline reef but they’ve got some other amazing ones including (and completely random), a Gorillaz band reef.

They’re located in the Pearl Marzouq complex in Salmiya but you can check out their work on Instagram @aquamotif

Yesterday I passed by the newly opened Ajas’s Film Lab to check the place out. According to their bio, they’re meant to be the best place for all things film related but I don’t know how accurate that is. The store is small and fairly empty with mostly just a counter in the back and a small fridge filled with disposable cameras and some film. They had three kinds of film, one black and white, and two colored. The black and white is priced at 5KD while the colored were 8KD each. The disposable cameras were also 8KD.

Their main service though is developing films but turns out they don’t print them. They just develop your negative roll and then scan and email you the digital photos. The main reason I shoot film is so I can print film so it was disappointing they didn’t offer that service. The cost for developing and scanning your film is 5KD.

The place isn’t cheap but I think they’re trying to offer a nice trendy place for people to get their film developed. The developing and scanning cost is OK I guess at 5KD, there are cheaper places but not by much. When it comes to film rolls though I think they’re too expensive. I buy my color film rolls for 4KD from random studios around Salmiya where they still sell film (they aren’t expired), so I definitely wouldn’t pay 8KD.

If you want to check Ajas out, they’re on insta @ajasfilmlab and here is their location on Google Maps.

For a list of places that develop film, check out this link. For black and white film, Studio Khemia sell rolls starting at 3KD and also offer workshops where they teach you how to develop and print your black and white rolls, check them out on Insta @khemiae.darkroom

Good Game, the popular tabletop gaming store which opened back in 2013 in Sanabil Tower has now moved back to Sanabil Tower (Google Maps) after previously moving to Salmiya. They didn’t move back into their old store in Sanabil but instead got another larger corner store. I wasn’t really a fan of the Salmiya location since it wasn’t very cozy but the new store sorts that out.

If you’re a fan of tabletop gaming or if you feel like getting into Dungeons & Dragons after watching Stranger Things, check them out @goodgamekw

Back in March, I posted about my trip to Khobar and Bahrain along with a detailed step by step guide of the requirements and the journey. This morning I drove to Saudi again but this time I headed to Riyadh. I left my apartment in Salmiya around 6:20 AM and made it to our office in Riyadh by 12:40 PM. This included a bunch of tops along the way for treats, fuel, bathroom breaks and photography. Not too bad.

The most surprising thing was the fact that 95% of the trip was on a two-lane two-way road. Right after I entered Saudi, Google Maps made me exit the main road onto a small side road. I thought it must have mixed up or that this small road would lead to the large highway but it didn’t. The road stayed that way till I got to Riyadh. It was pretty freaky at first since cars would be speeding toward me going over 120km/h and I’m just hoping they don’t hit me head on. But after an hour into the trip, there were no more cars on the road. It was very serene.

It was such a nice drive and the scenery was pretty nice in some parts. There was one long strip of road that lasted maybe two hours where there was nothing around except for red sand dunes. No people, no gas stations, no buildings, nothing. It felt great being out there alone.

The trip didn’t feel like it was 6 hours long and I would definitely recommend it if you like to drive.

The other day I was walking in old Salmiya and noticed they had removed another tree, the 26th one on the street. And yes, I’ve been keeping count. Previously, 25 large trees had been removed when they turned the street into a pedestrian-only one and I posted about that here.

It was bound to happen since whoever worked on the project decided it was a good idea to bring the road right next to the tree and I guess the low-hanging branches might have been causing an issue with traffic so they removed the tree. I still don’t understand why they couldn’t have kept all the trees and integrated them into the street like the tree in the picture above?

There is still a line of trees left which I’m expecting to be removed any day now, I should probably take pictures from now so I could post before and after photos once they remove them.

Below is the list of events for this weekend. As usual if I missed anything please let me know in the comments:

Thursday
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
Exhibition: “The Mystic Letters” By Antonella Leoni
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Exhibition
Musical: MAMMA MIA!
Movies at the Park: Mr.Bean’s Holiday
Talk: Save the Turtles
Bel Canto d’Italia Recital

Friday
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Exhibition
Musical: MAMMA MIA!
Kuwait Kayak Fishing Championship
A Walk In Tunisia – Omrani’nd The Crew

Saturday
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi
Perfumes, Cosmetics & Watches Exhibition
Grand Mosque Tour
Sunrise Yoga with Hiba
Miseen Scene: Z
Musical: MAMMA MIA!
TrashTag Kuwait: Salmiya Park Cleanup
TrashHero: Blejat Beach Cleanup
Coffee Sunset Cruise
Stranger Things Watercolor Experience

My favorite Bahraini grills spot is still Ghadeer al Bahrain in Salmiya, even though after the pandemic they had to increase their prices by around 100 fils. But last night, I decided to try another Bahraini grills spot in the city called Tekka Lumee. This past winter whenever I drove by Tekka Lumee in the evening it would be super packed with people, they actually had to expand their outdoor seating and double the size because of their popularity. I was with a friend in the city last night and we were originally planning to walk over to Little Ruby’s for dinner when we decided to give Tekka Lumee a shot.

Tekka Lumee is a small place across the street from the newly opened Assima Mall. Unlike Ghadeer al Bahrain which has been around for 30+ years, Tekka Lumee is a new concept that opened up over a year ago. Their menu has a pretty good variety of items and you can check it out online here. We ended up getting hummus to start with and Tekka Lumee grills, Tekka Yogurt, Kebab Special and Special Tawooq for the mains.

A couple of minutes after placing the order the food started coming out. First the freshly baked Irani bread with the hummus, and then all the grills. If you’re hungry and don’t want to wait too long for your food then this is the place to come to. I quickly started digging into the food and right away knew what I liked and what I wouldn’t order again. Both the Tekka Lumee and Tekka Yogurt were great, especially the Tekka Lumee which had great flavor. The Tawooq was the third-best item, I usually wouldn’t order chicken at a Bahraini grills place but was curious to try it here but wouldn’t have it again. The most disappointing item though was the kebab, it was fairly dry, a bit bland, and was the only thing that we didn’t finish on the table. It sucks because I usually like ordering kebab with my tikka but wouldn’t do so again here.

Even though Ghadeer al Bahrain is a low-end hole-in-the-wall restaurant, I do feel like I have to compare it with Tekka Lumee only because they both basically sell the same food. Pricewise Tekka Lumee is surprisingly pretty good, their grills are around KD2.500 a plate and contain 5 skewers. What is important to point out is their skewers are longer than that of Ghadeer and contain more meat, so you could say close to double the size of Ghadeer’s. This means price-wise it’s fairly competitive to Ghadeer Al Bahrain even though it’s a much nicer (cough cleaner cough) place with a better dining experience. Tastewise the tikkas at Tekka Lumee were great but the kebab as I mentioned was a disappointment. The kebab at Ghadeer is much better but I’d still go back to Tekka Lumee for the other items (and for the bread which was crazy good). The total for two people including 3 drinks came out to around 13KD. If you want to check the place out, their Instagram account is @tekka.lumee, and here is their location on Google Maps.

Saveco supermarket no longer have any locations left open and their Instagram hasn’t been updated since April. Their original location in Al-Rai which opened back in 2014 was demolished a few months ago, their Avenues location closed down last month, and their Wholesome Foods organic supermarket concept in Salmiya has now been taken over by Sultan Center.

I used to pass by their Avenues location whenever I visited the mall since they were on my way out when heading to my car, but during the pandemic, it was also my favorite supermarket to go to since it was always empty while most other places were overcrowded and chaotic. They were meant to open a new “Urban Market” in Shuwaikh but I’m not sure if that’s still happening. My contact at Saveco no longer works there and when I asked them on Instagram about it they didn’t respond to me. The sign is still up so maybe they decided to close all their locations and just focus on this new concept, we’ll have to wait and see.

Fresh, a cafe that has been around since the 90s at Al-Khalid Complex in Salmiya has closed down. I’ve never been to it, I don’t even know how it managed to last for so long but I do know it’s one of those places a lot of people went to back when there was very little to do in Kuwait.

As I mentioned in another post, Al-Khalid Complex recently went through a major refurbishment and new places are opening up including Boost coffee shop. Another place similar to Fresh that also is surprisingly still open is Astra Lounge. I guess old-school places like these still have a cult-like following helping them stay afloat.

The first Johnny Rockets in Kuwait that’s located in Salmiya has closed down. According to Johnny Rockets, they are renovating the store which makes sense since it really hadn’t changed at all since they first opened in the mid-90s. I’d know because I was in high school back then and the Johnny Rockets opening was a big thing (nothing else really existed other than Fuddruckers).

I like that it hadn’t been renovated because it still held all my high school memories like the table where I sat on my very first date or the table where me and my friends used to chill at. On the bright side at least they’re reopening again.

Flora is a fresh flower wholesaler and supplier located in the basement of a building in Salmiya. I live within walking distance from it and didn’t know they existed until a couple of years ago so doubt a lot of people know about it unless they’re really into flowers.

There is no sign outside, no display, it’s just a door that takes you down into a basement of a building. Once you’re done it’s pretty cool because it’s not something you’d expect to find. The space is divided into two main parts, the unrefrigerated area which usually contains plants, dry flowers, and various florist tools, and the refrigerated area which contains all their fresh flowers.

There are two large walk-in refrigerators in the back of the store that house the flowers. The refrigerators have glass sliding doors and there is a switch outside you need to press to open them to get in. So if it’s your first time there you can either have them open the door for you or look for the switch. Once you open the door you can just walk into the fridge and check the flowers they have and pick what you want.

I’m not a flowers person so don’t know much about the varieties they carry so thankfully they do have a website which you can check out that lists all their available flowers with their prices thefloraonline.com

The prices are going to be cheaper than elsewhere since they’re suppliers. They also do make bouquets and arrangements for you, so you can pick what you want and they’ll put it all together. If you want to check the place out, their Instagram is @thefloraonlinekw and here is their location on Google Maps. Once you get to the location you’ll see a flower shop on the ground floor, that’s a different shop, the entrance to Flora is to the right of it.

I’ve been wanting to drive to Bahrain for years now but never actually did because I needed to get a Saudi visa which was a hassle to get a few years ago. Not anymore though which is why I ended up driving to Bahrain for the first time a couple of days back. I had some work to do in Khobar so I decided I’d try driving there. Firstly, just to point out one thing, if you’re Kuwaiti or a GCC citizen the process is obviously much simpler and has always been easy since you don’t require a visa for Saudi or Bahrain. For expats on the other hand, there are a couple of extra steps that we need to take but with the new tourist-friendly Saudi Arabia, the process is super easy.

Here is everything you need to know in case you want to do the same.

Getting a Saudi Visa
So the first step if you’re an expat is getting a Saudi visa. I’ve got the Canadian passport so the process was very easy for me. I just visited the Saudi eVisa website and applied by uploading my photo and filling out a few details in a form. I applied on Saturday at 9:35PM and got my visa approved and issued by 9:38PM. Yeah, it’s super fast. My visa is valid for 1 year with multiple entry and the cost for it was 534.98 SAR including insurance (around 43KD).

Get Cash!
This is very important, before heading on your trip make sure you get Saudi Riyal. All the fuel stations I stopped at in Saudi did not accept our debit or credit cards. They will only accept cash. A friend told me to take cash with me and this was the best tip I got.

Driving to the Kuwait – Saudi Borders
I left my place (Salmiya) around 7:45AM on Monday and headed to the Saudi border down south (Nuwaisib Port). I filled up fuel at the gas station next to my house on the 4th Ring Road and then drove straight down there which took around 1 hour. My recommendation is to fill up gas one more time before the borders since the first fuel station I found after the borders was an hour drive later.

The Kuwaiti – Saudi Borders
When I arrived at the Kuwait border control it was empty with just a couple of other cars that were also heading to Saudi. You’ll find various booths and you just drive up to the one that’s available. He needed my passport, civil ID and car registration. The car is in my name, if the car isn’t in your name you probably need to get a power of attorney (tawkeel) or something (I’m not sure). In any case, there was no issue going through Kuwait border control, but I did have an extra step I needed to take once I got to the Saudi border control.

When I got to the passport control booths at the Saudi side of the border, the guy asked me for my visa so I gave him a printout of my e-visa. He then told me I needed to turn around and head to a building at the corner of the lot so I did. It was a small building that had 4 passport counters. It was just me and a few truckers so it was empty and the truckers looked like they were waiting for someone. They punched some data on the computer, took my photo, scanned my fingerprints, and then stamped my passport and wrote down a code in my passport. That code (I’m guessing my visa number) is what they then used for the rest of the trip when punching my data at the Saudi side of the border control. So I think I need to do this process whenever I get a new visa, so like once a year.

Once I got my passport stamped, I got back into my car and headed to the first booth again. I gave the guy my passport and he let me through. Customs was next (they just look in your car) and then I had to go through the car insurance booth before leaving the borders. You need to insure your car and I ended up paying 128 SAR (10KD) to do so.

Saudi Borders to Khobar
It was a semi-cloudy/gloomy day when I did the drive and it was very chill with just a few cars on the road. The journey from the Saudi borders to Khobar is around 3 hours and it flew by quickly. The highway was mostly new, there was some construction work taking place so I got to strips where the highway suddenly became one lane but it was mostly ok. I didn’t fill up fuel before the borders and the first bunch of fuel stations I did come across in Saudi were all closed and out of business. Around 1-1:30 hours after the border, I spotted a McDonald’s sign in the distance and that was the first fuel station that I came across that was open. My fuel gauge was at the halfway point by then so I filled the car up and paid in cash since they didn’t take cards. There is a good convenience store there, a 24/7 Mcdonald’s and there are bathrooms. So a good point to stop.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and a couple of hours later arrived at Khobar. There are lots of speed cameras on the way and they look different than ours. They’re beige-colored metal boxes on the left of the highway so keep an eye out for them. I got caught by one on my way to the Kuwait border but it still hasn’t shown up on the system. I heard the tickets are expensive so not looking forward to finding out how much I have to pay.

Khobar to Bahrain
I really didn’t have any solid plans just to be clear. I wasn’t sure if after I was done in Khobar I would drive back to Kuwait the same day, or if I’d sleep in Khobar for the night or go to Bahrain. I just got a small bag with a change of clothes with me and figured I’d wing it. Once I was done with my work in Khobar, and after exploring it for a bit I realized I didn’t want to spend the night there. So I decided I’d make my way to Bahrain. I didn’t have a visa since I usually get one on arrival, so wasn’t sure if the process would be the same or not if I drove into Bahrain. It was.

The Saudi – Bahrain Borders
This was a very interesting and impressive experience. So you probably know that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are connected together by a bridge. It’s similar to our Sheikh Jaber Causway except much shorter. There is a toll booth at the start of the bridge which I paid 25 SAR (2 KD) to get on. Once you get on the bridge you drive for a short distance, maybe like 5 or 10 minutes before arriving to a small island that houses the Saudi and Bahrain border control as well as some tourist attractions. The border control here were super professional and it was very very efficient. Lots of lanes, booths and experienced employees. They get a lot of traffic going through here and they’re set up to process it very quickly.

I got my visa with no issues, didn’t have to leave my car or anything. The cost of the visa was 5BHD (4KD) and I paid for it by card. After that I needed to once again insure my car before crossing into Bahrain, the cost of that was 26BHD (21KD) 2.6BHD (2.1KD). This border experience was super easy and really impressive.

And that was it, the process of going from Khobar to Bahrain took around 20-30 minutes and that included the journey on the bridge and the whole border control experience.

The Drive Back – Bahrain to Kuwait
The next morning I left my hotel at around 7AM for the trip back to Kuwait. There were no issues along the way, it’s the same process as above just backward and I ended up at my office in the City by 12PM. I think Google sent me on a different road back to Kuwait but not really sure. There were also plenty of fuel stations on the way back but I always try and fill up before my fuel tank reaches the half way point.

The only thing worth pointing out happened once I got back to the Kuwait border control. When I got to the passport control booth the guy told me I needed to go to the passport control building instead. So I parked my car and went into the building but when I gave my passport to the guy and he punched my civil ID into the system he’s like why were you sent to me? I just shrugged my shoulder and told him no idea, he stamped my passport and gave it back to me and I was done. I don’t think they get a lot of expats through the Kuwait Saudi border so depending on the employee you get at the time you pass, your experience will vary. I then had to go through customs and the guy went through my car, looking through all my bags, asking me what the cat food I had in a container was, looked in my car compartments, etc.. I think he was either looking for alcohol or drugs or both. The cars ahead of me didn’t go through the same search, maybe I just looked dodgy.

But that was it, I then crossed the borders and was back in Kuwait.

The whole process was super simple and I’m definitely going to drive to Saudi and Bahrain more often. I love driving and this was a pretty chill ride. If you can travel in an SUV that would be optimal but a regular sedan will do just fine as well. One thing I’m not sure of is if women can enter Saudi easily or if guys and girls can be in the same car and not be related or married etc. I’m assuming it’s fine now that Saudi is super chill, but maybe if someone can confirm this in the comments. Also if you have any questions about the trip, let me know!

Correction: I originally stated the car insurance to enter Bahrain was 26BHD when in fact it was 2.6BHD.

Update: Added a snippet in the post regarding the speed cameras in Saudi

There is this pothole in Qurtoba that I pass over when leaving my friend’s place and it’s been like that for three years, maybe longer. I usually tease my friend on it and ask them when they’re planning to fix it or that they should bring it up in the next town meeting ala Parks & Recreation. Then yesterday while I came across a post on @q8needsyou about the pothole because it turns out someone living on that street (not my friend) decided to finally fix the pothole themselves.

If a huge pothole on a prime street in a nice Kuwaiti neighborhood like Qurtoba isn’t getting fixed, you can imagine the state of the roads in other less nice areas like Salwa or Salmiya. This has got me thinking that maybe I should just fix the potholes that bother me myself as well. There are two construction sites on my street and I’m sure I can just pay a worker to go around filling up potholes in the neighborhood with concrete. But maybe someone needs to start a pothole-filling business. Customers would WhatsApp the location of the potholes, they then get a payment link and within 24hours of paying, someone will go fill up the pothole. Easy-peasy so please steal this idea and then get in touch with me!