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This is very sad news. I just read that legendary footballer Sameer Saeed is in a coma after being hit by a car while jogging. I used to really love watching Kuwait play football in the late 80s and early 90s and as a goalkeeper myself I used to really look up to Sameer Saeed. Even today he’s still one of my favorite goalkeepers of all time and I really hope he’s going to be ok. [Link]

Photo from q8i stuff

A couple of years ago I was looking to buy an arcade machine and a reader contacted me letting me know they had a few for sale. I was hoping to find either NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat I or II, Killer Instinct, the original Daytona or the original Sega Rally but sadly they didn’t have any of those games and I completely forgot about the whole thing. Then out of the blue around two weeks back the subject came back up and I ended up contacting the guy and passing by to check out what he had.

Turns out I actually knew the person since he used to be based in Burj Al Abyad (White Tower next to Marina Mall) back in the 90s when the arcade scene there was pretty big. He took me to their warehouse and I got to check out all the machines they had available.

They didn’t have any of the games I wanted but I figured I’d get the list (and their prices) so I could post them here on my blog. Some of the games are a good deal others seem a bit pricy (KD750 for Sega Rally 2 although it’s with the full moving cockpit) while others like the NeoGeo/Capcom machines are a steal at just KD75 with two games.

If you’re interested here is the games list and prices:

List of all the arcade machines they have (with the quantity)
The price list of the machines (FYI: twin means 2 machines side by side)

One thing that’s not listed in the price list above is the NeoGeo/Capcom cabinets. They have two kinds of cabinets, one that holds 2 games and another that holds 4. They’re selling the machine that holds 2 games for KD75 and the machine that holds 4 for KD100. This price includes the games.

What games? Here is the List

If you’re interested you can contact Nagib on 24841382 Ext 555

My Nikon D800 arrived to Kuwait a few days ago and I picked it up yesterday night on my way back home from the airport. I was hoping to have the camera with me when I went to Lebanon so I could take some pictures while I was there but the camera ended up arriving after I had already left. First impression… I’m in love. Going from the Nikon D90 to the D800 is a huge jump and it’s not because the D800 is larger and much better built or the fact it’s a 36MP full frame camera. The thing that has excited me the most so far is all the customizable options in the camera. EVERYTHING can be customized, there are just menus and menus of options and I’m loving it.

I’m going to be taking pictures all this weekend and should have a better first impression to post sometime next week but for now I’ll leave you with one picture to demonstrate how huge 36MP really is. Below is a photo I took today with a 24mm lens (thats why the image has some distortion) and below that is a 100% crop of the same image.

The amount of details the camera captures is ridiculous and each uncompressed RAW file is around 80MB in size. If you want to view the image above in full res click [Here]

I originally pre-ordered the camera from both BHphoto AND Amazon but they both had a long list of pre-orders (BHphoto I read have nearly 5000 pre-orders) but they both didn’t receive a large shipment of cameras (BHphoto supposedly got just 50!). So I decided to find a smaller less popular retailer and ended up pre-ordering from Electronic Express. I was the only one that had pre-ordered from them and around 5 days after placing my order they received just one D800 and shipped it to me. I was super lucky since there are thousands and thousands of people who’ve pre-ordered from early February and still have no idea when they’ll be getting the camera. The local Nikon dealer and AAB Photo both have the D800 in stock right now but due to the world wide limited availability their prices are still very high (around KD1,300). So your best bet right now if you want a D800 is to find a small online retailer and order it from them or pay a premium and pick it up locally.

According to a source of mine I found out that Alshaya was trying to bring the very popular franchise Chick-fil-A to the region but the deal fell through. Supposedly one of the terms they couldn’t agree on was the fact that Chick-fil-A wanted to close on Sundays (they’re a very Christian company). Alshaya was trying to convince them to change that rule for the region but Chick-fil-A wasn’t backing down and the deal fell apart. It sucks but I like the fact Alshaya were trying to get the Chick-fil-A franchise.

I received the below from K’S PATH and thought was important to share:

K’S PATHS’ animal shelter and sanctuary houses around 200 animals from over 10 species. The effort that goes into the daily care of these animals is great and the finances needed exceed 6,000KD per month. With summer approaching fast, experience tells us that our income is going to decrease greatly while the number of animals needing our care will grow. For K’S PATH to be able to survive through the summer months, we need to raise 10,000KD. We ask our community to rise up to the challenge and help us insure our work for the next few months. Our goal is to raise 10,000KD by the end of April. Remember every little bit helps, so please donate today to this worthy cause.

Options for donations:

1. Transfer money directly into our bank account.
Bank Name: Ahli Bank of Kuwait
Branch: Galleria 2000
Name:Ayeshah Waleed Al-Humaidhi
Account: 0626-468911-001
IBAN:KW42ABKK00000000006264689110 01

2. Drop off donation at:
a. Our shelter in Wafra
b. Animal Care Office in Mangaf
c. Animal Care Kennels at Royal Animal Hospital

3. Call 6700 1622 or e-mail [email protected] to arrange pick up

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions

Kuwait 5 Aside is a new sporting venture, one that builds on the success of the outdoor football pitches. Salem Haidar the owner of Kuwait 5 Aside noticed a lack of structured football in Kuwait so he came up with the idea to start a 5 aside league.

By being part of a league you can playing more competitively but what I thought was more interesting is the fact you get to play in a large flood lit indoor and air conditioned football pitch. That means you could play football all year round no matter how bad the weather is outside.

According to the league rules, each team should have minimum of 7 players and they’re hoping to get a maximum of 140 teams to provide leagues running 6 days a week. The games are from 6 to 11pm and each game lasts 45 minutes. The cost is KD156 per player which would come out to around KD3 a game since there will be 52 games a year. If you’re interested to find out more check out the Kuwait 5 Aside website [Here]

Since Mark is back on his strict diet he asked to review a Chinese place called China Garden. I really enjoy good Chinese food but when it comes to Chinese take-out in Kuwait I’ve become quite skeptical with the options we have. I’ve tried a bunch of places and there doesn’t seem to be one that really stands out, a place that serves good Chinese food that isn’t overly greasy and that isn’t overly expensive.

China Garden is a place that has been around for a while (it’s located next to Showbiz/Holiday Inn), but was purchased by two Kuwaiti restaurateurs, revamped and reopened around a week ago. There are a few things that make China Garden stand out from their competitors. First off, they’re “Green”, meaning they’ve gotten rid of all their styrofoam boxes, got rid of the majority of plastics and aluminum and replaced them with paper take out boxes that are made here in Kuwait. Their plastic bags have been replaced with fully recycled and biodegradable brown paper while they ditched their plastic eating utensils and replaced them with sustainable bamboo forks and knives. Even their menu’s are made from recycled material.

When I usually order Chinese take-out I like to place an order for an appetizer, a chicken dish, a beef dish, and some noodles. I typically finish all the food on my own so when it came time to ordering from China Garden I decided to go with Sweet Corn Chicken Soup, Shrimp Spring Rolls, Orange Chicken, Beef Black Pepper, Mixed Noodles and Nutella Wontons for dessert (who can say no to anything Nutella?). The first thing that struck me once the food arrived is that there is no way I could eat all this food by myself. Their quantities are pretty big and the food I ordered could have easily fed two or three people and definitely not just one person. I basically had a lot of food leftover for dinner.

The food was generally pretty good and I did’t have any complaints. The soup wasn’t too watery and wasn’t too sweet with a good mix of chicken and corn. The Shrimp Spring Rolls were 6 decent sized pieces and they were nice and crunchy. The Orange Chicken was the most impressive, the dish is sweet and spicy and cames mixed with orange peels, chili peppers, ginger and chicken. It looked really appetizing. My “safe” dish that I always order is Beef Black Pepper because it’s really difficult to screw up a simple dish like this. China Garden’s Beef Black Pepper was pretty juicy, the beef wasn’t overly cooked and it wasn’t too saucy. My only complaint is that there were way too many large pieces of onions, something which they can easily fix (and should do so). The Mixed Noodles were the last things I ate and I found them neither bland or greasy and actually hit the spot quite nicely. Finally the Nutella Wontons were the perfect way to end the meal, the moment you bite down on the crunchy wonton you’ll be welcomed with the taste of delicious Nutella, not to the point where it feels like you’re drowning in chocolate, but enough to satisfy your Nutella urges.

The total for my meal was KD10.700 which seems like a lot for one person but like I previously said this meal could easily feed two or three people (if not more) and if I had two other friends over, it’d come out to around KD3 per person, which seems like a really reasonable price to pay for the quality of food you’re getting. I would definitely order again from China Garden, they have a decent sized menu with a lot of choices, not to the point where you feel overwhelmed but enough where they can satisfy everyone’s needs.

They’re open Saturday to Wednesday from 12PM to 12AM and Thursdays and Fridays from 2PM to 2AM. To order you can call them on 25720010 or 25720070. They’re also available on 6alabat.

Posted by Patrick.

I read about the state of the desert after the camping season finished but I didn’t think it was that bad until I saw it for myself today. I was heading south on the 40th when I noticed a huge plot of desert with trash as far as the eye could see. I went off-road and headed towards the area and was completely shocked at what I saw.

Campers had left all their trash behind including full sofa sets, toilets, trash bags and just random items like wood and god knows what else. And it wasn’t just one campsite it was the whole area filled with sofas and toilet seats all over the place. It’s absolutely disgusting.

Personally I think the municipality should just leave everything the way it is and not clean up after the campers. As long as someone is picking up the trash people are not going to learn to cleanup after themselves.

According to the first World Happiness Report launched at the United Nations, Kuwait came 31st in the world but behind UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They used a number of measurements to come up with this figure and I downloaded the full report to find out more details but honestly it’s 158 pages long and it wasn’t written by Stephen King so I skipped it.

Now the reason I’m posting this is I found it a bit surprising that Saudi Arabia scored better than both Kuwait and Qatar. I would have imagined UAE first followed by Qatar, Kuwait and then Saudi but that isn’t the case. You can read the Arabian Business article on this [Here] or you can download the full report from [Here]

Picture taken by Patrick

Last week I was lucky enough to visit the Kitco factory. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do since it’s a brand I grew up with plus I’m a huge fan of the show “How it’s made“. Before taking the tour I met with Jassim Al-Wazzan who told me how it all started.

Back in the early 1950’s Jassim Al-Wazzan senior decided to open up a small grocery store at the age of just 15 in the old Kuwaiti souk (now called Souk Al Mubarkia). He had the only Kuwaiti owned grocery store so when the old women used to come to shop, they’d see 15 year old Jassim and feel nationalistic pride. They all started shopping at Jassim’s grocery store and with time his business started to grow.

Around that time, he met an Indian by the name of B.R. Oberoi. They formed a strong friendship and partnered in one of the many grocery stores Jassim Al-Wazzan had acquired by then. One of the stores most popular products was a snack that used to come from Iran called Pufak. Because the item was coming all the way from Iran the item sometimes ran out of stock or the prices fluctuated. So Mr Oberoi went to Jassim and told him they should make their own and so using technology brought from the Dutch, the Kuwait Indo Trading Company (Kitco) was established. Today three generations later the two families still are partners and good friends.

So the big question, how are the Kitco potato chips made? Turns out it’s a very simple process. I took pictures of all the steps so you can check it out below.

A friend of mine recently ordered a camera lens from the website DigitalRev (made famous by the very entertaining Kai) and had it shipped directly to Kuwait. It cost him less than the Amazon price, they included free FedEx shipping, it was delivered to him in just 4 days, he paid only KD12 customs fee AND the lens included local warranty. How cool is that?

Here are some more details regarding the whole thing:

Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G Lens
Kuwait: KD603
Amazon: KD525
DigitalRev: KD476

If he placed the order on Amazon he would have had to pay the 8% NY tax, then the Aramex shipping fee to Kuwait plus local customs and the package would have taken around 10 days to get here. He also wouldn’t have any local warranty.

On the other hand he paid KD476 to order it from DigitalRev, he didn’t have to pay tax neither did he have to pay any shipping fees. They shipped it for him from Hong Kong to Kuwait directly via FedEx and it took 4 days from the day he placed the order for the lens to be in his hands. In addition FedEx handled the customs and he had to pay only KD12 in total. Now more importantly DigitalRev will offer you warranty for your lens in Kuwait. The way it works is if the item is defective, you take it to the local dealer who will give you the estimate for the repair. You then send the estimate to DigitalRev who will approve it (based on warranty conditions).

I’m actually surprised at how easy and convenient this is. From now on if I ever need anything photography related that’s too expensive locally I’m just going to order it from them. Here is their [Website]

Thanks Cajie

There are 5 cars I’d like to own one day and #5 on the list is the Datsun Skyline GTR and if you’re a fan as well then you’ll be interested to know there’s one currently for sale on Q8car. BUT… the owner wants KD25,000 for it. You can check out the listing over [Here]

While we’re on the subject of old cars below is a picture taken this weekend by InfiniteDriver of another cool oldie, the Datsun 510.

Update: Forgot to add that Datsun is actually making a comeback although they’ve now got a new logo. I would rather they kept their old one. [Link]

There’s a news story on Sheik Jassim Al Wathiqi in British “The Sun” tabloid. It seems they found it interesting and newsworthy that Jassim’s son likes to fall asleep when his dad takes him out in the 458 Spider. You can read the article [Here]

You can also watch the video below of Sheik Jassim driving around Kuwait in the Spider. It’s such a beautiful car.

[YouTube]

Thanks InfiniteDriver

Two weeks back I briefly posted the photo above and spoke about a Kuwaiti resistance fighter who had survived an Iraqi execution during the 1990 invasion and was hidden in that home. Well I got to meet the guy today and I heard the full story which I thought was extremely interesting to share. He wants to remain anonymous so I will be calling him Hamad in the story.

During the 1990 invasion Hamad and his friends became part of the Kuwaiti resistance. Once night one of the friends went missing while transporting some ammunition. No one knew what happened to him but 12 days later Iraqi soldiers came looking for Hamad and his friends. Their friend turned out had been captured and tortured. The soldiers captured Hamad and his friends and took them to a detention center in Jahra. For the first three days they were left blind folded sitting on the floor of a corridor with their hands tied behind their backs. Soldiers walking by would kick them and they were left without food. They were then moved to cells and they were tortured for two weeks straight.

After two weeks they were told that orders were issued to set them free and they would all be going home. Hamad and his friends along with a few other prisoners were shoved into a small van blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. One of the prisoners blindfold was loose so he could see where they were going and kept updating the rest of the guys sitting in the back of the van. Finally they arrived to Dasman palace and the doors of the van were opened. The Iraqis told them they would be splitting them into groups and dropping them off based on location. First location was the city and Hamad and his two other friends told the soldier they lived there. So three of them still blind folded and chained where put into a rear seat of a car and driven to the city. On the way the Iraqi soldier driving was asking them questions like what was the first thing they would do when freed and how they were feeling now that they were being freed etc..

Finally they get to the address of one of the guys and they all get taken out of the car. The Iraqi soldiers then force them down to their knees. Hamad hears one of the soldiers loading a weapon so he realized what was about to happen. He starts praying loudly when the soldier fires a bullet into the head of his friend. Hamad realizing he was about to die next decides he wants to die quickly and so lowers his chin so that the bullet goes through the back of his head. As he does that the soldier fires the gun and the bullet hits Hamad’s head and he falls down face first onto the floor. The third bullet gets fired and his friend goes down. Hamad heard that shot and realized he was still alive. The bullet had grazed him. Then to make sure all three were dead the Iraqi soldier fired a second bullet into Hamad’s friend on his left. The soldier then fired a second bullet into Hamad’s head but the bullet again miraculously grazed him again. Finally the soldier fired a bullet into the second friend and then unchained the three of them and left them dead.

At first Hamad thought they must have used fake blood and bullets just to scare them. He whispered to his two friends to stay down and not to move until they were sure the Iraqis had left. A few moments later he got up and was still out of it. He hadn’t really absorbed what had happened. He put his hands in the blood and realized it was warm. He smelled it and then felt his head and realized it was all real. He had survived an execution.

Hamad’s two friends passed away that day but Hamad managed to find help from a Kuwaiti family in one of the houses nearby who stitched him up and then hid him in an abandoned house who’s door is pictured on top of this post. It’s a very chilling story but one I thought had to be shared.

If you haven’t already done so please make sure you check out the evidence.org.kw where you can find photos of the destruction of Kuwait by Iraqi forces during the 1990 invasion. The photo above is from there and taken by Dr Adel Al-Yousifi.

Tonight I passed by the new Mexican restaurant in Jabriya called En Mexico. It’s a new place that has been open for around a month now. A friend of mine on twitter had recommended the place so I decided to see if it was any good.

The place is small, cozy and located right across the street from Champions Gym and only around 50 meters from Early Bird. When we arrived there was only one other table occupied and so we were able to quickly sit down and check out the menu. I already knew what main courses I was going to have based on my friends recommendation which was the grilled chicken burrito and the braised beef brisket tacos. I also orders chips and guacamole and the jicama and mango salad.

The salad came first and I didn’t think much of it. It’s made up of sliced jicama (which is a sweet vegetable) and sliced mango. Problem is neither the jicama nor the mango were sweet so the salad felt a bit dull. The chips and guacamole followed soon after and I thought the chips were great but kinda regretted not ordering the regular salsa instead of the guacamole dip. So far I wasn’t too impressed but I was hoping things would change with the main course and luckily things did.

Both the chicken burrito and the beef tacos arrived at the same time. I ordered both of the dishes without any bell peppers but didn’t change anything else. The first thing I started eating was the chicken burrito which was pretty good although I wished it had a bit of spice. Later I found out that they were serving it spicy but customers were complaining it was too spicy. They’re still fine tuning the dishes so by the time you try it the spice level should have been adjusted. Now the star of the night was the beef tacos and that’s the dish I’d go back for. One bite into the taco and I knew this was it. The flavors just burst into my mouth and it completely turned the dinner around. The taco is soft which makes it easy to eat and I really loved everything about it. Once we were done I wanted to order the churros with chocolate sauce for dessert but turns out they needed 20 minutes to serve so I decided to pass on it.

En Mexico is currently still in a soft launch but I already have a favorite dish there. Next time around I would probably start off with the chips and salsa, I’ll skip the salad and order two side dishes instead, the Elote which is a mexican style grilled corn on the cob and the jalapeño corn bread with honey butter. For the main course I’ll definitely stick with the beef tacos but next time will make sure to order the dessert as soon as the main course is served.

While I was leaving in my car after dinner I nearly ran over the owner while reversing which was a funny incident. He’s a cool young Kuwaiti guy who’s running the place at night while having a regular day job during the day. I told him I’d be back again which I will. They’re currently only open in the evenings and they’re easy to find as long as you can get to Champions Gym. You can check out their menu by clicking the links below:

En Mexico Starters, Mains and Desserts
En Mexico Salad and Sides