Typical street in my neighborhood in Kuwait, taken from my roof. Each one of those buildings are a single home, usually 2 or 3 stories, 4000-7000 sq ft, and have one couple and one, or at the most, two kids. There are also 6 or 7 servants living somewhere in the back. There is no yard...just a strip of sand or dirt around the outside where nothing grows...besides, it’s too hot to go outside anyway. There is also no garage...just 4 or 5 cars under the sunshades. Kuwaitis love their cars!
The rounded tanks on the roofs are for water storage. The water pressure is low, so each house has two or three 5,000 liter tanks on the roof for storage. The problem is that they get very hot....over 140 degrees sometimes. In the summer, we use the cold water tap for hot water (from the roof). Then, since the hot water heaters are located in the house, we turn them off and use the hot water faucet for cold water.
In the left rear of the photo, those large blue and white striped things are six water towers. Each neighborhood has several sets, they’re always in groups of six, always painted blue & white, and I don’t know why.
These three towers, appropriately called the “Kuwaiti Towers” are the unofficial symbol of Kuwait. They’re located downtown and easily seen from most parts of the old city. During the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi’s just destroyed everything they could inside the towers...the rotating observation globes, the rotating restaurant, display rooms, etc. After they were pretty much wrecked, they used them for artillery practice. Nice, huh....
This is a view of the city from the observation platform on one of the towers. There are more trees than I had expected when I came here, but the grass is normally only seen in public areas for decoration. The concept of having a lawn around your house just isn’t here. The streets are wide and smooth, and you can see a lot of new construction buildings going up – look for all the cranes.
This is a huge dhow – an Arab sailing ship used for fishing, pearl diving, and moving passengers up and down the Arabian Gulf (formerly known as the Persian Gulf) for many centuries. This one is a duplicate of the largest one ever built, and used all the exact same material and construction techniques to build. It was built on shore, and by the time it was finished they realized that they’d have to dredge the harbor for a very long ways in order to get it out, so cement was poured on the floor of the drydock and it was permanently mounted. A few years ago they built a large hotel next to it (SAS Radisson). In this photo, my wife and a friend from Germany (who is 6’ 4”) are standing by the rudder to give an indication of the size of this thing. On the left is a large rock with a model of the ship.
This is taken on the main deck near the stern (rear of the ship). You can barely see the wheel in the background. The canvas covers do a great job of reflecting the heat and keeping the boat from becoming an oven. The name of the ship (al Hashemi II) and the date it was built (2000) are on the left. On the right side is the name in Arabic and the year (1420) of the Islamic calendar that equals the year 2000 on our calendar.
Since the ship wasn’t going to actually put to sea, the interior was converted into a large, fancy dining room and ballroom for VIP visitors or high-rollers with thick wallets (not me!!). Because they were preparing for a state dinner for some big-wheel, we weren’t allowed to go inside. I did, however, find an unlocked door and stuck the camera inside and clicked off one shot. Unfortunately, stupid me forgot to turn off the flash, so they saw me take the photo and all hell broke loose. We ran down the stairs, laughing like naughty children, but got caught anyway. I had to show them all the photos I had on the camera before they’d let us go, all with a very stern talking-to (of which I didn’t understand a word....but just kept nodding and looking contrite so they wouldn’t confiscate my camera). It’s hard to see in the photo, but it’s a pretty fancy place!
Okay...enough of Kuwait. My bikes are in storage so I can’t get any photos of them here, but here’s one from the garage at my last assignment in Mbabane, Swaziland. For those geographically-challenged, it is a tiny kingdom between South Africa and Mozambique. The VFR is a 1991 model and has 138,000km on the clock....and I’ve loved putting every single one of them on the odometer! The little bike is a CBR400RR Gullwing NC-29...a gray market import from Japan. It’s painted up in the original Mick Doohan era Repsol colors. That CBR rips!! It corners like the proverbially “on rails” saying, redlined at 16grand (very high for a 1993 model), and was a ton of fun in the twisty roads on an early Sunday morning breakfast run! The VFR has a full set of Givi bags and my wife and I have toured all over Europe and lots of South Africa on that thing. I can’t wait to get the VFR back when I leave here next year... Alas, I no longer own the CBR400RR (never should have sold it!!!).
This is me and my little CRF230F. It was my first foray back into dirt bikes after a 15 year lay-off and is a great bike for just trail riding and playing around. I’m at my buddy’s house getting ready to take him out on his very first dirt bike ride ever (his normal bike is a Honda VTX1800). Swaziland is very mountainous and green (as you can see in the background), and the police don’t mind if you ride your unlicensed/no headlight/no taillight/dirt bike on the streets so long as you were cool about it. We’d go right through the middle of town (all the kids trying to get us to do wheelies) and out to an open riding area of approximately 150 square miles. It was all green hills and smallish mountains, tons of trails, the occasional creek to cross, etc. There were lots of small plots with sustenance farmers growing enough to eat, so we had to avoid their planted gardens, don’t mess with their cattle, and look out for any burial grounds....otherwise it was free riding for as long as you wanted.
Every Christmas the Swaziland motorcycle club “King’s Brigade” would take donations and also spend a lot of money out of pocket to distribute food and clothes to a poor orphanage or school out in the bush. The big truck in front of the country’s only motorcycle shop was loaded full, and then a bunch of us followed it out to the village that we had chosen to unload and distribute the stuff. Swazi’s are extremely nice people and they were incredibly grateful for our donatons.
This last photo was taken after we finished unloading everything. The group is a mixture of club members and some of the kids from the orphanage/school. The rather rotund guy is the priest that oversees the place....and I wonder why he is so fat and nicely dressed while all the kids are skinny and wearing rags. Oh well....at least we try to do good!
Okay, now that everyone is bored to death....or had already skipped over this and gone on....I’ll stop. I’d like to see more member post photos from the areas where they live or travel or whatever. On-road, off-road, touring, racing, whatever....post some photos.
Cheers,
Mac
While it does rain a little bit here, it really is negligible. There's no natural source of fresh water...it is all distilled from seawater, and basically very few plants of any type, so rain really isn't important for much more than washing some of the dust off the leaves of the few trees around (mostly palms and date trees.
My condolences to you.