Blogs from Kuwait, Middle East - page 2

Here we go... Well, I have about a month before I get to go Downunder. Its been almost 3 years since I had the chance to see a new country (besides my little detour to the middle east). I am looking forward to it, and still have a lot of planing to do. Stay tuned to see the fun, also let me know who is still out there. Cheers! T... read more

Greetings from Kuwait! I made it here in one piece, all bags in tact, ready for the next phase of my life. My vanilla extract also made it through. We were met at the airport and given an allowance, water, and porters took our bags so we didn’t even need to touch them once we got off the plane. There were about 38 new teachers on the plane, most of whom I met in Frankfurt, but about 10 had already arrived or have just recently arrived since. We got through the 40 degree nighttime heat and to our apartments—mine is huge with enormous windows and secret access to the roof between two buildings (even though I’m only on the 3rd floor), but it has gold fabric on all the couches, with gold curtains, and light blue ... read more

So the annual trip went on fabulously, and days seemed to have just whizzed past. Feel quite blessed that we were able to the countless things, we got to do. Ofcourse being with family and friends being the best part, and the endless drives and short trips and long ones too; catching up with the gol gappas,kachoris and paniyarams and vada paavs!! The amazing part was that we were able to enjoy and savour, the best of all the places we visited, as a visitor. But strangely enough was left with this rankling feeling of, trying to grapple for our roots and maybe branches too, while we seem to drift along with the currents, to some unknown destination!! Well, back to more prosaic sections of our trip, ofcourse touched and lined with unfathomable beauty and pleasure; ... read more

Friday, August 6th Touch down in Kuwait without a visa or hotel reservation to our name. The visa was a no brainer with our new spiffy non-Israeli stamped passports and $11, we were good to go. Assuming they would have a tourist information booth we didn’t make reservations for a hotel. Surprise surprise! We were greeted with “hey lady, wanna a hotel? Cheap!” as men covertly asked us. Not a good scene. We ended up booking with the Holiday Inn that was lovely. *Kuwait got its Independence in 1961 from the UK *Has 2.6 million people and in terms of land mass is only slightly smaller than New Jersey. *Petrol is 95% of its export and government income and ½ of its GDP *Unemployment is 2.2% *Women got the vote in 2005 and one needs ... read more

April 9, 2010 Note: You can click on any photo to enlarge it, and then use the numbers at the top to scroll from photo to photo. Be sure to see the photos below the comments on this page and then click on the "page 2" link to see the "extra photos" I've uploaded. : Last Thursday was the weekend and we had arranged for our group to go to Kuwait City, Kuwait for the day, which is about an hour’s drive from where we are in Khafji, Saudi Arabia. Things did not start off well. The driver picked us up at 12:30 pm. There were nine of us including the driver and 8 very narrow seats. The driver, who spoke no English, did not seem surprised or bothered by this. The solution was for one ... read more