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Location Date Kuwait 
1435964400 India 1404428400 Oman 1396566000 China 1393891200 North Korea 1393632000 Iran 1388102400 Lebanon 1384473600 Jordan 1384387200 United Arab Emirates 1376175600 Bahrain 1371337200 Japan 1347750000 Cambodia 1347058800 Vietnam 1341615600 Malaysia 1338418800 Thailand 1334530800 -
Location Date Qa?m Dasm?n 1435964400 Messilah 1419033600 Al Khuways?t 1397084400 Al Manqaf 1391299200 Salmiyah 1391126400 Al ‘Abdal?yah 1390608000 Kuwait City
1389916800 Jan?b As Surrah 1387497600 Al Wafrah 1387238400 As S?lim?yah 1386979200 Al Bid‘ 1385856000 Bahra 1379977200 Mangaf 1370732400 Al Magh?sil 1370646000 ‘Ushaysh Al Jahr?’ 1370646000 Duwayd?t 1369522800 Al Qiblah 1368054000 Al A?mad? 1367449200 -
Location Date Fri, 17 January 2014 1389916800 Sat, 04 January 2014 1388793600 Sat, 27 April 2013
1367017200
Today I had my first proper day of work and ended up feeling quite exhausted. I guess it is a nearly 10 hour day but I think the main thing was the induction proper happened as it was all the details for the project and learning about how they do mapping here.
I'm getting a car soon. It may be a Mitsubishi Challenger (called Nativa here) 4wd, thankfully as drivers here are indeed pretty aggressive. Just like Cambodia but twice as fast so their lack of skill and impoliteness has more mortal consequences more often.
I went to a business startup event Monday night. Managed to make a lot of connections despite being rather jetlagged. Lots of interest there in GIS and location based services, as well as a networking event about GIS. Thanks to all the guys involved in startup events in Cambodia etc for introducing me to the concept!
I am going on a bike ride with a bunch of expats Friday morning. Hopefully won't be a repeat of my first ride in Cambodia where I crashed and ended up with stitches...
On the whole I'm very happy to be here and working on a large scale envt rehab project with a high profile company and lots of other smart ambitious people. Honestly though Kuwait is an ugly place. I'm working in a dusty industrial area and the facility is very much a site office, making even the dowdy 80s decor of my previous company's office seem desirable. Along with the testosteronal drivers I expect to get a bit fed up with living conditions sometimes. Strangely I haven't been much disturbed by the prayer calls, one's happening right now. It's loud, but kind of a drone so easy to ignore.
Oh, I also joined the Kuwait Writers Club, gaining entry by impressing the organiser with some poems composed for events in Brisbane :)
Last of all in order to get my residency visa I have to go to Bahrain, get medical test, fly back, do the same test in Kuwait. The company is paying for/organising all this. It'll happen in about a month. Then I'll have to stop driving for 6 weeks as those not on a visit visa can't use their international license and it takes that long to issue a local license... Welcome to the beaurocracy:)
Time to catch a taxi into town to retrieve my repaired bike wheel, a couple of spokes broke on the way over...
- comments
Aman Interesting brother!
wil that was quick! cheers aman! start a blog about your adventures!
Daniel W Major flash back time....
K2 Cool blog. Keep up the great work.
Aman How was the bike ride?
gisnoborders Oh, I need to write about it. It was great! Very easy, it's quite flat in the desert... apparently there's only one real hill/ridge in Kuwait, we're going there tomorrow on a drive to the Iraq border.
Kuwaitiful.com Ah, I remember you. I was at that very start up in Global Tower and looking at your photos you looked familiar. I remember you asking a question and before you did mentioning something about how jetlagged you were. It's interesting to read about Kuwait from a westerner's perspective. I had no idea clubs were even active in Kuwait.
gisnoborders Hey, thanks for the comments! Hi reddit? ;-) Yeah I like the startup q8 event. I'm keen to become more financially independent so it's nice to learn from others who have done it. They're also very friendly so it's easy to network. There are a few clubs... It's possible to enjoy life if you put in some effort:-)