General: Kuwait

Introduction
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About three months ago I was lucky enough to go to Kuwait with mixed emotions to what I might find. Kuwait is usually regarded as a country similar to Iraq and Iran in culture however this couldn't be further from the truth. It is more westernised than I could have ever imagined. I was able to go around malls, go for a McDonalds and go shopping. It extremely similar to walking around one of the cities in the UK except without the heat.

Monuments
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Kuwaiti Towers - Kuwaiti Towers is the main symbol of Kuwait which made me go for a visit. It consists of two large towers. Each one look like a cylinder. The smaller of the two looks like a cylinder with a large blue ball on it. The larger of the two has two blue balls. It is split into floors in which you can take an elevator up to the first section which is made up of a couple of bars. You then need to get onto another elevator to get to the top floor where in rotates 360 degrees over a certain time allowing you to see all of Kuwait City as well as out towards the see. As it rotates back around to the city the glass has the names of places in the city printed onto it. I found it extremely easy to spend a couple of hours just looking around, looking at the city and having something to eat from the restaurant.

History
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In 1990 Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. One of Saddam's reasons for doing so was to take its riches such as its oil. Kind of like the bigger country bullying the little country I guess.

While going around Kuwaiti towers I found pictures of some of the damage done by the Iraqi's in an attempt to destroy the main symbol of Kuwait on the walls as I went further up.

The People
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I felt extremely comfortable and welcome while walking the streets. I found a decent amount of the people spoke English even when walking around the Malls talking to their friends. I expected everyone to be talking Arabic which would make a bit of a communication problem for me. However this could have something to do with everything been so western orientated.

As I walked around some parts of the city I found large number of people driving in extremely expensive cars. Instead of seeing the occasional nice car like you would in the UK it was as if most people had some of the upper class sort of cars.

Currency
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The currency is Kuwait Denair which is worth 2 to 1 compared to the British Sterling. I found that when spending money while buying bits and bobs everything was much dearer compared to in the UK. For example when taking a taxi I found that a journey that took 5 minutes tops would cost ten denar which is the same as £20. I found games and DVD's to be slightly higher than what they were selling for in the UK.

Hotels
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I looked around a few of the hotels on offer. I ended up settling in a five star hotel recommended to me by a friend. It was called the Palms Hotel which was excellent. I found that when I walked through the door at least three to four men and women in suits were waiting to help me.

The room that I had was extremely big with a large bedroom, kitchen, living room while finding everything spotless. The rooms were cleaned on a daily basis. The room came with an extremely high internet connection in which I could connect wirelessly or wired as well as a large television with about thirty to forty channels in Arabic and English.

The hotel included breakfast and dinner each day included in the price. For each meal a wide variety of selection was put on with something for anyone from the person that is set on what they want to eat to the person that wants to try something new.

A number of facilities was open to me like three swimming pools (one heated), a beach as well as an impressive looking gym for those that love to work out, a spar and even Starbucks just off the reception doors.

I ended up paying around 75 denar per night which changes into £150.

I looked around a number of other hotels along the same level as this one in which most of them looked very similar. Smaller places that I looked around were nothing compared to this hotel however you have to remember it was a five star hotel and you get what you pay for. If you are looking around smaller hotels there are many as you come into the city which can be a lot cheaper.

Facilities
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Shopping - Kuwait city had some extremely large malls in which I managed to find all the shops to you'd expect to go into in the UK such a HMV, McDonalds and Starbucks. It's like been back in the UK however if you want to get away from some of that try walking around the streets and going into some of the smaller facilities in order to see other aspects of the place.

Bowling - I never expected to be able to go bowling in Kuwait. Once again it was just like been in the UK. All I did was go into a mall and found some where to go bowling which included the typical arcade games you'd expect in a bowlplex.

Cinemas - There was a cinema built into one of the malls that I happened to come across so I decided to go and see a movie that wasn't out in the UK at the time. I found that even though the movie was in English depending on what movie you chose there was still subtitles in Arabic and every time there was an adult scene it would either be cut out or covered up for cultural reasons. However it wasn't that bad.

Weather and Temperatures
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When I went to Kuwait is was just starting to warm up in which it was starting to get to 100 degrees. As summer to starts to get into swing you could be facing heats of up to 120 in which if there's a wind in the air instead of feeling a cool breeze across your face you'll be getting boiling hot slap of heat around the face. Even at night it only drops into the late 80's to the early 90's. I wouldn't recommend going in the middle of summer because the heat can take a great deal to get used to but if you do plan on going then get ready to do some sweating. With heat usually come mosquitoes so I highly recommend a mosquito net for the nights if you don't intend to get bitten or keep it to a minimum.

Conclusion
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Kuwait is a country that should be idealised as one of the successes of the middle east due their sales of oil which has made it so very wealthy. Kuwait city is essentially in a desert however it is amazing how large, advanced and cultural it is for where it is in the world.

Kuwait is a small and vastly growing country which has a lot to offer if your looking for one of those special places that not many people go on holiday or just some where nice in the middle east. However if you do decide to go don't expect it to be cheap. I give this 4 out of 5 stars. The only reason it doesn't get 5 is because Kuwait doesn't come cheap.

Thanks for reading and rating.