Lulu Hypermarket

From outside its looks pretty shabby. I've always passed by it on the 4th ring road, but never really considered to go in. But a friend said he bought an MP3 fm transmitter thing for KD 1.750 there. I had bought it a week back for double the price. So i thought let's go check it out.

Once you get inside the place, its actually very impressive. I thought it was alot cleaner and better organized than city centre. They have the whole grocery area lined out and the department store upstairs is loaded with most things. They didn't have a wide variety of heavy home appliances, but they have all the basics.

I found some good deals on external hard disks. They have a larger variety of them, than any other store I've been to. Eureka, Al Ghanim and Electrozan have a few brands that they distribute for and are limited to selling them. It seems like this place aggregates all the kinds out there under one roof. They had Buffalo, Western Digital, Samsung, LG, and a bunch of other brands.

Rawdattain Water Delivery

One of the few types of water in Kuwait that are actually mineral water from a natural source is Rawdattain. The rest of the brands are bottled water, which is basically treated tap water. The contents of Rawdattain water are also in balance. The level of sodium is low, calcium is high, magnesium is average, and PH is good. This makes for an overall buy for Rawdattain water.

We called up the company, the next morning they sent a guy with 2 bottles. We bought a coupon book at a 15% discount. When the water bottle runs out, we call the number on the coupon book, and leave a message with our name and number. Magically, next morning 2 more bottles appear at our doorstep. Its an automated system and for the last 4 months has been 100% on time. Its great service.

Don't forget to tip the guy that carries the water. His job is underpaid and laborious as it is.

http://www.alrawdatain.com/

Green Island

On the second day of Eid, we decide to go to Green Island. Never been there before, so thought we would explore. Parking was a nightmare, but once we got a spot and walked a good 10 minutes to the gate, there was a mob of people trying to get in through the gate. They weren't in line, or any other shape. they were just swarmed around the gate trying to get in at any angle possible.

The gate experience reminded me of Toronto Islands. They are a car free island off the coast of Toronto that you take a ferry to. You drive down to the terminal which is in down town on the harbour side. Then it takes about 20 minutes and 40 bucks to park. You walk to the terminal and there is an hour que to buy the ticket. Then once you buy the ticket, you think its all over. But no, the ticket just funnels you into a smaller space. Now your in line to get onto the ferry. Its not really a line, it a free for all, you kind of swarm into the ferry. But once you pay the 2 hour fee to get to the Island it really is something.

Anyways we finally got into the Green Island, and its packed. There is a thick cloud of smoke covering the whole island because everyone is barbequing or smoking a sheisha. Its nice though, they have all sorts of activities going on. there are bikes for one person, 2 people, or 4 people. They have paddle boats in the lagoon area. They have a volley ball net up and people playing pick up games of volleyball and badmiton. They have a few kids areas with slides and jungle gyms. They have a observation tower to get a view of the island. They have a train that takes you around the island.

During Eid they have a live band show at night. Its not the best music I've heard but its somewhat decent. They have areas where the tables and chairs are available, so you don't have to lug your own furniture. But it gets crowded real quick, so actually finding seating may be slim. Also finding food on the Island is a challenge. All they have are snacks and drinks. If you think they may get hungry for some real food, you better bring it with you. The only restaurant they had on the island is now broken down, and looks like it came out of a war movie.

Overall its worth a visit, especially with the kids.

Bath and Body Works

Bath and Body Works opened on the 9th and 10th in Kuwait at the Avenues and Marina Mall. Yes, you guessed it, it was brought to you by Al Shaya. This is part of the stores first expansion outside North America. The store is an exact replica of stores I've been to in the US. The products are very reasonably priced and some items are even cheaper than in the US. For example, the small hand lotions were 5 bucks each in the US. Here they sell for 1 KD each. Maybe its for a promotional time period, but it shouldn't increase that much later on.

For those who haven't tried Bath and Body Works, they have some of the best fragrances around. My wife loves their stuff. Every year when we go on vacation to the US or Canada we come back with something like 5 kgs of soaps, scents, conditioners, shampoos, and other stuff. The thing they don't have here is the scented wallflowers. These things you plug into the wall and they scent up the house for a good month. The sales people said they were working on converting the electricity issues and would be in Kuwait some time in January 2011. My wife is waiting patiently.

Fasttelco - crap service

There are 4 internet providers in Kuwait: Qualitynet, Fasttelco, KEMS, and Gulfnet.

I've tried Fasttelco. To be honest the internet service is really fast. You get what you pay for. But everything other than the internet service sucks. The human support is terrible. From the tech support, to the sales, to customer service. My bad experience with them goes something like this:
I'm with them for about a year. Everything is perfect. But then my subscription is up and I have to renew it. So thinking that this is a high tech company, I decide to renew online. This is where it all started going sour. First of all when you renew online, you don't get any upgrades or promotions that are on at the time. The stupid online feature doesn't even work. They didn't receive my payment, they cut the line for 4 days. They gave me the run around, i spoke to at least 10 different people. Each one gives me a different reason for why my line was cut.
I had to go the bank and get them a statement verifying the payment. So now I want the promos because I'm not entitled to the 6x upgrade. So I call the service number and speak to about 5 different people. They make me go to the sales office. At the office they send me an email to the main branch. Why could they just do that on the phone? That took a couple of days to work. That's not bad enough, when they upgraded the feature, they created a duplicate account, which once again cut the internet. So now I'm out at least 7 days of internet i paid for. So I finally had enough of their bull, and canceled.

The thing that bothered me the most is that they cut the line without giving me a warning. Its my problem now. I have run around and try to figure things out. Its not there problem. Also through the whole thing, no one once apologized to me, although it was their incompetence. So the bottom line is, stay away from Fasttelco if you don't want added frustration.

Navigate Fahaheel Expressway in Style

Driving to Kuwait City for work in the morning can be real nerve wrecking. The highway is usually backed up with traffic all the way from the 5th ring road. Below are few tips to speed up the drive:

• After Cairo Street, keep on the left lane. Because people are merging into the highway and you have the Shaab exit, the left lane moves faster
• On the 3rd ring road bridge, keep on the right lane. There are a few exits to the right of the highway which seem to divert traffic that way. The right lane usually moves faster.
• Keep on the right lane, all the way until about 300 meters before the stop light into Kuwait City. At this point, the traffic from Beneid Al Gar will be merging into the highway. Up ahead you'll see bus stops and a pileup of buses.
• You want to take the left lane at this point. It moves the quickest. At the stop light the right 2 lanes into Sharq are lined up. The left lane to Salhiya is also lined up. But the lane in the middle is completely empty. This should be your target lane till you pass the stop light.

Hopefully by following these tips you can knock a few precious minutes off your trip to work. But more importantly you lessen your frustration. Enjoy and let me know if you have any other / different shortcuts.

The Sunshine School - TSK

Our daughter was turning 3 years old and my wife was excited to get her into schools. She was set on moving her from Nursery to KG in order to get her school life going. From our experience, TSK is the only school in Kuwait that accepts kids at 3 years old. Most other British schools start accepting from 3 and a half and the American schools start at 4 years old.

Our impression of the school was the most positive. When speaking to other parents they also shared our point of view and had some of the same comments. The main issue was that the school is too commercial. It is run as if it is a business, not a school. The parents are only contacted when the school wants some money. And that is way too often at TSK. Every 2-3 weeks they send home a letter asking for some money for uniforms, field trips, pictures, supplies, a puppet show, food, or anything else.

During the entire school year, there was only 1 parent teacher conference. Even at the teacher conference, the school had a commercial sponsor, Fantasy World. They had an exhibit set up and were giving out fliers. In all fairness the teachers were professional and the material taught was good. But if your a parent who wants to be involved with their child's education, this is definitely not a comforting atmosphere. In addition the teacher isn't always accessible for a chat on your child's progress. Many teachers come late and leave early.

A good thing about the school is they have a bunch of extra curricular activities that are open to the public. But as you guessed they are all paid. I don't know if its the British way, but the younger kids who are too young or shy to keep up, are usually left behind. There are way too many kids in a class and the focus is on the kids who can perform.

The contacts for the school are hard to come by. They aren't on the website and they give you the run around when you call BSK. Here is the telephone number : 2562 3604