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The winners of the 2011 Emporis Skyscraper Award was recently announced and Kuwait’s Hamra Tower came in second place. The Emporis Skyscraper Award is a renowned architecture prize for new skyscrapers and the winners were chosen from over 220 skyscrapers completed in 2011. The tower that came in first place was the 8 Spruce Street which looks pretty impressive as well. [Link]

I’m probably one of the few people left in Kuwait who hadn’t been to Oriental Cuisine before. I had heard about the place but never really felt like going until a couple of days ago. For those of you who don’t know, Oriental Cuisine is a Thai restaurant located in Kuwait City. It’s not a new place but it started off as a small and awhile back expanded into a larger restaurant.

I went with a friend and we ordered a whole bunch of things including:

Chicken Satay KD1.750
Khanom Pang Na Moo (Shrimps on toast) KD2.750
Tom Yum Soup (prawns) KD2.750
Kaeng Khiao Wan (chicken green curry) KD1.750
Honey and garlic chicken KD1.750
Pad Thai (chicken) KD2.000
Plain rice KD0.300

People told me everything on the menu is good and from my one time experience there it seems that could be possible. All our dishes were at the very least good but most were great. My least favorite was probably the chicken satay since there wasn’t much flavor there but on the other hand my favorite dishes were probably the honey and garlic chicken along with the shrimps on toast which I couldn’t have enough of.

Their prices are pretty affordable and they weren’t stingy with the food quantity. My only complaint about the place would be the fact that their service wasn’t that great. When I arrived no one greeted me and I had to wait at least 5 minutes for anyone to give me any sort of attention. Other than that minor quibble it’s a pretty cool place. If you’re interested, they’re open all week except on Mondays and their phone number is 22470400. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

Cars, trucks and now buses are using the emergency lane during traffic. On the bright side, I was on the 5th Ring Road the other day heading to Avenues and people were driving on the emergency lane (even though traffic wasn’t that bad). Turns out there were cops parked on the emergency lane further down the road and they were stopping all the cars on the emergency lane and giving them tickets.

Photo by Musaed

According to Arabian Business, Apple will officially be launching the iPhone 5 in Kuwait and the GCC on December 14th. So if you were planning to purchase an iPhone 5, put it on hold until it’s officially out. My guess is the 16GB version will end up costing around KD220 when it’ officially launched here. [Link]

‘Inside the Middle East’ meets chop shop owner Hussain Salmeen, who builds and customizes bikes in Kuwait.

I’ve seen their bikes in person before and their customization is pretty extreme. [Link]

Thanks Andrew

Manchester United are going to be holding their #IAMUNITED fans party in Kuwait on December 9th. The party will feature a live broadcast of the biggest game of the season between Manchester United and Manchester City.

Alghanim Automotive is giving away 10 tickets to five winners to attend the #IAMUNITED fan party. The five winners will be able to bring a friend along to watch the Manchester derby match at the Scientific Center with the presence of legendary goalkeeper and club ambassador Peter Schmeichel.

If you’re interested in winning tickets all you need to do is leave a comment below.

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: The comments have now been closed.

Update2: The five winners according to Random.org are comments #79, #94, #7, #59 and #17. I drew one more as backup in case one of the first five don’t respond and that number is #89.

This story begins with an honest truth: A summer survey of Kuwait’s public access desert would reveal a landscape comprised primarily of farm animals, garbage, and earth (sand, dirt, and dust). A careful eye would notice some plants, but very few, very small, and nearly dead. I’m talking about those areas outside of the city, where urban civilization ends and nature begins. The obvious reason for the lack of plant life is that we live in a desert. We get very little precipitation. Plants need water. Sand is the natural substrate of the desert. These factors combined equal a quasi-moonscape, right? If you’ve made these conclusions, you are, I’m happy to say, mistaken, and it is my goal in writing this to amaze you with the beauty of Kuwait and encourage everyone to do better for the sake of our natural heritage.

The images of giant drifting sand dunes and storms that swallow up entire houses that so many of us associate with the word desert simply do not represent Kuwait. Our ecosystem is harsh: it’s hot, it’s dry, it’s wind-swept, it’s dusty, but most importantly, it is positively teeming with life. Actually, it SHOULD be positively teeming with life, but for the most part, it isn’t. It would be teeming with life if nature were allowed to take its course. Instead, we see the results of decades of under regulated grazing, off-road driving, and winter camping. It seems grim, I know. I’m here to tell you there is hope. More than that: there is life out there, just waiting for a safe place to live.

Enter the Abdaliya Nature Project.

The Abdaliya Nature Project was conceived in late 2010 by Kuwait Oil Company employees with a particular interest in seeing the restoration of Kuwait’s desert. These employees, acknowledging their role to utilize petroleum resources while protecting Kuwait’s natural environment, took the initiative to preserve an area of desert approximately 1.5 million square meters in size. Prior to reutilization as a nature project, this area was in the public domain and was being used for winter camping. Winter camping in Kuwait, while originally nothing more than a traditional way to enjoy the cool winter months has become so invasive and destructive that the desert ecosystem cannot compete with the concrete, garbage, tires, and other pollution dumped annually upon the spring abandonment of the campsites.

The project began with months of clearing garbage and debris left behind by more than a decade of camping. The most common forms of waste removed included water tanks, concrete blocks, concrete septic tanks, car tires, food and beverage containers, and materials used for shade. With a clean slate to work with, the next steps included constructing access roads and water pipelines followed by the planting of nearly 40,000 seedlings and saplings. Why not simply let the plants return on their own? The answer is diversity. While the “if you build it they will come” model is less costly and much more simple, the result is an imbalance of species. Much like a farmer’s field left empty and consumed by weeds, bare desert in Kuwait will result in a few species taking over the entire ecosystem, thus absorbing nutrients and precipitation and excluding other plants. From the very beginning Abdaliya was planted with a diverse group of native species.

Replanting commenced in early 2011. In less than a year, the Abdaliya Nature Project transformed a barren and utterly destroyed wasteland patch of desert into a unique and incredibly beneficial oasis of flora and fauna. During this period, K’S PATH has proudly been working with KOC on this project doing clean up, wildlife monitoring, anti-poaching, feral dog management, and more. Even in this relatively short period, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of birds, lizards, snakes, rodents, and insects in the project, none of whom were introduced. Our goal for the next two years is to introduce fox and hedgehogs to the area as we continue to strive toward a natural, balanced, and well-managed ecosystem. KOC is also planning to build an education center at the site so that we can begin to spread this message of diversity and protection for Kuwait’s future. The fact is that it will take all of us working together to protect Kuwait’s natural heritage for future generations.

If you participate in winter camping or drive off-road, please consider the implication of your actions. Properly dispose of your waste, remove everything you bring into the desert, and stick to established driving tracks.

For more pictures click [Here]

Post by John Peaveler
Managing Director
Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH)

Tonight was such a crazy evening. Me and a friend headed to Avenues at 2:30PM so we could get into Millions of Milkshakes before the mall got crowded. Kim was supposed to arrive at 4PM but she ended up coming around 2 hours late. I wasn’t too surprised really since this was Kim Kardashian and I was expecting her to be fashionably late although I figured she might be around an hour late and not two. I was planning to stream Kim’s arrival live from location but for some reason the alleyway where Millions of Milkshake was located didn’t have a strong 3G connection so the video that I was streaming online turned out to be very choppy and low res. That’s why I decided to stop the live stream and shoot a regular video and upload it to YouTube instead. As soon as Kim arrived everyone went crazy as you can see in the video below. I have no idea why people over react like that.

[YouTube]

Once Kim got into Millions of Milkshake things didn’t get any better there either. Although there wasn’t a large crowd inside people were still pushing and shoving trying to get to Kim. We stayed out of the way as much as possible and tried to take our shots from a distance. I then got some really great and close up shots of Kim when she was making milkshakes. Because the crowd was so chaotic they ended up changing her schedule a bit and I didn’t manage to get my video interview done tonight. I am disappointed but it’s fine since I know how unexpected events can screw up schedules. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it done tomorrow night at the gala dinner. On the bright side I did get my picture taken with Kim and I think she looked really hot. I took a bunch of shots tonight but my favorites are the ones below. Overall I had a good time tonight and I got to make some new friends. Tomorrow tonight things should be less dramatic.

I have no clue who’s smart idea it was to turn the empty piece of land behind my building into a garbage dump. That yellow truck on the left actually came, dumped some garbage and then left!

Update: Another truck just came and dumped more garbage. Kinda reminds me when the garbage contractors were having a turf war on the HBO show The Sopranos. Someone is really pissed off at someone.

Update2: Looks like we’re in a handover transition period between two different garbage contractors and this issue should be temporary. According to Arab Times the new contractors are charging around KD5,000,000 a month to clean up the garbage, a lot more than the previous company because they’re supposed to do a much better job and adhere to a higher standard. You can read the article on Arab Times [Here]

The main reason I went to Japan was for the Electraglide music event which turned out to be so worth the trip. The event was held in two huge halls with a third larger hall between them that served as a refreshment area with picnic tables all around. There were 15 acts playing there that night with the event starting at 9PM and finishing by 6AM. There were always 2 acts playing at the same time so people spent a lot of time flip flopping between the 2 halls which was actually pretty fun to do.

My favorite acts that night had to be Orbital, Squarepusher and Flying Lotus. Once we were done from the event we headed straight to the Tsukiji fish market for some fresh sushi for breakfast which worked out perfect since I don’t think I would have been able to wake up that early any other day. I took a lot of pictures that night but I’m just gonna share some of my favorite ones I had up on Instagram which you can see below. Oh and I’m back.

Me and a friend went through all the questions submitted in the giveaway held a couple of days ago on the blog and managed to choose 4 really good questions which we will be asking Kim this week when we interview her. I will be contacting the winners soon but this means there is still 1 more ticket I need giveaway.

So, if you want to meet Kim Kardashian and get photos taken with her at the Millions of Milkshakes grand opening this coming Thursday, all you need to do is leave a comment below with your favorite milkshake flavor and using random.org I will randomly choose a winner.

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I’ve closed commenting

Update2: The number that won is comment #204 which is Dima DaveyWalker. Someone will contact you soon.

Update3: A reader made me realize I made a mistake with the counting. I was counting from inside wordpress which turns out displays the comments from new to old while on the blog its old to new. So the actual winner is DaveyWalker.

[YouTube]

Manchester United are going to be holding their #IAMUNITED fans party in Kuwait this coming December 9th. The party will feature a live broadcast of the biggest game of the season between Manchester United and Manchester City. This is a pretty big event since Kuwait has been chosen as only the 3rd venue for this party following the previous ones that were held in New York and Jakarta.

Supposedly ex Manchester United goalkeeper and captain Peter Schmeichel will be attending this event as well.

If you’re interested in tickets to the party they’re free and you could apply for them on the Manchester United website [Here]

Thanks MUSCKW

By strange I mean borderline gross. Click on the link below to see all the pictures along with their descriptions.

The 3 Club is holding a running workshop in December which will be led by an elite triathlon coach who will be visiting from Spain. I love running with The 3 Club so I really think this workshop is going to be great. If you’re interested to sign up or just need more details then follow this [Link]

Yesterday the annual classic cars gathering took place at the Hard Rock Cafe parking lot. A reader emailed me a link to pictures he took at this event. You can check them out [Here]

Thanks Ahmed