Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Visit to the Kuwait Towers

Planning for an outing on Id, did not leave us with many choices. But Kuwait Towers worked out to be a great choice by the end of the day. We had been forewarned about a possible preposterous traffic rush, and a general closure of all activities around. But what welcomed us were stretches of empty roads, a great sunny day, and people (minimal, mostly non-Muslims, and many non-Asians, for a change) lazily moving around, relaxed and taking in, and relishing the general holiday mood. Could see mums, dads with kids, cycling, or maybe old friends taking a leisurely stroll, along the beach. This was the view along the Gulf Road, which runs along almost the entire eastern stretch of Kuwait, alongside the lapping waters of the Arabian or as it was called earlier,Persian Gulf.


As we approach the towers, which is situated on a slightly curved small peninsula like extension, towards the Gulf, we need to take a sharp right turn, while the Gulf Road, takes a left turn to continue along the contour of the land, north- westward. The first impression is amazement at the sheer size of the three towers, with the blue balls perched atop. We get our entry tickets, and by the time we count five, we are at the top floor! That was quick quips my son, as we step out into the viewing area. It is circular rotating platform, from where we are able to take in the entire view. Initially the triangular viewing sections were a bit dirty for our liking, but soon we could see the window cleaners doing their job, moving up and down, in their motorised shafts. We could see the portion of land below, gently curving in further into the sea, with a huge water park strategically placed, along a lovely coast line. We could also catch sight of the ball at closer range, where we could see, they were actually covered with small disc shaped metal pieces in shades of blue, which gives it the colour.

The insides were furnished with polished metal and granite, and could see some photos, displaying scenes, when the Tower was vandalised, during the Iraq War, and how it was restored. The tower has been around for quite some time, first opened to public in 1979! There was an interesting curio shop, featuring the typical memorabilia, and typically steep priced. There was a viewing telescope through which we couldn’t see much, because it was timed, and before we could decide on a spot and focus, the time was up. So don’t see what’s the whole fun, in having telescopes auto timed! So done with viewing and clicking and more clicking of snaps, zoomed down to have a bite, at a sandwich counter, and the juice was a great quencher. The garden below was green, real green surprisingly and the grass, fresh and wet! So after a short walk below, as it was almost noon by then, along the dyked coast, was back along the swerving Gulf Road, glad at having had a good time at one of the ‘must see’ spots in Kuwait.

7 comments:

Reflections said...

wow!!! looks awesome. The pics are gr8. How many days did u get off for Eid? here the private firms got just 2 days off whereas the govt companies got 6 days off:-S

Vaidegi J said...

Glad you liked the pics, though not able to upload the better ones.
here the holidays were exactly the same!! :)

Preeti Shenoy said...

Nice pictures and good virtual tour!
Cheers
preeti

mathew said...

there is a similar tower near my place...i mean 3 hrs from my place..its call alexander platz TV tower..looks almost the same..:-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernsehturm_Berlin

ramblings said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vaidegi J said...

@ ps
Hope it did manage to be an interesting virtual tour, and not a typical tourist-'brouchurish' thing!! :)

@ mathew
interesting, and i did look it up. But i would think its similar but not very! actually we have this Liberation towers which seems to resemble your platz TV tower more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Tower
anyhow good to get connected across continents, comparing tower notes. :)

aMus said...

its a welcome surprise when you go fearing the worst and then come away having a good experience...

that was a nice writeup...:)