Travel report: Kuwait
Date of visit: September 2018
Kuwait was actually my first country that “didn’t happen”.
I intended to visit the country between the United Arab Emirates and Iran in April 2017. However, my flight from Dubai to Tehran with a 20 hour layover in Kuwait City got canceled, which I only found out two days before I traveled to Dubai. As I wanted Iran to be my country no. 50, I needed to add another country into my itinerary. The solution was eventually a day trip from Dubai to Oman.
Anyway, I didn’t give up on Kuwait and my next opportunity came soon. I used my 9-day trip to the Middle East and South Asia in September 2018 to visit Kuwait. It was again a 20 hour layover, this time between Istanbul and Lahore. The reason why I didn’t want to stay longer was simply because Kuwait is often referred as the most boring Arab country and sometimes even the most boring country in the world. Plus an expensive one. That’s why I wanted to keep it short.
It turned out to be a good decision…
There are many reasons why people call Kuwait a bad travel destination. 1) There isn’t much to do. 2) It’s a dry country. 3) It’s one of the hottest countries in the world. 4) It’s expensive. 5) Hotel quality is very poor. Most of the hotels in Kuwait City have an average rating of less than 7.0 on booking.com.
I wanted to find out which of these accusations were true…
A weird taxi ride
My plane arrived at 2 AM, and I quickly went to the visa counter in the very modern airport of Kuwait’s capital. The visa procedures went fast and after paying 3 Kuwaiti Dinars, I was entering my 75th country.
It was hot when I left the airport. Very hot. Temperatures were still above 30°C even at 3 AM in the morning. “How much is the taxi to the city center?” I ask a guy dressed in typical Arab clothes. “8 Dinars,” he answers. “Can you give me a discount?” I ask. – “No.”
The taxi driver doesn’t exactly know where my hotel is, although there are only about 30-40 hotels in Kuwait City. That’s why I help him to navigate by using Google Maps. His English isn’t the best, but he tries to make a conversation. His most used phrases are “thank you” and “no problem”.
It gets a bit weird, as he starts touching my leg. “Massage my friend. You very good friend. Massage. No problem!” After 20 minutes, this weird taxi rides end, however, I kindly ask the gentleman to take a selfie with me. “No problem,” he says.
One day in Kuwait
When I left my hotel the next morning, I immediately felt the extreme heat of this tiny state on the Arab Peninsula. It was 10 AM and my cell phone said that we had 43°C. Unlike the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait is a fairly conservative country. This leads to the fact that as a visitor, one should wear long trousers, which is inconvenient at these temperatures.
As I have mentioned before, I was thinking about staying in Kuwait for two days, but after doing some research on TripAdvisor I didn’t even know what to do in 20 hours. There are not many sights in Kuwait City and it seems that there is even less entertainment. Fortunately, someone from the legendary Every Passport Stamp-group on Facebook provided a 24-hour itinerary for Kuwait City, which helped me a lot.
It was already noon when I checked-out and started my sightseeing tour in Kuwait. The heat was almost unbearable. It wasn’t humid at least. I took a taxi to the Grand Mosque, the largest mosque in Kuwait, but alas, the mosque was closed. So was the Seif Palace, another attraction just across the street.
Kuwait is a one of the richest countries in the world thanks to its oil reserves. Therefore, the city is highly modern with good infrastructure and many skyscrapers.
‘So, it’s like the United Arab Emirates?’ you may ask. No, it’s not as glamorous and decadent, at least not like Dubai or Abu Dhabi. It’s also not as international as Dubai, although I think I have seen more Indians and Pakistani than Arabs in Kuwait. However, Kuwait has a much stronger Arab character than Dubai or Abu Dhabi. I also realized that many of the local people don’t speak English.
I headed to Souk Mubarakiya, one of the oldest markets in Kuwait. They mainly focus on food, clothes and jewellery. I have seen better markets to be honest and Souk Mubarakiya is not comparable to the Medina in Tunis or the Grand Bazaar in Tehran. But is was okay to kill some time.
After two hours of wandering through the streets of Kuwait City, I already didn’t know anymore what else to do in this city. The city doesn’t have a lot of attraction and the heat doesn’t make strolling around very appealing anyway.
I wanted to see the Kuwait Towers and maybe a mall (although I don’t see the point in visiting malls when traveling). The day before I arrived in Kuwait, I posted on Couchsurfing that I will be in the country for one day. A guy named Raza answered that he wanted to meet me after work. This meeting became my entertainment in Kuwait.
Unfortunately, Raza had do work until 6 PM and I had to be at the airport at 8 PM. That meant that I still had to kill some time. I went to a bar called Sky View Cafe. It was a bar in the 25th floor of a building which provided a nice view (surprising when you’re in a bar called Sky VIEW Cafe).
The place wasn’t a real bar, as alcohol is forbidden in Kuwait. I had the impression that this was the place where the rich people meet (most of the Kuwaiti are rich though). There were also women who didn’t wear burkas. I didn’t see that on the streets.
I headed back to my hotel after an hour to charge my cell phone and to wait for Raza who was very kind offering me a ride to the airport. Raza arrived at 6 PM and took my to the Kuwait Towers and also to Marina, a beach promenade which looked nice.
“This is our entertainment here,” Raza said by pointing to the promenade. I wasn’t impressed. Nevertheless, I was glad that he took some time and drove my to the airport. Perhaps, if you don’t have entertainment in a country, you enjoy spending your free time with a tourist.
Raza took me to the airport at 8:00. Meeting him was certainly the highlight in Kuwait. Because Kuwait is unfortunately not a country that is particularly exciting. I was not unhappy when I could leave it again.
Is Kuwait the most boring country in the world?
Yes. Or at least the most boring country I have been to yet. Therefore, I was more than happy that I only booked one night instead of two.
Kuwait is definitely a country that I will never visit again. There is simply nothing to do, it’s expensive, it’s hot as hell and there is no alcohol. That means that everything I read about the country before was actually true. But hey, it’s okay, another country off of my list and country #76 was definitely more spectacular…
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
