Raiders of the lost bargain

Few days ago I visited for the first time a place which was in my agenda last year and finally I couldn’t have time to go, the Friday Market (or Souk al Jumma in Arabic), a bustling open-air market where one can finds almost everything. Despite its name, I think that, besides Friday, there are open stalls from Thursday to Saturday, from morning to night.

 The amount of products and sections I saw exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be smaller, with only clothes and antiques. but, apart of this, you can find all kind of items for home and furniture at an excellent price. Each part of the market, whose total area is around one square kilometer, is reserved for a type of goods and the variety is huge.

The Friday Market is an ideal spot to practice the ability of bargaining, something totally expected for the vendors and practically mandatory in this scenario. It is especially recommended to go around during the last hour of Saturday, when they are about to close the stalls and it is more likely to negotiate a better price.

My main goal there, beyond exploring that labyrinth of bargains, was finding a white cloth for an activity we did last week at my school. I needed 18 meters and finally I got a roll of 25 for 11 dinars, less than half dinar per meter. A very good deal indeed.

Before...

...and after

If someone is interested, the Friday Market is located at Shuwaikh area block 1, not far from The Avenues mall, another classic of Shopping in Kuwait, which I should write about someday too.

Have a great week!

Hidden treasures

During the first orientation weeks at the end of August, my school organized some activities for the new staff, to help us with the acclimation process. The events continued in September too. I joined to the last of them so far since it was an excursion to one place I couldn’t visit last year: The Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development Headquarters. This building hosts three more organization related to the Arab League. It was a very interesting and surprising visit due to the amount of details and curiosities inside this place.

Behind an apparently dull and could facade, there is an architectural marvel which combines perfectly modernity and tradition. The building, inaugurated in 1994, hosts several offices, a library and various impressive meeting rooms. There are some theme halls, related to a particular country and its style, such as the Tunisian Room or the Damascene Room. There is also a prayer room and an atrium with trees and even birds. The decoration is fantastic and, among other elements, there are authentic pieces of museum.

Multi-function hall

Prayer Room

The building is designed in a way which insulates the heat while keeping as much natural light as possible. Every detail (the size of the windows, the angle of the sunbeams according to the time, the materials in each area, the acoustics, etc.) is planned with a pinpoint accuracy. We could notice that thanks to our guide, who was the designer of this master piece. What a privilege!

We really enjoyed the place and its idea of diversity keeping a constant harmony. It was an unexpected feeling because it is not easy to find beautiful spots in Kuwait. It was proved one more time that it is a matter of investigating a little bit and keeping aware about what people is informing. If you need more info about this building, you can visit its website following this link:

http://www.arabfund.org/AOHQ/KUWAIT.HTM