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Published: November 16th 2008
You know you're going somewhere different when you overhear people waiting to get on the plane saying "the last time I flew into here was on a troop transport with 300 other guys".
After a late night arrival into Kuwait and a confused taxi driver I managed to make it to the hotel in one piece. The first thing that you notice is that everyone behind the wheel here is insane. There must be some brain implant they give you when you get your licence, because everyone seems to think that they own not only the road but the footpath as well! Part of the driving test is to use your horn every 20 metres to make everyone get out of the way. Red lights it appears used to mean stop only if you feel like it, now they have upped the ante a little and the fine is KD250 for the first offence.
The other thing you notice here apart from everyone smoking everywhere is the high population of non-arabs here in Kuwait. There appears to be more Filipinos and Indians than in their respective countries. As you wonder around downtown you come across little enclaves that have
been transported from their home country which makes you do a double take as to where you are. Most of the Filipinos and Indians do all the jobs that the locals don't want so you see them in all the service industries, construction and driving taxis. Plus it seems you're not anyone here unless you have some hired help. Just like the woman who had coffee at the cafe I was at, she strolls in all dolled up with her filipino nanny carrying the three month old baby and assorted luggage. She sits has coffee, the nanny wrestles the kid, feeds the kid, the woman chain smokes and smiles at the kid occassionally. They get up and walk off, woman prancing, nanny with child, baby bag and woman's handbag. Quite a novel sight really but it seems like a common one over here.
There's one disadvantage though of coming to a country whose currency is valued somewhat different to your own. With 1KD equaling about AUD$5 you start to think that everything is cheap as, until you do that conversion thing. But considering that 1KD gets you just about anywhere around the city in a taxi it's not too
bad.
For a city that had a few unwelcome visitors in it's past it's recovered amazingly well. Unlike Beirut and Mostar you'd be hard pressed to find any damage from the war. But like just about every other Arab state there's a building boom going on here as well. All over town there's construction going on 24 hours a day. By the looks of things they are moving the town centre up the road a kilometre or two with the old part of town looking a little tired compared to the flash new highrises up the road. In Salmiya, which is a suburb of Kuwait City where I'm staying there are enough shopping malls to make Mr Lowy a bit green with envy. Add to that the Americanisation of the place with every multi-national food chain you can think of plus some dotted along the street, the american patrol cars and you're a bit confused as to where you are. This confusion rapidly evaporates though when you notice that there's a lot of men wearing dress like outfits and women in hijabs. Although it is a bit bizarre seeing left hand drive commodores cruising the streets.
Kuwait isn't
Kuwait City from the Kuwait Tower
Clearly window cleaning is optional!exactly known for tourism and hasn't exactly got an abundance of sites to take in, which probably explains the shortness of this edition. As the receptionist at the hotel said you'll see it all in a day. She wasn't wrong, it was a struggle to pad out the day, although I did miss one of the must sees, but I got in the Kuwait Towers though.
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Deana
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Memories
I used to live in Kuwait. I remember the towers. Nice country and nice memories.