I was a bit scared.
It took me days to settle in the city life of
This bus by Brighton and Hove Coach Company is a special summer initiative for tourists, which will take them on a day’s trip to and fro between Brighton and Eastbourne, two coastal towns in south
And then the bus finally started rolling over
a photographer along the shore
As I stepped down the bus, I realized that the engine of the bus had to really do little labor to move the bus. The fierce wind blowing around the area was enough to ward of the bus, let alone a person. I somehow managed to stand still and roamed 360 to get a panoramic view of the area. The lush green grasses along the road kept swirling around with each stroke of heavy brisk air, perfectly imitating the nearby ocean. The blue sky would have been left out in the act had it not made friends with the clouds. The impartial wind gave the sky its share of animation in terms of ever moving clouds. It was bliss to watch.
While I was strolling along the cliffs, one after the other, the experience was out of this world. Walking against the wind, the sound of the thrashing wind against my body paralleled the sound of water hitting the cliff. There were numerous couples sitting along the edges, looking at the ocean, comparing its depth with that of their love. The air hardly smelt of romance. It was too fierce to induce romantic feelings, but then maybe true romance is fierce. I smiled and moved on.
Tired of the trekking, I sat for a while along the edges and formally introduced myself to the ocean. I received no reply. I didn’t complain however, looking at the infinite vastness and depth of the sea, it would take some time to absorb my message. At a distance, ocean’s blue merged with that of the sky, negating any visual difference. Visually, I was on top of sky. I wanted to stop here, at this very particular moment, forever. Make me a lighthouse rooted at this heaven on earth. I would peacefully radiate forever, attracting more and more travelers towards me.
I ducked to my side as the taxi driver’s fist reached towards my face. But to my great relief he had no intention to hit me. He stopped almost near my face, opened his fists wide and shouted, “Five kaydee”. My friend murmured in my ears, “He means 5 dinars for the ride”. Out of the airport, first time into Kuwaiti heat, I was ready to give him my life earned fortune to get into his air-conditioned cab. We jumped in.
Kuwait is like an ideal girlfriend – hot and rich.
The above statement is a sweet metaphor. Let’s deform it! The metaphor above uses figurative meaning of ‘hot’. However Kuwait is ‘hot’ literally. It’s the hot that heats or the ‘hot’ that stains with sweat. Thankfully Kuwait is ‘rich’. Hence, the country has managed to almost completely air-condition itself and life in Kuwait is a series of transitions from one air-conditioned compartment to another. Walk outside and you would hear a constant drill sound around you, as if your neighbor is boring for oil inside his house. This sound is actually of those thousand A/Cs operating in and around you.
For backpacker kinda travelers, there’s not much to travel and visit in Kuwait except the shopping malls (of course air-conditioned) sprawled all across the Kuwait city. Men in traditional white Dishdasha and women in black cloaks when walk together in groups give a funny TV flicker feeling to an observer. However, unlike other Arabic countries you won’t find restrictions on personal expression to evident in Kuwait.
My best times in Kuwait were spent at the Hard Rock Café in Kuwait marina. Facing the sea, the pyramid like structure of the café is perhaps the best in their entire chain. I made some friends from Philippines there. Alcohol prohibited in the entire nation, alcohol free Budweiser was a cool experience at the café.
Not all travel tales end up inspiring. The heat just left me hollow and maybe sad. The white sun was contrasted with black oil only recently. Now the country uses the energy and power of the oil to cut through the heat of the sun just like an umbrella. Interestingly, the country has such a huge oil reserve that it has big names in the world as their customer resulting in huge influx of money into the country. This has lead to large-scale development of infrastructure and living amenities on a land, which was supposed to be an uninhabited wasteland. It depends now on the shrewdness and skill of mankind to determine how long we can deceive nature.
It’s so hot in Kuwait that usually we cannot go out. Thankfully, big windows, white sunshine and lots of ceramics give my camera and me enough engagement inside my apartment itself. As a new student of photography, I keep experimenting with the rules and guidelines that I am thought. I clicked this photo with the pot at the center. However the photo was not that appealing as compared to when I reshot the photo with the pot a bit towards the left. Rule of thirds confirmed.
