Kuwaiting Is The Hardest Part

I arrived in Kuwait last night only to find that the dust storm which had descended over Bahrain was even worse in Kuwait. I looked out of the window of the plane and it was a wall of beige.

All of the countries in the Gulf which I’ve visited so far have had very easy and common sense policies for tourist visas. Getting into Kuwait made no sense. Like several countries I’ve visited, you need to get a visa on arrival in Kuwait. The other countries which require that have been PNG, Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos. I can understand if a country makes you apply for a visa, but when you are getting one at the airport, it is just needless paperwork. If they want to charge an entry fee, then they can just charge an entry fee. Filling out a form with the exact same information that is on your passport and requiring a photocopy of the passport is sort of redundant. Just scan the passport like every other country and you can get all the information you want instantly. Then just stamp the passport as if it were a visa.

The dust storm as seen in Bahrain. It was worse in Kuwait.
The dust storm as seen in Bahrain. It was worse in Kuwait.

Once I got that taken care of, I was surprised to see my hotel had a shuttle, so I didn’t have to pay for a cab. Nice to see something was going right. I was talking to the hotel employee who was from Morocco and he had raised his hands in the air while gesturing while a Kuwaiti man was walking past him from behind. He accidentally hit him in the face. It wasn’t very hard and it was totally an accident. I know I’ve had that happen to me and I’ve done it to other people. It happens. The Kuwaiti guy starts to go nuts and punches the Moroccan guy in the throat and walks off.

Now the Moroccan guy wasn’t really hurt either. He goes off to find the police, but the Kuwaiti guy disappeared. When he gets back to the car, he seems pissed, which is not surprising. The reason he’s pissed off, however is because he felt as if the guy who punched him thought he was an Indian.

That was my first hour in Kuwait.

Other than that I have little to say. It was dark by the time I left the airport and there is still heavy dust in the air which really reduces visibility. Everything here seems very nice, but I can’t see much at this point. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out and see some of the sights in Kuwait City without having to look through a wall of dust.

4 thoughts on “Kuwaiting Is The Hardest Part”

  1. just stubled upon ur blog … very interesting .. I am from Kuwait and it pains me to hear about the bad experiences and troubles people see in here … but maaaany Kuwaitis are working to change this … the problem why we are not advancing ..say like Dubai .. although the people here are more open is because of the politics! …. hope you get a chance to visit again when things get better ..

    • Actually, while Kuwait isn’t the most built up country in the region, it is the most open. I think the long term outlook for Kuwait may be better than Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

  2. Wow! Sounds like an interesting time already! :) Hope things are going better for you now. Can't wait to hear more updates.

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