3S of kuwait: Sea, Sight, Shopping!

we're finally at the last part of my little escapade at kuwait.


facing the persian sea, the salmiya area has a splendid seaview. known for being very family-oriented, kuwaitis would bring their families to the coastline to spend some quality time together over the weekends. for the sporty ones, you can go jet-skiing and horseriding!


the magnificent seaview of the persian gulf and the cloudless skies!

and my 2 travel chums cant resist taking a picto with it!


as we walked along the coastline, we found...

HARD ROCK CAFE! we thought souvenirs from hard rock kuwait would be quite cool, but we're rushing for dinner with the rest, pretty explanatory why we never pop in.

during summer, the temperature is expected to hit 50deg celsius, there are water coolers along the stretch to quench your thirst! and also because of the hot weather, many shops would be closed from 4-7pm, since no one would be out. but you can always go to the mall; it would stay open.


as there is hardly any entertainment there, considering there's no club, locals love to shop, or speeding/cruising around with flashy sports cars (especially petrol is SGD0.30/litre!). in marina mall, there are plenty of cars inside the mall. you'll find cars almost in every little corner of the shopping mall, we guessed it was almost like an "ornament" to them.


there are many european brands, with the likes of zara, mango, bershka, h&m, forever 21, etc. selfridges are coming in this year, and many companies are looking to bring asian brands as well.


marina mall - charles pointed out the logo for pastamania is different from the one in sg!

wonder what this is?


TADAA!

what else can blue and yellow be!


the avenue mall


the sultan mall.

a pity i didnt have the time to shop in avenue mall and sultan mall. as some might know, it's rather hard for people there to have a social life, people would either join health club or they would make use of bluetooth technology to get to know one another, since it is against the islamic rule for the girl to reciprocate (openly). so keep your bluetooth on when you're there! you never know when romance would hit you!

at kuwait, you'll find the service line heavily populated by filipinos, as kuwaitis are known to be rather arrogant, or they would rather work in government sector which supposedly pays very well. i had an encounter with a local, he could speak good english, but to prevent any miscommunication, one better speak straight to the point - better to make good use of preposition, ala "around" vs "outside". i personally thought he was rather helpful, but a tad too blunt.

this is totally off-topic, but i thought it would be interesting to share our little incident with the cab driver. under the recommendation of marina mall by oussama and sameer who told us the cab fare should be less than 3kd, prolly around 1kd. and as it was a rather short distance, most of the cab drivers would rather not use their meter, and charge you at a stated rate. so we hopped onto this dirty cab, and while he was driving, he quoted us seven-fifty. to our horror, we ran into an argument with the cab driver, who was also clueless at that moment. we forced him to let us off the cab, and because he was so clueless, that he helplessly shot us "what is wrong with you!" and honestly, i was on the verge of jumping car then, in the event if he did not stop immediately. and the moment right after we got off that cab, it then hit upon keli that seven-fifty - is equivalent to their 0.750kd, which was VERY reasonable, since the later cabs charged us 1 or 1.5kd. and up to date, it still remains a joke that the 3 of us share! so yeah, be prepared that the prices they quote are usually in 3 decimal places!

some sights to share!

Well-FAD in KUWAIT! - PART 2 of KUWAIT!

kuwaitis - one of the world's fattest people, according to WHO. and its not difficult to see why, when you go for a typical meal with them. something trivia, there is no "kuwaiti" food, the kuwaitis eat mainly lebanese dishes.



and you can imagine the shock we had when we see the amount of food they serve. a standard lebanese meal would always have some veg for the starter, which got us wondering whether it was meant to be eaten, or was it for decorative purposes. nonetheless, some of us ate it, and me being almost a carnivore - found it rather too primitive, and thought i was brought back to caveman era.

like most middle eastern food, they also have pitas for starters and kebabs and a lot of meat for their main course! but for myself i usually get full after eating one pita along with the sauce. ha!


if you're feeling rich and want to taste some good lebanese food, i would recommend you to try AlHamam restaurant. it's along the coastline at salmiya area. a pity i couldn't take pictos cos i was with too many VIPs. the ambience is great, the meat is tender, even for josy who's not a big fan of mutton, simply cldnt resist taking few more bites! and on top of the food, you can always take a puff of shisha, as i see many locals do in the same restaurant.

natalie introduced us to this drink that comes from pine trees. it's really sweet and tasted similar to rose syrup! im really bad with arabic names, so wait till i get the name from josy!

we also tried lebanese food at holiday inn salmiya. even though it paled in comparison to alhamam, but to get a general feel of the food, check out the fotos!



next up, kuwaiti sights and shooooopppping!

-tfc-

KUWAIT. part 1.

after 3 hours of hanging around at doha airport, we finally embark on our last flight of the day, from doha to kuwait!

say hi to 2 travel-buds ive gotten myself for the 2 days, charles and keli!


land of friendship? not quite living up to its claim, i'd say.


the airport is almost like another retail experience, with debenhams, starbucks and even the athlete's foot. i was really amused with having the athele's foot for a shop's name and venkat was amazed with cup&cino - think cuppacino.



scurrying our way out of the airport, guess what was waiting for us!

keli was lamenting that he's already loving the life of an expat, until the person who received us actually told the limo to reverse, cos our minivan is awaiting in front. i didnt manage to take a foto of the minivan, partly cos the person was rushing us and the other? go figure our disappointment, ha.




on our way to the hotel

we stayed at holiday inn at samiya area, which is very near the coastline!


i thought you might wanna check out my room!

Funny thing is how all of us got different types of rooms. josy, keli and my rooms are totally different! but yeah, keli's room is almost like a suite!

Keli's room!

holiday inn scores points for providing moisturising lotion and conditioner! the hotels that i usually go only provide the basics - shampoo and bath, but be warned that the weather there is really dry, so please bring lots of moisturiser and lip balm!


even though i was really tired and felt kinda ill, i went along with the guys for dinner at 7pm, which was 12am in sg time, since i need to get used to the local time. (but i woke up at 3am, pfft.) i ordered a carbonara - but my food looked rather bad, as compared to what the guys ordered, i found it too dry, just ate a few mouthfuls and im done. even though alcohol is not allowed in the country, they do serve non-alcoholic beers from budweiser and all. none of us try it, but according to venkat, who tried it before, said that these beers taste exactly like beer, except that there's really no alcohol content, or so they claim.


nonetheless, the food is priced pretty reasonably, ranging from 2.9kd (the carbonara) to 7kd (the steak), which is roughly 15sgd to 35sgd.

check out the guys' food!

are you hungry yet?

and look at the contented duo, charles and venkat!


that's all for my first day at kuwait! more to come!

-tfc-

* credits to keli for sharing some of his pictos!*

aloha doha!

im back from kuwait! so en route to kuwait, i have to transit at doha, qatar, and have to spend a good 3 hours waiting for my connecting flight.



yeaps, that's the sillyporean bird

from the pictos below, it's easy to assume that doha airport looks almost like a desert, with sand, sand and more sand. amazing how sg was in great need of sand - recall our little indo incident? well, welcome to middle east. the weather was great, with the temp at a cool 23 deg celsius, i thought im loving the place already, but desert being desert, i was told that it can hit near 50deg celsius in summertime.




doha international airport is one of the cleanest airport i've ever encountered! it's almost like changi, but downsize it further. it's amazing how middle easterns have a fetish over having cars as the prizes for their lucky draws, unlike those cheapskate sillyporean ones that give cheaper cars - think mitsubishi and all, they give nice convertibles with the likes of bmw and porsche.


what better way to kill time transiting other than eating? especially when you have horrible food at the flight. if you ever had to take a morning flight with qatar, my advice is take the noodles, and stay away from the omelette! but then again, it's a game of luck, apparently the standard of food varies - my friend's noodles from sg to doha was horrible but mine taken from doha to sg, was passable. so where's consistency? to digress, i think the best airline food comes from dragon air, after all it takes a lot for haagan dazs ice-cream to go wrong, ha! in doha international airport, they have a&w and this little ikea-styled food court. the service was great, and yes, don't throw your sillyporean notes away yet! you can use your sg notes there and the exchange rate was 1sgp to 2qatar dollars (okay, i have no idea what currency they use.)


just to let you have a rough idea of the cost of living, a large plate of fries and mineral bottle comes to S$10. pretty reasonable i'd say, when it comes to airports!



updates on kuwait soon! stay tuned!

-tfc-

Edinburgh

Scottish pipes and kilts, Loch Ness monster! Quaint, cold, windy. Come explore its ancient, mysterious celtic history. Dùn Èideann - do you know Gaelic?


Give yourself a Nickname
The Fad Guest-Globetrotter


What is the one place you've travelled to that you would like to feature?
Edinburgh!




Name me five wonderful memories you have of that place
1. Arthur's seat
An arduous climb up arthur's seat, but being repaid by a magnificent view of the entire Edinburgh city.

Both my friend and I set out from the Palace of Holyrood House,



and took the route circling the hills. It was probably the longest and hence most time consuming path, but along the way, you get to see views of Edinburgh far and wide.













If you're the kind who enjoys scenery and is on a budget trip, climbing up Arthur's seat first thing in the morning is a good option, mainly because it is free, takes about 3-4 hours up and down the hill (for the path which I took) and you get to see nice views along the entire way. It definitely helped that the weather was good for outdoor activities.

2. Auld Reekie Tour
Getting a glimpse of Edinburgh's supposedly haunted underground vaults by signing up with the Auld Reekie's ghost tours. (www.auldreekietours.com) I was highly entertained and spooked, mainly because of the underground vaults itself which feels kind of eerie.



To top it off, the guide had an animated way of creating the desired effects for the guests - through kicking stones, grinding with the balls of her feet at appropriate times and variation of tones to describe the history of the underground vaults.



During the tour, you will be given an account of how the vaults were being rediscovered by a medical student, the business activities that took place in the vaults centuries ago, the fire that wiped out Edinburgh city and suffocated (and trapped) many within the vaults, as well as the witches' curse placed in certain vaults. The underground tour cost me 7 pounds, and it was well worth it.

3. People
The friendliness of the Scottish at Edinburgh - I looked kind of lost navigating my way through the city, but one kind Scottish came up to me volunteering to help when he saw the helpless look on face haha! I mean, back in Sg, I see lost tourists all the time around SMU but I'm probably too shy to go up and offer my help.

Scottish are known to be friendly by nature! Strangers sometimes smile at you.

4. Shopping
The great sale taking place around UK at that time (9 Feb)! At Edinburgh, the main shopping streets are Princes Street for the trendy and Royal Mile to catch the older parts of the city adorned with specialized and souvenir shops.

5. Scottish Monument
Witnessing the Scottish Monument at the heart of Edinburgh City - I didn't have time to climb up the monument, but the architecture itself is really unique




What advice would you give to travellers in interested in visiting the city?
For people who are traveling free and easy and new to the city, the first thing you should do is to visit the Tourism Centre at Princes Street when you arrive at Edinburgh. It's probably 5 minutes walk away from the bus station – conveniently located and the staff is very willing to help, offering advice on the best places to visit and to orientate you on your way around city too.

Carry light for the climb up Arthur's seat!
I had no choice because of the little time I had and the hostel I stayed in was way out of the city centre.




Lastly, what is your travel philosophy?
For someone who is unlikely to visit Europe anytime soon, my philosophy is: "splurge it on the attractions!"

- the Fad girl