Salmiya

Thanks to Intlxpatr , who loved to live there too, I came across this beautiful little piece. Kuwait changed sometimes during two-month summer vacations much. After four years, it has beautified so much. Amazing. I used to live close to Salmiya's wonderful corniche. Miss it much.

I have posted on this blog some time ago an unusual Seh Mihraba rug from the Shindand market area in west Afghanistan. I had bought it from my friendly Afghan carpet sellers Mirwuis and Syed who used to have a small shop in Kuwait’s Souq Mubarakia. They frequently offered a variety of rugs from Afghanistan and Iran on the Friday market in the Al-Rai industrial area next to the notorious 4th Ring Road, just behind the nurseries. Opposite to the animal market, there is what is called the Iranian market where you may find in fact everything you might be looking for. The whole area is very fascinating. My friends and I liked to go there, if possible every weekend. I would like to post another, much more typical, Seh Mihraba rug here. Tareq Rajab, Kuwait’s former Director of the Department of Antiquities and Museums in Kuwait and owner of two most marvelous private museums in Jabriya (the museum for calligraphy I had a chance to visit shortly before leaving Kuwait for good in 2007),...

After a lunch with a friend and a colleague from hurricane Katrina-devastated University of New Orleans I headed home. It was the first Conference of the African and Middle-Eastern Divisions of the IADR and many guests had come to the tiny country in the corner of the Persian Gulf, former co-workers of FOD. A record number of attendees from Iran, some from Saudi-Arabia, and many African colleagues who we had met one year ago in Nairobi on the occasion of the founding meeting of this IADR Federation. We had been in the Lebanese restaurant at the Marina Mall in Salmiya. It was end of September and temperatures had already dropped to more comfortable levels. But when I hurried home to the Al Qanaa building close-by, I realized that these 39 degrees had almost killed some of the plants on my balcony. Thank God, the canary birds were used to the heat, at least when the cage had been put in shady areas. The effects of my emergency watering were documented between 2:54 and 3:46 pm in 16 shot...

Oil will inevitably come to an end in the region. How will the small emirate in the corner of the Arabian Gulf look in, say 30 years? As compared to Bahrain and Qatar, not to mention Dubai, Kuwait has definitely fallen behind as regards to developing alternatives. Endeavors are, however, considerable. Never having really been a touristic hub, Kuwait now tries hard to catch up. The Waterfront Project has considerably beautified the seaside to the East and South of the Kuwait Towers, Bneid Al Qar, Sha’ab, East Hawalli, and Salmiya, but also to the North and West, up to Shuwaikh. The Corniche now roughly stretches between the famous Kuwaiti Towers and the Scientific Center in Salmiya, some ten km. Ninety percent of all expats of Kuwait are living in booming Salmiya. Salam Al Mubarak St., Kuwait's buzzing, but still somewhat cozy, main shopping street, is (and it is not a joke) called by many The Sultan Center St., since the city's main grocery store is located here. Besides typica...