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I first found out about Onam last year and I’m glad someone reminded me yesterday that it’s taking place again in a few days. From onamfestival.org:

Onam is the biggest and the most important festival of the state of Kerala, India. It is a harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by people of all communities. According to a popular legend, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.

Every year on Onam, the Caesars Dakshin Restaurant in Jleeb Al Shyoukh serves the traditional Onasadya dish which comprises of 20 vegetarian items served on a large banana leaf. I tried it last year and loved the experience and this year I’m going back and taking more friends with me. They even had a guy last year dressed as the mythical King Mahabali which I got to pose with for a photograph. If you’re interested, check out the flyer [Here]

Based on data from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the home swapping site “Love Home Swap” compiled a top 50 up-and-coming countries to watch list and Kuwait came in #15 as a new and upcoming holiday destination. Business Insider has even picked up the story further adding to the credibility of the list. So strange, check out the top 50 destinations [Here]

Thanks Taz

“CONTAMINATED” is a short film that was written and directed by the Kuwaiti film maker Moe Al-Saeed and a couple of days back he got word that it was officially selected to be part of the upcoming Miami Fashion Film Festival. Moe is the guy behind some great locally produced videos including my two favorites the Happy Kuwait video and BirdTalk: Dance.

He’s is still working on a trailer for “CONTAMINATED” but for now I was able to get the film synopsis:

God Shiva starts the tandav cosmic dance of death to wake the “children” up. She gives them beauty and power. The children blossom and as they reach their crescendo they get contaminated. Their time is up and Shiva destroys what she has once created.

Sounds pretty strange and interesting so can’t wait to see it.

If you’ve ever wanted to try powered paragliding this might be the easiest way to do it. Starting from April 24th and lasting for 10 days you will be able to experience paragliding over the Gulf Road accompanied by the most skilled pilots. A 15 minute journey will cost KD40 and you will fly at an altitude of around 200 meters. If you’re interested you need to book your seat by calling 22621766 or 94004335.

The previous time I paraglided in Kuwait (picture on top) it cost me KD30 for a 30 minute flight but it took place down in Khieran.

Last month my old karate coach, Tchantcho Augustin passed away. I’m not sure how many of you know Tchantcho but he was my karate coach back in the mid 80s when he used to give lessons at the now demolished Hilton Hotel on the Gulf Road. Up until recently he was the PE teacher at Le Lycée Français and the karate coach at The Little Gym. He was always super nice and he was really loved by everyone. I used to run into him randomly at Sultan Center every now and then and he’d always remember who I was. He taught a lot of children in Kuwait and he will be terribly missed. May he rest in peace.

The picture above was taken around 1985, I’m the white boy in the front row middle.

Yesterday I found out about the Souk Al-Mubarakiya Festival and tonight I decided to pass by and check it out. They’ve beautifully decorated one of the main streets with lights and lined up tables on both sides from the beginning till the end with different sellers at each table. Both the lights and the atmosphere were really festive but the tables covered with white cloth made the whole thing feel like a career fair. My guess is since every three days new sellers take over the spaces, they decided to use generic tables to keep things simple.

I didn’t find anything interesting being sold but it’s still worth visiting the festival just to check it out and it’s in Souk Al-Mubarakiya so you could just walk around there once you’re done. Worst case you’ll end up just having a Nutella crepe, but then again that alone would make the visit worth it. The festival started on February 2nd and will run daily every evening from 5:30PM until February 13th.

@BeautifulDestinations is an instagram account in which they post beautiful shots taken by instagrammers from around the world. With over a million followers they’re very popular which is why they just launched a Kickstarter campaign to print a hardcover book of the top 100 liked photos from their account in 2013. From the list of photographers who’s work was chosen, eight photographers are based locally including:

@ajfotoworld
@albanay
@alhashemiphotos
@bu_khaled
@fahadrb
@mashael_39
@s_alroudhan
@salehalrashaid

If you haven’t checked out the accounts above before you should, theres a ton of talent there. Also if you want to support the Kickstarter campaign and help get the book printed, visit the Beautiful Destinations Kickstarter page [Here]

The Remal International Festival will be opening on January 30th at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds. 73 of the world’s best sand artists came to Kuwait and worked together to reimagine the stories of 1001 Nights and according to the organizers, the sand park will be the world’s largest. The festival will be running from this Thursday all the way till the end of April and you can check out my previous post to get an idea on how grand this festival will be [Link]

I got an email a couple of hours ago from Courtyard by Marriott letting me know they are holding a Greek Nights Festival for the next four days. It has to be perfect timing because just last week I posted about the lack of Greek cuisine options in Kuwait.

Starting from January 20th till the 24th, Greek chefs Loannis Tsivourakis and Papderakis Michalis will be serving a taste of Greece buffet from 7pm to 11pm. Price is KD12.5 per person, if you’re interested you can call them up for more information or reservations on 22997000.

The SIRBB Circuit Classic Car Festival will take place tomorrow (Saturday 18th) at the Historical, Vintage and Classic Car Museum from 3PM to 9PM. For the full program and location map click [Here]

[YouTube]

The Remal International Festival will be opening next month alongside the 7th Proud 2 Be Kuwaiti (P2BK) event. According to the organizers, the sand park will be the world’s largest and looking at the photos that looks very possible. 73 of the world’s best sand artists came to Kuwait and worked together to reimagine the stories of 1001 Nights.

The video above and some of the photos below were taken by one of the artists who came to Kuwait (Lucinda Wierenga) while most were taken by Sand Sculpture Company (a lot more photos at that link).

Will post the exact dates of the event once I get them.

I’m not a big fan of local home businesses, but that probably has to do more with the fact that most just sell different implementations of cupcakes and don’t really bring anything new to the local food scene. Pasticceria Di Pietro on the other hand is something new and going by the photos alone looks very appetizing.

According to the website, Pasticceria Di Pietro is the first family business Sicilian pastry shop in Kuwait owned by married couple, Mays and Luciano Di Pietro. They sell Sicilian Cannoli’s which are hand-rolled, crispy golden pastry shells filled with different cream stuffings.

I haven’t tried them out yet since they just started taking orders yesterday but their prices start from KD1 for the small sized cannoli up to KD1.750 for the larger ones with chocolate shells. If you’re interested, you can order directly from their website [Here]

Thanks Mohi

I passed by Sony today and picked up a Sony PS4 to review for the blog along with two games, Killzone and Knack. My brother is going to be reviewing it since he’s in charge of the gaming posts on my blog. If you need to know anything about the PS4 just leave a comment below.

‘Playtime’ is a short film by Kuwaiti writer and filmmaker Hamad Al-Tourah. Last year I posted about him when he was trying to raise funds so he could make this short movie and he ended up getting all the funds and making it. Now the movie will be premiering at the Dubai International Film Festival as one of the 15 short films chosen to play at the festival. The movie is about Matthew, 10, who lives with his mother in Kuwait. One night,when his mother leaves him alone, Matthew finds company in Dalal, a Kuwaiti girl who lives down the street and eventually makes a plan to escape with her. You can watch the film trailer above. [YouTube]

This weekend it’s the Independent Palestinian Film Festival at Cinemagics. If you’re passing by Shakshooka tonight you might as well pass by Cinemagic and watch a movie on the roof since it’s right next door (Take the elevator up to the roof between LG and Panasonic). Here are the movies for this weekend:

Thursday November 28th, 2013 from 6PM to 10PM
Independent Palestinian Film Festival Day 1
Ajami
Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film Category, Ajami is a poignant portrait of Palestinian Muslims and Christians living in an impoverished district of Jaffa

Budrus
A worldwide crowd-pleaser, this documentary is a testament to the potency of peaceful resistance & the human spirit. Budrus will dispose of any preconceptions one may have of the conflict.

Saturday November 30th, 2013 from 6PM to 10PM
Independent Palestinian Film Festival Day 2
Amreeka
A strong single mother and her son leave the West Bank to search for greener pastures in America. They are naively unaware however that they have left post-Intifada Palestine only to enter another hostile territory, post-9/11 America.

Promises
Of all the countless films revolving around the Israel-Palestine conflict, none are more compelling than this Academy Award nominated documentary. The resin being that Palestinian children, who of all others are affected the most by the war, are rarely provided the luxury of expressing their thoughts and emotions in front of a world audience.

For more information on Cinemagics rooftop movie nights click [Here]