Jill and Bow's Travels

Pure Relaxtion In Kuwait

We were treated like royalty by Jay and Fiona on our week long trip to Kuwait in the Middle East. It was a week of many laughs, delicious food, relaxtion, and a really great visit.

We had planned to visit Bow's brother, Jay, and his wife, Fiona, in Kuwait long before we started our trip to see how they've been living for the past three years. Jay and Fiona left in August 2001 to teach at the American International School in Kuwait on a two year contract. They loved it so much they decided to stay for a third year. It was a great choice for an international teaching experience because it's centrally located for travel around the world and the pay is great. Fiona teaches kindergarden and Jay teaches grade 7 math and science.

We arrived on a Sunday morning, which is like their Tuesday since their weekend is Wednesday/Thursday. Their apartment was like heaven. It was filled with stunning pictures they've taken and unique souvenirs that they've collected from their travels around the world. Their kitchen was filled with treats for us and Fiona had taped Survivor All Stars and Friends for us to catch up on. They also gave up their king sized bed for the week. Just when we thought that was all too good to be true, they had some gifts for us on the bed. They had given us a bag of things that we needed for the rest of our trip (film, treats, toiletries, etc). Then we opened the "bullet" of all gifts - Fiona had made us a scapbook of our entire web site travel journal. She is an amazing scrapbooker and she had put together a beautiful scrapbook of our online journal, comments posted on the site, pictures, and the postcards we had sent them. It was the most thoughtful gift! It is beautifully done - what a treasure.

Bow and I spent our first day completely relaxing on the couch while Jay and Fiona had to teach. They came home around 4pm and we continued catching up and learning more about how they've been living for the past years in Kuwait. We had dinner and then headed out to get a tour of the city and to see the locals.

On Monday, Fiona took a personal day off with us and we went to the Regency Palace for a beach day on the Gulf. A mother of one of the children Fiona tutors works there and gave us free passes for the week at the exclusive hotel. It was a day of pure relaxation, sunshine and 35 degree weather. That evening Jay and Fiona took us to the Kuwait Towers, a famous landmark, to overlook the city and get an idea of its size. When we were in the tower, there were many pictures up on the walls of the damage to the towers after the invasion during the Gulf War in 1990. Apparently it would be normal for buildings to have pictures up on the walls of what that actual building looked like after it had been bombed in the war. Since the fall of Saddam in Iraq, they are now building higher buildings because the Kuwaitis aren't worried about another invasion.

Bow and I relaxed again on Tuesday around the apartment and caught up on email. In the late afternoon we went to the school and Jay gave us a full tour. It's a private school from kindergarden up to grade 12 with 1400 students. Being a private school, the students would all come from wealthy families. Naturally there is a lot of wealth in Kuwait because of the oil. Jay pointed out some of the cars the kids would drive to school - beemers, lexus suvs, mercedes - it was wild! That night we met some of their friends since Bow went to Rob and Kelly's with Jay to watch the Leafs game. I went to Dee and Dan's place with Fiona to watch a movie and chat.

On Wednesday we went to school to see Jay and Fiona in action. First we went to Fiona's kindergarden class. I loved every second of it! She has some really cute kids in her class and they all love "Miss Fiona". We witnessed their morning routine, alphabet bingo, and snack time. They also rehearsed their dance to "Follow The Leader" (a party favourite) for their spring concert coming up. We then went up to Jay's grade 7 class to head off on a school trip to the Science Center to watch an IMAX movie and visit the aquarium. The kids all love Jay! He has a great way with them - he makes school a lot of fun. They had a questionnaire to fill out about what they were seeing at the Science Center and we had to laugh when he read off number 25 "How many months have Bow and Jill been married?". His kids were all excellent - many of them were real characters.

That night we went over to the school to watch the Arabic show. The highlight was the kindergarden kids doing the traditional "hair" dance where one girl stood on stage shaking her hair from left to right while the others danced around her in middle eastern clothing. Wednesday night is Friday night in Kuwait, so from there we went up to Rob and Kelly's for a BBQ and to hang out with everyone for the night. Bow and Rob ended up staying up until 4:30am to watch the Leafs game.

On Thursday, the four of us headed out on a road trip to see more of Kuwait. Jay and Fiona decided to take us to the Saudi border. It wasn't long after we left the city that we could see the flat sandy plains of the dessert. We pulled over as soon as we saw some camels to take some photos. We kept joking that "it's all about the 4x6 Glossy". A local man saw us trying to take pics and came over in his truck and took us on a drive to follow the camels. Unfortunately we couldn't communicate with him in Arabic, but it was still quite neat to be chasing camels with him. We carried on from there to the border, but it was a quick loop back in the other direction since we couldn't cross the border. On our way home, we stopped to see some of the chalets (summer homes) that the Kuwaitis have on the Gulf. We had one family invite us in for tea and Kuwaiti wine, which is grape juice since it's a dry country. You wouldn't have believed how big this chalet was for a family of four and their six maids. They were very welcoming and we learned more about the local culture talking with them.

We saw more of the local culture on the way home when a group of 10 guys were on 4-wheelers doing catwalks as they passed us. They would have their front wheels so high in the air that the guy on the back would be inches from the ground ... and no helmets of course. As we started taking pictures, they would put on more of a show. Jay and Fiona see this all the time, but sometimes it's on motorbikes on the main roads in the city. Crazy!

Friday we went to the local market, which is like a flea market. You could buy almost anything there, including any type of animal or bird imaginable. The minute you stepped out of your car there would be a guy following you around with a wheelbarrow in case you bought anything. He would then want a few fils (cents/buck) or a maybe even a dinar ($5) to take it back to your car for you. That evening, a couple in their building, John and Judith, invited the four of us, Rob and Kelly, and Dan and Dee over for a delicious dinner. It actually turns out that Dan was in Penrith, Australia, taking his teacher's degree the same time we were there in 1997. After dinner the guys got into hockey talk and euchre while we girls hung out. Jay and Fiona have a great group of friends in Kuwait. I'm sure it will be difficult for them to say goodbye this June, but at least they will be able to see them back in Canada.

On Saturday we took a drive out to the Iraq border. We all had a laugh about just "going to Iraq" for the day, probably the least desirable place in the world to travel to right now. We knew that we couldn't cross the border, nor did we want to, but we wanted to see the Kuwait countryside up that way. There wasn't too much to see but open dessert and the odd bedouin camp set up. We did see a few communication towers and buildings that were probably destroyed during the war and hadn't been built up again. The road was also very quiet except for a stream of oil trucks coming from Iraq into Kuwait. As we got closer to the border there was a massive line up of tractor trailers sitting still, waiting to get into Iraq. Their was an army guy stopping everyone and he was very short with us and told us that we were only getting in the way, which we thought was a valid point. From there we turned back and headed to the city. That night, they took us down to the night souks to buy some souvenirs.

The next morning, we flew out to Germany. We had such a fantastic week with Jay and Fiona in Kuwait. They were beyond generous to us and made for a very memorable trip. We can't wait to see them at home when they get home in mid-June. They are really looking forward to seeing everyone and settling into their new home in Pembroke.

Kuwait Pics

Our trip to the Middle East was FANTASTIC! Thank you so much Jay and Fiona for a great time in Kuwait city.

Here is a look at our week long experience in Kuwait.

The first day we relaxed in the apartment while Jay and Fiona taught/tutored. We ended up watching about 6 taped episodes of 'Survivor All-Star'... as you can see below, Jill watches movies/tapes like she does at home on the couch - with her eyes closed! The other pics are at Jay and Fiona's apartment as well as the mosque that was down the street.

Fiona took a personal day and the three of us spent the afternoon lazing on the beach and swimming in the Gulf! Then they took us to see the Kuwait Towers at night. Very interesting because at the top we could see the whole city lit up at night as well as learn about the damages the Iraqui soldiers did during the Gulf War. They had pictures hanging up.

Tuesday we just hung out at the apartment watching the rest of the 'survivor all-star' episodes that were taped and then watched the Leafs lose to the Flyers. On Wednesday we were fortunate enough to be able to tag along with Jay's class on their gr. 7 trip to the Science Centre. The students were so well behaved, Jill and I had a great time. Before we left though, and after we returned, we popped into Fiona's KG class. What a group of characters they were! Jill was very impressed with Jay and Fiona's classroom personalities/professionalism. Then that evening we watched some of their students participating in 'Arabic Night'.

The weekend! We had a fun filled few days because Jay and Fiona had a holiday on Sat. (In Kuwait the weekend is Thurs. and Fri.) We went on a couple of road tours out to both the Saudi Arabian and Iraqui borders, the Friday market, the souks... We were also very fortunate to witness the local youth on their 'buggies' (4-wheelers) doing crazy tricks and visited with a Kuwaiti family while they were relaxing at their chalet and they invited us in for tea as well as getting shown first hand how the Iranians beside Jay and Fiona's place bake bread.

Here are some pics of Jay and Fiona's friends that also made us feel at home throughout the week. Thanks again Rob and Kelly for letting us use your internet and having us over Wed. night. Sorry about the Leafs... go Flames go! John and Judith, thank you so much for the incredible meal Friday night! It was much appreciated, especially your strong euchre playing John! haha I think we were definitely the reigning champs! Dan, D, Hooper, etc... it was nice to meet all of you and thank you for all the good times!

The road signs... quite unique! The 'Queensway' or the 'Don Valley Parkway' just don't compete with the names of the highways in Kuwait. Check this one out...

Thanks again Jay and Fiona!

Bright lights, big city!

In Hong Kong sensory overload is an understatement! People everywhere, neon signs flashing and smells wafting by as we pass many different eateries. Five days was the perfect amount of time.

Some pics around Hong Kong and its amazing sky line!

We took the ferry over to Lantau so we could see the 'biggest outside sitting buddha' in the world! Jimmer, is this the one you saw?

How would you kill 3 hours in Hong Kong on a Thursday night? We chose to rent a private room at the local Karaoke bar... quite the experience that was!

On our last day in Hong Kong we thought we would spend it at Ocean Park. I coerced Jill to get on one of the roller coasters. She was nervous but agreed, and once the ride was over she was relieved to be off of it. But she took a pic of the pic of us on the roller coaster just in case some of you back home don't believe that she did it! haha Then we saw the aquarium, the dolphin/seal show, went on other rides and then saw Anna and Jai Jai, the two Panda Bears. Can you tell which one is the female?

So that was our 5 days in Hong Kong. It was a great place to visit. Kowloon was a great place to walk around but we would say that Causeway Bay was a much better area to stay. Next... the Middle East!