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If you’re not fasting during Ramadan and want to order food before Iftar, then below are some restaurants that will deliver early. It’s not a big list but it’s still better than nothing.

China Garden
Chinese / 11AM
Telephone: 1805080

China Kitchen
Chinese / 12PM
Telephone: 25738754

Domino’s
Pizza / 10AM
Telephone: 1800800

Noodles
Chinese / 12PM
Telephone: 25749933

Osaka
Japanese / 2:30PM
Telephone: 22637331

Pastamania
Pasta / 12PM
Telephone: 1828585

Q at the Yard
Various / 1PM
Telephone: 22495067/8

Rock Chipsy
Japanese / 12PM
Telephone: 22218844

Rustic Thai Kitchen
Thai / 3PM
Telephone: 22204758

Sushi Club
Japanese / 2:30PM
Telephone: 25712144

Sushi N Roll
Japanese / 12PM
Telephone: 51168689

Top Dawg
Hotdogs / 3PM
Telephone: ‭67770062‬

The Untitled Deli
Sandwiches / 1PM
Telephone: ‭22273354‬

Upper Crust
Pizza / 1PM
Telephone: 22943200

I’ll be updating the list above as I find out about more places, if you know of a place that delivers before Iftar (like 3PM or earlier) let me know.

Yesterday I got a tour of the new Jazeera Airways terminal and I left impressed. Not only because the terminal is something we desperately need right now, but also because of the thought process behind a lot of the decisions as well as the initiatives Jazeera have taken to try and make the experience as smooth and quick for their passengers. There is a lot of information to cover so what I’m going to do is start off by walking you through the check-in and departures process first, and then take you through the arrivals process.

Terminal Location
If you’re standing facing our current airport, the Jazeera Airways terminal would be located to the left of it. There are two ways of getting to the new terminal, the first way is through our current airport, this is the longer and slower way since you’ll have to deal with our airport traffic. The second and much faster way is to take the exit before arriving to the airport. It’s the same road you take to get to the Jazeera Airways Park & Fly area as well as the same route you take to get to the VIP terminal. This route allows you to bypass all the traffic and mess at the main airport. Check the map above, red is how you get to the current airport, yellow is how you get to the new terminal. Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Parking & Check-in
So this is where things get interesting. Jazeera Airways have their own parking lot right across from their new terminal. The parking lot has a bridge that connects to the main terminal but you can also access the terminal by crossing the street below. The multistory lot can hold 350 cars, but the cost of the parking will be similar to the short-term parking at the current airport which I think is KD6 a day. That’s pricy but, they have two other more affordable options:

– Curbside Check-in: With this option, you pull up into the multistory parking lot and head to the curbside check-in area. There you not only hand your car over to valet, but they’ll also take your luggage if any and check you in all while you’re still in the parking lot. You then get your boarding pass and head straight to passport control in the new terminal allowing you to skip the check-in process inside the terminal. The valet will take your car and park it in the Jazeera Airways Park & Fly lot down the street and you will be charged 2.5KD a day.

– Park & Fly: Another option in case you don’t want to give your car to valet is to park your car yourself in the Park & Fly lot near the new terminal. You can hand over your luggage there and check-in before taking the shuttle bus down to the terminal. Since you would have already checked in this way, you just head straight to passport control. This will also cost you 2.5KD a day.

If you are dropped off at the new terminal or you decide to park your car in the lot across the street and walk into the terminal, then you have different check-in options available for you. The first is self check-in, but when I was there yesterday the machines were still not installed. The other option to check-in is with the regular check-in desks which there will be ten of.

Duty Free & Passport Control
Once you’re done with the check-in process you’ll have to head upstairs for passport control which is pictured below.

You’ll have a duty free section before and after passport control although when I was there yesterday those areas were still empty. There will be food options but not sure if they will be ready by the time the new terminal opens.

Security & Old Airport Access
Although the Jazeera Airways terminal is a new structure, it actually is connected to our current airport and they will continue to use their current gates which are B1, B2 and B3. But, they’re completely refurbishing the gates to match their new terminal and when I was there yesterday they were starting work on it which should be completed by the time the terminal opens. One of the things Jazeera wants to do is NOT have you go through two different security checks before boarding the flight like you do in the current airport. So they’re reworking the design of their gates so that the arrival passengers and departure passengers don’t use the same space (which is what requires the extra security check at our current airport). B1 and B2 use air bridges to board passengers onto the plane while their B3 gate uses buses.

Past their boarding gates you’ll find access to the current main airport. You’ll be able to enter the airport normally but to re-enter the Jazeera Terminal you need to go through a security check again.

Arriving at the New Terminal
When you exit the plane you’ll head to passport control first. Jazeera Airways want your arrival process to be quick so the next step is slightly different from the main airport as well as Sheikh Saad terminal. Once you’re done with passport control you’ll go through a quick security check where you put your carry-on bags in an xray machine before going to pick up your luggage from the conveyor belts. Once you pick up your luggage you do NOT have to go through security. All luggage will be security checked BEFORE coming out on the conveyor belts.

I wasn’t allowed to take pictures but I was given a behind the scenes tour and basically, once the bags arrive into the Jazeera Airways terminal they will be placed on a conveyor belt and go through a security screening before the bags head out to the passengers. So when you pick up your bag it has already been checked and you just walk out of the airport.

The Jazeera Airways VIP Experience
So this is something new Jazeera will be offering, it’s a VIP addon to your ticket which you can purchase separately. This is an add-on for both economy and business class passengers. What the VIP add-on will give you is access to a separate VIP parking located on the side of the airport, a separate VIP check-in area, and access to the VIP lounge. I got a tour of the lounge but didn’t take any pictures because it was still being worked on but it will have different seating areas including a meeting room. Now here is the cool part, you don’t need to be a passenger to access the VIP lounge, you just need to buy a pass. So say you’re in town for a business meeting and the meeting is running long but you have a flight to catch. You and whomever you’re meeting with could continue the meeting at the airport. You could check-in to your flight and then continue the meeting in one of the rooms and when its time to board your flight you could end the meeting and head to the plane. This could also work if your wife and kids are traveling and you want to stay with them until they board their flight, you could get a VIP pass for you and your family and then hang out with them in the lounge until they have to board the plane. No idea how much this addon will cost since they haven’t finalized the price yet.

So thats basically a full walk-through of the new terminal. I don’t think I left anything out but if you have any questions just let me know. The terminal is expected to open and be operational by the end of this month which is in 20 days!

For more pictures or higher resolution ones, click [Here]

Update: The Jazeera Airways terminal is going to be called Terminal 5.

Previously, whenever you renewed your driving license it would get renewed for 10 years. I’m not really sure when that law changed, but now you have to renew it every year. Last year it took me 2 hours to get my license renewed, and that’s after I got super lucky when an officer ended up signing my papers for me without me having to wait in a line that was easily 100 people long.

I usually get all my car related paperwork done at the Jabriya Traffic Department. They’re really organized and every year when I go to renew my car registration, they would have changed something to make the experience smoother and faster. I was expecting the license renewal process to be easier this year because of that but boy was I wrong.

The line when I passed by yesterday to renew my license was crazy crazy long! The picture above was taken as I was walking to the back of the line, around half way to the back (check map above for exact location). The line stretched down a super long corridor and then turned around the corner because it was so long and it wasn’t even people standing in a single file, it looked like a complete mess.

Clearly the traffic department isn’t capable of handling this many renewals, so why don’t they just revert to the older system and have people do this once every 10 years? I ended up leaving but now I’m trying to figure out if I should get there early and line up or what exactly. The renewal for expats only starts at 4PM and they only take so many requests before telling everyone to come back the following day and line up again. So stressful!

Update: A reader just told me about a company that can handle your license renewal process as well as other things. They charge KD10 to renew your license which I think is so worth it. Here is a link to the [Flyer]

I’m pretty sure that I’m butchering the pronunciation of the restaurant but, USQUYU (oos-ku-you?) is a new restaurant that just opened up in Shuwaikh. The food is inspired by Peruvian cuisine and the interior looks pretty interesting based on the photos I’ve seen.

I haven’t had the time yet to pass by and try it, but if you’re looking for something new, you could check this place out. They’re currently only open from 6PM to 11PM. They’re on instagram @usquyu and here is their location on [Google Maps]

Photo from @ralfadalah

Construction of the new Kuwait Airways terminal (Terminal 4) is now over 85% complete and is expected to be ready by June. The Kuwait Airways terminal is a temporary terminal being constructed to alleviate the pressure from our current airport until the new main and huge terminal 2 is completed.

So just to clarify things, we will have the following amount of airports/terminals:

– Kuwait International Airport (our current old airport)
– Sheikh Saad Airport (FlyDubai)
– Jazeera Airways Terminal (Opening May)
– Kuwait Airways Terminal (Terminal 4)
– Kuwait International Airport Terminal 2 (New huge one opening 2020)

To check out more pictures of the Kuwait Airways Terminal, click [Here]

Update: Here are some updated pictures of the interior [Link]

Thanks Ahmad

I went to this exhibition last year and I’m heading there again this year. There will be handicraft, embroidery, artwork, books, jewelry, and food for sale. Here is a bit more information on the Palestinian Culture Center:

The Palestinian Culture Center aims to support needy families and preserve the rich and vibrant culture of Palestine. It does this by encouraging ladies to continue a beautiful handicraft, embroidery, which has been in Palestine for hundreds of years and ensuring that the tradition is carried on to the younger generation.

The Center has been in operation since the early 1970’s in Kuwait and then moved to Jordan after 1990. Today, the PCC, has over 450 women from the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan working on these beautiful pieces. For these women, the payment they receive is a great support for their families. The PCC also aims at supporting education and helps various schools and education programs in Palestine as well as needy families.

As a charity organization we use a simple rule in all our pricing. Thirty-three percent of the sale cost of an item is given to the woman that produces the work, thirty-three percent goes towards covering the cost of the item, and the remaining amount is distributed to schools, orphanages and needy families mostly in Palestine.

For more information on this event including location and timings, click [Here]

BBC posted a short video (watch above) on a team of European and Arab women who are trekking to the North Pole. One of the woman taking part in this trek is Lamees Nijem, a Kuwaiti who applied to be part of this adventure and got accepted. To prepare for the trip Lamees went on three training trips, one in Oman and two in Iceland. The trainings covered the basics of cross-country skiing, pulling sleds, sharing a tent with 3 other people and dealing with cold weather and extreme climate conditions such as snowstorms and very low temperature.

The main purpose of this expedition is to foster greater dialogue and understanding between women from Western and Arabian cultures. The team consists of 11 women that represent the countries of Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Cyprus, Kuwait, France, Oman, Qatar, Slovenia, Russia and the UK. For more information you can check out the expedition web site [Here] or follow them on instagram @northpole2018

The inauguration of Kuwait Motor Town is currently being broadcasted live on KTV 1 as I am typing out this post. If you want to watch it you can stream it online [Here]

Update: The opening ceremony has finished.

According to a reader who went to pick up mail from the post office, you can now track your package to see if it’s reached the post office by WhatsApping the tracking number to 99919010.

You can also continue to use the MOC website to track your package [Here]

Thanks Dwane

Update: The number is no longer is service

AGI Architects recently published an interesting article called on the modern architecture of Kuwait in the 70s. If you have any interest in architecture you should check it out [Here]

From the same article, I also found a link to a Danish architecture photographer who had some interesting insight into the original Central Bank of Kuwait building (which I’ve posted about before). This is what he had to say about it as well as about the refurbishment:

Bharani sent me a link describing the fate of modern architecture in kuwait, including jacobsen’s late project for the kuwaiti national bank, built after his death by business partners dissing & weitling. I thought I’d share it with you.

the house in its original state bears a resemblance to the national bank in copenhagen, but with important differences: the fort-like cube above the base with its hidden courtyard, the dome in front of it, the sun screen facade, the slanted walls of the base, suggesting mud-brick construction, all have more or less local precedents.

not all equally subtle – the gold dome may well hurt your eyes – they nevertheless point to the possibility of a kuwaiti modernism which would not simply be a copy of western architecture.

that a local version of 20th century architecure arrived by way of copenhagen may cause some to reach for their copy of edward said’s ‘orientalism’, but I believe they would be wrong. since le corbusier’s love affair with arab architecture, it has been part of the DNA of modernism and has often been met with the admiration and study afforded a true role model.

the central bank has changed, should you be in doubt. its current state shows a make-over in a style I like to call hotel lobby exotic, and which not only renders any building instantly provincial, but also shows a trend I have been following for a while and from a distance, that of self-orientalism in architecture.

I lack the necessary masochism to appreciate eward said’s slut-shaming of the entire west except as a polemical stance, but here’s a useful concept: self-orientalism is most obvious in the staged sights of mass tourism, in which western stereotypes from the days of colonialism are applied or should we say self-inflicted for profit.

on a smaller scale your local ethnic eatery could be pandering to stereotype, we all know examples of that, but the real interest always lies at the level of architecture where we are invariably talking politics.

lately, we have seen new mosques in copenhagen in a similar style – two parts budgetary cynicism to one part fairground attraction. few have commented on their inadequacies – with the cartoon crisis still in fresh memory, nobody wants to draw the attention of the muslim right or of the Danish nationalists for that matter.

what the mosques show only too well is how poorly we are answering the question of what it means to be a Danish muslim as opposed to just being a muslim in denmark. or how poorly the 200.000 people struggling with this question daily are represented by their own institutions.

it is no accident. islamic institutions are financed from abroad by conservatives to whom integration itself is a threat. when Danes fear that muslims will forever be strangers in the land, this fear is willfully confirmed by silly orientalist ornament, designed to be misread.

yet, it strikes me as obvious how well architecture could provide a dignified answer. the lessons of islamic architecture are already found in the legacy left us by jacobsen, utzon and spreckelsen. the stern repetitions of the great persian brick monuments are mirrored perfectly in many of kay fisker’s buildings.

how easily we could build democratic institutions that would be right at home in copenhagen, yet feel like home even to a newcomer. how easily we could set in stone the values that unite us. only the state could pay for such a thing, but it would finally release Danish muslims from the subjection to foreign interests.

the muslim world cannot be expected to do it, split as it is along any number of lines you can think of, be it national, ethnic, shia/sunni, moderate/fanatical, educated or not, grotesquely rich or grotesquely poor. it is a house divided against itself, as the expression so tellingly goes, offering us the architectural equivalent of a fast food vendor dressed in a fez.

If you want to check out more pictures of the Central Bank when it was originally constructed, click [Here]

The Kuwait Investment Forum (KIF2018) took place last week and on that occasion, they released the promo video above which showcases Kuwait while also containing information on the different upcoming projects and investment opportunities that are available. Looks like its full speed ahead for Kuwait 2035. [YouTube]

Yesterday I was invited to the Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC) for a conference and tour of all the museums. The event was meant to start at 5PM but I decided to get there half an hour early. When I got arrived I realized I was one of the first people there since the parking lot was fairly empty. So I decided to walk around the museums and explore.

For those of you who asked if the museums had enough parking, they do. There is a decently sized lot on the ground floor and another much larger lot in the basement.

The museum grounds is pretty huge and involves quite a lot of walking. It took me around 30 minutes to walk around outside the museums before I decided to head back to the first building where the conference was going to take place. When I got there I realized people were just starting to show up and that no way the conference was starting on time. So I decided to ditch the event and instead go back to exploring the insides of the museums. That turned out to be the best idea because I ended up having the all the museum just for myself and I have to say, the place is amazing!

There are four museums occupying six main buildings:

– Natural History Museum
– Science & Technology Museum
– Arabic Islamic Science Museum
– Space Museum

I literally was running around trying to capture photos for my instagram before it started getting dark and it took me over an hour and a half to run through the whole museum. I didn’t even stop to read a plaque, interact with an exhibit or walk around every hall properly and it took me that long, so imagine how long it will take you to explore the exhibits fully. I was told you’d need around 6 hours per museum and that doesn’t include attending any of the shows or workshops that are going to be held there frequently.

From all the exhibits I think my favorite might be the Human Body building of the Science & Technolgy Museum. Although I had left it until the end because I thought it was going to be lame, I think it’s probably one of the most fun and interactive areas. For example, they have a 15m running track where you could run and it would calculate your time and then compare it to famous people including record holder Usain Bolt. So you know I’m definitely going to go back in my full sports gear just to try that out. The whole lower section of that building was filled with different sports activities for you to try, interact or play around with. Then upstairs you have one of the visually most colorful and exciting looking exhibits that deals with viruses (pictured below), and there was also a biology lab where they’ll be holding workshops for people of all ages. That’s another thing I really liked about the museums, not only were their exhibits but in each museum, there were also classrooms and spaces to hold workshops.

The most surprising exhibit to me was probably the Ecosystems building under the Natural History Museum. I walked in and was mind blown, they had converted one of the buildings into an indoor rainforest with an active waterfall and water pools. I was not expecting that at all. You could walk around the rainforest from above it or from the ground floor. I started from the top since that’s where I came in from since I was at the dinosaurs exhibit next door, and then headed down. Once I was done on the ground floor I got another surprise, turns out the pools of water I had seen from the top were actually the top of the huge aquarium which was located in the basement. It’s a huge aquarium, I probably larger than the one at the Scientific Center although it wasn’t yet filled with a lot of fish.

I think I’m going to stop here since this post would end up being gigantic if I described every section of the museum. All you really need to know is that this is a legit and proper museum. I don’t know how they were able to build it and put it together in such a short period of time, and I am really impressed. The only negative thing might be in regards to the ticketing system. The museums were originally meant to be free but late into the project they decided to charge a nominal entry fee of KD3 for adults and KD2 for children. Since the building wasn’t built with the idea of ticketing in mind, they installed drive-thru ticket stations at the parking entrance. There are nine ticket stations in the parking area, you drive up to one, purchase tickets for every passenger in the car and then you’re allowed in. I can imagine that causing a lot of traffic to get in, especially in the beginning when people are rushing to see the museums. But, there is a side entrance for drop-offs and pedestrians, so if it does get super busy, I’ll just ride my bicycle down the street to the museum or have a cab drop me off.

If you want to know more about the museum including location, ticket prices, opening hours, you name it, then check out the ASCC website which is really thorough [Here]

The Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre museums is officially opening tomorrow and their website is now live and contains their ticket prices, opening hours and floor maps of the place amongst other information. The ticket prices turned out to be super reasonable with children under 18 costing KD2 and adults costing KD3. Here all the ticket prices:

Adults (18+): 3 KD
Junior | Student (Max 18): 2 KD
Under 2: Free of Charge
Ambulant Disabled: 1.5 KD
Wheelchair Disabled: 1.5 KD + Free Helper
Chaperon: 2 KD

Below is the map of the museum so you can see all the buildings and what they contain.

Opening hours are 9AM to 9PM on weekdays, and 3PM to 11PM on weekends. They’re closed on Sundays.

I’m actually headed to the museums in a bit since I’ve been invited to the pre-opening and I’m super excited. Hopefully, they’ll let me take photos so that I can post them up here tomorrow. To check out their website, visit ascckw.com

Update: They’ve changed their opening hours and I’ve updated the post to reflect that

On Friday (which was probably the hottest day of the year so far), my FJ’s air conditioning stopped working. Luckily the weather wasn’t that hot but it was still an annoyance. What was going to be more annoying though was getting it fixed. I hate taking the car to the dealership since it’s such a time-consuming process. You need to drop the car off, leave it for a few days, cab it back and forth to the garage and I just didn’t want to go through all that hassle. So I decided to try and fix the problem myself.

I kinda had an idea what the problem was. When I turned the air conditioning on no air would come out so I figured it had to do with the AC blower motor. So I googled it and found people who had similar issues like mine and the solution turned out to be one of two things:

1) Blower motor resistor failure
2) Blower motor module failure

The first one controls the speed of the fan, the second is what actually gives out the air. I watched a few videos and both seemed fairly easy to replace so I got my tools and headed to the Toyota parts dealer in Shuwaikh. First, I decided to check the resistor since it was the cheaper part of the two to replace (around KD4). I took it apart and it looked like it was still in good condition. Realizing it must be the blower motor, I walked into the parts dealer to buy a new motor. Fifteen minutes later I was out in the parking lot installing the part which was located under the glove box and connected with just three screws. Super easy swap and once I was done, I turned on the AC and it was working again. I got it all sorted by myself and even though it was an easy swap, I felt like I had accomplished so much. The new motor cost me KD59, I didn’t have to pay anyone for labor and more importantly I didn’t have to drop off my car at the dealership for a few days.

If you like Lego or putting together IKEA cabinets then you should try fixing things yourself. Everything is online nowadays including repair manuals and step by step video guides. If you also own an FJ Cruiser, here is a link to the dealerships [FJ Cruiser Repair Manual]