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Kuwait, there’s a better way to get around.

We’re super excited to announce that we’ve permanently reduced our prices! Now, a Careem ride is comparable with taxis on the street but without all the hassle.

With us, you never need to haggle or negotiate for a good deal. The fare estimate is displayed on the app, so you know the cost in advance. Plus, you don’t have to give our Captains directions or explain how to get there. Instead, you can sit back and relax. Careem’s advanced GPS and ride tracking will get you where you’re going.

No matter where you are in the city, you can get a ride in minutes. And best of all, we’re constantly giving you more with features like Careem REWARDS and Ride packages.

With REWARDS, you earn points with every ride and you can use these points for more rides or donate them to good causes. Ride packages let you plan ahead. You pay for bundles with BIG savings.

We’re always coming up with crazy offers through promo codes to make our rides even more affordable. Codes will be available for certain cities (like Salmiya), areas with limited parking and high-traffic zones.

We also give you so many choices! We know everyone has different preferences and that’s why we’ve created multiple car types to suit your style. Order a Business car type for a premium experience or a Taxi car type to save more.

We’re local, so it gives us pride to be the most affordable ride-hailing service in Kuwait!

Book your ride now!

Last night I visited Expo 965 after a friend told me about it. I had a difficult time trying to understand what it was about at first or even where it was being held since all the information was in Arabic. But, I eventually found the place on Google Maps (after going to the wrong location first) and it turned out to be a really interesting experience. The Expo features Kuwaiti heritage and craftsman but there were a lot of private collectors there displaying family-related or old Kuwait related items.

When you first walk in the place doesn’t look very impressive but I ended up spending nearly two hours there. It’s two medium-sized halls filled with tables and stands and just random Kuwait related stuff on display. In my head, I was like let me check things out quickly and then walk over to BBT for a burger which was right next door. But the expo turned out to be way more fun than I was expecting.

The first display that ended up grabbing my attention had old radios and TV’s and it turned out to belong to the vintage radio shop guy. I hadn’t seen him since he moved his shop to Hawalli (and now it’s back in the city) so after catching up with him I decided to check out the rest of the expo. Basically it turns out it’s all about the people behind the displays. Everyone there was a volunteer and wanted to talk to you or share with you interesting information. Whenever I spotted anything interesting I’d ask the person who owned the stuff about it, and not only would they show me the item but they’d also take the time and explain the whole story behind it. Like literally every person I spoke to had an interesting story to share from the guy who’s dad was the first Kuwaiti dentist to the guy who collected vintage food wrappers and cans. I was not expecting to have so much fun.

So if you’re looking for something to do over the next few days the expo is being held until Thursday. Pass by and check it out and make sure you talk to the people.

For location and timings click [Here]

Thanks Aisha AlSaif!

Every year right after Apple announces a new iPhone, Digits get in touch with me asking me if I’d be interested in one. They always make sure I have a device on launch day so I could review it for the blog, and they always hook me up with a good discount on top of that. But, this was the first year I was a bit hesitant to say yes to them. I got the iPhone XS from them last year and it has been my favorite iPhone to date. The battery life was great, the camera was amazing and the OLED screen incredible. My phone was in great shape and I really didn’t have any issues with it so I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to plunk down money on a new one. But, since I take so many photos with the iPhone for the blog, the new ultra-wide lens and the new night mode would be really helpful, so I decided to get the iPhone 11 Pro in the new midnight green color.

When it came to choosing a color for the phone, any color would have been fine with me. I actually didn’t know what color my XS was until a friend asked me and I had to take it out of the silicon case to check. But since I wanted to feel like I got a new phone, I got the midnight green with the new matching silicon case. A lot of people online have mentioned how the green doesn’t really look green in real life, not sure what they’re on about but I can clearly tell its green. Its a grey green, not a bright or saturated green, but still green. I took the photo on top in front of my grey wall and you can clearly see how green the phone looks. I like it a lot and it sucks that I’m too clumsy or else I would have really enjoyed the color instead of having it hidden behind an iPhone case.

The changes in the new iPhone compared to the previous XS aren’t that noticeable and the only time you really can tell the difference is when you use the phone side by side with an older one. I found that out because whenever friends with iPhone XS’s ask me about the new 11 Pro, I downplay it a lot. I tell them there really isn’t much of a difference but then they take my phone and start playing with it and you hear sounds like “oooh” and “ahh” either because my phone launches apps a lot faster than theirs or because the new camera takes pictures that are noticeably better and because of the new ultra-wide lens.

After personally using the iPhone 11 Pro for a week now, here are the three things that really stick out for me compared to my XS:

Battery Life
Not sure how many extra hours my new iPhone battery lasts, but I used to leave the office before at around 3PM with my XS battery at around 40% full, now I leave the office with the battery at around 70% full. So a pretty noticeable improvement.

Ultra Wide Lens
Yes the three lenses do look a bit weird on the back of the phone but it also does help differentiate the new iPhone from the older ones. As soon as people see the three lenses they ask me if that’s the new iPhone 11 Pro and want to play around with it. The third lens on the new iPhone Pro is an ultra-wide lens and I’m generally a big fan of these kinds of lenses. I have a 12-24mm ultra-wide lens for my Sony A7 III camera and I tend to use it a lot so I love having a similar lens on my phone which is always with me, unlike my Sony cam. It’s going to make capturing interior shots a lot easier and I love shooting cars with ultra-wide lenses. Below is a photo of my apartment I took using the three different lenses for comparison.

Night Mode
This is a new feature that I’m really liking at the moment even though the effect is very subtle. The new iPhone 11 Pro has a feature called night mode that activates in low light situations. The camera then takes different exposures of your photo and combines them into one brighter and better lit photo. The result looks great but because this process all happens in the background, it doesn’t feel like the phone did anything special. It’s only when you compare the photo with the same image with night mode turned off do you notice the magic. This is why I said the effect is very subtle, not because the phone doesn’t do much but because the result looks natural and more real lifelike. Below is a perfect example of this, I took the shot at Peacock, the first with night mode off and the second with night mode on. In reality, the scene looked closer to the second shot (night mode on).

I do have one big issue with the new iPhone and that is the lack of 3D touch. Not a lot of people know this (which is why it’s a feature that got removed) but with the iPhone X and XS the phone recognizes hard presses on the screen. This was a pretty cool feature that allowed me to do various things quickly. If I was typing something and wanted to move the cursor to a previous word or area in the paragraph, I could just press hard on the keyboard area and then move the cursor that way. But now with 3D touch gone, I need to change my habits. Instead of hard pressing on the keyboard to move the cursor around, I have to now long press on the keyboard space key to move the cursor which is just more awkward and slower. Even something so simple as opening the camera from my lock screen requires me to relearn the button press timing right because I’m used to hard pressing the camera button and opening it up instantly. Instead, I now have to press the camera button for a short time to open the camera and after a week I still haven’t gotten the timing right.

But, the biggest question everyone wants to know the answer to is if it’s worth the upgrade?

If you have an iPhone XS
Probably not, not unless you really want the ultra-wide lens. If you travel a lot or post to instagram a lot then you’re gonna really appreciate the new opportunities the ultra-wide lens will give you. The night mode is a great feature but not nearly as fun or obvious like the new ultra-wide lens.

If you have an iPhone X
You probably should, the camera quality difference between X and XS was big, and the difference between X and 11 Pro is even bigger. Plus the new phone is a lot faster and because your X’s battery probably doesn’t hold as good as a charge now as it did 2 years ago, you’re gonna notice an even bigger jump in battery life.

If you have an iPhone 8 or older
Yes, for sure! The larger OLED screen is the biggest reason you should upgrade but the excellent camera and much faster processor are also really good reasons to upgrade.

Let me know if you have any questions below and thank you Digits for the hooking me up again!

Around a month ago Zain sent over a 5G router for me to test out at home. I’ve already posted a first and second impression post and now after trying out the device for a full month, I’m convinced it’s a must-have connection. There isn’t anything faster right now on the market, not even close.

Clearly 5G is super fast but there are two important questions that need to be answered here:

1) Do you really need 5G speeds?

No, I don’t think so, I don’t think the majority of people need 5G speeds, I personally don’t. Someone left a comment the other day under my iPhone 11 Pro post saying it sucks that the new iPhone doesn’t have 5G, and I have to ask, why would you need 5G speeds on your phone? On my home computers, I rarely download torrents anymore which is where I can see speeds of 500 or 700Mbps making the biggest difference and maybe for downloading a new videogame on my PS4 every now and then or a software update but that’s really it. For normal use 100Mbps would be more than enough. The reason I see the need for 5G is because not everyone can get a fiber connection at home and rarely anyone gets decent LTE speeds at home, so 5G is really the only other option.

When I tried downloading a torrent file over 5G, I hit speeds of around 10MB/s and I ended up downloading a 5GB file in around 7 minutes. 5G is so fast that it might have taken me longer to copy a 5GB file off my home server to my Mac. There is a wow factor when downloading large apps or PS4 updates and you see the progress bar fill up so quickly. 5G is so fast its stupid funny, and in my case where just until a few months ago the fastest connection I could get at home was 10Mbps, jumping up to 700Mbps is a HUGE difference.

So no, I don’t think anyone really needs full 5G speeds for normal use, but for the majority of people, 5G is the only way to crack the 100Mbps barrier at home.

2) Is it expensive?

I know a lot of people might disagree with me here but I don’t think 5G is expensive. If you compare 5G to fiber prices or how much I’m paying for Zain Beam, you’ll quickly realize the amount you’re paying for the speed you’re getting is actually great deal. Here is a quick comparison:

Zain Beam 20Mbps: KD25/m (unlimited bandwidth)
Fasttelco Fiber 50Mbps: KD35/m (unlimited bandwidth)
Qualitynet Fiber 100Mbps: KD32/m (unlimited bandwidth)
Zain 5G (500Mbps+): KD45/m (1TB bandwidth)

I think what really makes 5G seem expensive is the limited bandwidth. Optimally the minimum you would want is 1TB per month. I just checked my usage and from September 12 up to September 30, I consumed around 320GB of bandwidth which is a lot less than I was expecting so 1TB would work out just fine for my needs. If you download tons of PS4 or Xbox games, you’ll probably want more than 1TB and the next step up is a whopping KD65 for 1.8TB.

In conclusion, I want 5G at home even though I just signed up to Zain Beam a few months back. I did ask a Zain employee if I could “upgrade” from Beam to 5G and was told I could without any penalties so that’s good news. I am worried that once 5G becomes a lot more common the speeds would drop, but even if it drops to say 300Mbps I’d still be happy with it. If you haven’t checked out my previous posts on 5G here are the links:

First Impression: Zain 5G in Salmiya
Second Impression: Zain 5G in Salmiya

Also, here is the link to the Zain 5G website.

update: I was just informed that you can’t upgrade from Zain Beam to 5G so I updated my post to reflect that.

Kuwait Motor Town are starting their 2019/2020 season this coming weekend with an open track experience at the race track! An open track experience is when drivers sign up to race their cars around the circuit for fun and I’m super excited for the new season to start.

The KMT race track opened last year and it was incredibly fun not only racing around our great track but also just meeting other people and hanging out with friends. There are 4 car open track events and a bunch of bike open track and drift events up on their website right now. Since the weather is still pretty hot me and my friends signed up for the later dates (October 25, November 1) which are now showing as sold out. But, there are still spots available for earlier days if you’re interested.

The entry fee for a driver with a car is KD75 (which is really good) and the number of cars is usually limited to around 70 cars per open track day. If you want to find out more or if you’re interested in signing up then visit the KMT website [Here]

Here is also a link to their instagram account which is @kmwkw

Photo on top by @81gram

I have a series of old posts called “Life in Kuwait back in the 1950s” that still attracts some of the most amazing comments today by people who used to live in Ahmadi in the 50s. I’ve even previously posted about how a bunch of kids who grew up in Ahmadi together were able to reconnect after 60 years in the comments of one of these posts and now someone left another very interesting comment. Mike Green grew up in Kuwait in the early 50s and he converted some of his parents old 8mm film to digital and uploaded the footage to youtube. Below is his story along with the videos:

My Dad (Cliff Green) arrived in Kuwait in 1953, and the rest of the family left rainy Manchester in a Dakota the following year. My final time in Ahmadi was 1968 when I started work in the UK, and Dad left in 1971. I have converted some old Standard 8 film to digital and that along with some interspersed photos and modern film I have posted on YouTube.

Many of the “second generation” along with now very few older generation meet each year for an Ahmadi reunion which has been running now for nearly 50 years. In 2010 my sister and I visited Ahmadi on our way to Dubai and it was very strange to see the old haunts still there but there have been many changes to the housing (etc).

The Hubara Club has been renovated but there are still some remnants of the old days which were not destroyed during the invasion. Particularly (and how strange is this memory) the power socket on the outdoor stage is still the same one I used back in 1966 with Chris & Glyn Gustar, and Kerry Scott as our “holiday band” got into full swing – supporting, if I remember “The Twisters” I must consider putting down on paper more of the life we had as “privileged kids” during the 1950’s and early 60’s.

Over the weekend I passed by Digits and picked up an iPhone 11 Pro to replace my iPhone XS with. I’m going to be posting my opinion on it later this week but if there is anything specific you want to know or want me to try out, let me know in the comments so I can include it in my post.

Just read a terrible story on Reddit of a girl’s ordeal trying to report a rape case here in Kuwait. If you don’t want to read the full story, basically after having to repeat her story at least 6 times to different males on different occasions, being refused to have a female officer question her, refusing her request for a translator, got hit on by her lawyer, she was finally charged and arrested herself. It’s such a mess and really upsetting. You can read the full story [Here]

I spotted this Alfa for sale online back in late March and I then flew to the Netherlands a week later to check it out in person. Once I got back to Kuwait I bought the car and since then it’s been a painstaking process to bring it to Kuwait. Most of the delay took place in the Netherlands were they needed around two months to register the car and get the paperwork in order before the car finally left Netherlands at the end of July and reached Kuwait earlier this month. My shipping company had a bunch of paperwork to do before it was finally released from Shuwaikh port and was delivered to me late last night. I still need to get the car registered since it doesn’t have any license plates yet but at least it’s now with me and parked in my basement.

When they dropped the car off around 12:30AM I decided to take it for a spin around the block. It felt so good driving the car and now I can’t wait for the remaining paperwork to get finished so I can drive it properly. The Public Authority for Industry gave me a temporary release for the car and I had to call a number and have someone come to inspect the car today. They actually just came took photos of the car and my car’s vin number. I had to pay them a fee of KD18 they will be uploading the photos to the Public Authority database for the next step of the registration process. Other than that I also had to pay a 5% customs fee on the car before it was allowed to leave the port.

Not sure what the next step is since my shipping company (Transcrate) are taking care of the whole process for me. I originally was hoping to create a sort of a “How to import a classic car to Kuwait” guide with all the steps you need to take, but I’ve now realized since I’m not doing the paperwork myself, these posts aren’t turning out that way. Hopefully, they’re still a bit helpful.

Last week JACC released the new full season calendar spanning from now up until April of next year and sadly there doesn’t seem to be any interesting English events coming up. In fact, there are just two, a circus act at the end of this month and an orchestra in November. I’m hoping there will be more English events added down the line but for now, if you want to check the current schedule then click here.

Not sure what I was searching for on eBay but I ended up finding a 35mm slide of Kuwait for sale taken back in 1961. My curiosity kicked in so I decided to see if there were more 35mm slides of Kuwait and ended up finding a few for sale and a whole lot that had previously sold. I saved all the ones I found, they’re 32 photos to be exact and I’ve shared them below.

All these photos were sold by the same person on eBay and they all date back to 1961. The interesting part is that all these slides were sold individually and each one had multiple bids on them. Some ended up selling for over KD40 (per slide) and some quick poking around made me realize most were purchased by the same person.

Whoever is buying up all these slides, email me!

Check out all the photos below, there are some great shots of Kuwait I hadn’t seen before.

Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) took feedback from the popular TripIt app and determined the results of the Passenger Choice Awards and the Official Airline Rating. Kuwait Airways ended up getting an5-star airline rating which sounds like a big thing, but technically, the lowest it could have scored on this list was a 4. Still, a 5-star rating puts it ahead of airlines like British Airways and Etihad Airways which both scored a rating of 4. It’s a small victory but still an important one since it shows how quickly Kuwait Airways has changed for the better now that they’ve got the newer planes and a dedicated terminal.

Here are the results of the Passenger Choice Awards:

Best Seat Comfort – Qatar Airways
Best Entertainment – Emirates
Best Wi-Fi – Delta Air Lines
Best Cabin Service – Qatar Airways
Best Food and Beverage – Qatar Airways

On a side note, Kuwait Airways also came ninth in flights timing accuracy between 175 airlines according to the UK’s Official Aviation Guide (OAG).

For the full APEX results click here.

Not a super busy weekend but the events season still hasn’t really started so it will get busier as the weather cools down. Below are this weekends events:

Thursday
Exhibition: 100 Grams of Reality
Kuwait Game Jam 2019

Friday
Kuwait Game Jam 2019
Staged in Kuwait Welcome Lunch
Q8 Readers Book Club: The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak

Saturday
Kuwait Game Jam 2019
Yoga at the Park
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Q8 Walking Club
Ultimate Frisbee

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Earlier this year, Korea Grill, the small Korean restaurant in New Park Hotel closed down along with the hotel and so they were forced to relocate. Last week they finally reopened but this time at the Radisson Blu and they’ve rebranded to The Kimchi.

The Kimchi took over the location of the Polynesian restaurant Kon-Tiki which had opened back in 2004 when Radisson Blu used to be the Radisson SAS. I believe Kon-Tiki closed down over a decade ago (not sure) and I think its been empty ever since. I remember I saw the place when I got a tour of the hotel after they refurbished it, but I don’t recall what this space was being used for back then. The interior was always nice looking with lots of wood and bamboo and private rooms built to look like small Asian structures. The restaurant is located underneath the Al Boom ship and the hull of the ship is integrated into the interior. The Kimchi updated the space a bit and it still looks good although I do wish the lights were dimmed a bit to give the space a moodier feel.

The menu is pretty huge now so I’m assuming everything that was on the menu at Korea Grill is still there along with a lot more new items. I went for some Korean BBQ and ended up ordering their set menu of assorted cuts for 2-3 people. It was good but I felt it was overpriced at KD28 considering neither of us left full. I actually contemplated passing by Peacock to continue dinner there because I was still hungry. I didn’t want to order any more food at The Kimchi since the service was incredibly slow and disorganized. I know that’s normal for a place that just opened but it was still frustrating having to ask for things multiple of times or watching people get their drinks or food before us even though they had come in later. I couldn’t wait to leave honestly.

I’ll give the place at least month or two before I head back again, hopefully by then they would have worked out all the kinks. Right now The Kimchi is open daily for lunch from 12PM to 3PM and then again for dinner from 6PM to 10PM. The place is big with lots of seating so I don’t think you need reservations. For more information and photos check out their instagram account @q8koreagrill

I canceled my live TV cable connection around 5 years back and signed up to Amazon Video, HBO, Hulu and Netflix for my TV fix. In addition to subscribing to those 4 I also have a YouTube, F1 TV and a UFC Arabia subscription bringing the total number of subscriptions to 7. But, even with all those subscriptions, I was still missing out on a lot of content, mainly shows on the History Channel and Food Network so I recently decided to sign up to Philo.

Philo is an internet television service that allows you to stream live TV channels as well as watch them on demand. There are over 50 channels on Philo including Food Network, History Channel, HGTV, Discovery and Motortrend. Since I signed up I’ve been mostly binging on Forged in Fire and Wheelers Dealers, two shows I like but previously only got to watch in hotel rooms during my trips.

I downloaded the Apple TV app for Philo and I found it fairly easy to flip through the channels and watch stuff, but it can be a bit overwhelming when there is so much TV. You can choose to watch shows currently playing live or watch older episodes that are archived and the combination of the two means you spend a lot of time just flipping through a ton of channels trying to figure out what to watch.

There are two main issues with Philo with the first being the price. Although it’s one of the cheapest options you can sign up to for watching live TV, it still costs $20 a month. That’s the most expensive subscription I have at the moment and to make matters worse, it’s full of commercials! At first, I didn’t mind the commercials because I hadn’t watched any in ages, but then when I realized I couldn’t skip through them and that they popped up frequently, it started getting really annoying very quickly. I wouldn’t mind paying $20 for live TV but to pay $20 and be forced to watch commercials I don’t think I can handle that.

It’s been less than a month since I subscribed to Philo and I am yet to decide if I will continue with my subscription or not. I’m still enjoying a bunch of shows and so I might keep the subscription going for another month or two before I make my decision. Like other subscription services, you need to use a VPN or a Smart Proxy service (which is what I use) to trick Philo into thinking you’re living in the US or you won’t be able to access the service.

If you’re looking for ways to stream live US channels, Philo is currently the most affordable route I’m aware of. For more info you can visit their website here.