Floating

I got up early last Sunday so I could float in the Dead Sea before starting my drive to Petra.  It was a short walk down past all the pools to the beach.  Once there I walked down the coast a little before the hotel security showed up and asked me to come back to the area in front of the hotel.  There was a lot of beach sand, i assume imported from the desert side of Jordan.

Once I was near the shore the ground became much less stable, but really cool looking.  You could easily see the layers of sediment in the mud.  Considering every day people take mud baths then wash it off, it's understandable the mud would settle down each night making such a cool pattern.

 It was a little tricky walking in the water since there were spots where the mud was very thin and you would sink in.  In this shot my knee was under water.  Later, as I was leaving to head back up to my room to shower and leave, I hit a very soft spot and my foot slipped until part of my thigh was in mud.  I stepped forward with my other foot hoping to find solid ground and step out, but that food also sunk in and I found myself in 1 ft deep water, but also had the water up to my waist.

 Floating in the water was pretty fun, I could easily see myself swimming long distances in this water.

 Of course the mud from the Dead Sea is what has made this location so popular for thousands of years.  Apparently it's beautifying properties have been known and used for a very long time.  Unfortunately, they haven't helped me much.  While just about every picture I took on the trip involved me holding the camera or using the tripod, there happened to be a girl walking by around this time who took a few pictures of me.  She also asked to take a picture of me with her camera and I assume its because of my ruggedly good looks, and not the hat/beard combo. 

 After cleaning up and packing, I hit the road again heading to Petra.  I drove south for about 30 miles before cutting east past Karak towards the Desert Highway which I took south to Petra. I only got a little lost in Al Karak which I again blame on the lack of road signs.  The drive south along the Dead Sea was beautiful, lots more mountains.

 

You can see the Karak Castle in the upper right corner.

Change of Plans

So I got back from my mini vacation and I'm surprised at how tired I am.  I've only been awake for about 10 hours but it feels like 24.

If there was a military base in Jordan and I could get the same pay there as I do here, I would try very hard to transfer over there.  Jordan beats Kuwait in pretty much every aspect.  Not only does it have a far superior landscape, but the people are nicer, the roads are in better shape, there is much more to see and its a much cleaner place.  Kuwait is flat and sandy and trashy, literally.  I think I've mentioned it before, but every morning guys are dropped off all over the country and they just walk down the roads with bags picking up trash.  Yet there is still tons of trash on the side of the roads.  Not only do people constantly throw trash our their windows while driving, but, based on the piles I've seen on some back streets, some people just throw bags of trash out in empty lots near their apartments.  With all the wind, that trash is quickly spread out.  Anyways, I need to get back on topic before I waste any more time on how much Kuwait sucks.

I flew to Jordan, rented a car and drove to the Holiday Inn on the Dead Sea.  It was a nice hotel with 3 pools, a beach, 2 restaurants, a spa where I got a massage, and a bar. 

The one thing Jordan has in common with Kuwait is the lack of road signs.  Seriously, they just dont care about that sort of thing in these countries.  I first drove north towards the capitol of Amman, then went west towards the Dead Sea.  At one point I was certain I was lost and pulled over to ask for directions from these two guys who has also pulled over and were eating dinner.  They had pulled over at a lookout point before the road snaked down the mountain.  It was a glorious view, I wish it was possible to take a picture that could do the view justice, but I dont think that is possible.

 

I first thought I was lost when I was driving down this road.  There were two kids playing in the middle of the road, and about a km later, there was a husband and wife walking a small child.  These section of the road was about 3 km before I got to the part where the road snaked down the mountain.

 

This shot was taken at the top of the mountain, just before the decent.  You can see on the left of the picture how the road curves around and there is very little space between the road and the cliff.

Another view of the valley below.  It really is a beautiful country.  Not nearly as much vegetation as Texas, but certainly more that Kuwait.

Here is a preview of the dead sea, as you can see, the coast is mud and not salt, like I expected for some odd reason.  Tomorrow is gonna be all about the dead sea.

Don't forget to click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Off to a rocky start

I've been up for 24 hours and while the plan was to stay up for a little longer and be in Petra tonight, i was in a small car incident.  After hours of paper work and waiting, i missed my flight and there has been a small change of my plans.

I will now be spending 2 days in jordan and heading back to Egypt in October, likely the 11th and 12th for my bday.

i'm pretty tired so i'm going to sleep now and will update the blog with more details when i wake up.

* note the car incident involved the back end of a suburban barely scraping the back end of the car i was driving.   no danger was faced.

Night with the Po-Po's

So I'm not an anti-police person by any means, but i can't say i respect the Kuwait police too much.

I was testing a really interesting photography method tonight called HDR.  Check out this link for some really interesting examples ( http://www.2expertsdesign.com/inspiration/85-examples-of-beautiful-hdr-photography )

I went to the mall parking lot, and then to the the starbucks.  After getting a coffee, I took a bunch of shots of the Al Kout Mall from the balcony.   I then went to this tower at one end of the mall and took a bunch of shots of the Al Kout Mall, then the Al Marshar Mall, then of some boats in the marina.

After walking down the beach a little,  I checked out this restaurant I've always been interested in visiting.  Its a shisha place (which is just like hooka, which is a water bong with flavored tobacco) that also has some food and drinks.  After enjoying a strawberry flavored smoke, and a chicken shwarma (which is apparently a grilled chicken sandwich) I started reading a little.  A few minutes later two cops showed up with some Kuwaiti guy.

They asked for my civil ID and wanted me to get into their cop car.  After asking if i did anything wrong a couple of times and making it clear I wasn't getting into the car, they called a few more cops, and luckily one of them could speak english.  Eventually I figured out the Kuwaiti guy thought I took pictures of the oil plant that was behind and to the left of the mall.  Oh yea, I forgot to mention I took a more pictures of the mall from the shisha place.

Eventually I went with the cops to the police station and after showing some guy all the pictures, they let me go.  I showed them all the pictures while at the shisha place when they first bugged me, but apparently the complaint had been made, and someone higher up had to verify it.  I was never cuffed or anything, and the cops were nice to me, but the whole situation was pretty dumb to me.

Luckily I made it back to my apt just in time to place SC2 with Tay.



I've only been able to play with the HDR a little, but below is one of the pictures I took. (click picture to see large view)

The Hambergs

I wanted to share my main support system for my life in Kuwait.  Greg is a friend from A&M and its been great getting to know Becca and now Gabe.  They are a great family to hang out with on what free time i have.

 

Night life

Here is a shot of the water fountain in the Al Kout mall, the mall is two long buildings, with this in the middle.  One building has a grocery store in front and a fresh fruit, veggie and fish market in the back.  The other building has a movie theater, food court, and all the normal clothing stores that malls have, plus a few coffee and ice cream shops.  Behind the fountain, across the street to the left is the other mall, Al Manshar, which houses a Papa Johns and some other stores, beyond Papa Johns, i dont care too much.  Oh yea, they have these souvenir shops, I got a couple of chess sets there, and a coffee mug for my grandma.  They have all kinds of random crap there, wooden carvings, cheap knife and sword replicas, all kinds of stuff floating in glass cubes and balls, tea sets and who knows what else.  The shop is crazy crowded, i'll try to get a pic before i leave.

Whats the difference between a two lane road and a one lane road with street parking?  As soon as the parking lot is full, or a kuwaiti thinks it's full, or a kuwaiti doesn't feel like using the parking lot the right lane becomes street parking.   You know how in a mall parking garage there is often a patch of sidewalk in front of the mall entrance.  The other night while at the mall, it was so crowded a car pulled up on there to park.  If it wasn't for the mall security guards, they would have just parked on the corner, locking in the last two parking spots.  It's beyond ridiculous how selfish most drivers are here.  While in line, in the parking garage, on the 3rd story heading to the exit, a guy came behind us and barely squeezed between us and the parked cars.  There was no time to move over and block them since they came up so fast, a few cars ahead of us someone tried to block them, but they made it through.  I'm a fairly patient driver, but i've had more than one urge to chunk a tire iron at another car.

This is one of the strip malls near the whole sale store pictured below.   It would take a very long time to count how many mini stores like these are located around Kuwait.

I doubt i would drink this bud even if there was alcohol in it.  I'm not a snob, but if i limit what i drink, i'll drink less and less often, its a nice perk to being picky.

I dont have a clue what you would put vine leaves in.

  This is the whole sale center i sometime shop at.  Not sure how much cheaper it is than the regular place i shop at, but its got a few different items.  I got a mini pineapple there last week to cook with a pack of baby back ribs.  Three hours of cooking and they weren't that tender, but they tasted pretty good.  Pineapple, bbq sauce, garlic, brown sugar and a few other ingredients made a pretty good marinade.

 Here is a shot from the second story in the whole sale center.







I have a couple of more pics, but i apparently forgot to load them while at my place yesterday.  New post tomorrow, roof shots from near my place, and pictures of the Hamberg family

Kilts and the A.T.

So I've just read my 4th book on the Appalachian Trail and I'm more certain than ever that hiking 2145 miles would be awesome. Difficult, rewarding, painful, beautiful, why wouldn't someone wanna do it.

I've already written about the AT before, so I won't repeat all those stats, but I've also come across some new options.

I've also already decided that I'm gonna use a hammock instead of a tent.

The new option is to wear a kilt or not. There are many reasons to wear one, the biggest being comfort. Beyond all the teasing they get on the trail (in one poll, 1/2 the men and 1/5 of the woman thought it was dumb, notice 80% said they liked the kilt) every guy one source talked to raved about how comfortable it was and how they would never go back to shorts.

Right now I'm leaning towards the kilt, but I'm also curious as to how yall are gonna react to it considering finishing the AT is 90% mental and I'll be relying on yalls support.