Failaka Island

This semester The Little Gym has been booming! We set a target for ourselves at the beginning of January to reach 400 members by June. Along with everyone else here I have been working pretty dam hard to make it happen. All the hard work I can happily say has paid off as we managed to reach our goal by April Whoo Hooo!! So to celebrate my boss decided that she would shout us all a trip to Failaka Island. Where??? I hear you ask....

Well, Failaka is an island just off the coast of Kuwait. It takes about 40 minutes to reach it by boat and is full of history and remarkable sites that represent moments through time in Kuwait. The island actually dates back to the bronze age however the Greeks were the ones that actually settled there. Unfortunately we were unable to see the Greek ruins due to the museum being closed but they are there nonetheless. Also, Failaka holds the only historical site in Kuwait, which represents Kuwait before the oil. The Heritage Village was surprisingly really good. It showed how the houses were built back in the day and how the villages operated when Kuwaitis were just mere fisherman and camel herders. Although sadly the site is also managed in true Kuwaiti style, half assed! It was fairly impressive yet there were a few things that really could of made it be an exceptional site of Middle Eastern history and culture.

Failaka was also one area of Kuwait which was heavily attacked during the Gulf war back in 1990. The Iraqis estbished a heavily fortified base on Failaka once they invaded. As we all know Kuwait was liberated in 1991 by Allied forces, yet since then a clean up of the destruction on the island has pretty much been non existent. There are still tanks and artillery about the place and lots of bombed out and bullet ridden houses. I am not sure if they have left it like this to remind them selves of the invasion or because they are simply to lazy to clean it up....I think probably the later! Any ways it was pretty cool to check it out.

This trip was a bit of an unexpected one which I really enjoyed. It was nice to get out in the sunshine and actually discover something about Kuwait instead of sitting around bitching about the place like I normally do on a Friday hahaha! Our group was also quite a strange one. We had a single white female, (me), a Kuwaiti family complete with tag along cousins, an African family and a crazy Bulgarian. What an odd bunch we are!

I have posted below some photos of the day, which also include a photo of my new friend Salem!

P.S 62 Days till I am back in OZ ;)

The gang on the little toot toot that took us from the boat to the Heritage Village!

Some dudes sitting outside the traditional style shop front. Being very typical Kuwaiti by sitting around doing nothing and drinking tea!

Inside the shop was stair well which lead to god knows where possibly the roof ?? But I liked the look of it so hence the photo :)

Out the back of one of the shops is a traditional sweets maker. They cook this syrupy concoction in these huge copper pots and is stirred by hand. It actually taste pretty good!

Inside the Heritage Village that shows how Kuwait used to look before they found oil. Its amazing how clean and nice the place was hahahaha seems they replaced the notion of looking after their community with the oil.

Ahmed in one of the Tanks still sitting around after the invasion.

The gang walking into one of the houses that was heavily attacked during the invasion. Inside we found left over hand grenades, bullets and flares.

I thought this was hilarious. The Burglar alarm was still there and intact hahahaha, I don't think it did the owners of this house much good though.

Solange and Anthony at the front of the house. Notice the sand bags!

Inside a mosque that the Iraqis smashed up when they invaded. Above the arch way it says something like...this is a house of god and you must only worship one god. I don't think the Iraqis were in a worshiping kind of mood that day as they totally destroyed the mosque.

More of the smashed up mosque. There was still glass all over the flour and bullets everywhere. Funnily enough though is was my first time in a mosque!

Salem the Camel and I get acquainted

oooooo Salem stands up and I get ready to take my first camel ride! Wasn't so bad was quite cool actually. Helps that the saddle was really comfy, however I wouldn't like to ride him bare back. It's a long way up as he was a big bugger! Although I survived and now have burning ambitions to be a camel herder!

Shoug & Sharouq brave the smelly Salem

Hessa and Hoori getting ready to take off

A view of Kuwait on our way back into port!