First Encounter - Kuwait

It's been 13 years I hadn't been to the Middle East. My first encounter in years happened to be Kuwait. I mean even as an Arab, I was in shock. I was waiting for my 18:20 flight bound to Kuwait then Dubai in the Athens International Airport alone (I was actually extremely punctual for once) and just as I was thinking this is great it looks like I'll have a whole row to myself, a wave of what seemed to be over a thousand people storm in. They were all loud and very excited. None Arab; just one huge group of Indians/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans/etc. and one huge group of Philippinos. I guess Dubai and Kuwait were about to receive their new shipment of under paid workers! I asked myself where the rest of the Arabs where at. I guess they cannot be bothered to be associated.

As soon as I arrived to the Kuwait International Airport I felt like all eyes were on me – from children to adults. Anyway, so I did my thing: exchanged some money, got my Visa and stood in the “Foreigners” line. It was a huge line and again everywhere I looked there were people from India and the Philippines – it’s insane! Maybe it was just that day that they all decided to migrate to Kuwait but they were just all over the place anticipating getting in the country and starting the grind.

So they stamped my passport and I was on my way to the luggage pick up area where a bright Indian man dressed in blue with the cost of his services embroidered on his shirt was waiting for me with a cart. “Hi Mama, which one your bag?” he yells. Next thing you know I got a personal helper strutting next to me with my bag, putting it on the conveyor belt for security check and just taking care of everything! I can get used to this, I thought. Walking through the electronic doors to get to the arrivals section (with my personal helper) felt like I was some kind of Hollywood star walking on the red carpet - all eyes on you. As soon as those doors open you see hundreds of people mostly (98%) dressed in the traditional Arab clothing (men: disdasha, gutra and ogal and women: abaya) just watching you until you’ve found you’re host and you’ve walked away. I was actually very shocked to see that the majority of people still wear the traditional clothing but at the same time I thought it was pretty cool since at least they’ve kept up with some aspect of the Arab tradition. Although I was warned of the red carpet feeling, I still felt very awkward. It’s really a different and unique experience in this airport. You have to try it out for yourself.

Stepping outside the airport towards the parking lot – that’s where all the lushness starts (and not to mention the unexpected heat wave). From Lamborghinis to Maseratis to whatever spells out expensive is all you see. These people got it going on!