Day 2 - Kuwait

Well, as I’ve said often enough, business travel isn’t that glamorous. And unless you’re the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, business travel can be quite wearisome. Today was a classic example of WCGWWGW – What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong. Yet it was not without redemption…

My internal clock didn’t reset as quickly as my mind wanted it to, and I didn’t get to sleep until 1:00am. (OK, I was watching an English Superleague rugby match on my niece’s TV.) But I was really worried about not waking up in time for my 9:00am flight to Kuwait. So I found an alarm clock in my niece’s room and tested it. Turns out it wasn’t loud enough. But in an act of faith I set the alarm clock for 5:30am, figuring I had to get up, shave (always better when going through Passport Control) and walk to the airport (door to door in 10 minutes!).

The alarm never went off.

Because I woke up at 3:00am and couldn’t get back to sleep.

I ate breakfast (the Khalaf special – a bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit), and flipped the TV back on until 5:30am. I got ready and left for the airport. Upon arriving at the ticket counter I found out why my airline of choice was 75% cheaper than the other carriers. Apparently I could only take one suitcase with 20kg (about 45 lbs). I had 2 suitcases weighing about 22kg each. I figured I couldn’t easily repack, nor could I send a suitcase back to my brother’s house. So I bit the surcharge (about US$200) and checked in.

Now, in Dubai they have a special counter for you to pay excess baggage fees. You pay your fee, and then you get your boarding pass. So I walked over to the counter to pay the fee. I handed the cashier a stub with my surcharge listed, along with my credit card. Yup, this airline’s policy is “cash only”. I went over to the ATM conveniently located next to this counter and attempted to withdraw the requisite amount of cash. And you guessed it, the ATM wouldn’t give me any money. Thankfully there was another ATM from a different bank two counters over that worked. I withdrew the cash, paid the surcharge and made my way through security and Passport Control.

If you can ever come up with an excuse to fly into or through Dubai, do it. They have one of the most remarkable airports I have ever been to, and one of the best Duty Free shopping areas as rated by just about every travel magazine. (In case you’re wondering, only Detroit’s new WorldGateway terminal ranks ahead of Dubai in my book – convenient, compact and it means I’m home when I land.) As I made my way to the Post Office, I noticed a gate change for my flight – from Gate 6 to Gate 31. No big deal, I was early and I could get to the new gate in plenty of time. I mailed the postcards for my kids and proceeded to the business lounge I can access through my Diners Club credit card. What a refreshment! All I wanted was a quiet place to sit and instead I found a full breakfast spread waiting for me – eggs, sausages, fruit, pastries, cereals, juices, sandwiches. I guess that was my second breakfast, or lunch at 7:30am – you decide.

I arrived at the gate area at 7:50am, 10 minutes before the scheduled boarding time. I was the first person there! So with that time, I decided to backtrack to the Costa Coffee counter and grab a cup of coffee to top off breakfast. I didn’t count on a simple cup of coffee taking so long to produce. When I got my coffee I started walking back to the gate. As I looked up, the flight board said, “Final Call”! With the hot coffee in one hand (no nice Starbucks sleeve) I walked my fastest back to the gate area and saw only seventeen people left (might have been more or less, but thought I’d guess from memory). As I rushed up to the gate agent, I found out that they weren’t even boarding yet.

Once I wiped the spilled coffee off my carrying hand I sat down and sipped the rest of it. Finally the boarding announcement came. By then the remaining 120 passengers had shown up. As I lined up the gate agent told me I couldn’t take the coffee on board with me. I opened the lid and saw 2/3 of the cup left. There was no way I was leaving behind a $4 cup of Italian coffee. So I started speed-sipping. You know how that works: You take a small sip with as much air as you can to help cool the thing off before it permanently burns your palate and tongue. Then you exhale into the cup to try to cool it off 0.68 degrees each time so that it burns less on the next sip.

With the coffee out of the way we proceeded to board – busses, which then drove us nearly the length of the airport to where the plane was parked (shades of Dulles...). The flight itself was uneventful. Some notable features when flying Jazeera Airways:

1. The announcements are in Arabic first, then English (sort of…). Fortunately I was used to this from flying KLM. Yes, Dutch can sound like Arabic with its harsh consonants.
2. The “Welcome” movie loop began with a formal greeting in Arabic, “Hayakum Allah” which may be loosely translated, “May God sustain you.”
3. All food, snacks and beverages are for sale. No free pretzels or water.

Other than that, you can count on a clean, comfortable ride with other passengers who choose to fly Jazeera because it is 75% cheaper than the other carriers. The landing was uneventful, except for the fact that it was so hazy I didn’t know we were at ground level until I saw a tree at eye level when I looked out the window from my aisle seat. Temperature at landing: a mere 43 degrees Celsius (that would be almost 110 degrees Fahrenheit). BTW, we landed at 9:40am.

Passport Control was very congested. Apparently several flights landed at once, and not all the counters were open. To top things off, we were the last flight to arrive in the sequence so we were in the back of that line. And I was in the back of the back. When I finally got to the counter, the Passport Control officer looked at me and said, “You are supposed to get a visa from upstairs.” Oh great, I thought as I trudged up the stairs. After filling out a form and paying 3 Kuwaiti Dinars, or about US$11.75 (I had the foresight to by some KWD from Dubai) I got my paperwork and went around to pick up my luggage. The silver lining is that my luggage was already there, and removed from the carousel for me.

Now I’ve been communicating with the hotel here for over a month to pick me up. You guessed it, the driver to my hotel was nowhere to be found. So I changed my plans on the fly and picked up a rental car from the airport. Surprisingly I was still able to get a very good deal by walking up to the Thrifty counter. This is actually a good part of the story. After processing my paperwork, the Thrifty agent assigned to walk me to my car was gracious enough to help me buy a SIM card for the mobile phone I’m borrowing from my brother. If you want to call me, my direct number from North America is 011-965-593-4190. Incoming calls are free to me, so bring them on. I would recommend that you call between the hours of 10:00am and 3:00pm EDT, which translates to 5:00pm-10:00pm Kuwait time, as I’ll be done working for the day.

I arrived at the hotel around 11:30am. Check-in isn’t until 3:00pm. Thankfully my room was ready, so I got my key and headed upstairs to unwind and unpack. Sure enough, the cap on my shampoo bottle had shattered and I didn’t put it in a separate plastic bag. So I sent down the largest dry cleaning order in my history of hotel stays. Just then the room phone rings and it’s the bellhop wondering whether I had arrived (I assured him I had), as his driver couldn’t find me anywhere in the airport.

Once I finished settling into my hotel room, I “ironed” some of the remaining clothes. (You know that trick where you put your clothes on hangers and use the shower to convert the bathroom into a steam room? It works.) And then I decided to go to the spa and sit in some bubbling water to feel better about the day. By the time I got to the spa I decided to treat myself to a 60-minute deep tissue massage for the first time in my life. Daniel came here from the Philippines 3 years ago and he spent an hour finding every single knot in my back. No surprise when he explained that those were caused by stress (“You have too much stress, man! I can feel it all in your back!”), and I let him stretch away. After enjoying a post-massage cup of green tea and lingering in the steam room, I showered and headed back to the room to throw on some clothes and grab some dinner. The Blue Elephant is a Thai restaurant that served me an amazing Ginger Chicken with Jasmine Rice. I saved half of it for dinner tomorrow night.

Looking back on the day, I see that classic “Take the good with the bad” (remember Job?). Sure, there were some moments where I just had to roll my eyes. But then there were people – the Thrifty agent, Daniel and the wait staff at The Blue Elephant – who brought such refreshment into my life by their eagerness to treat me with the kindness and patience that had eluded me in other places. God knows what I needed and he provided it all along the way.

Sometimes I don’t see his handprint until I look back at the day.

Thanks for writing me back. See you all soon!