Kuwait

Wheels

I rented a new car last week. My company provides cars for their employees, but they only have enough to get us to and from work. On our days off, we have to share one vehicle among five people. It's a real hassle, so I decided to go to the airport and just rent a car for myself. Now I'm renting a Focus from National Rent A Car. Every day I get out on the road and experience Kuwaiti driving.

Americans like to complain about bad traffic. They don't know what bad traffic is. I've been in rush hours in most big American cities, but I've never seen worse driving than I have in Kuwait. Some examples of Kuwaiti traffic:

One a three-lane road, the far left lane is for making U-turns, and the right lane can be used for either making right turns, going straight, or occasional left turns. The middle lane is anything goes. At one intersection, the car in the left lane tried to make a right turn while the car in the right lane tried to pull a left. And I was in the center lane.

In the US, flashing brights means, "Caution" or "Go ahead." Here it means "Get out of the way." I'll be driving at 150 km/hr (about 90 miles per hour) and some jackass will run up three feet from my rear bumper and start flashing his brights on and off like crazy. If I don't move over, he'll pass me in the breakdown lane at 200 km/hr.

A lot of people walk in the middle of the road. Some people drive up on the sidewalk. A few people drive 4-wheel ATVs that move from road to sidewalk at random. And nobody stays in their lane.

The really rich Kuwaitis--there are a lot of millionaires here--drive Lamborghinis that can top 300 km/hr. The really poor immigrants--there are a lot of dirt-poor people here, too--pile into old school buses that can barely reach 100. A new Lamborghini will slide almost completely under a school bus. Almost.

These aren't isolated examples of extreme driving. This is typical traffic in Kuwait. Two rules about Gulf Arabs: They don't like waiting in line, and they hate waiting in traffic. Don't get stuck in either while you're in Kuwait.

Scuba

I finally started scuba lessons. 140 KD gets me five classroom sessions, three pool dives, and four open water dives. At the end of training, I get my PADI Recrational Diver certification, which I need to get scuba rentals, dive tours, and air fills at most dive shops and resorts.

When I visited the dive center at the Palms Resort, the instructors tried to talk me out of signing up. They told me the water was too cold and too cloudy for diving. I asked them how cold, how cloudy? Only 20 degrees, they replied, and barely three meters of visibility. I tried to tell them that I'm from San Diego, where the water never gets warmer than 20 degrees, and three meters of visibility is typical. They thought I was crazy.

They insisted that I wait until February to start my lessons. It put me off at first, but now I take it as a good sign. A less reputable shop would have taken my money, given me a few books to read, and wished me a nice day. These guys wanted to make sure that my classroom learning and my open water dives came one after the other, so I'd have the best training possible.

But of course I insisted that I start training immediately. It's just been to long since I got wet. I came from San Diego, lived five blocks from the beach. I used to get in the water every day, whether surfing, snorkeling, kayaking, or just swimming. Now it's been 5 months since I've been in the ocean, and I'm not going to let a little cold water and bad weather stop me from going back in.

I'm in class once a week, so I'll finish my classroom and pool dives by the end of January. If I'm lucky, the water will warm up just enough that I can start my open water dives in February. If not, I'm going to fly myself, my instructor, and whoever else wants to come to Sharm-El-Sheik to finish my training in the Red Sea. One way or another, I'm getting in the water.