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Two days ago I was parked at the traffic light on the Gulf Road before KFC heading to Kuwait City when a cop in a tracksuit walked out onto the road towards a Ford Mustang that was a couple of cars in front of me. I recognized he was a cop because he was wearing a fluorescent orange vest with the words “POLICE” printed on it plus it looked like he was wearing his badge on a necklace.

Last night I was dropping a friend off near Holiday Inn Salmiya when I noticed a checkpoint on the opposite side of the road with cops again dressed in casual civilian clothing with the same fluorescent orange vest and badges hanging around their necks.

Not sure why they’re in civilian clothing but my guess is it’s connected to the recent crackdown. I’ve been hearing a lot of stories recently in regards to the crackdowns and it’s hard to tell what is real and what is just a rumor. Fajer has been trying to find out more in regards to that but she’s been facing difficulty as well.

A friend of mine called me earlier tonight from Bneider telling me that the road was blocked towards Saudi near the Starbucks rest stop because of a new sinkhole in the road. I found the picture above via the almubarkia blog showing the hole. This is the second sinkhole on the 40 this year, the first one was back in February.

That’s actually not a bad idea, 360 Dewan has more details [Here]

Tons of photos taken on Failaka back in 1985. Not sure if any of the archeological finds are still there or in the same state since the last time I was on the island was back in 1989. [Link]

I really shouldn’t be posting about this place since I love it so much and don’t want it to be fully booked every time I want to go down to Lebanon. But, since I always put the blog ahead of myself, here is everything you need to know.

Hayete is a small bed & breakfast situated in the very beautiful and super busy Achrafieh area. It’s an apartment located inside a traditional/old Achrafieh style building that was converted into a cozy little guesthouse. The place is managed by a very friendly husband and wife and I’ve stayed there two times so far and on both occasions I had a great experience.

Hayete which means “My Life” in Arabic has just 4 rooms. Two of the rooms share a bathroom, the third room has its own bathroom and the 4th one has its own bathroom and an extra room (so it’s actually two rooms with two beds). The first time I stayed in the large two room room while the second time I stayed in the regular room with a shared bathroom. I loved staying there on both those visits.

No two rooms are furnished the same or even look the same. The floor tiles are exposed showing the original apartment tiling while the furniture is all vintage and really beautiful. There is a nice lobby area for entertaining guests and a balcony as well with a wooden table and benches in case you feel like sitting outside. I usually rent a car when I’m in Lebanon but since Hayete is located in Achrafieh, I usually prefer to skip the rental and cab it instead. Hayete is a 5 minutes walk to the main road where you can easily find a cab. More importantly though, Hayete is a short walk to the trendy Gemayzee street.

The rooms are pretty affordable starting at around $75 a night and that includes a traditional Lebanese breakfast served on the balcony every morning. It’s a super cozy guesthouse that feels like an apartment which is why my friends always love coming over to hang out a bit before heading down to Gemayzee. I highly recommend the place unless I find it fully booked the next time I plan a trip and then I’m going to delete this post. For more information and beautiful pictures of the place, checkout their Facebook page [Here]

A reader left the comment below under on of the old posts:

I will clear everything at the current moment, this house belongs to my dad’s uncle. In the Late 50′s all four brothers built quite similar houses, 4 of them to be exact, One in Shamiya, Two in Daiya and one in Salmiya (the one posted). Three of them were lived in and the fourth was made a diwaniya (the one in Salmiya). All the houses have been demolished and still are held by the same owners. They were two toned, white and blue. The only one left is in AlDaiya you could visit it, holds the same desgin. The house is not haunted, it was held on a valuable location that at the time it was impossible to forecast how much it was worth. How could people lower the prices of such a land create rumors about it. The family kept away from media and didnt care about any rumors. Since it was a sharp location

So basically the reason the house was vacant for all this time was because it wasn’t being used anymore and the owners were just waiting for the right time to sell it and not because the house was haunted.

While the world is becoming less peaceful, Kuwait moved up a few spots and came in 37th place out of 162 in the most recent Global Peace Index report (Iceland came first). The peace index uses a variety of different stats to generate an overall ranking including:

– Level of organised conflict
– Relations with neighbouring countries
– Level of perceived criminality in society
– Political instability
– Terrorist activity
– Number of homicides per 100,000 people
– Level of violent crime
– Likelihood of violent demonstrations
– Number of jailed population per 100,000 people
– Nuclear and heavy weapons capability
– Ease of access to small arms and light weapons

Amongst our neighboring states Kuwait ranks 3rd behind Qater (19) and UAE (36). For their full findings and stats visit their website [Here]

Pecha Kucha Night #9 will be held on June 26 at the Amricani Cultural Centre on the Gulf Road at 7PM. 20 images x 20 seconds will be presented by:

Laila Al-Hamad
Tara Norris
Rana Alomani
Liali&Lamees Nijem
Nada Al-Ragom
Hussa Al-Humaidhi
Ali Al-Yousifi
Faisal Al-Nakib

Date: Wednesday, June 26th 2013
Time: 7:00PM to 9:00PM
Location: Amricani Cultural Centre on the Gulf Road

For more information visit their Facebook page [Here]

The Eight is a new project by Tamdeen that will feature 70 sea view apartments, in-line retail shopping, fine dining, cafes, and drive thru services that vary from financial institutions to fast food restaurants. The Eight is going to be located in Sabah al Salem, West of the Fahaheel express way and adjacent to the sea. Based on the 3D renderings it looks like it’s going to be a mini city of a sort with lots of stores and restaurants surrounding the apartment block. Check out all the pictures and more information [Here]

Since this weekend was a long one, the long term parking at the airport was completely filled. Usually I’d wait outside until someone leaves but I figured this time around it wasn’t going to happen so I decided to park at the short term parking lot instead. According to the sign at the entrance of the short term parking, the cost would be 200 fils for the first hour and then 400 fils for every hour after that. Calculating that into a day would mean it would cost you KD9.4 for 24 hours which is a ridiculous sum. Luckily, thats not the case.

The short term parking has a maximum fee of KD4 a day. Although expensive, it does mean if you’re traveling for just the weekend and the long term parking is full then you could park in the short term one as an alternative option. I left Thursday morning and came back Sunday morning and the total was KD16, double the price I would usually pay if I had parked in the long term lot.

Over the weekend while in Lebanon I oddly found out about a farmers market located here in Kuwait called Shakshooka. I hadn’t heard of it before and the fact that someone living in Lebanon knew about it while I didn’t was a bit weird. I was planning to visit the next Shakshooka so I could write about it but turns out Danderma beat me to the punch since she posted a full write up on it on her blog earlier today. So check out her post [Here]

Photo above by @faisalthef

The Italian restaurant Vinny’s is opening a new location in Arraya Tower opposite Burger Boutique. Their current and only branch is located at 52 Degrees.

Update: Turns out Vinny’s closed in 52 Degrees because they are relocating to this new location.

According to a source of mine, Dr. Oz is coming to Kuwait at the end of summer for a nutrition related event. For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Oz is a doctor who has a television talk show called The Dr. Oz Show in which he discusses medical and science related topics. The video above is an example taken from one of his episodes. [YouTube]

*VIDEO REMOVED*

According to a TorrentFreak user, it seems theres currently a phishing scam which tries to fool local internet users into thinking the MOI has blocked their IPs for illegally downloading torrents. The scam tries to get users to pay to remove the pop up warning which will take up the full computer screen and block the user from performing any task on the computer. The scam takes over the computer through a malware so if your computer is virus free or if you use a Mac you’re most likely safe. You can watch the video above showing the scam or click on the following link for more information [Link]

Thanks Quintin

Update: Video was removed since it was no longer playing

Two traffic officers in Kuwait are to spend one week behind bars for parking their patrol car in a spot reserved for the physically challenged.

Abdul Fattah Al Ali, the assistant undersecretary for traffic, said that the two uniformed men be transferred to a new department after they serve the seven-day sentence in jail, Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas reported on Wednesday.

“The official has given instructions that all legal measures be taken against the two men for flouting the rules,” a source quoted by the newspaper, said. “He said that there would be no leniency towards violators whether they are civilians or members of the police force,” the source, that the paper did not identify, said.

Abdul Fattah Al Ali has gained an impeccable reputation in Kuwait for his strict application of the law, regardless of the names or status of the violators.

No effing way. I’m super impressed. That’s pretty cool that they’re actually punishing two cops for this. [Link]