LIVE FROM THE KUWAIT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

oh yeah, i'm kinda in kuwait right now. i've been here for the last for days and right now i'm just waiting for my flight at the airport. i'm here on a job. a business trip, you might say. gosh.. i really need to get used to be sent to places for work. it's cool, i know. but i feel scared and .. old. like i'm 40 or something. very adult. and it is quite pressurising when you are sent to go to a foreign country alone. and the job at hand is totally depending on you. but i think i did a reasonably good job this time. there was no internet connection in the kuwait office that i was visiting so i had nothing to do but work. and when i work, i REALLY work. so, yeah i guess i did alright in this particular assignment.

now let me share with you a thing or two about this country. first of all, it's mighty rich. it's really really tiny but it's super duper rich. that's pretty much why they were attacked by iraq back in 1991. and second of all, it's super duper expensive. this is mostly because kuwait, unlike d*bai or qatar or bahrain or oman has decided to de-peg it's currency from the usd. and because of this, their currency has appreciated about 30% compared to the rest of gulf countries in the last year or two. although prices remain the same (for example, it cost 0.6 kuwaiti dinner to buy a large apple juice in kuwait or 0.6 omani riyal in oman) but since their value of the kuwaiti dirhams appreciated, that actually translates to about 0.8 omani riyal). so everything becomes automatically more expensive as most companies who operate within the gulf uses the same price structure. get it? no? ok, let's try this way - a fridge magnet here cost RM 17. yeah, it's bloody expensive here (btw, for those of you who have been getting fridge magnets from me from my previous trips- i'm sorry. not this time)

my flight today is at 10.25 pm. i had to check out at 3 pm. since i was homeless for about 7 hours, i decided to go to one of the malls. and since everything was so expensive at the mall, i've decided to catch a movie (which was still expensive, btw. 3 dinars. i think around rm30). only 1 show suited my timing - ironman. usually, i wouldn't watch these kind of movies (superhero movie, not-so-goodlooking hero). but since i wanted to save myself from boredom (or buying something ridiculously overpriced that i might regret later), i decided to watch it. and as expected, i didn't really enjoy it. as always, the hero went against all odds and was triumphant in the end. and always, they had nincompoops as the villains. muslim villains some more. gosh i just wish that these rich arab countries can just pool some money together and make a movie where the villains are stupid american people and the hero is... that guy he sits in 3 desks away from me in the office. nyum. (he's lebanese btw so it's ok). hehe.

oh btw - some interesting facts about the cinema in kuwait. they still have seats segregated according to gender. cool eh? and.. during the commercials before the movie started, they were actually political campaigns as adverts (they are having their election soon). but since candidates here do not have parties, so it's actually a personal campaign. like "vote for abu obeid bin abdulla". hehe. quite funny, really. reminds me of rtm.

don't really have much things to tell about kuwait. as usual, i am in my best behaviour whenever i am in a foreign country. so i don't have any interesting stories to tell you guys (fine. go ahead and type another address in the address box. see if i care. :P) anyway, my general impression about kuwait that it is better than dubai (in fact, i feel that all the places i've visited is better than dubai. if that's not hatred, i don't know what is). you can a lot of development in kuwait just like dubai, but it's just the right amount. it doesn't get too overwhelming. and it doesn't get too crowded or too hectic up to the point you are feeling suicidal. you can still drive on the main streets of kuwait without being stuck in the jam. and you can still ask people for directions on the streets and ask people to take photos for you (heheh camera whore kan?) and they will entertain you quite pleasantly. i'm very doubtful if you can get the same type of response if you are in d*bai.

they were still traces of war around they city. even in kuwaiti towers (kuwait's most famous landmark), they put up photos showing the destruction that the iraqi forces brought to the city. quite grim actually. can't really imagine that it happened just 17 years ago. looks like they have recovered well (well, the tons of money that they have sure helped).

so anyway, that's pretty much all about kuwait. my flight is in 1 hour an im gonna go to my gate now. as always, for photos, please check my facebook. daaaa....