Mutla revisited

I revisited Mutla this weekend as some friends from work had read my previous post about this region and were intrigued by the landscape and wanted to see it for themselves. Luckily for us there wasn't much dust on Friday morning but the skies werent as cooperative as last time and hence the photos are not as good as before.


Its a shame not many expats know about this place and the look on my friend's faces was a clear indicator that the Mutla ridge is an impressive sight for a newcomer to Kuwait.

Heres the place on the map and the [Wikimapia link]

In and around Cochin

After my visit to Bombay I stayed in Cochin city for a few days before my return to Kuwait. Although I'm from the state of Kerala I've never really stayed in other districts besides Trivandrum for a long duration of time. I had about 3 days to explore Cochin but finally just spent a day doing some actual sight seeing. My brother and I went out to see Fort Cochin and its surrounding areas. First thing.. theres no Fort in "Fort Cochin" , I asked around but no one had a clue about the name ! ( maybe some of my readers can shed some light on it)

Things of Interest in Fort Cochin;

1. Chinese fishing nets [link]

These are land based nets that work on a lever and counter-weight system, very ingenious !

2. Anchor from a Dredger used by the British



3. Fresh sea food

Off to Bombay

I'm headed off to Bombay tonight...
See you guys when I get back (hopefully with some excellent photos and adventure posts)

Desert Safari

A must-do in Dubai is the Desert Safari and Dune bashing. We booked our trip via Atlanta Tours and Travels. Contact Manoj on +971506864798.

Our driver came and picked us up in a black Landcruiser and introduced himself as Haitham from Atlanta tours. We took the route towards Hatta and the Omani border. Along the way we could see hundreds of SUVs and ATVs on both sides of the road. We stopped at a roadside rest stop to freshen up and for Haitham to prepare the car for dunebashing. He first deflated the tires from 31 Psi to 10 Psi so that that tires get more surface area and don't get bogged down in the sand.

He then headed over to the dunes and immediately began showing off his skills as he deftly climbed one dune and slid down another. It was amazing to see him spin the wheel lock to lock as he navigated over the soft sand dunes. Turns out hes been doing this for the past 17 years ! Talk about experience ! I would recommend having your seatbelt fastened if you dont wanna be thrown around a lot. After 30 mins of wheel spinning action, we headed over the camp site for the next series of activities;

Camel riding,
dressing up in Arab clothes,
Sheesha or hubbly bubbly,
music and dance,
BBQ and dinner,
belly dancing,
Tanura and horse dancing.

Bubiyan

Last weekend I joined two friends from work on a trip to Bubiyan and Sabiyah. It was my first road trip to that section of Kuwait. I found out on thursday night that the Bubiyan bridge is closed to civilians but thought " what the heck" might as well make the most of it.



We took the road towards Bubiyan and continued North till we reached our destination.


ATTENTION: Do not take pictures till after you've left the military zone in Mutla.
( we found out the hard way :D )


We set up our stuff in the desert with a view of the bridge and power-station.

Since it was mid-day, the skies werent at the perfect state for photography but we took a lot of shots anyway.

Time for some munchies !

From Bubiyan we headed off towards Abdaly

Almost near Iraq !

and did some dune-bashing where we managed to get the car bogged down in the desert but with Mr.N's skillful driving we were outta trouble in no time.


It was nice to finally see some proper sand dunes after living in Kuwait for so many years. I'm gonna make it a point to explore more of Kuwait till the end of winter.

Abandoned structure in Abdaly

Sunset on the way back

We've come a long way baby

Feeling the wind