Bodhi Bum

So it's back to work once again. And back to travel blogging once more. Funny that I travel blog when I work, but when I travel for fun I'm usually too busy having fun to have time to write about it.

But now I've got more than enough time to kill, being landed in the land of our Muslim brothers. Who strangely enough believe that a beer is so evil that it warrants being banned from an entire country. Right now I'm resident in the tiny little country of Kuwait, which is pretty much nothing more than a dustbowl sitting on top of an ocean of oil. The locals like to say that gas is cheaper than water. Thought it was just an expression, but it's actually true here.

So since I last wrote a travel blog, seems I was back in South Africa working in Joburg. My little two week business trip there turned into a whole year, which flew by. All I've gotta say about South Africa is that it's the most dangerous country in the entire world, and Joburg is the most dangerous city in the entire world. And I paid that little disturbing fact absolutely no heed. None. Looking back I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but I guess it was my (misplaced?) sense of invulnerability that kept me from getting shot. Had a few close calls, mugged at knife point once, guns pulled on me twice, but came out without a scratch. And with some great, one of a kind stories.

The summer saw me boarding a plane to Thailand with plans to take a month or two off and settle into my new condo which had just been completed. One or two months turned into several more, and then I kinda lost count. Funny how sleeping into until noon and taking long motorbike trips to the islands and back, can make thoughts of returning to work just a bad taste in the back of your throat. I knew I had to go back, I just didn't particularly want to. Hey, what's the harm in moving your return flight back another two weeks? And two weeks more. Then two weeks more. Before I knew it, two weeks became 9 months and by that time I had become a local. Unfortunately, there was another local who was a right shady character who decided he wanted what I had. Namely my girlfriend. And made sure to drive me out of town right quick. So I took the hint that it was well and truly time to stop sleeping in till noon and board the plane back to civilization.

So of course I couldn't have timed my return any better if I had actually had any inclination outside of my own little simple country thai lifestyle, that the rest of the world was quickly going to hell in a hand basket. So of course my expected jump back into the job market wasn't quite a jump, but more like full on faceplant. How was I to know that the Great Depression #2 was around the corner? Luckily I saw it coming in August before it all hit in September, so I accepted a position out in the Middle East. Specifically in Abu Dhabi. No, not Dubai. Abu Dhabi. You know, the city next to Dubai. The richest city in the world! I've given up telling people I work in Abu Dhabi. Nobody has a clue where it is. So I just say Dubai now.

And to make matters even more interesting, I actually am not working in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi right now. They sent me to Kuwait for a month, so I've got two more weeks to go. Kuwait is that tiny little speck of a country positioned right below Iraq. It's funny how this place is spitting distance from Iraq, but you'd never know there's a war going on an hour's drive away. It's like living in Elliot Lake with a war going on in Massey. Except I can't see Indians blowing themselves up or setting off road-side bombs. Might make the drive to Toronto interesting.

So I'm now resident in this tiny little city where every Kuwaiti citizen owns a small fleet of cars. The teenagers spend their Friday nights roaring around town in Porches and Ninja motorbikes. But you can't even buy a beer. Bud sells non-alcoholic beer, but I couldn't bring myself to go there.

Here are a few random shots from today's weekend walk around the city:






I was out for a walk today and came across some Arab motorbike show or something. And I saw my old bike, my R1, that I rode in Thailand all last year. And the dream bike I want, the BMW R1200GS, for my pending around the world tour. Hmm... Someday. In the meantime I can just dream about it.




So there's the quick update on my life, if anyone cares or not. And to be perfectly honest, I'm only writing this because it's 9pm on a Friday night here in Kuwait, and I'm dead sober, there's no bars or clubs to go out to, and I'm bored. So too bad.

Bodhi