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Over the weekend the ‏Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that the importing of car exhaust systems would be banned. Like every normal person, I also hate it when I’m sitting somewhere quiet only to have some asshole in a Silvarado pickup truck with a modified exhaust system rev his engine loud as if he’s about to take part in a drag race. But, banning the import of exhausts doesn’t solve this issue!

Why is it that every time there is any sort of problem the first solution is to apply an outright ban? People are riding electric scooters on the street? Let’s ban that. Some expats are using their private pickups for commercial work? Let’s ban them from owning pickup trucks. People might have sex in the back seat of their cars if we allow dark window tinting? Ban that! Instead of taking a bit of time to think of a proper solution, things just get banned and that sucks.

Firstly lets be clear about something, banning the import of car exhausts doesn’t solve the issue of people being loud with their cars. There are a lot of ways to make your current exhaust existing system loud and it’s easy and cheap to do. You can for example remove your car’s catalytic converter or your muffler and that would make your car really loud. You can cut holes in your muffler and that will also make your exhaust loud. You can even go to a local exhaust shop and have him fabricate you a cheap exhaust with the purpose of being loud if you want. There are lots of options without having to import an exhaust system from abroad.

I’ve personally imported two exhaust systems and both times it had nothing to do with making my car louder. The first exhaust I ordered was for my first Lotus, I didn’t like the way the stock exhaust looked like so I ordered a new one with carbon fiber tips (pictured on top). It didn’t make my car any louder and it came with a valve similar to the factory system that would stay closed for normal use and keep the car quiet. I simply ordered the exhaust for looks. The second time I ordered an exhaust system was for my 1972 Datsun 240Z which is currently in the final stages of restoration. The exhaust that came on the car was a poor quality aftermarket exhaust that was in terrible condition, so I ordered a new high-quality hand made exhaust all the way from Japan (cost me around 600KD and pictured below) to try and keep my restoration authentic. I know people who order exhausts for performance reasons as well, some exhaust systems add horsepower to the car and some are lighter and reduce the overall weight of the car.

More importantly though, what is considered loud in the first place? In Europe and other parts of the world, cars have noise limits that are measured in decibels. It’s not based on some cop’s opinion of what he thinks is loud, it’s actually a specific db number that if your car exceeds is then considered illegal. When they started cracking down on cars with loud exhausts last week nobody mentioned any db limit, just that people with “loud” exhaust would be fined and possibly have their cars impounded. But loud could mean one thing to one person and another thing to another.

Anyway, like every new law that gets announced in Kuwait, this will probably last a couple of weeks before it’s forgotten about and everything goes back to normal, so maybe I shouldn’t be so frustrated with this.

Gatwa W Gahwa, the first Cat Cafe in Kuwait that was located in Galleria 2000 closed down a couple of years back. They were moving to a new location in Boulevard and they even changed their name to Cats Boulevard, but then Corona hit and I guess the project was put on hold. There is now another place in Salmiya called Perfect Paws where you can go and play with cats. It’s not a cafe though, it’s what the owner calls a playground. I dropped by yesterday to check it out and it’s definitely not as nice a place as Gatwa W Gahwa, but if you want to play with some cats, you’re pretty limited with options.

Perfect Paws is located on the top floor of Fashion Way across the street from Al Fanar Complex. It costs KD3 per hour to play with their cats and there are A LOT of cats to play with. It’s only by appointment so no walk-ins allowed. But, even by appointment, I’d probably hold off on passing by during the pandemic since yesterday there were 10 people in the small place playing with the cats when I walked by. If you want to visit the playground or book an hour, then head over to their Instagram account @perfect.pawsq8

AlMuthanna Complex used to be one of the very few malls in Kuwait when I was growing up and it had some of my favorite places including The Kuwait Bookshop and Hungry Bunny. But for over a decade now it’s been a ghost town of a sort. I heard it had something to do with the fact that the land lease had expired and there was a transition period but that was over 10 years ago. I also heard rumors they were planning to demolish the building as well.

There are just a handful of stores still open in the mall so it’s pretty sad. The complex is located in a great location in the city, it has tons of parking and even the residential apartments are nicely laid out and constructed. If anyone knows what’s going on with the building let me know.

There are still a few places that develop 35mm film in Kuwait (example) but film options available are really limited. CRATE (@bycrate) is a local online store that sells 35mm and 120mm film as well as some cameras (disposable and reusable).

Prices are expensive or reasonable depending on how you look at them. They sell the Lomography “Simple Use Film Camera 400” for KD10 which is more expensive than the Lomo website but cheaper than if you ordered it yourself. But then you have the 800T Cinetstill film for example which they’re selling for KD8 but costs KD4 online so slightly cheaper if you ordered it yourself. Want it now and don’t want to bother ordering the stuff online? Then you’re going to have to pay a bit of a “premium”.

If you’re interested in film, check out their website bycrate.com

Teacher’s Cellar whom I posted about back in 2010 is closing down their location in Al Muthana Complex. The whole mall has turned into a ghost town and it’s pretty sad since I have a lot of great memories there as a kid. I really hope they don’t demolish it. Anyway, due to the fact they’re closing down the store, Teacher’s Cellar currently have a 75% discount on everything until January 21st.

So if you’ve got kids and are looking to get random things from books, to fun activities, science experiments, or even simple things like scratch & sniff stickers or magnetic alphabets, pass by them before they close down. @teacherscellarq8

Al Diwan Al Amiri released a preview video of the new Entertainment City and although I hate the fact they demolished the old one, I think I kinda like this one. I like it because they’ve combined a lot of different things into the place which might actually make it successful. Previously it was just an amusement park but the new version merges a mall, hotel, and sports stadium with the park as well as an aquarium and museum. The new Entertainment City is going to be now called “The City” and contain the following:

Outdoor Theme Park (6 theme zones)
Indoor Theme Park (Envisioned by Ubisoft)
Indoor Snow Park
Waterpark
Aquarium
Dolphinarium
Museum & Planetarium
High Street Retail
A Retail Mall
Luxury District (900+ rooms and apartments)
Icon Hotel (480+ luxury rooms)
Sports and Festival Arena (25,000+ spectators)

The only thing I really don’t like and should be changed is the dolphinarium. It’s 2021, we’re all much more aware and informed on how inhumane dolphinariums are. Even The Scientific Center canceled plans for their dolphinarium so not sure why we’re still trying to build one in Kuwait.

Other than that one issue I’m excited about this project. No completion date was shared in the presentation but going by their previous schedules, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first stage isn’t completed in around 2 years’ time.

Thanks @_M87

The Kuwait coastguard removed a dead whale this past weekend which was found near the Jaber Causeway bridge. This isn’t the first time that this has happened but it has to be right up there with some of the biggest ones so far.

I’ve never really been interested in astrophotography myself since it’s a pretty time-consuming process that requires a lot of patience, but I do find the process interesting. I also assumed we wouldn’t be able to get good photos in Kuwait due to the light pollution but a local photographer is proving that assumption to be false.

Abdulmohsen Alreesh is a local photographer who has been capturing some great photos of our solar system and posting them on his Instagram account @mi7sen89. Not only that but he’s also listing the equipment he’s using as well as the capture details. For example, below is the info he shared related to the photo above:

Rosette Nebula NGC 2244

Description: The beautiful rosette nebula! Named because of the nebulosity that resembles rose petals. I actually see a skull but still a very cool target. The cluster and nebula lie at a distance of 5,000 light-years from Earth and measure roughly 130 light-years in diameter. The radiation from the young stars excites the atoms in the nebula, causing them to emit radiation themselves producing the emission nebula we see.

Equipment:
° Mount: Ioptron Cem40 with iPolar
° Main Imaging: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
° Filter: Optolong L-extreme 1.25″
° OTA: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED
° SW field flattener
° Guide Scope: ZWO mini guide scope 120mm
° Guide Camera: ZWO ASI-120MM-mini
° Stellarmate – Wireless Astrophotography Controller

Integration:
Lights: 30 x 300 seconds – gain 120
Darks: none
Flats: none
Bias: none

Total acquisition: 2 hours 30 minutes

Software:
Deep Sky Stacker
Siril
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Lightroom

It’s super interesting and he’s got other examples similar to this on his account as well. If you want to get into astrophotography or want to see more photos captured by Abdulmohsen, then make sure you check out his Instagram account @mi7sen89

Charged is a local company that sells electric car charging stations for commercial and home use. They popped up on my Instagram feed last week and then spotted one of their charging stations at the Mishref Coop this weekend while picking up pastries from Caesars. Then randomly, yesterday someone on Reddit linked to their website where they’ve compiled a list of charging stations around Kuwait. I noticed they had a bunch of places missing so it gave me the idea to put together a more comprehensive list which I’ve shared here:

Abudllah Al Salem Cultural Center
Al-Hamra Tower
Arraya Tower
Environment Public Authority
KFH Auto Showroom
Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre
Mishrif Coop
Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research KISR
Porsche Dealership
Public Authority for Applied Education and Training
Sabah Al Salem Univerisity City
Shaheed Park
Society of Engineers RFID
The Avenues
West Misrif Coop
X-Cite – Al-Rai

If you’re aware of a charging station that isn’t listed above, let me know.

Thanks Regis839

Since I started working out at home I had been using my portable B&O Beolit 15 speaker for music. It was ok, but I felt I needed a bit more oomph to get me going during workouts plus I needed a CD player anyway. I still have all my CDs and there are some really great albums (like The K&D Sessions) that aren’t even available to stream. So I went out and bought myself a sound system and wanted to write about my experience in case anyone was interested in getting one, or just wanted to know what brands are available where.

There are three main places in Kuwait to get good audio system from:

Adawliah (Shuwaikh, Life Center location)
Brands: Bose, Jamo, Klipsch, Yamaha

Best Electronics (4th Ring Road, Shuwaikh location)
Brands: Denon, Definitive Technology, Earthquake Sound, Paradigm, Technics

Xcite (Avenues and Al-Rai locations)
Brands: AudioQuest, Bowers & Wilkins, KEF, Klipsch, Marantz, Onkyo, Polk Audio, SVS

In addition to the above, I also checked out Samma3a.com and Amazon.co.uk for AudioLab and Cambridge Audio brands since both sites would deliver to Kuwait. Samma3a had free shipping and Amazon UK although has expensive shipping, they remove the 20% VAT from the cost of the item when exporting so with the shipping cost the price balances out.

Like with everything I tend to buy, I do a ton of research first. I didn’t have a budget at first, I just found a nice setup at Best Electronics in Shuwaikh that had a Denon amp and CD player paired with Definitive Tech speakers and a small Earthquake sub for around KD500 which I liked. I initially decided I wanted to pay a lot less than that for my system, but, if I was to pay that much then I needed to make sure it was worth it. So I started the research process by looking at different brands locally and online.

I read and watched a ton of reviews and the more I did the more confused I was getting. The problem was that everyone had a different idea of what good sound is supposed to sound like. Most audiophiles for example would find what I like very “musical” which is their polite way of saying not authentic and over-exaggerated, but I also couldn’t agree with their idea of what bass is meant to sound like. In the end, the best thing I did was listen to the speakers myself before buying them. I had basically narrowed my options locally to three speaker brands, B&W, Definitive Technology, and KEF. I went to the showrooms expecting the salespeople to be unhelpful and I didn’t think they would actually let me test out the speakers, but, surprisingly, they were all super helpful. I had such a great experience in the audio sections of Adawliah, Best, and Xcite, they were all just fantastic. The salespeople I interacted with had no issues picking up and moving heavy speakers from one end of the showroom to the other just so they could connect them to a working amplifier and I could listen to them. I usually don’t like dealing with salespeople but something about the guys working in the audio sections, they all seem to have a passion for what they do.

In the end, I mostly stuck around at the Xcite branch in Al-Rai (shoutout to Cezar) since I decided I wanted KEF speakers and they had most of them on display there. I already had a pair of KEF LSX speakers which I had been using in my main living area and I really liked them so I decided to stick with KEF. Xcite had the KEF LS50W which is the LSX big brother selling for KD400 which was half the actual retail price and I was very close to getting it until I heard the KEF R7’s. While browsing I noticed the KEF R7’s were discounted and priced at KD379. So I had the salesman hook them up and I started listening to some of my music and that was it, I fell in love instantly. They were everything I was looking for in a speaker and I couldn’t believe I finally found the speakers I REALLY wanted. So I decided to buy them. The salesman checked his system and told me they were the last piece. It was odd cuz I could see his screen said he had 2 pieces left so I asked him about it and that’s when he hit me with the bad news. Turns out the R7’s were sold individually, not as a pair. Meaning the KD379 price was per speaker, so around KD750 for the pair after discount (close to 1,500 before). I ended up leaving empty-handed and sad since they sounded incredible but also cost wayyyyy more than I wanted to pay.

I spent the next few days thinking about a lot of things. Music was always something I was really into while growing up and something I always spent all my money on. The last time I bought a decent pair of speakers was 20 years ago, I was fresh out of college and right after moving back to Kuwait I bought a pair of Jamo X870 speakers from Adawliah. They were also discounted around 50% off and I spent maybe KD200 on them. And that was back when I was broke with maxed-out credit cards. I still have those speakers today and use them in my living room. So if I could spend that much money 20 years ago when I was broke, surely I can spend more now, so I did. I went back to Xcite and ended up picking the KEF R7’s. I then passed by Adawliah and picked up the Yamaha R-N803 integrated amp which was also discounted down to KD200. A few days later I headed back to Xcite and picked up a Marantz CD5005 CD player which was discounted down to KD60. And finally, this past weekend I dropped by Xcite one last time and picked up the SVS SB-2000 Pro subwoofer which was discounted down to KD259 to connect to my KEF LSX in my other room. My total bill is absurd, but, it’s been a a hell of a year so whatever.

So just a quick review, it’s been over a week now since I got the KEF R7’s and I really really love them. The sound comes out so clear and the bass really deep. I used to think my Jamo’s were great but they just sound so muddy now compared to the KEF’s. I’ve started listening to music more now while at home. Definitely no regrets with my purchase. The Yamaha amplifier has also been great, it pumps a lot of power to the speakers and also has the convenience of built-in WiFi. Because of the WiFi, I’ve now set up the KEF R7’s as AirPlay speakers making it super easy to stream to them whenever I want to. I also have the SVS subwoofer connected to my KEF LSX speakers downstairs and those sound even better than they did before, definitely worth the money.

If you’re looking to buy a proper sound system then Adawliah, Best and Xcite are your best options. Make sure you visit the locations I’ve specifically mentioned since that’s where you’ll find the brands I listed, their other showrooms won’t have them. Also, not everything is listed on their websites. Actually, nothing I bought was listed on any of the websites. At Adawliah the employee had to search through his system to tell me what 2-channel integrated amps they had in stock, at Xcite everything was showing as sold out, and Best doesn’t even have any of the brands I mentioned listed on their website.

Got questions? Let me know in the comments and I’ll try and answer them for you.

Last weekend I signed up and took part in the first open track event at the Kuwait Motor Town. It was probably the only sport left in Kuwait other than bowling that hadn’t restarted and I couldn’t understand why. It’s a sport where everyone is alone inside their cars driving around an outdoor circuit, so it’s pretty much perfect for social distancing. After taking part in the first event last weekend, I ended up leaving really impressed with the whole experience.

For this COVID era, KMT has introduced some new rules and changes to make things even safer than usual. Here are some of the important ones they’ve introduced:

Number of Participants
The number of participants at a race has been reduced to just 30. Previously it was anywhere from 60 to 90 participants per open track event. This means a lot less people everywhere and even spectators are no longer allowed at the events.

Registration
Previously on arriving to the track, you had to park your car, go into the reception area and wait in line till it’s your turn so you can sign in and collect your tags. You then have to go back to your car and drive up the scrutineering area where a group of guys run a number of safety checks on your car. The new process now is when you enter the parking lot you register at the gate while still in your car. While registering the scrutineering team will check your car and then when they’re done you enter the track. You don’t have to leave your car and really this process was so much more efficient than the previous way, they should permanantly have it this way.

Pitlane Garages
Pre-COVID, you’d enter the pitlane and park in any of the garages you wanted to. Now every garage is assigned to an individual and the separators between the garages are closed. So you basically park in a large garage by yourself and you don’t see anyone or interact with anyone. Every garage has it’s own bathroom and they’ve also provided gloves, masks and hand sanitizer for you.

Briefing
Before a race, every participant needs to attend a briefing session. Previously we’d all squeeze into a tightly packed overcrowded room. Now the number of participants has been reduced down to just 30 people and on top of that, the briefing session has been split into two groups. So there is plenty of social distancing during the briefing.

Other Points
Due to the number of participants only being 30, the track was pretty much empty the whole time with no traffic. KMT have installed new digital flags all around the track so we can now see the various warning flags when they’re shown. KMT now also has a fuel station and they accept Knet!

Really the only negative thing about KMT right now is the lack of proper night lights. They’re using regular street lights around the track which barely light up the track because they need to be positioned behind the safety barriers which are quite a distance from the track. There has been talk every year about getting proper flood lights but it hasn’t happened yet.

As I said at the start of the post I left the event impressed. If there was a local sport that is setting a good example of how to host an event safely during COVID, it’s KMT.

● Burgers take the lead as the most ordered cuisine in Kuwait
● The most expensive late night order wasn’t food
● Kuwait is officially the king of sauces, with extra sauce orders being the highest in the region

The home-grown region leading food and grocery delivery app, talabat, has compiled a list of some of their Kuwaiti customer’s best, weirdest, and wonderful ordering habits of the year. 2020 has been a year that we don’t want to repeat – however that doesn’t mean that we can’t find fun in some of how we’ve used talabat!

Lockdown: What was the most ordered cuisine?
We’ll give you a hint: two buns, salad and a meaty filling. That’s right – burgers! Of the top 20 most-ordered foods during lockdown, the first six, and twelve in total were from burger joints! Now the big question; Burger King, Elevation Burger or McDonalds?

This year, Burger King reigned supreme, featuring six times on the top 20, with the Chicken Royale Meal crowned as the most loved lockdown meal, with 2.5x more orders than the Elevation Burger’s cheeseburger – which came in second place product on our list. McDonald’s was also featured in 20th spot, with their McChicken Medium Meal.

The biggest late night order in Kuwait? 608 KDs
From the tales of the weird and wonderful, we’ve uncovered this little gem. This year’s biggest late night order came in the form of two air conditioners: 1x Hyundai Wall Mounted 24K and 1x Hyundai Wall Mounted 30k.

We’ve heard about the perils (or joys) of late night shopping, but this takes it to the next level!

Kuwait: The undisputed sauce loving champions of the region
It’s official. Kuwaiti’s are the undisputed sauce loving champions in the region. Our top three purchased extra sauces, headlined by the Santa Fe Sauce from Hardees, followed by Mayo and Ketchup Mix Sauce, also from Hardees and Sweet Chilli Sauce from McDonalds were ordered over 330,000 times this year. To put that into context, that’s 125,000 more sauces than the next closest market, Egypt.

Sharing kindness following a few taps
Food and groceries (and air conditioners) were not the only ways that Kuwaiti citizens and residents used talabat – they also used it to donate!

With over 35,000 KD donated during COVID, Kuwaitis have really shown their kindness. Customers also took part of donating to Beirut’s recovery in the #lunchforlebanon campaign. With over 115,000 orders placed during #lunchforlebanon, region-wide, talabat donated 100% off all profits as well as an extra 150,000 euros.

Earlier this week I posted a list of car and bike brands that were acquired by BNK and one of the brands I listed was Vanderhall Motor Works. Vanderhall is an American vehicle manufacturer that produces three-wheeled roadsters and yesterday I took a spin in one around the block.

I’m really not a big fan of three-wheeled cars but was curious to try one, and having tried one now, I’m still not a fan. It’s not a motorbike or a car and there is no way to avoid potholes in a three-wheeler. The roadster is hot looking but would look ten times hotter if it had four wheels! Definitely a toy car.

If you’re interested, they’re going to sell for around 10-14K at the local dealer depending on the model and you can get more info by visiting their instagram account @vanderhallkw

Over the weekend I picked up the brand new Porsche Taycan to review. I’ve been curious to try the Taycan ever since it launched because I think it’s the best looking fully electric car on the market right now by far (sorry Tesla owners). I was hoping the color combo of the test drive car was white exterior with a black interior similar to the launch photos, but the car I picked up was a metallic blue with a beige interior. Not the most exciting color combination and I was actually worried it would be difficult to shoot but the shots eventually came out great.

The Taycan is Porsche’s fully electric car. It’s not a hybrid, meaning, it doesn’t run on a combination of electricity and fuel, this is a 100% electric car similar to how Teslas are. My worry with electric cars always obviously is running out of power and being stuck on the side of the road. The Taycan fully charged has a range of over 400km, but when I picked up the car from the dealer, it only had a 77% charge. Kinda sucked cuz it didn’t help with the anxiety of running out of range. When reviewing cars I tend to put on a lot of mileage on the cars very quickly so I can get a proper experience with it. I had a whole day of errands to run and I wasn’t going to let a partially charged vehicle change that. So I decided I’d not focus too much on the range and just enjoy the car.

The interior felt very familiar right away because it still resembled a normal Porsche although all the buttons had been replaced by a large touch screen and the gauges were fully digital. There was a feeling of familiarity because it felt like a regular car and wasn’t stripped out like a Tesla where all the car controls moved to a tablet-like screen. The interior looked hi-tech with three displays, one in front of me where the analog gauges would usually be, a large screen in the center of the dash, and finally a large screen built into the center console which has all the controls. There is an extra option to add a passenger screen which I think would make the interior even more futuristic but the car I drove didn’t have it. I’m generally not a fan of touch screens for controls, but I wasn’t too bothered by the controls on the Taycan. The screen was large enough to make all the buttons big and easy to touch, plus there was haptic feedback so I could tell if I had pressed a button properly or not.

I started off by heading to Shuwaikh to quickly take some photos of the car in case I didn’t have time later that day but also so I could post some photos on my Instagram story. I then headed to Avenues for some Christmas shopping before heading to Bayan and different parts of Salmiya for some more errands. Anytime someone would message me on Instagram to ask me how the car was I had one response and that it was fast. The model I drove was the Taycan Turbo which does 0 to 100 in 3.2 seconds, that’s faster than my Lotus which is a difficult idea to grasp. It’s also not only fast 0 to 100, the car keeps acceleration effortlessly as long as you have your foot down on the power. One cool Porsche feature is the fake electric sound that you can get on the car. Electric cars don’t make sounds but for an extra KD150, Porsche will fit the car with the Electric Sport Sound option which adds a futuristic humming-like sound that makes the car sound like you’d expect an electric car to sound like in an 80s movie. It sounded super cool and I obviously had the option turned on all the time. I tried capturing the sound but didn’t have any luck but you could check out this video on YouTube if you want to hear it.

I ended up driving quite a bit of distance on the car, even headed over the Kuwait bay bridge to the other side to take some more photos of the car and by the time I had finished with the car and brought it back to the dealer, it still had around 28% battery left (120km range). I loved the car and if I was in the market for an electric car the Taycan would be an easy choice for me over the Tesla because of the looks alone. But, I wouldn’t go for the Turbo model which starts from KD47,300. Nobody needs a 4 door sedan to be that fast. Instead, I’d recommend the 4S model which starts from KD33,900. When I built my own car on the Porsche website with all the options I wanted the car came out to KD42,000 which is still way cheaper than the base Turbo model. So that would be my recommendation, get the Taycan 4S pimped out with all the options you want.

At the start of the pandemic, I shut down the events section since everything obviously stopped. But, a few things are starting to pop up and I’m going to start posting about them here and once things really take off, only then reopen the events section again. For now here are a few things taking place this weekend:

Friday
Trashtag Kuwait x Solarity
Sound Healing
Straw Blown Acrylic Pour
Yin Yan Yoga
Kuwait Cricket Desert Championship Finals

Saturday
Saracen Race 2020

If I missed an event let me know.