Building them with bigger blocks

Many tall buildings are getting constructed in Kuwait, especially in the Kuwait City area.  It just amazes me how quickly these buildings come up after what seems to be a lengthy phase when basement is laid.  Seen in the picture is one large pre-fabricated building block that has arrived by a truck waiting to become part of the upcoming Wataniya Telecom Towers.

Lifting weight up!

The notice inside any lift indicates the maximum load limit in terms of weight and passsengers.  Per passenger, this particular lift allows for 78 kg. 

Every time I enter a lift I do think why do they not put a small indicator to show the current load inside.  Should not require any hi-funda technology to do this, I guess. If it was there, it would make things so much easier when you travel abroad.  Just put your baggages inside the lift to know if you have excess baggage.  Good suggestion?

At first look, with the red colored heading, it appears like a warning sign.  However, it is a welcome sign with information to the visitors that they are entering the Kuwait Free Trade Zone (KFTZ) area.

Keeping count of country's assets

Seen in the picture is a pedestrian bridge over Road No.50, with serial number 01/500.  It is not the first bridge out of the total 5, however.   It is the first bridge on Road No.50 and for some reason Road No.50 is marked 500 on this board. 

I keenly watched another such bridge over Road No.40 and it was marked 1/400!  Can we say that the usefulness of these pedestrian bridges make it count?

Any whichever way, it is interesting to see Kuwait Government keeping a tab on its "fixed" assets!

Wash Smart

Most people like to dress smart.  How to wash the smart way? Simple! Use a launderer instead of taking the pain!

Is there really recession and economic slowdown?

Crowd at Avenues Mall, Kuwait

This is the crowd one sees at a shopping mall during what is considered to be times of economic slowdown.  This scene may be common to any place in the world.  Retail outlets do great business, cinema halls are full, amusement parks continue to attract crowd, people keep undertaking vacation travels to exotic locations and buying trendy clothes and state of the art electronics never seems to stop.

If this is slowdown, then what will happen when the economy recovers?  (Thanks to my friend T P Anand, Dubai for this interesting thought)

Go International with just KD 55

No, you cannot travel international destinations with KD 55 physically.  But you can do it with your mobile, entering the Information Superhighway!  An advertisement from VIVA mobile symbolically depicting international with various country flags. On a random check, I think each country is represented thrice in this banner.  Captured at Avenues Mall, Kuwait.

Shopping profitably

At the airport, duty free shopping is supposed to save you some money.  If the added attraction of chance to win a glittering Harley Davidson is thrown in, the Duty Free shopping can become profitable.  Photo taken at Kuwait Airport Duty Free shopping area.

Kuwait Aqua Park

Kuwait Aqua Park, aerial shot from Kuwait Water Towers

Located near the Kuwait Water Towers, Kuwait Aqua park is a popular destination for the kids, and of course adults escorting the kids to the park.  Inaugurated in 1995, it is said to be the first and biggest in the gulf region spread over a surface area of 60000 square meters. Click here to visit their website

In search of a name?

The owner has obviously decided to open a pharmacy and even more obviously has still not decided on the name!  May be one idea to keep the people guessing of which brand is coming up?

They would have really travelled extensively

Containers lying near the Kuwait Port under the scorching sun.

Experiencing the heat, even as I was taking the picture, I started wondering about the radiation level inside these containers.

Serving many people around the world, these containers would have travelled across the globe many times over!

Door to Door cargo

High expat population in Kuwait means good business for door to door cargo service providers.  There many companies that specializes in sending household items, furniture and largely electronic items such as LCD televisions to the home country of expats, mainly India, Srilanka and Phillipines. 

The rates range from 500 fils to KD 1.50 depending upon whether the cargo is airborne or sea!

These services come especially handy when someone is leaving Kuwait for good.

Seen in the picture is a Cargo service catering to Indians and owned by Tamils as is evident from the name Tamilnadu Best Service written in Tamil over pink background.

Good news in the wash room?

Unless you carry your mobile or iPad or someone starts chatting up with you from outside, it is impossible to get "Good News" delivered to you inside the Toilet, one may think. 

But this Toilet Seat Cover company thinks, having a toilet seat cover can also be Good News! :)

Don't ask me why carried the camera into the washroom!

Translating words into income

Translation is big business in Kuwait.  There are number of expats living here.  When they have to get a service done at the Ministry, it is essential to get the documents made in English or home country language translated into Arabic.


These Translation Services also earn their income by helping expats fill out Arabic application forms for Visa and resident permit purposes.

Non-Arabic expat executives also seek translation services for English versions of laws, rules, regulations, circulars and notifications issued in Arabic.

Funnels?

The Funnel like structures are water tanks.  There are present in few select areas, said to be unique to Kuwait.  That is probably the reason why we have miniature of these in front of some Kuwaiti villas.

There are totally twenty four such funnel type tanks located in three places in Kuwait .  One of three locations is Bayan (in the picture) near the Bayan Palace (nine tanks), second one is South Sura (six) and the last one is in Al-Ardiya (nine).

Speed can slow you down

Kuwait has expressways where the permitted speed limit is 120 KMPH.  However, there are drivers who find even this speed too slow!

Despite the hawk-eyed traffic police efforts and speed cameras, drivers like their tyres smoke.

As they press the accelarator in their auto-transmission vehicles and weave in and out of lanes, the inevitable happens.  When accident happens, the traffic gets congested as that lane cannot be used until a police report is made for insurance purposes and the ambulence arrives to help out the injured.

One such accident on 5th Ring Road.

A sweet home-made brand

Chocolateness is the new Kuwaiti brand to hit the market, simply put a home-made brand that specializes in home-made chocolates and molten cakes.  If their chocolates and cakes are mouthwatering stuff, they have have also ensured to have their cars of the eye-catching stuff with this unique design painted on them.

If you want to follow what Chocolateness is doing, there is a Facebook page 

Impressions with the help of nature

Sand storms are very common in Kuwait.  It appears desert sand likes a tour of Kuwait every alternate day.

Seen in the picture are my foot prints on the sand left behind by one of the recent sand storms on our apartment balcony.   These sand storms make balcony unusable, except during early part of winter when the cold is mild and you can enjoy a nice cuppa!

Big, Juicy, Tasty

Health conscious try to avoid Pizzas and Burgers as high calorie junk food.  But, tastebuds will keep making one look for lip smacking food.  If normal burgers are not enough, here comes soon, Fat Burgers - Big, Juicy and Tasty as the announcement screams.

I am lucky.  This fatty is going to be my neighbor at work.

Safely moving steel pipes

Pipe Dreams is the caption for June 18, 2011 picture post in Chennai Daily Photo, my friend Ramaswamy's photo blog.  Interestingly, few days back I had captured one photo of a truck loaded with steel pipes from Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait.  Unlike the worrysome carriage shown in Chennai, the Kuwait transportation was much safer with the pipes stacked cautiously and the truck moving within permitted speed levels.

How to use magazines?

There is a three step process that you should *not* follow as the environmentally conscious Qatar Airways tells you.

Very Contextual

In the virtual world there is Google having the most popular adsense advertisements that are targeted and very contextual; check the google advertisements in this blog and tell me if they are targeted and relevant.

Ad-Sense also prevails in the real world.

Seen in the picture is the advertisement of VIVA, one of the three mobile operators in Kuwait, strategically placed at one of baggage carousel in Kuwait International Airport.

White Apple

Its about four weeks since Apple Inc. released in US its popular iPhone 4 in white color.  The white iPhone 4 is already In Kuwait.  Seen in the photo is an offer from Zain, one of the mobile operators in Kuwait.

A rare sight

In the days of Satellite TV and Dish Antenna, it is a rarity to see the age old elements based terresterial TV antenna.  Seen here atop an apartment building is one such old style antenna.

At your call

Competition makes good businesses reach out for the customers with services.  Should we only get newspapers and pizzas home delivered?  In Kuwait, KDD (Kuwait Danish Dairy Company) home delivers dairy products of your choice on the days of the week of your choice.  There is no extra charge for this service.  You can start, stop and restart the service at your convenience

One need not worry about the delivery time if you are planning to go out with the family.  The box placed at your doorstep with dual keys will receive the order on your behalf, no power of attorney needed :-).

Seen in the photo is a KDD box at my door step.

Prohibiting mobile usage while driving

Using mobile while driving is very dangerous.  Even though one runs the risk of being caught and fined by the Traffic Police, people seldom care and keep talking on their mobile while driving.  More dangerous than speaking while driving is reading or sending text messages.

Zain, one of the three mobile operators in Kuwait ran a public interest campaign, one of which is captured in today's photo.

Celebration in the air

It must be celebration time!

With the baloons fully stacked up, the skillful driver must be relying on the side rear view mirrors more...

Penny wise

Arab men do not wear gold jewellery.  However, they are very fond of expensive watches and branded pens.  Most Kuwaiti senior executives take pride in owning a branded pen, the most popular brand being MontBlonc. 

The pen that is shown in the photo is another premium pen brand, namely, BVLGARI, which is an Italian brand.  It is actually BULGARI but Romans spell U as V, as sarcastically remarked by Mel Brooks in History of the World Part II.  He will call someone in Roman empire "You are Nuts, N V T S Nuts!"

:)

All pervasive advertisement

Catching customer/ consumer attention is the name of the game for businesses.  Places with high foot fall are places for catching the eyeballs. 

Adverstisment banners seen at Cozmo, a popular bowling alley situated at Khaifan on Road No.80.

Unique ID for Flats

In some countries like India, human beings do not yet have unique social security number to identify oneself as and when required.

In Kuwait, all the citizens and residents have a unique ID and that doesn't end there.  We have unique IDs for even the buildings and apartments.  Seen in the photo is the unique ID of my apartment in Reggai, Kuwait.

Keeping high towers clean

Kuwait's weather is very hot during the summer and very cold during the winters.  That is the only predictable part about the weather.  The unpredictable part is when you will have clear skies and when you will have sand storms or blow hot winds.

Sand storms are seen at any time of the year and are nightmares for tall buildings with glass exteriors. New architecture liberally uses glass exteriors so that the high and mighty get that landscapic view from their cabins of power.

Unfortunately, sand storms leave these glasses dirty.  So, the machines like the one in the photo are in continuous service to clean the tall building exteriors moving from floor to floor.  I have acrophobia, just seeing the cleaners on this machine in a tall structure makes my head spin.  

I used to think why these buildings are not fixed with electric powered wipers like the ones in car.  You have to just spray water switch it on for few minutes to have a clean glass.  Right?

Control your weight

For people leading a sedentary life style it is a difficult proposition to control weight and keeping fit.

Variety of food available across the small country doesn't help the cause of keeping fit.

The vaccum between staying fit and no time for exercises creates opportunity for new businesses to come up.  Calorie Control is one that helps people to lose weight the healthy way.  You register with them and pay a monthly fee.  After that you have to live on the food they supply you.  Some of my office colleagues joined the program and found it useful.  I do not know if they are still continuing with the program, but sure they are using the cup Calorie Control gave to drink tea and coffee!

This photo is from Calorie Control at Jassem Alasfour Towers, Soor Street, Mirqab, Kuwait.

Indian Culture

Kuwait's total population is about 3 million.  Approximately 800,000 are Kuwaitis and rest are expatriates from many countries in the world. We have a sizeable Indian population here numbering to almost 700,000.

Indians carry their culture whereever they go. Indian Children get to learn Carnatic and Hindustani singing, classical dance, carnatic instruments and more.  

Above is a photo taken at the Bharatnatyam Arangetram  program of students of Mudra Nrithanjali, Kuwait which is giving training on classical dance for more than a decade in Kuwait.  Its an annual event.  The Arangetram program of 2011 elevated over 50 students to their first on stage performance. 

It was a very enjoyable three hour program.

Kuwait Water Towers

Kuwait Water Towers are a set of three structures that have almost become a symbol of Kuwait. 
As per Wikipedia the main tower is 187 metres high and serves as a restaurant and water tower. 

I visited this tower during May 2010 with my family (after almost three years of living in Kuwait).  The main tower also has a viewing sphere which rises to 123 meters above sea level and completes a full turn every 30 minutes, I learn from Wikipedia. The second tower is 145.8 metres high and serves as a water tower. The third tower houses equipment to control the flow of electricity and illuminates the two larger towers. The towers hold 4,500 cubic meters of water.

The towers were designed by Sune Lindström and Malene Björn and built by Energoprojekt, a company from Belgrade, Yugoslavia. They opened to the public in March 1979.