Kuwait City Part.I

The other day I was fortunate enough to travel into Kuwait City… which is supposedly the only city in Kuwait (according to the locals). The adventure began with a drive through a herd of camels. Well, we purposely hunted them down (which isn’t hard), just so we could take a picture. Unfortunately, before I could get out to pose with my new furry friends, we were chased away by their master… who came blazing through the desert in his Mercedes! Just another random, ironic thing I have seen since arriving in Kuwait.

Look, I am making friends! I personally think they are

very cute... but they do smell a little!

We eventually made our way into Kuwait City and cruised down the “Arabian Gulf” (kind of like the main drag) which runs along the Persian Gulf. It was beautifully landscaped and had endless amounts of palm trees. I was actually really shocked by how nice everything was and how clean it was. If you didn’t know any better, you would never guess that most of the city was previously destroyed by Iraq a little over a decade ago.

Looking out toward the Persian Gulf...

Our first stop was the “Shark Mall,” which is one of two main malls in Kuwait City. It is situated on the coast and is accessable by not only car, but also boat. Yup, there is a huge marina that you can pull your boat (or in this case… your YACHT) into and park while you run into the mall for your designer clothes. Yeah, the mall was huge and had everything from Zara to Chili’s… yup, crazy huh! It was more westernized than I ever imagined it would be. There were designer shops, one after another… Gucci, Polo, Armani… etc.!!!! Then the food court had it all… KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, McDonalds… anything and everything! Now, one thing baffeled me the entire time I was walking around the mall. I questioned how these beautiful, elaborate and elegant shops stayed in business when their clientel was mostly people who covered themselves from head to toe in oversized black robes? Once again, I found it kind of ironice when I saw an Arab woman holding up a red, knee length, spaghetti strap dress to her body when all I could see were her eyes… even her hands were covered by black gloves. The whole experience at the mall made me very curious about the culture that surrounded me. Man, could I ever live like them?

In the distance is the Liberation Tower, which is a telecommunication center that was inaugurated in March 1996.

After the mall, we walked over to a huge Fish Market. The outside was very nicely architecturally designed and in no way resembled what I consider a fish market to look like… then again, the only fish markets I have to compare this one to are the ones in Naples. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay at the market long because I was being chased around by all the men inside. It was rather humerous, I literally walked in the door and everyone turned and looked at me… the room fell silent and I had over a 500 eyes on me! I obviously stuck out big time… not too many young, white females are running around the local fish market. Plus, to top it off… you could actually see me- my arms, my hands, my neck, my hair, and yes… my face! However, they couldn’t chase me away before I got a picture... smooth!!!

Mmmm... dinner- right, I wish! This was obviously in the fish market! Just because I took a picture with the fish, they expected me to buy it... oops!