I think everyone has filled up at an Al Oula Gas Station at some point or another, and their employees in their green uniform come up and fill your car. I usually like filling my car unless I’m wearing a dishdasha and don’t want to get it messed up. They fill up your car if you stopped for any sort of gas, some of them are young men and some of them are older men. And their nationalities range from East Asian all the way to East African. I remember when it was public owned you would only see a few guys and not in uniform so its good to see they have a brand and stick to it, but I always wonder what they are paid and how they are managed.

One time I was at the gas station I was talking to one of the men working outside and I guessed he was from Somalia which I guessed right. He was giving me details on my car which were very specific, he seemed to be educated and when I was talking to him sounded like any normal guy. So I asked him about the details of the job, they are paid 60 KD per month for working 8 hours a day 6 days a week, and they provided with a place to stay but not food. If they work 12 hours a day its 95 KD per month for 6 days a week. That is substantially low, and I honestly thought they would be a lot higher since the minimum wage for help working in the household has gone up and they get more then that, but it depends from which country they are from. I stood their talking to the man for about 15 mins and thought it was a waste that he is in this job and not something else, but he said this is a job and he needed it so I can’t blame him.

Just to be clear the staff don’t look mistreated and Al Oula have done a decent job of cleaning up and rebranding these gas stations. I think they want to open more services in their gas stations but the Baladiya won’t let them even though it was originally part of the deal. Still I think they should raise the minimum wage and find a business case to justify it or work it out, they wouldn’t be in this business to loose money, and they operating within the law but still I think sometimes they should have the chance for a better wage.

So tip them if they filled your gas, that one or two KD adds up and makes the world of a difference to them. I usually tip between 1 to 2 KD per fill up when I’m filling up my car and 1/2 to 1 KD when filling up the bike even though its the same amount. One thing that surprises me is that sometimes they are really surprised when they are tipped. I know a lot of people take these men for granted and assume its their right to get a fill up, but they are less fortunate and it a laborious job with sometimes long hours and the summer is coming along which will be excruciating to work outdoors which they are all the time.

In Kuwait you tend to deal with a lot of strange people, especially when you interact with them in the Government Complex. Its like you are in a Mexican Standoff or between a bunch of Hyenas which are ready to pounce on you the moment you give them your back. Still I try to keep an open mind and assume the person in front of me isn’t evil and maybe even human.

When interacting with woman in Kuwait that I don’t know I try to be a slightly formal and not offensive, because I never know how they may react and usually it moves along fine. A few times over the past few months I get surprised by people who smile at me that I wasn’t expecting, like when I stop a car to let them cross they smile and wave, and I think “Thank you for being courteous”, I always stop for people crossing, men almost always thank, but a lot of women ignore you and think its shameful to interact with a man in anyway so I’m sometimes surprised when a woman thanks me or when she smiles I’m totally shocked.

I do understand that our youth are somewhat idiots and view a smile as an invitation to bother women, so sometimes I honestly can’t blame them because they don’t want to be harassed by young men who have no manners, so when they smile I am very pleasantly surprised and it does make people’s day. I always appreciate when men thank me for even the simplest thing, being cordial doesn’t seem to be at the top of people’s list these days. So seeing a woman smile at me for a very simple act really surprised me recently, I just got used to women having blank or angry faces in Kuwait when out in public and I am not out very much, so its refreshing to see people smiling.

(I think the Akita Dog above always looks like it’s smiling)

Over the last year and half a lot of companies and specifically telecom companies have gotten heavily into all types of social media. They are active on blogs, in events, facebook, and twitter and other platforms that they can expand on. I’m honestly proud that these companies see the value of social media in Kuwait and its strength, we are ahead in the region on this aspect and we keep moving forward which is a good thing.

It feels like more companies are taking social responsibility and they are giving people more direct access to them and it helps resolve issues. Also it does expose them to more criticism which most companies don’t like, and there are those who don’t care at all. Now a lot of companies, especially the Telecom companies have been sponsoring blogs which is a good step, it supports the community and it gives them an air of legitimacy. But then also brought another creature to evolve which are the Blogs For Cash movement, they make blogs just to sell off ad space and make money, and usually they don’t last too long or their content is crap but still they keep popping up.

Now Telcos are getting more and more involved with lots of events, I keep seeing people post about them and I do get invited but 99% of the time I don’t have time to go and other 1% I would rather do other things. They are handing out iPhones like they are candy and pretty much the next hot item, which is great and good for people to review and experience their service. But recently a lot of these gifts and sponsorship come with strings, string that I for one would never accept. At this point they tell you can talk about their competitor, you can’t attend their events, and you can’t really bad mouth their products. When the money comes with strings such as those I wouldn’t want it no matter how much they are offering. Whats funny is that recently I have noticed blogs which are Team Zain, or Team Wataniya, or Team Viva some keep trying to buy out the other. In reality it isn’t a bad thing but when they interfere with the content to this degree its unacceptable and its a very bad path they are choosing, some still don’t apply it but some companies are. At the end it is the choice of the blog to make the decision of which sponsor they would like on board.

NegativEffect is back and this time he is rolling in with a cool video of an old school JDM Legend. Starring a guy I would like to call SHANABZ, it reminds of the trailer for Driver, very cool. The Acura Integra is a machine which can be modified to no end, and I love the shot of Shanabz talking to the guy as if he is just about to get into a mountain drifting race in Japan, and the sun glasses priceless. Love it!

Link: InfiniteDriver

Last year in Kuwait it was the year of the yogurt, since the arrival of Pinkberry everyone went nuts about Frozen Yogurt, it became the trend. Over the last year there is one place that stood out for me more then the rest Pick Yo, and concentrated on quality and health, and didn’t sacrifice an ounce of taste. In Kuwait we are a very picky people, if the food is good the service has to be good too or we won’t like it either but in this case their service is fantastic.

They have two locations, one in the city and the other in Kaifan, and the main reason I keep entering Kaifan is because of them. They really do concentrate on health and taste, I love the taste of the original frozen yogurt and the small cup is only 97 Calories and the guy behind it is trying to reduce it. Something so small yet has so little amount of calories, and so damn tasty. You can also get a large selection of toppings, they are endless, but I tend to like it as is, just the original taste.

You can call and place your order with all your toppings and tell them the change you have, when you drive up to Kaifan Co-op they have it read and with the change, they even tell you how long it will take so you can plan it. But the best part is the party pack, you place your order and they arrange it into a nice plastic bucket with dry ice in the middle keeping it nice and cold even in the summer. Quality Frozen Yogurt, a very healthy choice, and the party pack fits the bill.

Link: PickYo

Over the last year there has been a dramatic change with the telecommunication companies and luckily in Kuwait we have companies changing and increasing their services. I have had extensive experience with several companies over the past 18 months, some have been very good, some have been bad, and some disastrous. These are my rankings based on my experience, data usage, and customer service. I have left out pricing since all the wired companies are offering the same price and the rest can be found out easily. This isn’t a comparison based on price but based on experience and service level. I broke down the categories into two, one is based totally on speed and connectivity, and the other is based on interaction with the sales and customer support.

WIRED
Data Connectivity

• Fasttelco
• Qualitynet
• Kems
• GulfNet

Customer Service

• Fasttelco
• QualityNet
• Kems/GulfNet

Comments: Fasttelco has improved vastly over the last few years and what I like is that they keep trying to improve their customer service and improving themselves technically. QualityNet has gotten complacent since they got to the top, its like they are full and don’t feel like giving good customer service. Kems is pretty bad in my opinion because they still somewhat constrict usage from what I can see, and they insulted customers directly last year, complete slander and that is the worst for a company. GulfNet is still at the bottom of the barrel I don’t know how anyone can sign up with them, zero customer service and they blatantly lie about their services. Prices have been unified and connection speed is based on government services and not the ISPs, they can only work with what they have so really its based on consistent speed and customer service.

WIRELESS
Data Connectiivty

• WIMD
• MADA

Customer Service

• WIMD
• MADA

Comments: WIMD is brand new company but overall my experience has been very good with them even though its only been a few weeks. I hope they continue to maintain their services and speeds as they currently are, right now I am very happy with them. Right now their install schedule seems to be very slow since they were overwhelmed with requests from people but I think if you are patient with them you will be happy you installed their services. MADA was a great service when it initially started and they are genuinely trying to maintain their services, and for 20KD a month its relatively cheap for 10 MB but in reality you are getting a range from 2MB to 7MB these days. They got too many subscribers and their main towers are too sensitive in regards to your location, you have to be next to the window to get full signal and 2KM from the tower to get any speed, and any modification on their part can affect your speed drastically. Overall I think they are very good and hope that they improve their services.

MOBILE
Data Connectivity

• Viva
• Zain
• Wataniya

Customer Service

• Zain/Wataniya
• Viva

Comments: There has always been a scuffle going on between the three mobile providers in Kuwait, they are always in competition which is good for us. Over the last two years there has been some drastic changes in regards to services in the data field. When it comes to Voice Wataniya would be ranked by far at the top, then its Zain, and if you can get in more then 20 seconds into a phone call with Viva I would be surprised. When it comes to Data Viva threw all their money at it and have one of the best data networks, with Zain and Wataniya trailing behind them. Wataniya and Zain need to upgrade their data networks to deploy something faster and better reaching, and I hope at some point they both remove their Data Caps but I can understand it. As for Viva they got a lot of people to sign contracts and join them up with the unlimited package only to enforce a data cap and change the contracts without notification which is illegal in my opinion, I’m surprised nobody sued them.

I’m one of those people who are always skeptical about what companies say, so when WIMD was offering high speed wireless connectivity to homes I wasn’t sure what to expect from them. I spoke to an engineer and sales person, they basically said they would bring the equipment, connect it and try it out before they would bill me. The engineers came about 4 days later, they started installation, they had a few initial issues but after a few hours everything was ironed out. They use a consumer grade Cisco router that you can buy from any electronics shop like XCite in Kuwait but the Wireless Broadband is through Proxim.

They are using Wireless Broadband technology which has been tried and tested for a while now. It is excellent but there a few minor drawbacks, one of the major ones is that it isn’t consistent. So even if you have a 10 MB connection it can be 10 MB then drop to 4MB then back up to 8 MB then back to 10MB again, its just the reality of the Wireless Broadband Solution, but overall any speed even if it isn’t consistent is better then 1 MB. In my case it hit 20 MB so I went for the 20 MB package without a thought, I live off the internet and now I shall be very happy.

Requirements:

• Line Of Sight (Your house has to be visible to One of Their Towers)
• Close to a Tower (They have lots of Towers)
• You can mount a small tower to the exterior of the house

They are using Qualitynet as their backend provider, I think or hope they would expand on that. Now that people are starting to find out about them and they have coverage around Kuwait I hope they can still manage to provide the speeds they have promised even when their subscriber base increase dramatically.

Link: WIMD

Pricing:

• 6 MB – 325
• 7 MB – 355
• 8 MB – 390
• 9 MB – 473
• 10 MB – 523
• 11 MB – 590
• 12 MB – 660
• 13 MB – 730
• 14 MB – 800
• 15 MB – 870
• 16 MB – 940
• 17 MB – 1010
• 18 MB – 1080
• 19 MB – 1150
• 20 MB – 1220

There wasn’t even half the enthusiasm that there usually is for voting this year, everyone is just fed up with the whole mess. I didn’t know what to expect but I was hoping for a good change, I think we just want progress at this point. I was very happy that a lot of people went out to vote but the results were devastating. Every person I voted for didn’t make it to parliament but that isn’t the disappointing part, whats disappointing is that a majority of the people who got into parliament will rip this country apart and there will be nothing progressive taking place in Kuwait in the next 4 years. It is said that a majority of the Parliament are from the religious faction and have plans in mind to change some laws, all I know is that what ever they have planned won’t be good. There is always hope and I hope things will get better and people will realize that they can’t keep voting for the same hooligans who make things a mess in Kuwait, we need progress. I’m even surprised that no woman made it to Parliament, Aseel Al Awadhi was good and of course there are the bad but I was hoping for more women but it doesn’t look like it will happen in this Parliament.

Things have come full swing and GulfRun is around the corner, today is the car wash event that I do enjoy so much. A ton of different kinds of machines coming around this time of year and some of them are really modified and ready for the track, everyone is taking this seriously and each year the caliber of cars and drivers just keeps going up. The car show is always entertaining at 360 Mall especially so many machines are on display especially the ones that are supposed to be indoors.

Kuwait:
Thursday, Jan 12th: Al-Falah Carwash

• 6:00pm – 10:00pm |Stickers placement

Friday, Jan 13th: 360 Mall

• 10:00am – 10:00pm | Car Show

Saturday, Jan 14th: 360 Mall

• 10:00am – 10:00pm | Car Show

There have been a few changes to the track, and I’m really looking forward to checking out Outer Circuit, I have never done that before. As for the Karting, Bahrain International Circuit have the best Go Karting circuit in the world which is going to be very cool to try it out.

Bahrain:
Thursday, Jan 26th: Bahrain International Circuit

• 8.30am – 7:00pm | GulfRun7 Day 1 (Outer Circuit / Inner Circuit / Karting)

Friday, Jan 27th: Bahrain International Circuit

• 8.30am – 7:00pm | GulfRun7 Day 2 (GP Circuit / Autocross Competition / Quartermile Drag)

This is one of the things that I really get annoyed with. On Friday and Saturday mornings from 6 am onwards there is almost no one on the road, and the roads belong to the bikers. Over the past three weeks there have police check points just after going under the round about on the Visa Round About heading towards Bede’a on 5th. It is a speed trap since everyone is used to traveling 120 on 5th Ring Road, but just before going the underpass it changes from 120 kph to 80 so if you are going 130 kph then you are doing 50 kph over the speed limit and they fine you, take your license and registration. Some cars also get towed depending on how fast they were going, and they were even stopping bikers. Most of the time police leave bikers alone but at this check point they pull people over and either tow them or hold them for a few hours.

I would honestly think that they would have much better things to do instead of hassling people that early in the morning and it police check point starts around 6 or 7 am, ends around 10 or 11 am on both Friday and Saturday.