Kuwait Souq

I joined Axel on one of his business trips this week. He goes to these allusive places, so it is always nice to experience the countries in the flesh. I have always wanted to see Kuwait. I was a teenager of the '90s and the CNN coverage of Desert Storm piqued my interest. I have a lot of my dad in me--always wanting to walk into the fires.

There isn't a whole lot to Kuwait City. However, I think it has a lot more life to the city than Doha. Maybe it is because of its recent history, I don't know, but I think I would prefer it over Doha (other than the stinky sewage issues that are blatantly obvious in 120 degree weather). Axel was critical of Kuwait as a country, until we moved to Qatar and he officially claimed Qatar as the worst Gulf country--lucky us. Funny enough, I love my life in Doha, but my happiness comes from my immediate surroundings and our social network there, the city itself has little to offer.

Outside of the Avenues (arguably the coolest mall in all of the Gulf boasting all the American stores one expat woman could desire), there isn't a whole lot to do in Kuwait. We did, however, visit the Kuwaiti Souq, which is second to our Doha Souq, but still had life and all the oud Axel could possibly purchase.

Wandering the endless alleys was exhausting but every corner exposed a new group of specialized items. I loved the bright, white dishdasha section:

While we were walking this young man stopped us and asked Axel if he could speak 'American' to his little sister. The situation was quite awkward, but cute:

'How are you?

'What is your name?'

'Where are you from?'

'Do you like Kuwait?'

'Thank you, nice to meet you.'

'Good bye'

We were low on Kuwait Dinars so we asked for directions to an ATM from this kind Kuwaiti man. Overall, the locals are rather friendly. Like Bahrain, our taxi driver was a local Kuwaiti. The only difference is, Kuwait has a butt load of oil money. It just isn't equally distributed like it is in Qatar.

What I also loved about Kuwait is that the local women aren't only dressed in black abayas. They mix it up a bit with a different colored hijab and long sleeve shirts with floor length skirts. It makes fashion critiquing so much funner.

What would a good souq be without a fine selection of dates? They taste even better than they look!
The fish market was also a special experience, especially in blasting 125 degree weather. Think of it, dead fish, in intense heat, mixed with a fine raw sewage odor. It was delicious.

What is a good souq without a carpet selection? The carpets in Kuwait aren't as great as Bahrain, but I did happen to find a sweet kilim pillow for a 1/3 of the price they were asking in Qatar. The selection wasn't great, but it is always fun to stare at carpets, good and bad.

The trip was short, but really fun! I would love to visit again. I just may wait until the weather cools down to a balmy 100 degrees.

Arabian Oud

This is Axel again. I have always loved incense since I went to BYU. Nepal was a great place to get great incense for next to nothing.

The Arabs here in the Gulf however like to burn something called Oud, which means 'wood'. This comes from the Aguilera or agarwood trees which grows in the jungle. The tree is not good for much as it is a soft wood. However some of them are infected by a fungus that will kill the tree. The tree naturally makes a resin to fight the fungus and it is that resin that smells so good.

The Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam first discovered this and traded with China and it was basically the thing that made Vietnam rich back then. It was then discovered in India, Indonesia, but the best stuff comes from Laos and Cambodia.

When the Arab traders started visiting Malaysia and Indonesia, they started the trade with the Middle East and supplimented the already booming Frankincense and Myrrh trades (which I am not too fond of either one). Both are found in the Middle East in Oman and Yemen. Myrrh is actually just a pine like resin.

This is a typical Oud (or Bukary in Kuwait) shop. Perfumes which are oil based (remember no alcohol in Islam - even in the perfume) are also sold. You can see the good stuff below in glass cases. I am haggling for a better price, but this stuff is pretty set. You pay it or don't buy it.

There are so many different kinds of smells and types of the Oud. Some are enhanced by perfumes and those are the cheap ones. The expensive ones look more like dead wood and have a more woody rich smell. I love the ones that smell like that, but Terah prefers the ones that smell more perfumey. Which is good for me because that is the cheap stuff. There are also supposed to be differences between Oud that was from the forest and the stuff that is grown and intentionally infected with the fungus on agarwood farms.

It is sold by the 'tola' which is as near as I can tell is about 10 grams. You can see them weighing it out here and I am telling the guy to put some extra on for free. Cheap stuff is about 6-7 bucks a tola. Expensive stuff is more expensive than gold or diamonds. The Arabs will pay it. The really rich ones actually have agents who live in the forests and when a villager finds a good tree these agents buy everything off them, grease the officials and ship the whole tree to the private buyers. Japanese are also very much into this and therefor the bidding war for really good oud can get quite serious.

So many choices. So little money Terah will let me spend....

The mother load of cheap stuff. Found only in Kuwaiti outdoor souq markets (Heritage Souq).
THis is my holder. You can see me burning the charcoal. The charcoal gets red and then the wood is added to the top of the red charcoal and it starts smoking away.

I used a normal lighter until I got sick of burning my fingers and then I found one of those cigar blow torches. Just call me the Ghost Rider...

It is a whole process. I must admit that my male genetic disposition to want to burn stuff probably helps my love of doing this. And flaming stuff with a blow torch doesn't hurt. You can see from above my own collection. It represents about 200 bucks or so.

The good stuff. This was from a natural tree in the forest found in Cambodia. It is very light and probably weighed less than half or quarter of a pound. That piece Terah is holding sells for 1600 - 2000 USD. A bit more expensive than a quarter pounder happy meal. It goes up from there.

Wish this blog had scratch and sniff capabilities, but if you have ever been to the Middle East and walked through a mall then you know the smell well! At least the smell of the cheap stuff they burn to attract you in!

Henna Designs

This is Axel again. We had some down time in the summer. No way to go outside because it is too hot. So we got some henna (black and red) and I did some on Terah, the maids, and the kids. I started with Sarita and used designs that I downloaded from Google. It turned out OK.
Then I tried it on Terah with some changes. I was also happy with how it turned out.
Heavah loves horses so I did a celtic horse on her back. And then Dona smeared it a bit. But the blacks and reds turned out OK.
THen I did a dragon on Xay's back. We didn't leave it on long enough so it didn't get dark enough.
Then I tried a tribal design on Xay. As he has the body of a 6 year old greek god, I figured a little celtic fighting colors would look good too. Amazingly, he did a good job staying still.

Stay tuned. There are more designs I want to do...

This is when I take it all back...

This sign was hanging on my door when I came home from Dubai. Uh, those sweet, messy hands were just to say he was happy I was home. I suck. Everything was just fine. My husband and children are the best.

Oh, yes I did!

Everything is Fine...

Every time I call home I am reassured that everything is okay. "Oh yeah, everything is great hun...We are just fine...No problems here...Nope, not at all."

Minutes later, I receive a photo like this from Axel:

btw- That is oil paint you see.

Where your gas dollars are going...

I have been in Dubai for the past 10 days consulting. It is so tough being away from the family. I miss my kids immensely.

I typically put in long hours in the office, but Fridays are my day off. The first thing I did today was go up the Burj Khalifa and faced my fear of heights. It wasn't bad, but I did find a deeper appreciation for all those blue suit workers I used to see working on the Burj when we lived in Dubai. A lot of them were harnessed on the side of the building in the open air (and only paid roughly $4USD a day, I might add). Truthfully, that is my description of hell.

Little know facts about the Burj:

1. It is the tallest building in the world (free standing and man-made).

2. Burj means building in Arabic.

3. The exact height was kept a secret until it was finally built.

4. It has 162 floors.

5. It has the highest elevator installation and the highest mosque.

6. It has the fastest elevator speed 64km/hour.

7. The top spire can be seen 94 km away.

8. Construction began September 2004, and the grand opening was on January 4th, 2010.

Sheik Zayed Road

9. The concrete that was used was enough to lay a 2,065 km-long pavement; and equivalent to the weight of 100,000 elephants.

10. Total cost to build was $1.5 billion.

11. It is about twice the height of the Empire State Building.

12. The outdoor temperature at the top is 10 degrees cooler than the bottom.

13. The price for office space is around $4000. a square foot.

14. It uses approx 954, 000 litres of water per day.

15. Only hours before the opening ceremony, Sheik Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was told to rename the 'Burj Dubai' to 'Burj Khalifa' by Sheik Khalifa of oil-rich Abu Dhabi because Khalifa had bailed the Dubai Emirate out of financial distress.

Somehow this makes me want to ride a bike or buy a Smart car.