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Published: April 29th 2006
December in Kuwait
One of our best friends came to stay with us over christmas. He is Catholic so we decided to get a tree and cook him a delicious (I hope) christmas dinner. Tree's and decorations are available here widely during November/ december but trees and decs are VERY expensive compared to UK and states so if you can bring your own. Where have I been
Hello everyone. Firstly I really have to apologise for not updating this blog for such a long time and not checking in to see if it was being read. It all started as a way of me keeping friends up to date and I never thought so many people would find it and read it, and wow.. so many people have found it interesting.. So here goes. I will now promise to keep updating hopefully at least once a month or more as the longer I'm in Kuwait the more I learn and the easier life gets. (and more fun hehe).
Where to begin. Ok well there is quite a large gap from my last entry to this one. Quick recap is in order I think. When I wrote the last entry I did not have my residency and it looked a long way off getting it too. The same went for my husband and 2 children. What a palarva that was but I hear its not the norm for the main earner to wait so long. Hubby is working here under the UN and things get complicated.. Best not to go into
Camel in Kuwait Zoo
If you've got an itch, scratch it. This camel lives with a sandy coloured one in Kuwait zoo. We haven't seen to many cames since we been here. Typical ! that me thinks hehe. Well, a year down the line of being in kuwait and 3 trips to Bahrain to renew the visa and 2 trips to Immigration to extend our visa (will go in to that further) we FINALLY have our civil ID's and residency/ medical cards. Now what a lot of people here dont know (because they are not told like us) is that you can go to Immigration and ask them to extend your visiting visa for anything up to 3 months. To be honest (like most things in kuwait) wether you get it or not depends on a few things. 1, the person you see is in a good mood and not on treatment to strip them of all niceness.. 2, you might be lucky and have WASTA (something you get here if you know the right people in the right places)... 3, you say the right things. Being all sweet and innocent and feeble doesn't go down well here we found out. best to walk in looking like you know you can get it and treat them as though its your right to get it... and 4, the worse one. Depends on where your from
Gate to Yuam al Bahar village
Yaum Al Bahar village is set right on the Arabian gulf road over looking the sea. It has coastal walks, grass areas to sit, coffee shop, and a very nice play area for children. Also a small beach which is hidden away at the back. Virtually person free during th week. They will have shops selling traditional Kuwaiti goods opening soon. (sad but true). English/ American's are almost Garaunteed an extension but I have a Jordanian friend who was turned down for no reason. Go figure. If anyone else would like more information on visa's, residency, medical insurance and civil ID's Etc please feel free to email me at skindraya2@hotmail.com and I will do my best to find the information for you... Also what we were not told, is that to get your ID's for your family who join you or came with you in Kuwait, you need to get your marriage certificate and childrens birth certificate's certified. This means sending it (if your already here like us) to your foreign commonwealth office for them to do the first satge and then waiting for it to come back then it has to go to SEVERAL different places here in kuwait before the process is finished. The process includes translation, further atesting, more signing, stamping.. jeeeees NOTHING here is straight forward but luckily you only have to do it TWICE !!! It could be worse hehehe..
Getting a driving liscence here is VERY easy if you have an English or american liscence already. I would imagine alot of other countries would
Twin towers Kuwait.
Also knows as water towers as one contains millions of gallons of water and the other contacins a revolving floor serving coffee and snacks and binoculars, and the uper floor is a restaurant. Very nice and cheap to visit like most places in Kuwait be easy too, its a case of filing a form, waitintg a little while, taking a very VERY basic eye test (read this "A" read this "K" you passed). BUT I know that Egyptian, indian, pakistani, jordanian, Mexican and a few others have to take a driving test to get a liscence. If you are on a visiting visa you can drive a rental car on almost any liscence but once you have your civil ID/ residency you have to have a Kuwaiti driving liscence. Depending on the area you live in, you have to go to the traffics department. I can try and provide info to these places when you know what area you will live in. Insurance for driving is usually provided by the rental company. Its much easier and cost effective to rent/ lease a car here in Kuwait. The hot weather and sand have a hard wearing effect on your car and although alot cheaper to buy than say in the UK, Its better to rent. Every year you get the new model, if you have an accident or prang they will give you a new car and they sort and pay for the damage to
Discovery Zone Fun
Our friend Gavin having fun at discovery zone. Situated in the scientific centre. That ball is really floating hehe the rental car, so its fairly responsible free. If you do have the unfortunate luck to have an accident (which so many people do) then you have to call the police and wait for them to arrive. They will take your details and either give you a report there and then or ask you to attend the police station in the area the accident happened in and collect your report from there. Its pretty straight forward (even when it is your fault). If I have forgotten anything let me know and I will put it in my next entry. Oh car rentals are approx 150kd a month for a small family car (from the right place. ask and I will give you the details) or about 250kd a month on short term rental basis from places like national car hire etc. I can also provide contact details for these if you need to get quotes and things. The longer you lease your car, the cheaper it is, so for example the same car on a 1 year contract might cost you 200kd a month, but on a 2 year contract you will pay around 170kd a month (remembering 1kd is
Biggest aquarium in the Middle East
Jelly fish floating in a tank of about 500 others. Amazing neon blue colours. approx 2 sterling and 4 dollars).
So thats all the technical stuff done with. As I said we are pretty hot on all the procedures now so If you have any more info you would like to know about let me know and I will do all I can to get the right information for you. Now, alot of people ask me about schools. My children attend TES (The English School). As far as we are aware it is the ONLY school attached to the embassy and british children get first priority not having to sit an interview or exam. All nationalities are accepted at TES but a good command of English is required as its the playground language (also all lessons apart from arabic lesson are taught in English by English teachers). It is also the only school in Kuwait to run 100% along side the british curriculum and Also the only school here in Kuwait that has English as the first language among pupils (most of the other English/ British schools speak arabic in the playground as a huge majority of the children are from Arab origin). TES takes children from preKG (2 years) up to the
Typical shopping mall
This is a shoppig mall in the Salmiya area. All shopping malls here are very swish, air conditioned and all have an abundance of eateries and coffee shops. And YES that is a lovely fountain and gold elevators.. age of 13 years old. If you would like web site addresses for most of the schools here in Kuwait please drop me an email and I can provide these for you. I can also give you an idea on fees for schooling (alot more expensive than you might think) and its worth your while asking for that little extra for schooling in the contract. ask for more details. In kuwait we have indian schools, pakistani schools, philipino schools, american schools, french schools.. Wow so many different schools,. Schools for boys, girls and mixed schools. Schools for tots, big kids and adults.. So much choice ( for us TES was the best for English/ British kids used to the British system by far and very popular also Amongst Americans).
Now on to something a little more fun. Days out. Time with family. Wow sooooo many places to go see. Family life is HUGE here. Children are welcome absolutly everywhere and are made to feel most welcome even at the most expensive hotels and restaurants. Nearly every shop, restaurant, hotel provides activities such as play areas in and out and are more than happy for them to be wandering around exploring their surroundings. We have our favourite places already. We go to the Scientific centre OFTEN. It is so relaxing. The children have a discovery zone to play in which is amazing. It says from 3 years but our son who is 2 has always gone in with out being questioned. It also has the biggest aquarium in the whole of the Middle East. It also has a starbucks for amazing refreshments, an IMAX cinema which is awsome (I liked it more than the kids I think) and a litle stall that has a chocolate fountain. You cna chose melted chocolate over strawberies, flacked, cereal, marshmellows or buiscuits. wow.. sooo naughty but oh so nice. Outside in the shade is a huge seating area that also has an ice cream stand, sweetcorn stand (kuwaities have a thing for sweetcorn, they are everywhere) and a hot jacket potato stand. A small play area for the children keeps them amused while you stare accross the ocean and look longingly at the most expensive yachts sailing past you. mmm nice. so nice. Inside you have a burger king restaurant (which also holds children's parties) and a pizza hut (always check the back of your tickets if you pay to go see the aquarium or discovery place as sometimes they have offers for half price pizza or buy one get one free deals). Also you get free parking if you pay to go into any of the attractions. The nice thing is its a lovely place to go even if you dont want to go into the IMAX, aquarium or discovery zone. It makes for a lovely day out. We also go to fountain gardens alot, city centre (great play areaa for the kids here up and down stairs) the zoo (which needs alot of money ploughed into it but the children dont understand that sort of thing, they are just amazed to see the monkeys, camels, giraffe and hippopotimus (i didn't spellt hat right did I sorry).. We have also found an amazing Indian restaurant, superb chinese restaurant, great place to buy Egyptian food and lots of other delicious eateries.. tooo many to mention. Eating out here is ALOT cheaper than England.
The best way to find out what Kuwait is all about and where to take the family is to roam around and see what you find but from experienc i know that can be a little scary. When you arrive at Kuwait airport you will find a magazine on show called KUWAIT ZOOM ! This magazine tells you all about Kuwait. Its excellent. Also has a pull out map right in the middle (which will also show you a zillion McDonalds we have here in Kuwait), places to go, people to see, history, contact details of hotels, restaurants etc. Its brilliant. Can't live without it (alot of people and places in this blog who should be paying me commision hehe).
Well I fear this blog entry may be very very long and some of you might give up the ghost and get bored (or fall asleep half way through) so maybe I should knock it on the head now and continue tomorow or something. This is totally my fault for leaving it so long since I last updated. I have so much to tell you still, about living apartments, villa,s, gyms (amazing but true) kittens, food, and people, friends, more maid info (we found our angel after try number 8 hehehehe)and so much more so why not subscribe if you haven't already and keep up with my mad but very happy life here in Kuwait.
Was it worth it? Would we do it again?
Yes. maybe under slightly different circumstances from what we know now but YES. 100%!<(MISSING)/b>
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IntlXPatr
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Brava!
Your blog is solid gold - full of nuggets of information that the person coming into Kuwait needs to know! I love it that you put your photos is, to help illustrate. Please, keep writing!