One Working Day in Kuwait

Kuwait Towers, Kuwait City

Hello! Wishing everyone a belated Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya!

Eid’s come and gone, but there’re still no signs of a softening of stand against our neighbour, Qatar. Actually, I think it’s become worse!

Anyway, it’s not for me to say anything. And besides, after coming to this friggin site in Abu Dhabi, I hardly have time to do anything personal, let alone write a decent post! So, here’s a picture post of another of our neighbours, Kuwait. These are from the one business trip I took to Kuwait in 2016. Business trip or not, there’s always time to do a li'l sightseeing. It’s just a matter of planning. When there’s a will, there’s a way!


There, I worked! Our site visit to Al Mutlaa, for a humongous public housing infrastructure project. Nope, we didn’t win it. Al Mutlaa happens to be the place of the infamous ‘turkey-shoot’ aka the Highway of Death, where the bulk of Iraqi tanks and vehicles were destroyed by the Americans on their retreat from Kuwait after the Kuwait War – From left, Samantha (our Senior Estimator, he’s Sri Lankan, yes Samantha is a guy’s name in Sri Lanka), Omar (our Utilities Technical Engineer, from Egypt), yours truly ahem, Balaji (Planning Assistant Manager), and a representative from our Company’s Kuwait Office. The colleague hidden behind Omar is Chen Haitao, Tender Assistant Manager




More views of the Kuwait Towers – We were staying at a hotel about 2 km away. I got up real early, had breakfast and got ready for work. But since the meeting which we were supposed to attend, was at 10am, what better way to while away the time than by going for a short sightseeing trip around, hehe


Kuwait City view, from the Kuwait Towers – that tall building in the middle is the Al Hamra Tower, tallest building in Kuwait, and the place where our Kuwait Branch Office is in


Al Hamra Tower, up close




Inside Al Hamra Tower


A view from up on Al Hamra Tower


Sharq Area, Kuwait – where we stayed for the night








And finally, some shopping – at The Avenues Mall, Kuwait – how could we not squeeze in a visit to Kuwait’s premier shopping mall huh?

The New Forbidden Kingdom - Qatar

Doha skyline from the Corniche, Doha, Qatar, with the Museum of Islamic Art on the right

Whoa! What happened to Qatar? Why the sudden isolation? Must be something pretty serious to get its Gulf Arab brothers to completely cut ties with it!

But I’m gonna keep my mouth shut on this one (UAE has warned that Qatar sympathisers will face fines of, get ready for this, …not less than half a friggin million dirhams and jail time!)

Sigh, no more Qatar stopovers I guess. One less ‘good’ airlines to fly. Qatar Airways somehow always comes up among the cheapest full-fledged airlines to fly out of Dubai, so that’s a let-down. Another thing I’m gonna miss is Al Jazeera, the international news network based in Qatar. It’s my favourite news channel, coz I find it less biased than its western counterpart, and there’re just less ads and junk around so that I can read only the news that matters. But what the heck, life goes on. Hope they patch up soon.

Meanwhile, here’re some photos of our recent stopover in Doha (late March this year). I’m glad I made the stopover. Even more so now that this mess has come about!


A meet-up with an old friend from our Mizoram days (and Emirates Road Project days), Andrew, in Doha's Souq Waqif. With him are his wife, son Garrett and sister-in-law


Souq Waqif, Doha, Qatar


Jayden & Papa, Souq Waqif






More views of Souq Waqif, Doha, Qatar


Al Fanar, the Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre, Doha’s mini Burj Khalifa, near the Corniche


The Corniche, Doha – I call this the Nepali Beach – On the Friday afternoon that we were there, there was a line of dhows docked along the corniche filled with loud music and Nepali revellers dancing! Groovy, but weird


The Pearl Monument, Doha, Qatar






Doha’s swanky new airport, the Hamad International Airport – pretty nice place to hang out, definitely a far cry from the congested old airport which we’ve transited before

So Starts Ramadan

Museum of Islamic Civilization, Sharjah, UAE

Here we go again, 30 days of fasting. (No, not me. The others I mean. I’m the type who can’t survive not munching on anything for more than an hour!) And this time, I’m in a friggin site, 130km away from home!

Don’t have much time to write. I gotta get a grasp of this Project as soon as possible, and there’s just about 3 years of information for me to absorb! (The Project started in 2014!)

So here’s something which I think suits Ramadan well. Wanna learn something about Islam? You can’t go wrong with a visit to the Museum of Islamic Civilization in Sharjah! See for yourself.








The interiors of the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization




The central dome, with a mosaic of the night sky showing the zodiac constellations


The Kiswah, the piece of cloth covering the Kaaba, the most sacred building in Islam which sits in the middle of the Grand Mosque in Mecca – the Kiswah is changed every year during the Haj Pilgrimage period. So sez the display. See, I told you it’s pretty informative. There’s more but you’ll have to go find out yourself!


A replica of the Holy Kaaba, showing the Kiswah and the Black Stone, an eye-like stone on the corner of the Kaaba near the door


A replica of the Black Stone of the Holy Kaaba – Wanna know what this is, go, visit the museum, haha, or you could just Wiki it!


Another of the many displays in the museum – It’s a brass pot with a Sheikh sitting on it, …no, seriously I don’t know what this is. You think I’m a curator or something?

And here’re some mosques around the Museum’s vicinity, and I have all the names… (that’s how good Google Maps is!)


A Persian-looking mosque, the Masjid Al-Zahra, at the Corniche, Sharjah


Abu Dhar Al-Ghafari Mosque, just beside the Museum of Islamic Civilization


Al Maghfirah Mosque, Corniche, Sharjah

All Work, ...and Some Play

Shit! I’ve been transferred to site again! Abu Dhabi this time. Beginning tomorrow! Here comes the dog days again! And it’s friggin 130 km from home, 260 km of travelling per day! WTF.

Meanwhile, here’re some photos of my past working exploits. The shit days ain’t all bad actually. Enjoy!


Yours truly, after the completion of the Dubai Canal Project last year, with, from right, trusty foremen Shahid & Sajid, chargehand Hari and another chargehand from the adjoining section (don’t friggin remember his name…). No, we didn’t build that canal and the railings we’re leaning against, but that bridge behind us (Al Wasl Road Bridge) was our Company’s work. I was in charge of the car park beside the canal


Couldn’t have done it without these two chaps! Both of them are from Pakistan. Thanks fellas for the help – Shahid (left) and Sajid (right) – from atop the wavy pedestrian bridge built by Besix, one of our fellow contractors of the Dubai Canal Project


Safety Managers on a visit – Alex George, Corporate HSE Manager (left) and Thomas Daniel, Divisional HSE Manager (right) – No, there’re no safety issues to report, my section of the Project happens to be the most picturesque portion of the Project incidentally, so it’s a sightseeing visit actually! The bridge behind is the wavy pedestrian bridge I mentioned in the photo before


Yours truly during the dog days! (Look how haggard I became, friggin lost 4 kg in 40 days!) – with, from left, Bara, an engineer from the Consultants, Parsons, Ziad, our Utilities Engineer, and Mustafa, our Site / QAQC Engineer (Ziad and Mustafa are from Palestine)


Another dog day picture, this time with Binu (middle), an engineer of the Consultant Engineer, Parsons and Belal (left), our Utilities Site Engineer


Here’s one from our many site visits for tendering purposes – from left, Balaji (Planning Supremo of our bidding team …don’t know his real rank actually), Prashant (our top rank estimator, again dunno his actual rank), Anis (Structural Engineer), Boobalan (Highway Engineer), yours truly (ahem), and Suresh (Geotechnical Engineer) – at the Jewel of the Creek Access Project Site


Time to say goodbye – Farewell lunch for Boobalan at the Desi Dhaba Restaurant, Fortune Hotel, near our office – from left, Prashant, yours truly, Ravi (Senior Engineering Manager aka my immediate boss), Balaji, Jeboy (Senior CAD Draftsman), Vinoo (Senior Estimator), Anis, Suresh, and Purchasers, Sridhar and Renjith – From here, it doesn’t look much like a Chinese Company does it?


Another farewell, this time for Anis – many colleagues left us in the beginning of 2017, …not a positive-looking year, but what the heck, we’ll make the best of what we have – from left, Suresh, Vinoo, Balaji, Anis, Prashant, Jeboy and Ravi

And here’re some work trips abroad!


Yours truly, at our Company’s Kuwait Branch’s posh Conference Room at the Al Hamra Tower, tallest building in Kuwait. The Chinese really know how to impress huh? – Notice the Kuwait Towers from the window behind?


On a site visit and meeting trip, Kuwait Airport, Jan 2016


With David Lee of SK Group, Korea and Asif of the Caledonian College of Engineering, at the college’s premises in Muscat, Oman, Dec 2014