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I just received my first package with DHL today and I have decided they will be my primary shipping courier from now on and here is why.

1) I was able to sign up, open an account and pay for it all online and in a few minutes

2) Their mailbox is located in Ohio which means I no longer need to pay the 8.375% New York sales tax

3) It seems they ship packages the next day which means my package doesn’t sit in the mailbox in the States for long

4) They have EXTREMELY detailed tracking (check this)

5) Because they have extremely detailed tracking I can use the iPhone app Delivery Status to keep track of my packages

6) They’re fast. Package shipped December 2nd, arrived to Kuwait December 5th, cleared customs and was ready to pick up on the 6th

7) They don’t deliver but they have 4 pick up locations, Khaleejia in Kuwait City, Ardiya, Fahaheel and Camp Arifjan. The Ardiya branch is open till midnight everyday except on Friday they close at 9. The Kuwait City branch closes at 9 every day.

8) You pay based on weight and the size of the package doesn’t effect how much you pay

9) It’s KD3.5 for the first half kilo and then its KD2.5 for every half

Now to clear something up. Like Aramex, you also have to pay customs for packages over $100. The stories about Aramex making up this 5% to make more money is not true. But, unlike Aramex, with DHL you pay 5% customs and KD3.5 handling fee. With Aramex its just a KD1 handling fee. Now the advantage of DHL is they clear the package the same day while with Aramex it currently looks like its taking over a week.

I picked up my Drobo today and I paid KD31 shipping and KD8 for customs and handling. Overall I found DHL cheaper than Aramex. Why? Because you save on the New York sales tax, because you pay based on actual weight and not volumetric weight and because you pay KD2.5 for every half KG instead of Aramex’s KD2.750.

If you want to sign up for an account here is the link to their website [Link]

Note: Ignore the shipping price that’s displayed in your DHL account when tracking a package. My Drobo according to the online invoice was going to cost me KD70.57 in shipping fees but that was based on volumetric weight which was calculated to be 11.02 kg. Before I picked up my package they put it on the scale and it weighed 5.5 kg and thats what I paid for.

Before I found out someone had broken into my car I was enjoying dinner at P.F. Chang inside the Avenues. They haven’t opened up to the public yet, it’s just by invite since they’re still training and I managed to get one. The first thing that struck me about the restaurant (other than the fact it was packed) was how big it was. According to my friend they’re either the largest or second largest P.F. Chang’s branch in the world. They’re also the 200th P.F. Chang branch to open and only the second to open outside the US. The other international branch is in Mexico.

I had the crab wanton for starters which was amazing and then for my main course I had sweet & sour chicken and this other dish that had prawns, melons and walnuts. The sweet & sour chicken looked nothing like the usual ones I have, it didn’t have the regular red sauce nor any vegetables or fruits but it still tasted really good (I actually always order my sweet & sour without fruits or vegetables anyway). The prawns and melons dish was a very strange but interesting combination, I can’t believe someone actually came up with this mix, very cool.

There was a ton of staff in the restaurant since in addition to the P.F. Chang Kuwait staff they’ve brought in over 20 more staff from the States to help with the training. Paul Fleming the creator of P.F. Chang was even in the kitchen overlooking everything. Our waiter was one of the local staff and was very friendly.

The prices haven’t been finalized yet but they’re supposed to be even cheaper than what was currently on the menu. The sweet & sour chicken was around KD4.400 and the prawns dish I think KD5.450 so if they drop the price it should be pretty affordable. The quantity of the food was too much and I think they know that because they were quick to offer to pack my leftovers to take home. Too much food is always better than too little. While there I also got confirmation that Shake Shack will be opening up in Kuwait early next year and the first branch will be at the Avenues. It was a pretty nice evening overall until the car incident…

A reader sent me the following email with a few pictures (of which I’m sharing two).

i received my aramex package today , i saw the package little bit outta shape i thought something was up. i payed shipping charges then i headed to my room opened the box and here comes the SHOCK there is a puddle of water inside and the items are soaking wet. the funny part that the box contained a 400$ digital camera :S. i called aramex they told me customer service should contact you soon and hoping a refund for the item and shipping charges. been waiting and no one called :S. waiting till tomorrow.

I’m guessing the shipment got damaged while waiting to be cleared at the airport customs so it’s interesting to see how this will pan out. According to their terms & conditions:

Aramex is not responsible for any customs or duties incurred on any package contents. Furthermore, Aramex is not responsible for penalties, loss or damage of shipments while in possession of customs.

Aramex is responsible for the customer’s packages only while they are within Aramex’s custody and control. Aramex’s LIABILITY IN ANY EVENT IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS (US $ 100/=) OR ITS EQUIVALENT PER SHIPMENT as stated on the back of the Express/Air freight waybill.

So legally Aramex are no liable for any damage and even if they are they only cover up to $100 which is not much. Has anything like this happened to anyone? What was the outcome?

Note: Btw if you ever wondered how Aramex’s building looks like in New York, a blogger 3baid found it using google street view. Looks cool, maybe someone from Aramex could get us pictures of the inside? That would be an interesting tour. [Link]

Update: Aramex resolved the issue with the damaged package and refunded the reader. Here is what the reader (Sam) had to say about it:

Dear Members,

NEW UPDATE regarding my issue.

i just got a call this morning from Aramex Shop and Ship Manager notifying me regarding my damaged package, he was very helpful and he took full responsibility of the damage caused, told me to bring the package to Aramex Arthiya for a full Refund of the product & shipping charges.

I went there got my refund and the manager was kind enough to explain to me the cause of the incident due to a leakage in customs warehouse, where they are taking action to solve this issue.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Thank you, Shop & Ship Manager for Handling this Issue Professionally.

THE 99 is a locally created comic book featuring a team of superheroes based on Islamic culture and religion. Although it’s been only 2 years since the comic got published it quickly became a bit hit and is now licensed in 8 languages including Chinese. Next year Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and other members of The Justice League of America will team up with THE 99 in a global series by DC Comics. In addition to that THE 99 is being turned into an animated series and the video above is the preview. 26 episodes are currently in production written by top names in Hollywood who’ve also worked on Ben 10, Spiderman, X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [YouTube]

Here is a link to THE 99 website [Link]

Whenever I get back to Lebanon one of the things that pisses me off is the amount of racism that still exists there. I was just checking CNN and noticed an article called Maid Suicides and it turned out to be an article about the recent spate of maid suicides in Lebanon. This is extremely depressing and honestly I am not sure what can be done to educate the employers of those maids. Anybody have any ideas? How do you educate a whole country? [CNN Link]

This is an interesting event, Genki Sushi who are located at Al Raya want people to try and see how good their sushi is so they’re holding an event at The Exhibition and inviting everyone to come and try their sushi for free. Here are the details:

Genki Sushi Nights @ The Exhibition
Enjoy FREE SUSHI for two nights ONLY!

6PM-10PM
Wednesday and Thursday
December 9-10, 2009

Directions to event: Three shops to the left of Slider Station on ‘The Strip’ – Across from Alseef Palace, Jibla, Kuwait.
Telephone: + (965) 940 662 26

The Genki Sushi restaurant is located in Arraya Mall, Kuwait City. Tel: (+965) 229 979 33

That’s free all you can eat sushi people!

Thanks Hiba

I passed by Wagamama for lunch to try it out. It was my first time trying Wagamama anywhere not just Kuwait so I didn’t know what to expect. At first glance most of their menu seemed to be made up of a lot of noodles and fried food, two things which I don’t eat but after a closer look I did start spotting some grilled dishes. I decided to go with the Negima Yakitori for starters, its grilled chicken and spring onions on skewers which turned out to be very good followed by Chicken Katsu Curry. Some readers had previously recommended I try the Katsu Curry but when I found it on the menu it turned out to contain deep fried chicken which was a let down. BUT, turns out they had an option where you could swap the deep fried chicken for grilled chicken which is the option I went with. When my dish arrived it looked like the chicken was too dry but after mixing it with the rice and curry I tried it and it wasn’t dry at all. The chicken was soft and the curry sauce was pretty good.

When I first went in the place was empty so we got to sit on our own private table. On our way out the place had filled up and you had strangers sitting next to each other on the long shared tables which should theoretically be awkward but wasn’t since even though the tables are connected the benches were far apart.

I had a good experience and would probably go back. The prices were decent with the Negima Yakitori costing KD1.500 and the Katsu Curry KD3.750. You can actually download and view the whole menu with the prices from the local Wagamama website and here is the direct link to it [Link]

Just ordered the Drobo backup system along with 4×1.5TB drives from Amazon. I currently have 3TB of storage that’s a combination of 5 external drives and it’s fine except for the fact if I lose one of those drives I lose everything that’s on it and its happened to me before. So I’ve been wanting to get a decent backup system and decided to go with the Drobo. The Drobo can take 4 2TB drives and the best part about it is if one of the drives fails you just swap that drive out with another one and you don’t lose any information.

The Drobo works kinda like Raid 5 except with one cool feature, you can mix match a variety of different sized drives together and expand with great ease.

I added all the stuff to my shopping cart and when I checked out Amazon was still using my Aramex shipping address and the Tax was around $70. So I swapped it for my new DHL address and poof no tax. It’s my first time shipping with DHL EasyShop so will post my review once I get the package.

The Drobo costs KD100 on Amazon, here is the [Link]

Also, here is the Drobo hard drive space calculator. Because of the way the Drobo works to secure your data, installing 4x2TB drives won’t give you 8TB of space to use, you get 5.5TB. This link will help you calculate how much space you get with a certain combination of drives. [Link]

Stephen King is writing a sequel to The Shining and it will be based 40 years later and focus around Danny (the young boy from the original). I haven’t read the original book but loved the movie so not sure how I feel about a sequel since the first question that pops up into my mind is who would direct it if it ever got turned into a movie? The original was directed by Stanley Kubrick who passed away back in 1999. [Link]

I got the following email today with a link to the trailer above:

I’m one of the people who are working on a Kuwaiti film, and we would love to post the trailer on your blog so we can get feedback from the viewers before we move to the next step of production. We are a group of Kuwaiti youth who are interested in Film-making and cinema. We are trying to make serious Kuwaiti films, but since we are doing it ourselves and without any form of support, we need all the help that we can get.

I really like the fact that more and more people in Kuwait are getting interested in film and it’s great these guys took the time to work on this movie. But, I am going to give my opinion now on this trailer and I will try not to be too harsh. I just watched the trailer and found it too long and unexciting. There also is a ton of cheap special effects and the whole thing looks like a B-rated Ramadan TV series. Now I know they didn’t have any form of support and I am guessing no budget but why think of an epic movie that would need a budget and cast equal to Lord of the Rings? They should have gone with a movie that focused more on the story and characters instead of the special effects and large battle scenes. The film Sharq for example focused around a handful of characters, no special effects and no expensive hard to shoot locations.

Now that I’m done giving my opinion whats yours? [YouTube]

Why does Sultan Center in Lebanon carry Cadbury Chocolate Milk and the one in Kuwait doesn’t? It used to be my favorite chocolate milk back when they did carry it. I bought one at first and drank it while still in the supermarket parking lot and then I went back inside and got two more which I also drank on the spot. Still tastes as good I remember it.

I am in Lebanon for a few days so I managed to pass by my parents house where all the family photos are stored. They were one of the few things we managed to take with us during the 1990 Gulf War and I haven’t flipped through the pictures in ages so not really sure whats there. I am really hoping to find pictures of Salmiya from the glorious days but any other cool photos of Kuwait from the 80s would be great. Whatever I find interesting I will scan and post here.

Back in 2007 I posted about “The Running Man“. He’s the guy most of you have probably seen running on the Gulf Road in the middle of the summer heat or in the middle of winter when it’s raining and freezing cold. I tried to interview him back then but after finally catching up to him I was out of breath and couldn’t communicate with him and he ended up running off again. Well Student Talk managed to interview him and it turns out he has a very interesting story. Since Student Talk don’t have a website I scanned the article and uploaded it online. You can view it [Here]

In case you want to pick up the actual magazine its the November issue, he’s on the cover. Here is a list of locations you can find the magazine [List]

BBC received a lot of responses with my previous post and are now looking for something very specific and they need your help with it.

BBC is looking for anyone (young or old) who might still have weight to lose, or who might be larger, but happy to be that way – people who are leading the typical less healthy Kuwaiti lifestyle.

If you fit the profile then email BBC on [email protected]

When Aramex increased their prices because oil hit over $100 a barrel I was fine with it. When oil prices fell back to normal and Aramex didn’t decrease their prices, I was like no biggie. When Aramex decided to charge an extra KD1 for to each package I receive and added a compulsory 5% customs tax to all my packages worth of $100 I was like whatever, I can deal with that. But, to pay this much more than what I was paying before and have my packages arrive slower? That’s something I won’t accept.

I had a package arrive to Aramex on November 6th. It showed up in my mailbox on November 12th and then shipped the next day on November 13th. As of November 21st I have still not received the package. Since a lot of people have been saying good stuff about DHL’s similar service EasyShop, I decided to sign up with them and use their service instead.

It took me under 5 minutes to setup my account with DHL and also pay the $37 setup fee all from within their website. The DHL forwarding mailbox is based in Ohio which means I don’t have to pay the NY taxes when ordering from Amazon. I also pay for the package by weight only and not dimensions. With Aramex they charge based on weight and size which can result in a higher shipping fee. Once a package arrives to my DHL mailbox it should also ship right away to Kuwait since they have daily flights. Once the package arrives to Kuwait I have to go pick it up myself from DHL. There are 4 collection points to choose from and I chose the Kuwait City branch since its near my office.

If you want to open up a DHL mailbox it’s really easy, just follow this [Link]