INTO KUWAIT
And Meeting Fantastic People
20th November - 24th November | 2023
The next morning I heard the rain outside of my room, but as there was no window I could only judge by the noise that it was a poor down. So I stayed a bit longer and wrote a nice email to the Ibis Manager in Bahrain, asking for help within their group within the GCC states - fingers crossed!
When the rain sounded less I started to pack my things and by the time I had packed up, the rain had stopped. The streets were still flooded in some places, and Al Khobar has very bad streets with many potholes! After fueling up and breakfast it was time to get towards the border of Kuwait. What a boring stretch! Nothing interesting to see, not even some nice landscape!
I was in touch with another Overlander couple and we had picked a place on iOverlander for camping together tonight. I arrived at the location and it was just flat! So, Steffi hold on until dark for a pee!! What a lovely Overlander couple Laura and Chris are, travelling with their revamped yellow DHL truck. They have been living the Nomad life for over 15 years, travelling by jeep, motorbike and now with “Kevin”. It was so fantastic to listen to their stories! Also, Chris published some books, so check out Amazon for his famous book "Left Beyond the Horizon".
The next morning we had breakfast together - and some more stories - until it was time to say Goodbye. What a lovely couple - I hope to meet them again one day!
About lunch time I crossed the border into Kuwait without any problems. I was already wondering if that will be the case leaving! So I got very well prepared for a stressful leaving as recently it has been “easy entry, complicated exit”. The road to Kuwait City is another boring straight stretch.
Oh, and I had prompt positive feedback from the Ibis Manager in Bahrain, which put me in touch with his colleague in Kuwait City. Fantastic, like that I stayed again at the luxury Ibis hotel. Unfortunately, the bike had to park on the road, but as I got my bike serviced, I took all the luggage off. The service is arranged by my friend Abdul to pamper me, well my bike! And it worked out perfectly as it was due for the 10k oil service! Well, I could add much more to the list, but I do not want to abuse that generous gesture!
So early afternoon I arrived at Ibis Salmiya in Kuwait City, and thanks to the manager of Ibis Seef Bahrain I got a very good deal for my stay. I was so happy to stay in a nice hotel, overlooking the city. Everybody was super helpful here at the hotel. So I could relax a bit and then start to attack my computer.
The next morning, during breakfast, Abdul came to pick me up to go to Tristar (google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/bbYRBxdkcjGpwpTt9). First, we stopped to wash the bikes - the first time after Istanbul ;-) - whilst we had a cafe. With clean bikes, we went to Tristar, where I got introduced to Salem and the team working there, including Marta, their Ducati track racing girl! How cool (well, I would call it brave) is that?!?
They gave me a BMW F800GS for the time being, whilst my Schimmelchen will be serviced. How kind is that! So I had now transport to roam around, but nothing to place my phone as GPS. Due to this Abdul showed me the way back to the hotel, where he picked me up later. We went back to Tristar again where I finally met the owner and founder Mr. Jafar Behbahani. What a lovely person! It was so nice listening to him talk about his “Wall of Fame” in his office. They also already got the new BMW R1300GS, which is currently very much discussed in the social media and press.
The next day it was a bit of a lazy day, also as I had nothing I could use for my phone to navigate. Finally at lunchtime, Tristar brought me my Schimmelchen back. What a fantastic service!!! Later on, I was lucky that the hotel manager Mr. Mahmood was in the office and we had a nice conversation about my travels. I am so grateful for the help of Ibis GCC-group, well their equivalent manager!
The next morning, as it is Friday, is the Friday morning ride from Tristar. I left the hotel at 7am, and should have arrived at 7h30 at the meeting point. Unfortunately, google instructions were not clear to me when I had to choose between 3 possible lanes. Of course, I picked the wrong one and it was a detour of 20mins! So I only arrived by nearly 8am, but still early enough for a cafe to get introduced to everybody.
At about 8h30 we finally went off to the Radisson Blu Hotel as there will be the official presentation of the BMW R1300GS including test drives. This time I really struggled to keep up with the group as they were racing through Kuwait City, knowing the speed cameras!
I was impressed by the presentation of the new BMW R1300GS. Tristar had booked a huge room and there was a massive buffet. Wow, I guess Portugal cannot compete with that one … Mr Jafar and his son held a very nice, funny speech about the test drive a while back. There were quite a lot of people during the presentation. After the presentation, there was the possibility of doing a test drive on the new models that have been currently launched like the BMW R1300GS or the BMW R18. They offered me also to test one of the bikes, but I am not keen on being the first one to drop the bike in front of everybody ;-) Unfortunately, when it comes to other (people's) bikes I do not have confidence in my ability.
Around lunch time Abdul came to pick me up for some sightseeing. We went first, of course, to the famous towers for some pictures and then over the new bridge “Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway” which is the 3rd longest bridge in the world. After that, he took me to the highest mountain of Kuwait, which is close to the border of Iraq. Whilst we enjoyed the view he told me that this is the road Kuwait got invaded by Iraq about 30 years ago. We spoke a bit about that horrible war, but I had the feeling he didn't want to speak much about it, which I respected!
Here it was the first time in a long time that I had to dig out my woollen hat and another layer as a pretty cold breeze was blowing! In the valley were all the camping places and as it was the weekend it was crazy with quads, jeeps, bikes, etc. And unfortunately, nobody seemed to care to take their rubbish back home afterwards …
Back in Kuwait City, we met some of Abduls' biking friends and after a warm cafe, we all went to another friend, Fawe. He owns some rare Ducati bikes and is the founder of his shop Extremezone (www.extremezonekw.com). It was really nice there and he served the best Turkish Cafe I had so far in my life. Well, it was my 2nd Turkish Cafe so far as the first one in Albania last year was REALLY bad, which put me completely off! But that one could get me back to try again … Finally about 22h we went for dinner, when I thought I wouldn't get any food anymore today!
I hope you enjoyed it also being surrounded by lovely bikers here in Kuwait as much as I did. Please remember the blog will be only published now on a weekly base, but see you next week when it is time to leave Kuwait. In the meantime try also a nice Turkish Cafe with some sweets.
Places | Cities:
Kuwait.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 32705 km
Information Border Crossings:
KSA into KUWAIT:
No CdP stamping needed.
Visa needs to be arranged prior online, normally no problem and accessible within 24hours.
Insurance for motorbike is mandatory.
Maintenance | Breakdown:
Routine oil exchange and valve clearance.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
Laura and Chris for our lovely night camping - hope to meet you one day again!
Abdul to look after me during my stay in Kuwait.
Tristar to look after my bike and being such an awesome team!