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Episode 1 of a series that explores Kuwait and Kuwait City in a whole new way. Episode 1 titled “India Town” explores one of the districts of Kuwait city which is Mirqab.

Although the video sounded interesting I found it extremely boring and uneventful until around the 7:15 minute mark where I could swear the driver says he’s going to play some Israeli music? I thought that was pretty strange. [YouTube]

Update: Video has been removed by the uploader

A forum member brought up an interesting topic which I hadn’t been aware of before.

It seems the one dinar note has a picture of Shuwaikh port on one side. The picture is supposed to be of the first ship which docked at Shuwaikh. It happened to be a Swiss ship, so it had a cross on the chimney, like the one that appears on the Swiss flag. For obvious reasons the cross was colored out. I of course didn’t believe the story, but then I happened to come across one such note.

The picture above is the KD1 note he came across that has the Swiss flag. I quickly opened my wallet and checked the KD1 notes I had and noticed the chimney on mine didn’t contain the flag (check image below).

I thought this was very interesting specially since I hadn’t heard of this before. It reminded me of the Saudi airlines logo which used to have a hidden cross in it as well (not deliberately of course). Below is a scan I made from the design book Pentagram: The Compendium regarding the Saudia logo and also a brief mention of the Swiss flag and the Middle East.

Thanks lloyd_911

I spotted this new air conditioned bus stop today in Kuwait City. It’s pretty spacious on the inside with one split unit providing the cold air and a long bench for seating. What’s interesting is the no smoking or you will be fined KD15 warning plastered inside. I wish they would apply that to malls and restaurants and not just bus stops.

Just found out about this site called the Dawood Treasury which contains vintage articles from old newspapers. They have a section for Kuwait (where I got the ad above from) and also sections for other neighboring countries. I think the site is still getting updated so it should be interesting once they add a lot more stuff. [Link]

Thanks e7mood

Before I started 248AM I had another blog called Miskan. Before Miskan I had a photo blog (that sadly doesn’t exist anymore) called Moblogging in Kuwait. Before Moblogging in Kuwait I started off blogging at qHate.com back when the only bloggers around were just me, Nibaq and Zaydoun from Kuwait Unplugged. Thing is I’ve posted about so much stuff in the past 7 years that I’ve completely lost track of what I’ve posted about and what I haven’t. For example it recently came into my attention that I haven’t posted about Q8Books or the original Kuwait Bookshop although I could swear I’ve posted about them before. Turns out I discovered both those places back during my Moblogging from Kuwait project in 2004 but only mentioned it briefly on Miskan and with a picture on Moblogging from Kuwait (actually called Nat my girl friend in that post back then!) yet I thought I had done a proper post about it here on 248AM. Anyway since I haven’t I figured I would do so now.

Q8 Books
Q8 Books is the only used books shop I am aware of in Kuwait. There actually aren’t that many places that sell used anything here in Kuwait which makes Q8 Books even more special. The place is filled to the brim with a ton of used books ranging from novels, kids books to cooking books and more. The owner of the place is a great guy who opened the place and runs it out of passion. They even have a website that contains all the books they have in the shop, how cool is that? The store is located on the mezzanine floor of the shopping center behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. For store opening hours and to check out their collection of books you can visit their website www.q8books.com

The Kuwait Bookshop
Everyone knows the large Kuwait Bookshop located in the basement of Muthana Complex in Kuwait City but very few people know about their first and original store located a few hundred meters away. The original Kuwait Bookshop location was the first English bookshop to open up in Kuwait (so I was told) and the location is still open and active. Although the Muthana branch is pretty cozy the original branch is even cozier. The store is two stories with the top floor being my favorite since it feels like it contains hidden treasures. I’ve been there a few times and never seen anyone in the shop but the employees tell me they do get a lot of customers. The original Kuwait Bookshop is located near Restaurant 99 on the Sheraton Roundabout.

Note: Off topic but I think Moblogging from Kuwait was my best blog so far. Sadly it was hosted on textamerica.com which shutdown and took my blog with it. Luckily most of it is still archived on web.archive.org although 99% of the pictures aren’t. It’s still fun to flip through and read my old posts there. I used to post from my Sony Clie UX-40. To read my old posts, follow [this link] click on the first image and then keep clicking next.

I passed by the old photographer this weekend. In our previous meeting I had asked him if there was anything that can be done to help him out and he had told me he needed a few days to think about it and a few days had passed and I was curious to what can be done. I was already brainstorming a few ideas in my head trying to think about what can be done to help him get back to his feet but I really couldn’t come up with anything long term. So I passed by again and we had another long chat.

He’s 80 years old and not in the best of condition. He has an employee he doesn’t trust, a store that only does photocopies, and he makes just enough income to feed himself and put a shelter on top of his head. He told me that he thought about restructuring his shop, to get into digital photography or at least upgrade his machine in the store. But he told me it would take to long for him to start making profit and he’s 80 years old and doesn’t have that much left to live. He then told me he thought about going back to his village in Lebanon but what would he do there? He doesn’t have anyone. His family all passed away, he has a half brother who he hasn’t spoken to in years but he’s also very old. He doesn’t have anything to go back to. He then moved onto the subject of death and how his family all passed away without every going on a hajj. He told me he doesn’t want to die without ever going to hajj.

I don’t know much about the hajj or how much it costs or if he actually can go being so old (I’m sure there are some kind of groups where young people help the elderly or something). If anyone would like to help me send the old man to hajj or at least if someone can post details on what the trip involves and who I could contact for information that would also be helpful.

In case you missed the previous posts here are the links:
In Kuwait since 1959
Update on the old photographer

It’s been a while since I last posted an update on how my work out and diet is going. The last time I posted my weight it was 76KG when I had just come back from New York. Well my current weight is 77KG but I haven’t gained fat weight, I’ve gained muscle weight. My stomach is a lot flatter then back when I was 76KG and I’ve practically lost all the fat covering my abs. I can finally see my six pack although it looks nothing like the ones in 300 so no Spartan costume for me this Halloween. But still, going from a beer belly to a no belly is an accomplishment for me yet alone getting abs.

I’ve been very consistent with my diet especially when I am following my usual day to day routine. Traveling messes up my routine but generally I am eating healthy and not cheating too much. When I do cheat I always end up unsatisfied and feeling guilty so I don’t cheat often. Even when it comes to eating stuff like shawerma I am having a hard time because I am finding it too heavy. Burgers of course are welcomed with open arms but shawermas, fried food, sauces and dessert are a not.

I am still going to Core Fitness with full passion. Sometimes in the middle of workout I just want to drop everything and walk out because it’s just too exhausting physically and mentally but then I just think about the progress I’ve made since January. It’s real physical change that I can feel and see so that gives me the strength to push forward and finish up my session. If this was a review of Core Fitness I would have to give it a thumbs up because it works as advertised. I was skeptical back in January when I first started but now I can say it’s real. Just 20 minutes per session, hard to be believe but it’s true.

Blogger Mathai spotted the below hoarding banner at the new Lulu Hypermarket mall off the 208 in Qurain. It’s still coming soon but since I can’t think of any mall in Kuwait already containing an aquarium, they really don’t have to make it that big for it to be the biggest. [Link]

A guy in Kuwait posted a video up of his room with the walls covered in Hot Wheels cars. The guy has a huge ass collection and even a life size Corvette rear end sticking out of his wall. I used to have a huge collection of Matchbox cars (and a few Hot Wheels color shifters) but had to leave them all behind during the invasion back in 1990. Sucks. [YouTube]

Last year I posted about a bear that was being sold in Kuwait. After readers started contacting Animal Friends they launched an investigation and with the help of the government helped seize the bear. So where is the bear now and how is he doing? Well it looks like it’s at the Kuwait Zoo and judging by the video above having a great time. I haven’t been to the zoo for ages but the bear enclosure in the video above looks pretty good and large. It looks like I need to pass by the zoo soon and update my pictures. [YouTube]

Thanks sinful eyes

Kuwaitis are consuming almost more water than the country can produce.

An estimated 1.5 million cubic meters of water was being consumed daily in Kuwait, dangerously close to country’s maximum production capacity at, the business news site Arabian Business reported.

According to the report Kuwait, which produces nearly all of its water from desalination plants, produces just 1.51 million cubic meters of water a year.

Looks like next year we are going to have water cuts in addition to the power cuts. [Link]

Thanks Burhan

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs State of Kuwait (MOFA) released an iPhone app today on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr. I’m impressed that they actually released an iPhone app but I would rather have a Ministry of Interior app which would allow me to save my two cars in it and have it automatically check daily if any of my cars received speeding tickets and then warn me with a pop up notification and a beep. Ok maybe that’s asking too much but still a nice little app that would allow me to check my traffic violations conveniently would be pretty cool. Here is the link to the app [Link]

Here are the links to my two apps:
2:48AM
Kuwait Blogs

Update: Just noticed something funny in the app. When you click on the Embassy Search link you get a list of countries… but they’re not in alphabetical order. I actually can’t think of an order they’re listed in. I thought they were listed by Kuwait’s favorite countries but if that was the case USA and UK would be higher. By popularity? Don’t think so since Egypt would be much higher on the list. Distance? Nope. Random? Don’t think so since the first few countries are GCC countries. Can anyone figure it out? Here is the way they’re listed:

UAE
Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Qatar
Oman
Lebanon
Syria
Jordan
UK
Thailand
Kuwait
USA
Australia
Canada
Germany
Spain
Egypt

The Kuwait Zoo surprisingly has a twitter account. Not only that but they’re actually pretty active posting photos and videos. You can check out their twitter page [Here]

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their support. Other than the tons of comments offering assistance I got a lot of emails and calls offering to help the old guy out. Regarding his residency that’s been sorted out. He’s just been running around a lot trying to get it done and as an 80 year old traveling by bus from location to location it can be extremely exhausting in this weather.

I passed by him tonight to get a better idea on how we can help him out and I honestly still don’t know what we can do. The only service his shop currently offers is photocopies for 100 fils. I was there for 2 hours tonight and only 1 person came in to get a photocopy done so that’s not really a source of income. There are two things he seems to be bothered about, one is the fact that he doesn’t have a store sign. The second is the fact he bought a small Minolta DiMAGE X1 for like KD10 from this lady who was traveling and he can’t get it to work. It took me a few seconds to figure out the battery needed charging and she hadn’t given him a charger with it so that’s why it wasn’t working. I need to find a battery charger for it and then teach him how to use it. He doesn’t have a computer so not sure what he is planning to do. Oh and I also brought along my laptop with me and introduced him to the internet. It was pretty weird trying to explain how the internet works and helping him pronounce Google which he kept calling Googen.

Anyway I’m going back again on Wednesday, I told him to think about what he needs or what would help him out and he promised to think about it and get back to me on it. While there he insisted on inviting me to a cold drink which was an RC Lemonade which I thought was pretty old school. I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted if there is anything we can do but for now I think everything should be ok.

I was wondering around tonight when I stumbled across an old photography store. Some pictures in the display grabbed my attention and when I looked inside I spotted an old man sitting reading the Koran and two other interesting photos. I decided to go in and check the photos out and I ended up spending around an hour there talking to the old man.

I won’t mention the photographers name or the shop location since I want to give him his space and privacy but he’s a Lebanese guy who ran away from an abusive father and took the bus and came to Kuwait in 1959. He hasn’t left since… not even once. He worked a variety of jobs here and there and in the end became a journalist and took some really great photos, some of which many of us have come across in one point in time or another. He ended up opening up his own photography shop and it’s been there ever since. Today the shop doesn’t sell anything, he doesn’t have any customers nor even a store sign. He broke the sign ages ago because to keep it up he would have to pay a fee of KD25 a year which he didn’t want to. He sold all his negatives to a newspapers years ago for KD200 and has a few photos he kept which he was selling framed for KD25 a piece but someone bought his photo and then made copies and started selling them for KD1 so that income stopped.

While there I spotted some old cameras behind an extremely dusty display that looked like it hadn’t been open since the 80s and my God what a beautiful camera collection. He had cameras from the 70’s and early 80’s still boxed brand new! He even had the beautiful rangefinder Konica S3 from 1974 which I had purchased used off eBay for KD60 last year, except he had a brand new one all boxed up and priced at KD45! He also had two brand new Nikon F3’s from 1980, a Vivitar 35EE, a Vivitar 35EF, Mamiya 135AF and boxed up Hasselblad but I couldn’t tell what model it was. I really want to buy them all but I don’t think he wants to sell them. He’s pissed off at the whole world, he’s depressed, he’s really old and he doesn’t want to sell anything. He told me 5 months ago his residency expired and he’s now living in Kuwait illegally. He feels that he’s been forgotten and no one cares about him or remembers him. How could someone who’s been in Kuwait for 50 years non stop still require an ikameh to live here? It made me realize that if I lose my job tomorrow I would have to leave Kuwait as well except I am young and I could always move to Lebanon and start a new life or something but this old man, where would he go? He’s easily at least 80 years old, he doesn’t have any family, never married, no relatives and he hasn’t been to Lebanon in over 50 years neither does he want to go back…

I had to leave but told him I would come back again since I wanted to listen to his life story and maybe give him some recognition with my blog. I also promised him the next time I go back I would bring my laptop along since I was telling him about the Internet and he told me he had heard about it but had no idea what it was. I told him I would come back and show him since he seemed eager to know how it worked and who invented it and how it looked. I asked him what time to what time I could find him at the shop he told me 24 hours. Turns out he lives in the shop.