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Not that busy a weekend but there are a bunch of interesting events taking place including a Show Jumping Competition, the Gulf Jazz Festival and the Shakshooka Market is back. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Kuwait Dino Park
Exhibition: New Species by Hunt Slonem
Show Jumping Competition
Kuwaiti Story Night
Rooftop Movie: Chinatown
A Night In

Friday
Kuwait Dino Park
Show Jumping Competition
Culinary Event: Farmers’ Market Finds
Shakshooka Market
Gulf Jazz Festival

Saturday
Kuwait Dino Park
Yoga in the Park
The First K-Pop Youth Festival in Kuwait
Guided Tour: Arab Organization Headquarters
Madeenah Tour: AGi Architects
Rooftop Movie: Agora
Peak – A Vertical Race
Shakshooka Market

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Update: Due to bad weather, Shakshooka has been rescheduled and will now take place Saturday night at The Secret Garden instead.

I just got back from a morning of wakeboarding and figured it’s that time of the year when I post about this activity. The weather today was perfect, it was around 30ºC, the sky was clear and the water wasn’t chilly at all. Like I do every year, I went wakeboarding with the Q8 Balance guys. They’re a great bunch of people who love what they do and it really shows with the amount of work and time they’ve put into making the sport popular in Kuwait.

For those of you who don’t know, Q8 Balance charge by the hour and provide you with all the gear you need to wakeboard. They use one of the best wakeboarding boats available and this year they even got a brand new one since their previous one started to breakdown last year. All the wakeboarding is done in the lagoons in Khiran City and they charge KD35 per hour. I usually go with a friend or two and split the cost since it’s too exhausting anyway to wakeboard the full hour alone.

They also have surfing which I got to try for the first time today. The instructor (pictured above) made it look so easy but it really isn’t. The way it works is they setup the boat in a way that it creates a large wave behind it which you surf on (rope free) with a special board. I’ll probably try it again next week when I go back again.

I usually book via whatsapp a week ahead of time and for the middle of the week since they’re usually super booked on the weekends. Actually they’re usually booked in the middle of the week as well which is why I book a week in advance. So if you’re interested in wakeboarding or surfing, here is the link to the Q8 Balance instagram page @q8balance and their number is 99679705.

Every year I like to post an updated list of the hottest places in Lebanon to check out. Since I know a lot of people are heading to Beirut at the moment I figured it was time to post this list. The venues are posted in the order I went to:

The Bus Station
When I first heard about this place I thought they meant The Train Station which I had posted about [Here]. Turns out The Bus Station is located right next to The Train Station except it’s an indoor venue. It’s literally an old bus station which they’ve turned into a giant club and there are a bunch of busses scattered all around as a reminder. The night I went to it Red Bull were hosting the evening and live bands were performing. The Bus Station is located in Mar Mikhael and is a project by überhaus.

Twenty Seven
After The Bus Station I headed to another new place that opened up called Twenty Seven. It’s located in the Beirut Souks and is run by the Skybar Group. DJETTE (pictured above), one of my favorite Lebanese DJ’s is a resident there so it’s definitely a place I would want to hit up on my trips. They also bring in a lot of international acts so there is always something going on. Follow them on instagram to stay updated on their upcoming events. [Link]

The Grand Factory
Located on the rooftop of a factory in the industrial Karantina area of Beirut, The Grand Factory is one of the hottest venues at the moment. The space is obviously very industrial looking and the journey begins with a fun ride in a giant industrial elevator to the top. It’s the new home of C U NXT SAT. [Link]

OFF / ON
OFF & ON is a barbershop by day and a crazy club at night. Walking by the shop you can’t even tell there is a club right on top of it but if you’re in the know, a guy sitting in the barber chair will hit a hidden switch revealing a hidden door that leads to the club upstairs. Would have taken a better picture but by this point in the evening I was already too trashed. OFF & ON is located in the back of the An-Nahar building, same building that has Iris on the roof. [Link]

B018
For frequent travelers to Beirut, this place doesn’t need an introduction and they just celebrated their 21 year anniversary a few nights ago. B018 is a place I highly recommend heading there after clubbing, preferably around 5AM. The best feeling is when you’re completely wasted and they open up the roof so you can see the sun come up, and then they close it again so you could continue to party. It’s really what makes B018 special, it’s the club everyone goes to after a night of hard clubbing and just before going to breakfast. [Link]

Have you checked out the 248AM Community? It’s an online discussion forum and with over a quarter of a million posts so far, it’s a great space to ask questions and debate topics. You can access the community by clicking the link in the navigation strip on top or by typing community.mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com in your browser.

I was checking Reddit earlier this morning and a redditor posted about how he passed by Boulevard Mall and was impressed. At first I thought damn I’m so out of touch, a huge ass project like Boulevard which is pretty close to where I live opens up and I end up finding out about it from Reddit. So I asked the user if Boulevard was open and he told me it wasn’t to the public but I could go there and tell them I’m inspecting the location for leasing. Smart idea so I left the house and headed to check the place out.

Boulevard is located in Salmiya opposite Souk Salmiya and it’s a huge project which I’ve posted about a number of times before. The project is composed of a number of elements including a mall, a dinning boulevard, a gigantic park, artificial lakes, an amphitheater, basketball courts, football courts and much more.

I was lucky that as I was driving into the park there was a car in front of me who stopped at the gate first and spoke to the security guard to have him open it. Once he opened the gate I drove in right after pretending I was with the car in front of me. Once I was in I was basically able to go and explore the grounds without anyone hassling me.

The first area I explored was the main mall. The mall is the largest building in the project and consists of two floors with a very large centre court in the middle. None of the shops had started construction yet but the mall looked pretty much complete and they were just working on the escalators when I was there.

Once I was done with the mall I decided to explore the park outside. I headed to what looked like the dining boulevard which was an area where single story units surrounded a large artificial lake.

From there I headed further inwards into the park and found a large green field with a few rows of stadium seating on one side. I didn’t understand what this field was going to be used for since it was round but after checking the satellite view of the field on Google Maps I now realize it’s going to be a cricket field.

From there I continued walking inwards and spotted the amphitheater followed by the basketball and football fields.

I was getting hot with all the walking and it was starting to drizzle some mud so I decided to head back to the car before the weather got worse. There was still quite a bit of park to explore and a few buildings but I figured I already had a general idea of how the project was turning out. I didn’t have high hopes before especially considering how long it’s been since the project started but now I’m actually excited about it. I have no idea when it’s going to finish or what the hold up is. They have electricity and it looks like the shop owners could come in any day now and start working on their stores so I don’t really know what the delay is. Hopefully it’s going to end up opening really soon.

A couple of weeks ago Harley Davidson sent me to Lebanon to participate in their spring ride. They were launching their brand new showroom in Lebanon and invited some media members from around the region to cover the opening and then take part in the ride the following day. My ride with Harley has been a work in progress for probably over a year now since they had invited me to two rides last year. I ended up backing out from both of those rides because I hadn’t ridden a motorbike for a few years and wasn’t sure I’d still remember how to. So Harley offered to hook me up with refresher courses in Bahrain which I managed to conveniently get done during the GulfRun weekend back in January.

I had never taken part in a Harley ride before or yet alone any kind of ride that consisted of more than two riders so I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy riding with a large crowd. We were around six media members and we all met up at the lobby of our hotel on the morning of our ride. Once we were all there we were taken to the parking lot where we had our brand new Harley’s waiting for us. Before the trip they had asked us to name three Harley bikes we would like to ride and they hooked us all up with one of the bikes on our list, I ended up with a 2015 V-Rod. We took off from our hotel, filled up our bikes with fuel and headed to the Harley dealership which was the meeting point for all the riders.

There were over 200 bikers at the starting point of our trip which was just insane. I didn’t even realize how complicated the logistics of organizing and riding with 200 bikers was until this trip, it’s just mind boggling. Imagine how long a line of 200 bikers is? It’s like a train going through a city. Actually a friend of mine said it better, it’s like a village on wheels and the amount of work that goes behind a smooth ride is impressive.

Our ride started off in Beirut and then headed south away from the city into the mountains. In addition to the 200+ riders there was a crew of Harley volunteers who would help make this journey as easy and smooth as possible. These members would ride ahead of the main group and block traffic for us or stop at intersections and point us towards the direction we need to go in. Once the group passes they then catch up and head to the front again and repeat the same thing over and over. Even a fuel stop requires a lot of logistics, imagine 200 bikers stopping at a gas station… they literally took over the whole block.

We had lunch half way through the ride at a scenic spot beside a river. It wasn’t a sunny day and in fact it started raining in Beirut while we were in the mountains so on our way back into the city we all got into our rain gear just in case. We passed through some really beautiful locations along the way but sadly since I was riding I couldn’t take any photos. It was one of those occasions where I just had to enjoy the moment for myself but as a photographer I was hurting inside because I would see a beautiful shot with my eyes but I wouldn’t be able to capture it not even on my phone. Harley Davidson did have a photographer on this ride which is how I got these shots but I honestly don’t think he was great, he missed a lot of beautiful moments and for some reason applied so many random filters on the photos I think he ruined them. I just spent half an hour trying my best to fix them up so I could use them for this post. If I ever go on a ride similar to this again I’m going to figure out a way to take photos myself while riding.

The V-Rod bike I rode was surprisingly very easy to ride. Even though the bike was big, heavy and had a lot of power, the throttle was very smooth and the bike just seemed so rider friendly and forgiving. Compared to my friends KTM RC8 I was riding a few weeks back, I felt so much more comfortable riding the V-Rod.

It was a super fun ride and I’m glad I got to experience it. I was honestly never a Harley fan before I started working with them, I’ve always been and still am a sports bike kind of guy. But, riding a Harley and riding in a large group like this has given me a better understanding on why people love Harley’s so much. Even though there were over 200 bikes I don’t think any two were the same because everyone customizes their bikes to their liking. I think people also love the feeling of belonging. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is, once you’re on a Harley you’re automatically accepted into this world and I think thats an amazing thing.

Snapchat Geofilters are special overlays for Snaps that can only be accessed in certain locations like the ones pictured above. If you’ve ever used Snapchat while traveling you’ll sometimes notice different special overlays depending where you’re located so if you’re in Paris near the Eiffel Tower you would get an Eiffel Tower overlay. Turns out you can design your own and submit them to Snapchat for approval. So if you’re a designer, go ahead and make one for Kuwait by clicking [Here]

Speaking of Snapchat, yesterday Dubai was live on Snapchat and there were a bunch of great Snaps. They’re actually still in my feed this morning so they’re probably in yours as well so check it out. Also if you want to add me on Snapchat my handle is “mark248am”

Healthy Feast is a new restaurant that soft launched last week. As you can tell from the name, it’s a healthy restaurant and they pride themselves in having fresh, locally grown, organic and gluten free dishes. Even their menu starts off with the following introduction:

We support local, organic and sustainable practices wherever possible. Our menu is always changing according to what is available and seasonal. This is today’s menu:

So right off the bat I was pretty excited to try out their dishes.

The restaurant is located in Bneid Al Gar and although the exterior doesn’t look like much the interior is very cute and bright with lots of natural daylight coming in. The walls were rough and painted white with natural wood being used everywhere. I would have taken a photo but a couple of tables were already occupied so I couldn’t. Once I sat down I was given the menu and after going through it I decided to go with the following:

Raw zucchini with almond thai dressing KD1.950
Pumpkin & avocado maki roll, with beet brown rice KD2.500
Root vegetables in curried lemongrass coconut milk KD3.500
Green Wellness juice: spinach, cucumber, apple, celery and lemon KD1.850

While waiting for my dishes I was also served a complimentary bowl of cheesy kale chips which usually costs KD1.500.

The first dish to arrive was my raw zucchini which looked like a small bowl of spaghetti. This dish completely caught me by surprise since it was so full of flavor. It tasted like an intricate starter I would have at a Japanese restaurant and I loved it (I later found out the chef was Japanese). The second dish I was served were the maki rolls. They were also pretty good although I was worried they would fill me up before my main dish arrived. I really wish they had chopsticks though since my first two dishes could have used them. When I asked the waitress for chopsticks she went into the kitchen and came back and told me the Japanese chef said I should use my fingers. I thought that was a hilarious soup nazi moment and proceeded to eat the rolls with my fingers, I had no problem with that. Once I was done with the rolls I was served the curry bowl. For the curry bowl I had three choices for the base, cauliflower rice, brown rice or quinoa. I went with quinoa although I haven’t been having quinoa for awhile now since I’m so over it. But, the curry was so flavorful and delicious I don’t think it would have mattered if I had gone with quinoa or any of the other rice options.

It’s a new restaurant, I ordered three completely new dishes I hadn’t tried before and I ended up loving all three. The chances of that happening are pretty rare which is why I fell in love with the place. It kind feels like an evolution to Gia or what Gia should have become. I did have two minor issues though. The first was with my juice, it was served in a beaker but it was filled less than half way which made it look like either someone had already drank from it or they had run out of juice while filling it up. The second thing is the lack of chopsticks. Again it’s not a big issue but two out of the three dishes I had were Japanese like and my guess is there are more dishes like that on the menu so why not have chopsticks as well?

In any case as I said I loved the place and I’m actually going back for lunch today. Healthy Feast is located in Bneid Al Gar and right now they’re open daily except for Sundays from 2PM to 7PM. Here is a link to their instagram account @healthy_feast and here is their location on [Google Maps]

The Tamdeen chairman Mohammed Al Marzouq recently had an interview with Arabian Business where he mentions a few things that are interesting and a friend mine sent me a few highlights that I thought were interesting:

– Tamdeen are developing a new residential and retail project called Tamdeen Square which will be located near Messilah on the Fahaheel Expressway. 30 of the apartments have already been sold via hearsay. Mohammed Al Marzouq is betting on the fact that skyrocketing house prices, a huge waiting list for government-issued houses and their distance from the city centre means that many Kuwaitis will prefer the convenience of apartment life. The very talented AGI Architects are the designers behind Tamdeen Sqaure.

– Tamdeen is taking over development of the stalled tennis project next to 360 Mall and will be completing it as a “massive expansion” of 360 Mall that will include a 4000-seat stadium as the home of the Kuwait Tennis Federation.

– Al Manshar Mall was demolished a few years ago for redevelopment into a much larger, more modern new mall and will now be completed by 2017. The current Al Kout development on the waterfront [with the fountains] has been rebranded as Souq Al Kout while the land side one will simply be Al Kout Mall.

– Tamdeen was formerly working on a 160000-square meter project called the Mall of Kuwait in Sabahiya but then the global economy slipped and the project went dead, but apparently it’s back on.

Check out the full interview on Arabian Business [Here]

Thanks Khaled

Quick question, does anyone know of a Vietnamese restaurant in Kuwait?

Around two weeks back I was in Lebanon for the weekend and stayed at a hotel called The Smallville. When I’m in Lebanon I usually stay at one of the beautiful guesthouses like Beyt, but because I was booking last minute I couldn’t find any availability which is why I ended up booking at Smallville. The hotel is fairly new having been open for around a year now and going by the pictures online it looked like a trendy place to stay. More importantly though it was fairly affordable compared to some of the other options I was looking at.

After spending two nights there I can easily say it’s now one of my favorite places to stay when I go down to Lebanon and it’s incredible value for money.

The hotel itself is located in a quiet neighborhood but its still very close to Achrafieh, Gemeyze and Downtown. The room was fairly large and I had the regular “Premium King” room yet it came with a small kitchen, a seating area and a balcony with a view. The staff where really friendly throughout the stay even when I stumbled into the hotel lobby at 6AM from a night out and started mumbling to them about my checkout time (which they replied telling me I could checkout whenever I woke up no issues). It feels like a hotel made for fun party goers and I like that because you feel comfortable even when you do silly things.

My room cost me $118 a night and I booked last minute so you could probably get it cheaper if you book earlier. When I was checking out the manager gave me his card and told me to contact him the next time I want to book since he could offer me an even better deal. I’ve already recommended the hotel to some friends who ended up loving it as well so if you’re looking for a trendy and affordable place to stay in while visiting Lebanon, then I’d highly recommend The Smallville. Here is a link to their [Website]

The LOYAC series Mishwarna is now being produced and released every two weeks instead of a weekly basis because the producers want to spend more time on the production. I didn’t notice an improvement in production quality this week and the content still seems very short, especially for two weeks worth of work. Personally I think they should go back to doing this weekly because 4 minutes of content every two weeks just seems a bit lazy.

In this episode of Mishwarna, Rawaf and Tamara covered Souk Mubarakiya but they barely share anything. They didn’t recommend places, share an interesting little spot they found or even share their favorite spots. So what was the purpose of the video? For something as busy and packed with interesting things as Mubarakiya, I am surprised they weren’t able to create a much longer video with so much more interesting content.

For those of you who’ve been questioning why I’ve been sharing these videos on a weekly basis even though they’re not great its because I’m supporting them. A lot of people create content but then get demoralized and kill the project when they don’t get enough viewers. I wanted to send viewers their way in hopes of getting them more excited about these videos so they could work on improving them. But 7 episodes in I still haven’t noticed an improvement and it’s actually taken a step backwards by now taking two weeks to produce the same content they were producing weekly. This is why unless there is a dramatic difference in the next episode, this will probably be the last video of the series I share. [YouTube]

The beautiful and recently refurbished (or should I say completely rebuilt) Al Shaheed Park which I posted about [Here] is now officially open to the public. They’re open every day from 5AM to 10PM except on Fridays where the park is open from 1PM to 10PM. There is no entrance fee but there are some park rules which are the following:

– No smoking
– No littering
– No use of bicycles, skateboards, skates, or recreational scooters inside the park.
– No outside Food or beverages.
– No barbecues or picnics.
– No pets allowed.
– No damaging any part of any building, sign, sculpture.
– No picking or damaging any flower, plant or tree
– No writing on the walls.
– No stepping inside the lake and fountains.
– No sitting on railings or climbing on any part of the buildings.
– No engaging in business or commercial activity inside the park without authorization from the Park Management.
– No distribution or placement of notices or advertising device without approval of the Park Management.
– No film or photography requiring equipment or exclusive use of an area without permit from the Park Management.
– Please supervise your children at all times to ensure their safety.
– Please note that stepping on grass is not allowed except in the Circle of Peace, Amphitheater and around the Constitution Monument. Baby Strollers are not allowed on the grass except for wheelchairs
– Please note that the Park management has the right to ask visitors who violates the rules & regulations of Al Shaheed Park to leave the park immediately.
– Please note that the park management reserves the right, if necessary, to stop picture taking and video recording.

The rule I had an issue with is regarding the no film or photography but after asking them about it, turns out its geared more towards commercial photography and not personal photography.

So if you’ve been wanting to check out the park you now can. For more information check out their instagram account [Here]

One of my favorite UFC fighters, the legendary Anderson Silva is coming to Kuwait this weekend for the opening ceremony of Gold’s Gym. This caught me by complete surprise when I found out and I have no idea how they managed to pull it off. I was lucky enough to be put in touch with the organizers Activate Kuwait (Thanks Pat), the same guys who brought the BASE jumper to Kuwait to jump off Al Hamra Tower. I managed to get myself a VIP ticket to the event as well as a ticket to giveaway on the blog.

There will be a bunch of activites taking place at the opening including:
– Live radio broadcast on FM88.8
– Spin the wheel game with valuable prizes to be won
– DJ
– Bike show
– Percussion artist Albert Boyadjian will be performing
– Anderson Silva will meet and greet people

The event is open to the public but the general admission crowd will be located outside the Gold’s Gym premises while the VIP ticket (which you can’t buy FYI) will grant you access inside the building. The VIP ticket will allow you to hang out and chill with Anderson Silva inside the gym as well as guarantee you a photo with Anderson Silva as well as an autograph if you want one.

Just incase I wasn’t clear, ANDERSON SILVA IS COMING TO KUWAIT! I’m definitely going to have him sign my UFC tshirt which so far has signatures from Dan Henderson, Brian Stan, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping and a few other fighters.

If you’re an Anderson Silva fan and would like to win a chance to meet him then all you need to do is answer the following question in the comments: Who did Anderson Silva last fight in the UFC?

Rules: The comments will be closed tomorrow morning. Winner will have to pick up ticket from Salmiya. Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond, another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: Post has been closed for commenting

Update2: Using random.org I chose a winner which was commentator #57, Tania. Email has been sent, if she does not respond in time a second winner will be chosen. Thank you everyone for participating. Just a reminder you can still pass by and get the chance to see Anderson Silva in person but, depending on the amount of people at the event, you may or may not get a chance for a photo opportunity with him.

I’ve had my Vespa for over 6 months now and not only have I not gotten bored of it, but I love it even more than ever. It’s by far my best purchase of 2014. As I mentioned in part 1 of my review, whenever I’m riding my Vespa I feel like I’m on a vacation and 6 months later that feeling hasn’t changed one bit.

I don’t even know where to begin this post because there are so many great things about living with a Vespa. The obvious one is the fact there is no traffic when you’re on a Vespa. Throughout the past 6 months whenever I had any kind of work in the city or Shuwaikh during the day, the Vespa was my go to ride. You would think any motorbike would fair the same in traffic but that’s not true because scooters are much more agile and nimble. In Shuwaikh where there’s lots of road construction taking place the cars don’t really line up properly because the lanes aren’t properly divided. So you could be making your way between the cars in traffic and then get to a point where the cars are just too close too each other and you’re stuck.. unless you’re on a scooter. Scooters are much more lighter and more compact so it’s so much easier to just weave your way between cars in traffic and the fact the Vespa has an automatic gearbox also means it’s quicker and less of nuisance to stop and start. There hasn’t been a single traffic jam yet in which I wasn’t able to make it to the very front.

Imagine if the roads were empty all day long… thats life with my Vespa.

I own the Vespa Sprint which has a 125cc engine. It’s not that fast, the maximum speed is around 95km/h and I can sometimes hit just over 100 when going downhill. Although that doesn’t sound fast it’s more than enough when riding on the Gulf Road or even the 4th Ring Road where the maximum speed is 80km/h anyway. Vespa do have have different models with larger engines but the bikes themselves are also slightly larger and heavier. My Sprint is usually the first off the line at a traffic light but after that acceleration is fairly slow. But really you don’t need the bike to be faster since it’s not like you’re going to ride the Vespa down to the chalets on the weekend, it’s for city errands and at that I can’t imagine anything performing better. Even though my Vespa isn’t fast I still ride like a hooligan because the bike gives so much confidence. Probably too much confidence because I slid and fell at a small roundabout near my house a couple of months back scratching up the left side of my bike. Luckily my favorite pair of jeans and sneakers were unharmed.

The Sprint has a good amount of storage space in case you do some shopping. Under the seat you’ve got a large compartment which I use to store my helmet in and you also have a small glove compartment in the front which I use to store my phone and wallet. In case there isn’t enough space under the seat for your grocery bags, there is a small hook that comes out from the seat in the front which you can hang your bags on. I also love the retro looking analogue speedometer since it adds a lot of character to the bike.

A lot of people have asked me if you need a license to ride a Vespa and the answer is yes, you need a motorbike license to ride one. That wasn’t an issue for me since I got my license years ago when I got my first motorbike, but it’s still worth noting for anyone considering getting one.

With all the traffic issues in Kuwait I’m surprised not more people have gotten scooters. It’s obviously impossible to ride one in the blazing summer heat but there are at least 6 months a year where the weather is great for them. I really don’t have anything negative to say about my Vespa, maybe if there was a built in USB port to charge my phone that would have been convenient but actually thinking about it now, I probably could get one installed easily. Honestly it’s so much fun riding a Vespa I can’t stop recommending it to people. Get one if you can.