3 horses

There were 3 horses in the Chalet. We couldn't ride them and were too afraid to pet them. The white one, the caretaker told us, is quite crazy. Yet, he looked saner than my ex-boss. (That's another blog post in itself!)


When I aimed to click this pic, he stomped his feet, swished his tail at a frantic pace, and flared his nostrils (in this instance, the horse, not the ex-boss. The similarities, though, were astounding!). Quite rude of him to show me his behind. Obviously I'm not his type! Methinks he needs a training course on how to treat a dishy lady (if I say so myself!) with a camera!

To eat or not!

On the way to the Chalet, we came across these boards. My Kuwaiti friend explained that the green area is allowed for the camels to graze and it is not allowed in the red area. I guess they may have put green and red boards or flags around. I'm not sure. We see a lot of cows on Indian roads but it's really fascinating to see camels, with that proud and mighty smirk on their faces, grazing like the world belonged to them!

Well, do you know why camels have that proud look? My brother once told me, that it is said, Allah has 100 names but man knows only 99. The camel, it seems knows the 100th name. That's why that superior, know-it-all look!

Portico

This is the portico of the Chalet (I had posted yesterday). It was pleasant sitting there in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. The air was pretty nippy. This portico is an extension of the living room.


This is the path to the right of the portico leading to the beach. The guy is the caretaker of the Chalet. He had 4 or 5 cats constantly following him.

Chalet

Went to this Chalet (110Kms away from the city) over the weekend. Weekend hols in Kuwait are on Friday and Saturday. It's overlooking the beach but it was too chilly to enter the water.

All property in Kuwait is owned only by locals. Expats can only rent out accommodation.

The left most window is one of the bedrooms, the middle windows is where the swimming pool is, the right top window is the living room, and on the ground floor (with the small tiled roof) is the game room. It has two snooker tables, a fooseball game, and a table tennis table.

Zain Girl

Zain provides Mobile voice and data services in Kuwait and in many Middle East and African countries.

This pretty girl has been causing a lot of accidents, with her distracting looks, according to many of the guys in my office. I guess once there's an accident, the guys use their Mobile phones and this serves Zain's purpose in putting this attractive girl on their hoardings! The end justifies the means!! :-)

Recycle

Saw this board on Recycling while driving by in Ahmadi (It is 40 Kms away from the city). This is the first time I have seen something about segregating waste in Kuwait. I haven't seen any such boards in the City.

In Kuwait, most people keep their waste in plastic bag and place it in a bin outside the door and every morning the building watchman (called a "Haaris") takes it and places it outside the building in bins provided by the Muncipality. Nobody has ever told us to segregate anything.

Personally, I put glass, plastic and paper in one bag and everything else in a different bag. I have seen the garbage guys sift through all the garbage to pull out glass, plastic and paper so I do it to make life easy for them. Not a fun job sifting through garbage at 3 am in the morning... hell... at any time of the day!!!

Rac

Saw this upturned car (Rac if you read it backwords... my own silly P.J. Ha! Ha!!) on my way home from work. Scenes like this are a plenty in Kuwait. Wondering how they managed to get the driver out of this one.

Waiting

Went to the Airport yesterday to see off a relative and saw a bunch of hotel drivers holding cards with passenger names. Looking at those guys waiting .... and waiting.. I remembered a French Proverb, "People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting”!!!!

Thought it made a nice shot. Unfortunately, I zoomed to click and the lighting was not too good.

Bakala

This is a corner store or kiosk or, as they call it in Arabic, a "Bakala". ("Bak" rhymes with "Luck", so it's pronounced Bak (as in Luck) -aah-laa) Mostly run by Iranians or South Indians, these `bakalas' have everything you'd need in an Emergency or if you are just too busy or lazy to drive to the Government Cooperatives or private Malls.

Traffic woes

Clicked this pic on my way home from work. It's not as bad as it looks, though. We were still moving at 20Kph!! ;-)

To answer Red Ink (based on his comment), although this is the way to the Airport, it is not always busy. Kuwait has a lot of traffic on her roads in the morinings, mid-afternoon (lunch crowd) and evenings (8:30 pm).

Hyderabad Daily Photo wanted to know why some cars have yellow/orange number plates. These are Taxis. The Police car number plates are black. Ordinary folks like us have white number plates.

Most signs are bilingual. Inspite of that, I manage to successfully get lost very often. The speed at which we have to go (minimum 80kph) doesn't give us much of a chance to change our minds or our lanes.

Many institutes have Arabic classes. There are no government programs, as far as I know, that teach Arabic on a free for all basis.

I'm lovin' it

No dearth of McDonald's in Kuwait. I don't eat it as often as I'd love to. Ooooh! I'm lovin' it!

Lantern

Isin't this water dispenser pretty? It's not operative yet. I guess once they complete building the villa, they will arrange for the water supply for the water dispenser too.

As requested by Ann (in the comments), I checked with a Kuwaiti friend what the writing on the dispenser meant. She told me that it says, "This water is free for all people. From a dead person (his name is written). So when people drink from this water they pray for him....."

Thanks to Ann, I learnt something new too.

Buy for CRY

CRY organized a cricket tournament for the kids. At the side they had stalls with various activities such as a drawing competition for kids, books for sale, houseold items for sale etc. The amount collected would go to CRY.

Photographs courtesy, Wilson! (As I was in India last week.)

Another water dispenser

I really love the water dispensers of Kuwait. Look at this one. It's a replica of the Kuwait Towers.

I had missed posting a few days as I had travelled to India.

Sharq Mall

The Sharq Waterfront mall. It comprises an entertainment complex, 12 restaurants, a retail complex with the biggest brand names in clothing, shoes, electronics etc, speciality arcades, a food court and a marina.

Kuwait Towers

The beautiful Kuwait Towers

The main tower is 187 metres high and serves as a restaurant and water tower. It also has a revolving Viewing Sphere . The third tower houses equipment to control the flow of electricity and illuminates the two bigger towers.

Bottle

Look at this water dispenser. Even if you are not thirsty (which is rare in the desert), you will feel like having a cool drink. This one, though, does not seem to be operative judging by the plastic bag that has been stuffed so rudely near the taps. This one is not positioned outside a villa. It's on a busy street in a place called Hawally.