I had the pleasure of spending a few days last week in Kuwait for business. In sweltering heat approaching 50 degrees Celsius, I was glad there was lots of air conditioning everywhere. Nearly got in trouble at the airport when I had to pay for a visa on arrival in local currency, and found out the banks at the airport wouldn’t change Singapore or Malaysian money, lucky I had some left over Sri Lanka currency to bail me out. Must make it a mandatory point to convert and carry some US or Euros in future. People I deal with were absolutely delightful. Very pleasant and easy to work with and very hospitable. The Ramadan month made things more interesting with the changes in preferred working hours, was getting into the office around midday and getting out before the break-fast period. This was great to get over the 5 hour time zone difference from Singapore (though it killed me on the way back). The late night supper meetings close to midnight that are quite typical during the fasting month were an interesting change. One of these meetings took place at The Avenues mall, one of the largest malls in the middle east, easily a couple of kms walk either way. And where ever I went, was quite hard to miss the Kuwait Towers, a set of three towers rising up to 187 metres serving as water towers. Definitely looking forward to my next trip there.
