''Please limit to one question per question''
-- George Dubya Bush, 27th march 2003, To the press before begining the meeting with his dog Blair
Note:This review is in continuation to review titled Small but Powerful part 1 on Kuwait. If you havent read that one, please do read that one before coming here. You will get a better sense of continuity. For all others, there is more...sigh.
Note:The review is under the heading of salmiya which is a part of kuwait. I dont know whey they refer to these places as cities when essentially they form the part of kuwait itself. A review on salmiya can be written in one small comment to be frank! The review continues below
Sightseeing
Frankly there is nothing much to see in kuwait. 60 KM (miles) here and there and you will reach the borders of the country. There are some excellent shopping malls namely - Sultan Center, Salmiya Road where you have all shops of every kind, Waterfront (A whole shopping complex built on the sea). Other than that, there is a fish aquarium which is beautiful and has been built in the shape of fish! its gigantic and rumored to be one of the best in the world. The kuwait towers, (3 towers) are one of the best places to visit on an evening. Though nothing spectacular, its a nice place to go. Other than this, beaches and gulf street beach are best places to go in evenings. Gold is cheap here and there are huge gold markets. They are worth visiting if you are interested in jewellery. Similar goes to perfumes or athar shops and carpets. Arabs have since time immemorial been good at art and it shows when you visit these kind of shops. There is a zoo there, if some one is interested!
People
The original kuwaitis were black in color. Some are rumored to be even africans. However present day kuwaitis are absolutely golden to look at.They have the purest skin in the world believe me! One look at a girl there and you will know what I mean - their skin just glows like gold! God only knows how they got it! Kuwait being a fairly modern country, one can expect girls/ladies/women to roam around in jeans and tights. Ofcourse, revealing will result in expelling from country too! However, women are respected here quite a lot. Generally kuwaitis can be friendly. However some of them can really piss you off. Language is a big problem with them as other than arabic, Kuwaitis generally find it difficult to talk. Hence, knowing arabic makes a huge difference here.
Other than the small population of citizens, rest all form the rest of the world. So Kuwait is truly a cosmopolitan place with lots of people from everywhere in the world.
Food
Arabic food is one of the best food I have eaten in my life! The arabic specialities include filafils (made of channa), filafil sandwich, Hammus (another great dish made of channa- gram flour) and of course Khabbus. Khabbus are thick bread made of either wheat or maida. In american terrms its also called Pita - though its a thousand times more tasty. Khabbus is the national food of kuwait, and its highly subsidised. A pack of 5 khabbus cost just 50 fils. Each kuwait dinar is made of 1000 fils, so in one dinar you will be able to get around 20 packs. The power of kuwait dinar is so much that you can really take a lot of things in just one dinar. Other than these, you have chicken shverma, which is a sandwich made out of grilled chicken right in front of you. Nothing in McDonald's or Burger King's can come near to what that is! Other than this, you have your usual masala of Burger Kings, McDonalds and stuff. But real arabic food is what to be enjoyed when you are there.
General Life
The General life in kuwait is pretty laid back. Unlike America where people are always in a hurry to go somewhere, people seem to be more relaxed there. Life or work begins in the mornings at around 7.00 and ends at 2.30pm. after that its free time ...the reason for this is most of the time, its sunrise at 4.00 in morning and scorching heat at 6.00 am in morning! So most of office work is done in morning. The evenings get cool in kuwait and so does atmosphere in the malls. Generally evenings and nights are when people come out and roam around late in the night. There are no discos or bars in kuwait - its a dry country. During the weekends people drive their boats (most of kuwaitis have their own boats) to the sea and return on start of week which is sunday; because thursday and friday are weekends here. The amazing richness of this place is seen everywhere you go in this country. Every fourth car in kuwait is believed to be BENZ - just a rough idea of how rich actual kuwaitis are. However given that there is lot of labor work and labor stealing in kuwait. Thats a bad part of the country.
One should also go to gardens on weekends. You will see a lot of Egyptians putting up there grills and cooking chicken. There is lot of merrymaking and dancing in the gardens there!! Life is simple and yet very lively too thee. Saying that one can also get pretty bored of living in kuwait, simply because its not a big enough country to explore. However, the power of money makes everyone stay!
Present Day
Present day kuwait is almost ruled by Americans. Americans came in 1991and helped kuwait gain back their freedom. Since then around 30000 soldiers patrol kuwait for security. America is paid 1000 $ per soldier, per day - and it all goes back to america in oil! I have seen the country's civil and administrative services chaning hands from localites to americans who operate all civil and administrative stuff. Why, years ago even car plates were written in arabic, which have now changed to English due to obvious reasons well known.
Kuwait is definitely one of the most powerful countries in the arab world. It enjoys having a good amount of oil and great amount of richness. The culture is pretty modern so it invites a lot of foreigners to work there. Life is generally good in kuwait. The kings of kuwait too enjoy their life to the fullest extent. It just remains to be seen when uncle sam gets other ideas and liberate kuwaitis. Till then, its a great place to be!
Its not a place for tourist visits. You have to stay there a while to enjoy kuwait.
''Good Job!''
-- Overheard, Bush to his dog Blair, after the press conferance!
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.