TRAVEL IN KUWAIT

This summer I had the pleasure to make two trips to Kuwait – Shuaiba, a small but stylish little town, rebuild almost entirely after the Iraqui invasion from the 90’s. It is located on the shore of the Persian Gulf, with three harbors and a large oil terminal. The smallest one, the touristic harbor, stretches on several hundred meters on the town’s sea wall.

In a mall parking

You can find many 4 or 5 star hotels, which shelter offices at the lower floors, many of them house american corporations too. Actually, wherever you look, you find plenty americans and many american cars. If you had not known where you are, you could have thought that you find yourself in an american town. Many imposing malls with an architecture which combines oriental and occidental elements. I tried to take more photos, but the security personnel warned us that we can be fined. It is forbidden to take photos in malls, administrative buildings, because of a better security.

5 stars hotel Shuaiba

The streets are bounded by tall sidewalks, fifteen foot high palm trees can be seen along the boulevards and the cliffs. You can’t find stalls, shaworma stands, or other boutiques like you see in Europe. There you can see only big stores, many of them with fabrics or rugs. The clothing stores are branded and pretty expensive. There you cannot negotiate. The listed price is the last price. There are two bazaars, one with fruits and vegetables and the second one with fabrics, where you can negotiate, but also the merchandise is of poor quality.
In the city you can drive with about  40 km/h, but outside town the speed can go up to 150 km/h, because of the 3 or 4 lane highways. The gas is very cheap about 5 liters per dollar.

Touristic harbour Shuaiba

There is a stifling temperature, especially in the summer when I went, high humidity, mostly in the morning. The temperature can get to 40 Celsius degrees in the shade and 50 in the sun. Because of that, in the daytime stores are closed, it is known that arabs do not go out during lunch time. After 5 o’clock in the evening stores are open and they close somewhere around 1 o’clock in the morning.
It was wonderful, we went out after dark, in daytime was almost impossible to walk.