Fehaheel: The Wild West
Well, really, the wild south. When we came to Kuwait, we were told Fehaheel and Jahra are “off limits” due to the high crime rate and high accident rate and non-law-abiding behaviors. We’re not very good at obeying the rules, especially when we want to visit Tanureen a time or two before it closes, so we make the long drive and brave the lawlessness.
As you get close to the Al Kout / Manshar Mall complexes, there is one last stoplight, and a very narrow – just two lanes – road. There is a very clear NO U TURN sign, indicating cars may turn left, but not make a U-Turn, there just isn’t enough room.
We were dying laughing. Not only are they continually making left turns – the sign might was well not even be there – but they make them from both lanes. In this photo, three cars are making the U-Turn, the white station wagon is having to back up and the black car slips into the inside lane narrowly missing the backing up white car – it is hilarious:
Here is what scares me. We have lived here three years. We kinda drive like this, too. Like if you drive differently, you become part of the problem. We are not speeders, and we don’t weave narrowly between cars with millimeters to spare – but I suspect we have picked up some habits we don’t even know we have, and will have to tone our driving down once we return to a world where laws are enforced. I hope we will be able to do it without the hurt of paying big fines en route. 😦
Camel Racing Championship – Who Knew?
From today’s Al Watan:
Camel racing championship kicks off
Camels ridden by robot jockeys take off at the beginning of a race that was held on the martyr Fahad AlÙ€Ahmad AlÙ€Sabah track in Kabad on Sunday. The competition marked the start of the Kuwait Ninth Camel Racing Championship which is being held from Feb. 15Ù€19. (Al Watan)
Last updated on Monday 16/2/2009
My whine: This is the kind of event that thrills our little western souls. We love your cultural events, and camel racing – like how exotic does it get? Robot riders? oh WOW. We would have gone in a heartbeat, but you all kept it a SECRET! (whining whining whining) We only find out the day AFTER it happens!
NonStomped Roses
Thanks be to God for a sweet husband. He knows I love white roses, and that’s what he got me, with one mischievous red red rose stuck right in the middle. 😉
There is a shop in Kuwait we love, Au Nom de la Rose, where the flowers are always fresh, and beautiful, and put together naturally. AdventureMan says on Valentine’s Day, they were SO busy, but that the man in front of him, holding a bouquet, was trying to get a discount.
(whine! whine! whine!) said the man in front of him.
“Sir! This is not Mubarakiyya! This is fixed price! And you have already paid, why are you asking now for a discount?” said the polite but very very busy and professional manager. LOL!
We asked the manager how she liked working in Kuwait. (I am telling you this because her response was so totally unexpected, and delightful.)
“I LOVE working here!” she said. “The woman I work for, who owns the store, is wonderful to work for. I love my job, and she trusts me.”
She also gets paid a decent wage, and she gets paid on time. This is one of the happiest women I have met in Kuwait.
Au Nom de la Rose has more than one location, but the one we go to is next to Chocolat, next to Tumbleweeds, in that stretch of stores and restaurants near Bida’a circle. Expensive. Worth every fils. 🙂
No sunrise today. I can’t even see the sea. Whatever this is socking us in today – fog? sand? it is not orange, but it is THICK.
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