The only think that I really have to say about Kuwait is that I’m glad that I was only there for a day. After landing at oh-dark-thirty we stood around the airport for about three hours waiting for the convoy to leave. Due to the fact that it is still Ramadan we had to wait until the locals finished whatever it was that they were doing that night so that we could get a police escort to Ali Al Salem Air Base. I saw Kuwait City from the plane and it reminded me of Hong Kong. Other than that the entire country seems to be nothing but sand and highways that lead off to nowhere.
After more paper processing at Ali Al Salem we had to cool our heels for six hours to wait to for billeting. The plus side is that there was a McDonald’s on post. The minus side is that the burgers tasted vaguely like fish. I did nothing but sleep and go to the gym. Kuwait is hot…no getting around the fact. It was probably 125 the day that we were there. Dry heat is all well and good but 125 degrees worth of dry heat is still 125 degrees.
I was going to go to chow with one of the guys that I was traveling with but we missed the dinner hour. I’d vowed to stay away from the Golden Arches so I ended up going to the KFC across the “street” (read: sand strip). My dinner choice lead to one of the more surreal moments of the trip so far…I was eating my spicy chicken, my colleague was digging into a Big Mac and the MWR folks had a soldier’s jazz band playing on a stage nearby. They were playing Hotel California. Talk about cognitive dissonance.
Rumor had it that the people slept in rather than getting up for the early morning calls for the flights. We contractor scum are at the bottom of the space-available priority list. The 0330 call resulted in a full flight but we managed to get on the manifest at 0430. We blessedly left Ali Al Salem about 0830 the same day.
I’m sure that the Kuwaitis are very nice people but their country rather sucks.
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