Internet Shopping

"How do I buy stuff online?"

"How do I ship my stuff from USA/UK to Kuwait online?"

These are only a few of the many questions that I come across when people are talking about shopping online. So this is how it all goes down.

Suppose you want to buy something online say Amazon, now almost all of the products offered on that website offer no international shipping, so here's what you do.

If you do not already have a credit card (VISA, MasterCard) and this is not the usual bank ATM cards that are offered here in Kuwait when you open an account with them. If you have an NBK Shabab account, then you can goto your branch and ask for an Internet Shopping Card. Its basically an electronic credit card which you cannot swipe. For more info contact your bank. I took the example of NBK because this is my bank and I do not know what other banks offer this service. (I am sure other banks have this kind of offers)

Now that you have your credit card, you have the option of 3 popular shipping services who will ship your stuff from USA to Kuwait; Aramex, DHL, and U Shop We Ship(USWS).

You can get more info about them through their websites or numbers provided on their website.

These companies give you a physical mailbox number (a physical address in the US) which allows you to have your stuff shipped to that location and then forward it to Kuwait (Aramex and USWS go one step further and deliver at your doorstep). So when you are asked for Shipping and Billing address on Amazon, you can enter this new physical location and your order will be processed as any other US Domestic order.

After you stuff is in your mailbox, you have the ability to track it till it arrives in Kuwait. These companies however charge you with a price to ship it to Kuwait

DHL (known to be the fastest yet) price calculator, Mailbox Cost = $37

USWS: KWD 2.750 for first half KG of your package and every other half KG will be KWD 2.250

Aramex: ~KWD 10 for a new mailbox, KWD 3.000 for the first half KG and every other half KG will be KWD 2.500

Audi Assist in Kuwait

Leaving my gym, I saw this vehicle on my way to my car. And it seems that Kuwait has the Audi 24 Hour Roadside Assist service. Only this service car is not on the road. I also saw the Mercedes Service van parked in the area where I stay. Why don't I see any of these service cars on the road in Kuwait?

Kuwait National / Liberation Days

Photo: ©Flickr

I am at the university and since the 25th and 26th are official holidays in the country's calendar, the university is celebrating the national days on 23rd and 24th February. Congratulations to everyone (Kuwaitis and Residents in Kuwait). Here's something to read on.

And here's something to cheer on.

Cultural Differences

As you can see in this image, some one took at the Kuwait airport. This image shows how the signage differs from that of the western world.

Source

Skin your laptop, Locally.

I just stumbled upon a site for the Kuwaiti market which offers skins for your laptop. There are pretty good ones for people who are bored with the plain look of their laptop lid. Well I did not order one as I love my MBP. But you can take a look at it here.

Back Online..

Its been really long since I've blogged and here I am back blogging. The main reason were Christmas-New year break, my short vacation to Mombasa (Kenya), and my Finals.

Well for whats hot and new in Kuwaiti Tech world is the InfoTech '09 Fair at the Kuwait International Fair Grounds in Mishref. This year's fair is tiny compared to last year's. Packed only in one hall (4A) Not much of new tech was seen. Nothing new on the hardware part but the market for internet was really hot.

FastTelco really dropped their ADSL Prices and ended up being the cheapest providers. Their pricing started from KD59/year for a low 256Kbps connection.

More pricing range here

WTFQ8?

No its not abusing anyone but its an actual site. Which to an extent gives you information about Kuwait's lower grade news and amuses too
click here

United Networks is down

Since yesterday my internet (United Networks) was kind of slow so I thought there might be some thing wrong with my computer, then I went to my laptop for checking and, well, it was slow there too. Since it was after late in the night the help center was closed. I called the help center today and they said they were linking with their parent company overseas.
Upon asking them how much time will this take, they had no idea (lame), and it apparently will take a week'ish to fix this. Does it take this long to do this job? Can't they route all their lines to some other location which is fast and when the job is done they can re-route the lines to their main systems?

The Kuwait Towers

History

The conception of the Towers with three structures was initiated in 1962. Construction commenced in 1975 and in March 1979 the project was finally inaugurated. The three towers were built for multi-purpose operations. One, the needle shaped tower, provides electricity to the suburbs in Kuwait.

The Second, middle, tower stores up to one million gallons of water. It was made by group of people from Union Invest company c.o.o Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo and Tuzla.

About

The Kuwait Towers are three towers of reinforced concrete in Kuwait City. The main tower is 187 metres high and serves as a restaurant and water tower. It also has a Viewing Sphere which rises to 123 meters above sea level and completes a full round turn every 30 minutes. 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 bigger towers.

The towers were designed by Sune Lindström and Malene Björn and were built by Energoprojekt, a company from Belgrade, Serbia. They opened to the public in March of 1979. The towers were damaged heavily by the Iraqis during their occupation of Kuwait from 1990 to 1991. In 1991, after the liberation of Kuwait City during the First Gulf War, Vic Clarke of Nottingham UK abseiled the Kuwait Water Towers during structural surveys. Mr. Clarke was introduced into Kuwait by Mr. Michael Stewart, of The Stewart Group International, also from Nottingham UK.

There was substantial shell, and bullet damage to the exterior of the towers. The interior damage was mainly to electrical gear, mostly lift equipment. Some of the large triangular glazed panels shown in the photograph, were also damaged by shell fire.

Hope to go there in my fall break and take some pictures personally.

© Wikipedia

Safat : The Kuwait Blogs!

Browsing some blogs here at blogspot, I came across this blog which has a huge amount of bloggers aggregated and listed in one place. Until this moment I didn't know that the Kuwaiti community blogs as much. I am proud to be in this country. 

I would surely like to be listed on the Blog Roll. Lets see what do I have to do to get my blog up there?

Drops Landed

On November 3rd, I woke up without looking out the window as usual. University starts at 9:30 AM for me and since the first class is Accounts, I had to attend it. Leaving my apartment for my car in the lot, here I see what I've been waiting for since last year. Yes, RAIN! Just loved the season and wanted to get wet but couldn't forget I had to get to class. Got in my car, grabbed my camera and shot these, Enjoy.

MacLabs at AUK

Starting off with brilliant news, I got my first paycheck while working in the Division of Humanities and Art in the American University of Kuwait. Although, my pay only included half month's salary because thats how long I've been working, I was extremely happy and could not get the grin out of my face while receiving it and for rest of the day!

This is my workstation i.e. desk of work. Its basically in the Mac Lab, but I usually have a specific computer on which I sit because I have some setting set on that station and I can't be bothered to do them all over when I sit on a new Mac Pro.

Here is the shot of the Mac Lab that is on the third floor in the Liberal Arts College building of AUK

The Lab has 32 Mac Pros, and was generally referred to as MacLab until recently it is referred to as "Male MacLab." This is due to the new government rule of segregation; the term does not need any further explanation.