Search: “salmiya”

Last month I posted about some “Cats Protection” shelters I spotted in Salmiya. Turns out they’re made by @q8wood4 and are sold for KD20 each. The shelter is 80cm wide, 50cm deep and 50cm tall, it features two openings for cats to get in, a carpeted interior, and a removable roof.

I’m thinking of getting a couple for my neighborhood just need to figure out where I can place them. It’s a very simple and useful idea, I like it. If you want to order one yourself check out @q8wood4.

Thanks Mariam

Simple fixes 4th Ring Road pic.twitter.com/H8FWGXMNg8

— Asseel Al-Ragam (@a_alragam) April 5, 2021

Local architect Asseel Al-Ragam has been posting a series of “Simple Fixes” for different parts of Kuwait on Twitter. It really wouldn’t take much to improve the different places and her animated series is a way of showing that.

Simple Fixes Salmiya II pic.twitter.com/fUmEUSR76i

— Asseel Al-Ragam (@a_alragam) April 11, 2021

She’s done a few so far including ones for the 4th Ring Road, Kuwait City and even Salmiya. Check them out here.

Thank Zaydoun

I recently found out about a really good Iraqi kebab restaurant in Salmiya which I decided to try out. Iraqi kebab is different from Persian kebab in that it’s generally not as fatty so you don’t have the same strong aftertaste that stays with you the whole day. It’s lighter which is why I prefer it. The restaurant name roughly translates to the “special (or unique) Iraqi kebab restaurant”, and I think they’ve been open since 2016 since that’s when their Instagram account opened up.

It’s a small little place located in the neighborhood that lies between Restaurant Street and Souk Salmiya. I ordered the normal kebab plate which comes with three skewers, grilled tomato and their freshly baked bread. The kebab meat was tender, tasty and didn’t leave any bad aftertaste. The bread which I think is Egyptian or Egyptian style is baked fresh in store.

Two kebab plates and a side of hummus came out to KD5.750. Due to the pandemic dine-in is closed so you’re either gonna have to eat it while it’s nice and hot in the car, or do takeaway. Their Instagram account is @kabab_iraki and here is their location on Google Maps.

I’ve previously mentioned a place in the city where they still develop film but 35mm.kw has compiled a list of other studios around Kuwait where you can develop film. I’ve copy-pasted his list below but check out his website if you want to know their prices:

Shamia Studio
Location: Shamia co-op Shamia Mall (Google Maps)
Contact: 96644934
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Yes
Print: Yes

Ashkanani Studio
Location: Rumaithiya Co-op, outside shops (Google Maps)
Contact: 55654050
Film development: 35mm format only
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Yes
Scan Slides: Yes
Print: Yes

Iris Studio
Location: Salmiya, Easa Al-Qatami Street (Google Maps)
Contact: 67647879 – 66990058
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Yes
Print: Yes

Ghadeer Studio
Location: Qurtoba Co-op, Qurtoba mall (Google Maps)
Contact : 25319648
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: No
Print: Yes

Kashmir Studio
Location: Kuwait City just before Al-Shamlan Mosque (Google Maps)
Contact: 97896914
Film development: 35mm & 120 medium format
Scan 35mm: Yes
Scan medium format: Unknown
Print: Yes

I thought it was just me but I’ve been made aware that a lot of other people are facing the same issue. During the day my Zain 5G connection is around 400-500Mbps which is great. At night on the other hand I’ve been getting anywhere from 2Mbps to 10Mbps. 10Mbps is pretty high actually since I’ve been mostly averaging around 2Mbps at night which as you can imagine is frustratingly slow. Oddly, Netflix works perfectly and streams at 4K but I can barely load a story on Instagram or even load photos on Reddit. A follower on twitter told me that’s probably because Netflix is cached locally through Zain which could explain why it’s still performing well.

Have you been facing a similar issue? If yes share your details since maybe there is a pattern, here are mine:

Location: Salmiya, Block 9
ISP: Zain 5G
Day: 400-500Mbps
Night: 2-10Mbps

To run a speed test click here.

There’s a new drive-thru-only Starbucks that popped up overnight in front of AUK in Salmiya. I think this might be the only Starbucks in Kuwait with just drive-thru and no seating option. The location is pretty great for them, they’re right next to Arabica and Toby’s while also being right off the Gulf Road so it should get pretty packed.

Some of you may have watched the video that went viral yesterday of the cats being killed (I chose not to watch it), supposedly the guy in the video got arrested but I haven’t been able to find a legit source for that info. On a more positive note, I recently noticed some “Cat Protection” boxes in Salmiya around the KISR gardens. They’re scattered around the property and they seem to be placed there to offer cats shelter.

I’m curious to know if they’re testing these out to later rollout around Kuwait.

Update: Here is the link to MOI where they mention his arrest

Good Game, the popular tabletop gaming store which opened back in 2013 in Sanabil Tower has now moved to a much larger location in Salmiya.

I loved the previous store but it became too small for their needs and so they had to find a new spot. The new place is pretty huge with lots of tables and chairs, a small snack bar, and a pretty large retail area.

Other than selling boardgames they also rent them to play in-store. The price varies from game to game but they’re mostly around 2-4KD for unlimited playtime. You just go with your friends, pick a game to rent, and then just play for as long as you want, with no time limit.

The new Good Game is located in 8 Mall in Salmiya, opposite Marks & Spencer. They’re currently open 12PM to 8PM and closed on Sundays, but check out their Instagram for the latest opening hours @goodgamekw

Eissa & Jude is a small local husband and wife business dedicated to creating high-quality wooden toys to inspire mindful play. They’re representing the Gulf so the wooden toys are inspired by everything they grew up with in our unexplored desert. I like the aesthetics of wooden toys and I like how it’s made locally and related to our environment although for realism sake, I would add some wooden cutouts of garbage bags in an effort to represent Kuwait’s desert more accurately.

Eissa & Jude don’t have an online store yet but they are currently available at the children’s pop-up store Bonboni’s in Salmiya. Check out their Instagram account for more photos and details @eissa_jude

Gatwa W Gahwa, the first Cat Cafe in Kuwait that was located in Galleria 2000 closed down a couple of years back. They were moving to a new location in Boulevard and they even changed their name to Cats Boulevard, but then Corona hit and I guess the project was put on hold. There is now another place in Salmiya called Perfect Paws where you can go and play with cats. It’s not a cafe though, it’s what the owner calls a playground. I dropped by yesterday to check it out and it’s definitely not as nice a place as Gatwa W Gahwa, but if you want to play with some cats, you’re pretty limited with options.

Perfect Paws is located on the top floor of Fashion Way across the street from Al Fanar Complex. It costs KD3 per hour to play with their cats and there are A LOT of cats to play with. It’s only by appointment so no walk-ins allowed. But, even by appointment, I’d probably hold off on passing by during the pandemic since yesterday there were 10 people in the small place playing with the cats when I walked by. If you want to visit the playground or book an hour, then head over to their Instagram account @perfect.pawsq8

Edo the popular (or used to be popular) Japanese restaurant has reopened in a new location after closing down their Sahara one. The new Edo is now located in Al Khaled Complex in Salmiya where Gia is and in the same spot Vigonovo used to be. It’ not a big location at all with around 6 tables in total, but it did feel cozy and I honestly prefer it over their Sahara spot which I never got used to.

If you want to pass by, here is the new location on Google Maps and you can follow them on Instagram @edo_restaurant

Over the weekend I picked up the brand new Porsche Taycan to review. I’ve been curious to try the Taycan ever since it launched because I think it’s the best looking fully electric car on the market right now by far (sorry Tesla owners). I was hoping the color combo of the test drive car was white exterior with a black interior similar to the launch photos, but the car I picked up was a metallic blue with a beige interior. Not the most exciting color combination and I was actually worried it would be difficult to shoot but the shots eventually came out great.

The Taycan is Porsche’s fully electric car. It’s not a hybrid, meaning, it doesn’t run on a combination of electricity and fuel, this is a 100% electric car similar to how Teslas are. My worry with electric cars always obviously is running out of power and being stuck on the side of the road. The Taycan fully charged has a range of over 400km, but when I picked up the car from the dealer, it only had a 77% charge. Kinda sucked cuz it didn’t help with the anxiety of running out of range. When reviewing cars I tend to put on a lot of mileage on the cars very quickly so I can get a proper experience with it. I had a whole day of errands to run and I wasn’t going to let a partially charged vehicle change that. So I decided I’d not focus too much on the range and just enjoy the car.

The interior felt very familiar right away because it still resembled a normal Porsche although all the buttons had been replaced by a large touch screen and the gauges were fully digital. There was a feeling of familiarity because it felt like a regular car and wasn’t stripped out like a Tesla where all the car controls moved to a tablet-like screen. The interior looked hi-tech with three displays, one in front of me where the analog gauges would usually be, a large screen in the center of the dash, and finally a large screen built into the center console which has all the controls. There is an extra option to add a passenger screen which I think would make the interior even more futuristic but the car I drove didn’t have it. I’m generally not a fan of touch screens for controls, but I wasn’t too bothered by the controls on the Taycan. The screen was large enough to make all the buttons big and easy to touch, plus there was haptic feedback so I could tell if I had pressed a button properly or not.

I started off by heading to Shuwaikh to quickly take some photos of the car in case I didn’t have time later that day but also so I could post some photos on my Instagram story. I then headed to Avenues for some Christmas shopping before heading to Bayan and different parts of Salmiya for some more errands. Anytime someone would message me on Instagram to ask me how the car was I had one response and that it was fast. The model I drove was the Taycan Turbo which does 0 to 100 in 3.2 seconds, that’s faster than my Lotus which is a difficult idea to grasp. It’s also not only fast 0 to 100, the car keeps acceleration effortlessly as long as you have your foot down on the power. One cool Porsche feature is the fake electric sound that you can get on the car. Electric cars don’t make sounds but for an extra KD150, Porsche will fit the car with the Electric Sport Sound option which adds a futuristic humming-like sound that makes the car sound like you’d expect an electric car to sound like in an 80s movie. It sounded super cool and I obviously had the option turned on all the time. I tried capturing the sound but didn’t have any luck but you could check out this video on YouTube if you want to hear it.

I ended up driving quite a bit of distance on the car, even headed over the Kuwait bay bridge to the other side to take some more photos of the car and by the time I had finished with the car and brought it back to the dealer, it still had around 28% battery left (120km range). I loved the car and if I was in the market for an electric car the Taycan would be an easy choice for me over the Tesla because of the looks alone. But, I wouldn’t go for the Turbo model which starts from KD47,300. Nobody needs a 4 door sedan to be that fast. Instead, I’d recommend the 4S model which starts from KD33,900. When I built my own car on the Porsche website with all the options I wanted the car came out to KD42,000 which is still way cheaper than the base Turbo model. So that would be my recommendation, get the Taycan 4S pimped out with all the options you want.

I recently found out that the oldest Persian restaurant in Kuwait was located down the street from where I live. Layali Tehran was the first Persian restaurant in Kuwait and has been around now for over 50 years. They were originally located in Sharq but had to move to Salmiya years ago. I don’t know much about Iranian food other than kebabs so I’m not the best person to ask about the food, but, I think the most interesting thing anyway is the idea of dining at the oldest Iranian restaurant in Kuwait.

If you want to try it out they’re located on Amman Street. Parking is a bit difficult but I parked across the street where there was less traffic and just crossed over. Their phone number is 25613312 and here is their location on [Google Maps]

This got me thinking, I wonder if the first Chinese or Italian restaurant in Kuwait still exists? I previously posted about the oldest restaurants in Kuwait and there were some good examples in the comments, check those out here.

Also just shared some interesting stuff on Twitter related to the oldest restaurants in Kuwait:
Oldest “liver” restaurant in Kuwait
Opening of Muwaffak Jabri Restaurant in 1961
Opening of the first Wimpy in 1969
Photo of the first burger restaurant in Kuwait Haroon El-Rasheed

CD stores used to be plentiful a few years ago but for obvious reasons, they’ve all disappeared. I’m lucky enough to still have all my CDs although I don’t have a CD player set up at home but that’s on my to-do list. I am curious though to find CD stores in Kuwait that sell English CDs so if you know of any, let me know in the comments.

I found one place in Salmiya that sells CDs although at a ridiculous price. Most of the CDs looked used with their boxes all scratched up and the store wanted KD5 per CD! The store is called CoolQ8y in case you’re still interested and it’s located in Salmiya.

A couple of days ago the MOI announced a ban on riding electric scooters on roads. That makes total sense if it wasn’t for the fact that the reason people are riding their electric scooters on roads, is for the same reason you see people walking or riding bicycles on roads, we don’t have sidewalks.

I live in Salmiya where I’ve noticed a lot of people have started using scooters to commute around. I’m 100% sure they don’t want to be riding their scooters on the roads but are forced to due to the lack of sidewalks. Driving around any area of residential Salmiya and you’ll also notice people walking on the sides of the roads as well because there are no sidewalks. And this doesn’t just apply to Salmiya, if you head to other densely populated areas like Jabriya, Salwa, Hawalli, etc. you’ll also see the exact same situation there.

A lot of these people don’t earn a lot of money and with the pandemic right now most would prefer not to use cabs or busses. Add to the fact these same people who are being banned from using scooters to commute can’t even get driving licenses because of the laws in place that prevent them. Scooters are a great alternative for public transportation and it’s really unfair that due to poor urban planning, these low-income workers are now not allowed to use them to commute. It’s as if we keep looking for ways to make life even harder for them here.