Flat Tour
This post is not shaming the place, but just offering some insider reference, I'm new to this shit-show, only found her at Kuwait arc, but her generalizations , " in the western world" and " here in Kuwait" ( after being in kuwait all of 2 months ... ) Piss me off, she knows next to nothing about kuwait and only has a very restricted perspective of Salah and co. Its both way better in some ways and way way worse in other ways that she just brushes off, she misses the whole experience of kuwait, the whole multiple tier system with Kuwaitis as first class citizens, wealthy expats, then a giant population of poor expats. She misses the story of the unequal rights. She talked about salah going to a doctors appointment the other day but has nothing to say about healthcare in kuwait, the apartheid nature of if, how about the fact that Kuwait is now making kuwaiti only healthcare facilities ( it started off by kuwaiti only times ,the morning was for kuwaitis). Or that there are certain cars only kuwaitis can drive, or very interesting is that in kuwait renting places is also by nationality, apartment adds will have " for westerners only" or expats only on them. There is so many fascinating angles to approach vlogging in kuwait, I'll admit that its scary tho, coz salah could get deported if anything negative they say goes viral.
Anyway...
Flat tour, many people do call it an apartment , the "flat" part is not European influence but Indian influence, the largest expat community in Kuwait, whos English is ofc influenced by British English.
From what I gather ( from the tissue box in a previous video: tissue boxes from local co-ops in kuwait have the name of the area on, and numbers of various services you may need in the area, like the local car garage number etc.) they live in Fahaheel.
Fahaheel is a far flung place down south of Kuwait in the direction of Saudi Arabia, I've only even met a couple of westerns who lived there working in the British school who had made the mistake of accepting the job without doing proper research as to where they would live. ( People in these far flung towns were literally fenced in like animals during lockdown, road blocks and all that shit ).
One bedrooms apartments down where they live will probably go for 150-180 KD, a month, in kuwait utilities are usually included in rent ( billing each tenant would be too complex , low skill, low pay, rudimentary equipment and methods , you get the picture, not a developed country... )
Its the cheapest kind of apartment on the market , the only cheaper thing is renting a room. A livable apartment( by western standards) will start at about 350kd a month and a nicer one you're looking at probably 500kd single bedroom with nice facilities but usually most nicer places have 2+ bedrooms and will cost for a nicer place 700-900kd but you can go beyond 1300kd for a really nice place with only 2 bedrooms. You're looking at over 3000KD if you want the whole villa.
"westen standards", "really nice place", some explaining may be in order. You will notice in the video they only have one real window in the whole apartment and Chantale points out that it is facing neighbours, meaning its facing another building, and there is a tiny window to nowhere in the living room. This most likely indicates that they live in a "cluster" of cheap buildings that are only a couple of meters away from each other. The window to nowhere is just that, a small window beyond with there are the walls of the other buildings , its a boxed in area from the other building being built, I've no clue why they exist ( unless its just poor planning) but I've seen it , and I've also opened one once to see and it was just a big drop to the bottom with a load of trash down there, so if they are on the bottom floor ...
Those with keen eyes will notice the wires all over the place, the wonky plugs , bad/cracking plaster jobs and pipes just sticking out of the walls. This is all common in Kuwait because none of the jobs , electrician , plumber, carpenter etc are done by qualified people they just employ the cheapest labour possible. And this is usually true of even expensive places( indeed beyond oil wealth, a lot of wealth in Kuwait comes from having an abundance of cheap labour in near modern slavery conditions), the best thing to do is to get down to ACE hardware get your tools and learn to do it to western standards yourself.
My first memory of Kuwait was a shocker, I was picked up at the airport by my kuwaiti hosts, we all bought juice from a roadside vendor. After finishing mine, i tucked the carton into my handbag to properly dispose of it later. All the ladies in the car finished their drink, rolled down the window and threw it out onto the road. This might explain some of the trash you see in the videos ! But it will also explain why she thinks its totally fine to roll out disposable plastic wrap each meal, then discard of it with along with food leftovers ( chicken bones she says in the vid) without even separating plastics and perishables for recycling. There is no waste consciousness, I think Kuwait is one of the largest waste producers in the world and they also waste an insane amount of food.
I don't know why they have no TP in the bathroom, I've never been in a toilet in Kuwait that didn't have TP or tissues , many people just put a box of tissues to use not a roll of TP.
The shower squidgy thing is common even in bathrooms with proper showers and baths, there is also usually the same thing in the kitchen, a hole in the middle of the floor that evacuates water.
Most people drink bottled water but don't use it for hot drinks, you just buy a water filtration system that goes on the wall next to the tap. ( you need all kinds of water filtration , even for the washer and dishwasher because of the sand ! ) Speaking of white appliances, Wansa is a cheap Turkish brand and beko is a cheap Chinese brand, not a good idea, you get what you pay for.
Gas tank next to microwave trigged me so much holy crap like wtf safety much?
She keeps on talking about rich kuwaiti princes in villas, but many expats live in villas too, specially in villas made into multiple apartments , it all depends on how much you make for a living. Wages for foreign workers are very low, wages are also dependent on your nationality.
On a serious note, I dont think she understands what she has signed up for marrying this guy, there is no such thing as permeant residency for expats, only wives of kuwaitis can get citizenship, citizenship is NOT granted by birth for foreigners, even kids born to kuwaiti mothers but foreign fathers don't get citizenship. one day, he'll have to leave ( unless he has kids to sponsor him in old age, and they are making that near to impossible). I dont know where exactly the law is at, its messy and there has been a lot of back and forth but a couple of years ago they passed a law making it practically impossible for expats with no university degree to stay in kuwait beyond the age of 60. In Kuwait there is no welfare, no social security or pensions for expats, no right to own real estate, no free schooling for expat kids ( kuwaitis have kuwaiti only public schools), healthcare is getting more and more expensive along with residency fees for expats. I don't think she's considered any of this , she can't live in kuwait, whatever they say, his endgame is without a doubt in my mind to get to canada.
She knows nothing about kuwait, she's in love with cheap food. and its not fresh ! kuwait imports everything ! the chicken she keeps on about its most likely frozen and from brazil, the food is cheap because the people making it are not paid living wages, have no social security, and mostly live in shared accommodation.
