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If you’ve recently walked along the Gulf Road or taken a trip to Mutla’a then you’ve probably noticed Kashta setups on the beach or in the desert. Last year there were only a handful of businesses that set up these gathering spots but this year the market has exploded with everyone jumping on board the kashta train.

Inspired Edibles have put together the ultimate kashta setup list which I’ve reposted below. Because there are so many I’ve highlighted the ones that seemed the most interesting with an asterix *

BOHO *
C Breeze
Cavotago
Cliche
D Table
December Tent
Desert Room
Desierto *
Doublede
Explore More
Festivity
Getaway
Glamping
Kashta Chill
Kashta KWT *
Kashta Limited
Kashta Spot
Kashtaaa
Kashtat
La Bohème *
La Récolte *
Le Project
Let’s Kashta
Lumière *
Maddah
Nakshet
Outing
Paper Moments
Picnic Day
Picnic Vibes *
Project Room
Rental Hub
Rentals by REL.EVENTS
Sea Wild
Set It *
Sets by A *
Sol Sahara *
Tents by the Moon
The Parterre
The Flower Reception
The Modern Kashta
Three by Three
Van Life *
VEER *
VEZ
Vivid Events

The story below was sent to me by John Beresford who has been contributing to the blog with old interesting stories about life in Kuwait during the 1940s to the 1960s when he and his family used to live in Kuwait. To check out some of his previous stories click here.

In 1968 Ramzi Kayello, an artist, put on an exhibition of his paintings in the Hubara Club in Ahmadi. My parents went and later asked him to paint them a picture of ‘Old Kuwait’.

The image is pretty standard; mud houses, wooden doors with nails in, dusty streets, and the frame is very 1960s.

The interesting thing is the man in the white dishdasha. He is carrying water buckets. With no piped system water had to be bought and transported back to the home and the traditional Arab buckets, made from an entire sheep or goatskin, were too small and with the way Kuwait was developing, fewer people in the town could keep flocks. This was where new technology came in. The increase in the number of vehicles was increasing the number of worn-out tires lying around – what to do with them? Some could be hung around boats and on quay-sides to minimize the bump when coming alongside. Others could be used as buckets. It was possible to get about 3 buckets from 1 truck tire, they were strong, pretty well indestructible, waterproof and the wire in the tires stopped them flopping about and spilling. And of course, if you found an old tire lying about you could make up your buckets for free! With rope handles they were fine. So the water carrier is using water buckets made from truck tires; this was pretty standard and my parents specifically asked for this to be included in the painting.

I also include a bit that my father wrote about water in Kuwait when he arrived there, in April 1949. Later on, there were ships built to go up the Shatt al Arab, vent their ballast tanks and pick up river water for the return journey, thus making the smaller dhows redundant.

The other explanation I should give concerns about the Kuwaiti water supply. I mentioned the brackish water wells. There is no fresh water at all anywhere in the state of Kuwait. Brackish was obtained from shallow wells, close to the coastline and provided water for livestock and limited garden growth. The poorer element of the town also had to drink it; it’s not very palatable, most times when I was offered it in poorer Arab houses they added sherbet to it to make it more palatable but, really, I used to think it made it worse! In addition to about a 14% salinity it also had a quantity of magnesium salts in it: Magnesium sulfate or Epsom Salts, being the most common.

For many years fresh water was brought to Kuwait from the Shatt al Arab River, a major world river formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. As this river is tidal to well above Basrah, the collecting dhows were required to go well upstream and then, while waiting for the tide to run out, collect the water from the top, less dense, layers.

Some imported water was less good than others, it depended upon the tide, time available, weather and the temperament of the dhow skipper.

The water so imported was sold by the old gallon kerosene or gasoline tin full at 2 rupees a time. This didn’t suit the company and just before I arrived gave up on relying on the dhows.

I haven’t played pool since university and not interested in playing it either but, someone on Reddit was looking for good quality cue sticks and a person recommended Dr Cue. So this post is for google in case someone else in the future is looking for billiard equipment in Kuwait. Dr Cue have cue sticks, cue cases, tables, balls, and various accessories. They can also perform maintenance on your equipment as well as customize your sticks with engravings or leather wrapping. I don’t think everything is listed on their website so I’d get in touch with them directly in case you’re looking for anything specific not listed there.

If you’re interested, their Instagram account is @drcue.billiard, their phone number is 99000303 and their website is dr-cue.com

Thanks Tengokuq

Claudia Al Rashoud has been a photojournalist in Kuwait since 1979. She was the first professional female photojournalist at the Arab Times newspaper and has written a number of books on Kuwait’s history and heritage with beautiful pictures. She recently launched an Instagram account @claudia_alrashoud where she has been sharing stories from her long journalistic career and also launched a small website where people can purchase her books on Kuwait.

All sales from the website will pay for veterinary care for stray, abandoned, and abused animals from Touch of Hope Kuwait, so not only will you be getting some great books on Kuwait, but you’ll also be helping animals. So checkout her website.

If you’re looking for a new series to watch this weekend, below is a list of some shows I just recently watched.

What We Do in the Shadows
Based on the 2014 movie with the same name, What We Do in the Shadows is a comedy that came out last year on Hulu. If you’re a fan of mockumentaries like The Office and Parks & Recreation then you’re going to love this show. What We Do in the Shadows follows the lives of three vampires who’ve lived together for over 100 years, on Staten Island, in New York. It’s the funniest and dumbest thing ever, I highly recommend it.

Tehran
I started watching this series with low expectations because my friend undersold it to me but it turned out to be really enjoyable to watch. I think I binge-watched the whole season over two or three days. The show focuses on the conflict between Israel and Iran with an interesting storyline involving Mossad agents living in Iran trying to infiltrate it from the inside. If you were a fan of Homeland then this is for you. Tehran is available on AppleTV+.

The Queen’s Gambit
You’ve probably heard about this show since everyone has been talking about it for the past couple of weeks. The Queen’s Gambit is a mini-series that recently came out on Netflix and is about a young orphan girl who discovers and masters the game of chess. I really liked the show but this one I think was actually overhyped. The way everyone has been talking about the show led me to believe it’s the best thing to come out this year but it’s not. It’s fun to watch, but it’s not the best thing ever.

Ted Lasso
This was another show I think was overhyped. Ted Lasso originally started as a character in a 2013 NBC Sports promo and now turned into a proper TV series. Ted Lasso is an American football coach who is hired to coach a professional soccer team in England. Ted has never played soccer in his life, nor does he know the rules so it’s pretty funny watching him get to grips. But, that quickly wore off for me after a few episodes and honestly, the series trailer and the original NBC Sports promo show the funniest bits. Ted Lasso is available to watch on AppleTV+.

The new iPhone 12 was released by Apple recently but there hasn’t been any announcement of a local launch date yet. I figured it might be related to logistics and production issues due to the pandemic so I checked with a contact of mine who told me that the telecoms, Apple Premium (Gait) and Apple Authorized Resellers (Digits, Xcite, etc.) hadn’t received their unit allocations yet.

But, looks like they finally did because yesterday some resellers started announcing a pre-order date. Starting this Friday, November 13th pre-orders for the new iPhone 12 will begin. Previously you’d have super long lines outside Apple resellers on launch day but with the pandemic right now that wouldn’t be the best idea which is why most likely the only way to get your hands on the new iPhone 12 on launch day would be by pre-ordering online. If it’s going to be anything like the iPhone X launch then there will also be a very limited number of units at launch.

Oddly, there still isn’t an official launch date for the devices, maybe that will be revealed on Friday as well. I’m personally going to be trying to get my hands on the iPhone 12 Pro to replace my 11 Pro. I always loved the way the iPhone 4 looked like and the new phones look basically the same.

The all-new Xbox Series X officially launches today but I was lucky enough to get mine yesterday so I could play around with it and have a post ready for today. I purchased mine from Geekay on September 22nd when they launched the Xbox pre-orders. I was hoping to get a hold of a unit before the launch date by a few days but the Geekay shipment of Xbox’s only cleared customs yesterday afternoon and so only got to pick up mine after that.

Not sure about other local sellers but Geekay will be either delivering all the pre-orders today. They also contacted their customers and arranged a pickup timeslot for today if they didn’t want to wait for delivery. My brother for example is gonna have to wake up early today to pick up his Xbox at 9AM, so it was a lot of fun sending him photos yesterday of my Xbox.

There are a lot of unboxing videos and reviews on YouTube by much better gamers than me, but in this post I’ll go over some of the things regarding our Middle East edition.

• Firstly, the Middle East version of the box is bilingual. The front side is the same as the US version but the rear of the box and all the fine print are in both Arabic and English

• Once you open the box there isn’t a manual, but the getting started guide is bilingual

• The power plug is the UK Type G plug

• The console works with 220v so no need for a transformer

• There is no power brick, just a regular cable from the Xbox to the wall plug (this is the best thing ever)

• I have a US Xbox account and it works perfectly fine with the Middle East edition Xbox (well kinda)

• I ran into a minor issue buying games from the Xbox store and I think it’s because I have a US Xbox account but a Kuwait-based Microsoft account? I pay the monthly Microsoft Office subscription fee using a Kuwait address but I have my location on my Xbox account set to US so maybe there is some sort of conflict

• Because of the issue I had of purchasing games directly from inside the Xbox store I ended up using Amazon to buy the digital copy of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. I used a Florida address so I didn’t pay any tax and got the game for the listed price of $59.99 and then installed it on my Xbox using the code Amazon sent me

• On starting the console there was a 775MB update I had to install. This was downloaded and installed by the time I was done setting up the Xbox

• On my Zain 5G, Valhalla took around 2 hours to download. It’s a 47GB file and was downloading on average at speeds of 45Mbps with the occasional jump to around 65Mbps and drop to 35Mbps. The game was ready to start halfway through the download but because I installed it before the launch date I couldn’t play it

• I only installed two games on my Xbox for now, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Killer Instinct. Quick resume worked perfectly when flip-flopping between the two games

• The packaging and overall design of the Series X is minimal and smart, I personally love it. I think the new PS5 is ugly (sorry Sony fanboys) while this is a lot less flashy and it fit into my TV cabinet perfectly

• The controller feels great, there is a new texture on the backside which gives it a much better grip when held

• The official price of the Xbox Series X in Kuwait is KD167 while the smaller Series S costs KD104

If anyone has any questions, let me know and I’ll try to answer it in the comments.

If you’re looking for a safe place to ride your bicycle, Kuwait Motor Town is bringing back bicycle days. Bicycle days are when they open the race track to the public so that people can ride their bicycles on the road in a safe car-free environment. Bicycle days are on the following two days:

Tuesdays: 4PM to 8PM
Saturdays: 6AM to 10AM

Access to the track is free and if you’ve never been to KMT before this is a great way to check it out. Here is the location on Google Maps.

It’s been 5 years since I last posted about Big D, probably the most controversial musician I’ve posted about on the blog. For some reason, he used to get a lot of negative comments to the point he had to release a music video in which he responded to some of the hate. Love him or hate him though I like the fact he’s still going and “Open Your Eyes” is his latest track so check it out.

Hello everyone, it’s Fajer the lawyer again, it has been a while since I have posted here, but Mark brought to my attention news of a couple that was filmed having sexual intercourse, in a residential area, in public, outside of a car, in broad daylight, and around people.

The incident reminded me of a fictional case study we studied in law school (my professor would come up with outrageous fictional crimes, for example, a man walking around with a fork and a human eye on it) for us to learn the law.  I just never in a million years thought that my professor’s outrageous fictional crimes would actually come to life.

So back to the incident, here are a few legal points related to this video:

Public Indecency
Addressed in Article 198 of Kuwait Penal Code.
This is pretty much a law in most countries, if not all regardless of the countries religious or political beliefs. The Kuwait law does not allow nudity or sexual intercourse in public. Punishment is up to one year in jail or up to one thousand rupees (the law was written in 1960).

Sex Outside of Marriage
Addressed in Article 194 of Kuwait Penal Code.
Sexual acts for those above 21 years of age (not 18!) outside of marriage is punishable with 6 months to 3 years of imprisonment. (for both the man and the women, although the law starts off by accusing the man and then says if the women agreed to it then she would also be punished!)

Now for article 194 to occur, it clearly states that one important thing needs to happen and that is an official has to walk in on them while they are in the middle of the act. While studying this in law school, my professor made it clear that when it comes to sexual acts specifically, video can not be used as evidence. The only proof that the court would accept is an official walking in on the couple, or if the couple admits to the act in court. The most likely reason for this is that they don’t want to encourage people to film such acts.

In conclusion, although the act of sexual intercourse outside marriage performed in public is completely illegal, the couple can not be punished under article 194 unless they admit to it. So, it will be interesting to see what the court decides and I wonder from a legal perspective if the sexual act itself is not punishable, can the video still be used as evidence for public nudity?

*plays “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected] check out @simplelaw.kw for free and affordable legal information

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

Hamleys, the UK toy store has finally opened up in Kuwait at The Gate Mall. I say finally because they were originally meant to open back in 2012 but for some reason never did. It’s also kinda odd that they opened their first store in The Gate Mall, might have to head there this weekend and see if anything else interesting is open there. Check out Hamleys on Instagram @hamleyskuwait

Mark Lowey, or AbuJack as he is known on Twitter has been fairly active recently scanning old photos of his from life back in Kuwait and Saudi during the 70s and 80s when he used to live here. Recently he published one of his journal entries from a spur of the moment trip he made to Kuwait with his friend Stephen back in 1979. Along with his journal entry, he has old pictures of Kuwait attached so it’s a really interesting piece to read (basically a blog post from 1979).

Check out his journal entry on his weekend excursion to Kuwait here and then make sure you follow him on twitter @molowey

I don’t remember how I first found out about the Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club (ADMC), or how I came about a picture of their car badge, but when I first saw it I knew I needed to have one. It’s such a great looking badge with the cute desert mouse and beautiful colors, I ended up spending over a year looking for one to purchase and wasn’t able to find a single one for sale, anywhere and for any price! I got in touch with random people whose parents might have been part of the club, I checked small private sllers, large auction sites, I checked with car badge collectors, and nobody either had one or wanted to sell one. Finally, back in September, one went on sale on eBay, and not just any, but one that was in pristine, 10/10 condition. It looked like it had never been installed on a car before and all the enamel was still intact and vibrant. I put a ridiculous maximum bid number since I knew I’d most likely not come across another one ever that was so clean, eventually, I ended up winning the bid for a lot less than I expected, around KD75.

Now that I had the badge I found it very frustrating that I couldn’t dig up any info on the club, there wasn’t anything online except for a single photo from an ADMC Alitalia Darts event dating back to 1964 and that was it. So I got in touch with a friend at KOC and asked him if he could check their archives for any photos or articles on the club and he struck gold.

Turns out KOC had some photos related to the motoring club but they were still negatives which hadn’t been scanned. So they dug them out of their archive and scanned them so I could share them on the blog. These images haven’t been seen by anyone for over 65 years! They also shared some articles relating to the club from the old KOC newsletter called “The Kuwaiti”. The Kuwaiti was a weekly newsletter and he flipped through the 1954 and 1955 archive of the newsletter and sent me some photos of ones relating to the club and motoring in general. Some really interesting stuff.

I’ve decided to share everything in two ways. Firstly I uploaded all the photos and articles to a Flickr album. If you prefer viewing things that way click here.

I’ve also created a PDF file of all the articles and if you prefer viewing the articles that way then click here to download the PDF

For the scanned images I have all of them embedded in high resolution below. The blog will resize them automatically to fit the width of my page, but if you save the images, you can view them in higher resolution on your phone or computer. Check those out by clicking more below.

Finally, I’d like to thank Kuwait Oil Company for digging these photos out and scanning them for me. Now people looking for info on the club will be able to find some kind of information online.

The General Dept of Traffic instagram account @traffic_kw should really be turned into a series of some sort like the show COPS. They’re very active and constantly posting videos of cars usually racing or drifting and then pictures of the cars impounded. In some of their videos, they’ve even had footage from inside the cop cars chasing people and it’s all pretty entertaining to watch.

If there is one government Instagram account to follow this would be it. So if you haven’t checked it out click here.

Note: They’ve got similar videos on their YouTube channel as well but their Instagram videos seem higher resolution. Link

The video above has been circulating WhatsApp showing the observation tower at Entertainment City crashing down as part of the Entertainment City demolition process. I was thinking about the park yesterday on how they could have refurbished it instead of rebuilding a new one from scratch. It wasn’t the best amusement park in the world but at least it had a history and character. Not everything needs to be completely demolished for a new version. Disney Land has been around since 1955 and is still very current, Coney Island amusement park has been around even longer since the late 1800s and has gone through various stages of refurbishment and revival.