Joined the Kuwait BMW Motorcycle Club ride to Abdali in northern Kuwait last Friday, Feb 12, for the 4th Abdali Festival (hence some of the pics in the side bar slide show). The venue was a farm owned by one of the club members in Abdali, which is a (relatively) more fertile area located in the north of Kuwait some 125 km from Kuwait City and near the border with Iraq.
There must have been 30-40 bikes, mostly Beamers plus a sizeable showing from the Kuwait Ducati Club, some noisy open pipe HDs, a mean looking V Max and a 'busa or two. Plus a few cars full of families and kids - it was that kind of outing. And of course the Tristar team led by owner Mr Jafar and his manager, the ever-smiling Salem.
There was a barbeque, games for the kids, shisha pipes to enjoy and a chance to relax in the warm sun and blether to other bikers about… bikes and stuff and the weather and bikes, making it a thoroughly pleasant day out. But the lasting memories are of the greenery, birds twittering in the trees, calmness and tranquillity. All a very welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of Kuwait City with its incessant background soundtrack of traffic noise – well, till the Harleys fired up again anyway.
Back to what passes for normality, I belatedly discover I no longer have enough pages in my passport to take all the visas and entry/exit stamps I'm likely to collect en route - oops. A quick chat with the friendly folk in the consular section at the Brit Embassy assures me the turn-around will be 10 working days – provided the paperwork is in order.
I duly download and complete the form, get it and photos I already have endorsed by a suitably qualified Kuwaiti colleague and submit my application with the requisite fee. That done, I wait for the call to collect. But the call, when it comes, is to say that the Vice-Consul has rejected my application because the photos I submitted were too similar to the one in my old passport. As I then discover in the application guidance notes, they should have been '…taken within the last month.' This is all my fault. I had the pics, didn't think I'd changed that much and, in the interests of speed(!) thought I could avoid the hassle of getting new ones done.
This call came just before the weekend late on a Thursday afternoon (impressive in itself as the Embassy hours are 08:00-13:00) and the sympathetic and helpful lady on the line then explained the consular section would be closed the following Sunday for team training so I should hand in the new photos on the Monday.
Recalling the '10 working days' caveat, I began to panic as I was due to fly out of Kuwait just over a week later and I still had to get my residence visa transferred to the new passport. She assured me it should be possible, so I got the new pics done over the weekend, re-certified by my colleague at work and handed them in on the Monday. The Embassy then called the next day to say my passport was ready – how's that for service? But this is what we're used to. Provided you follow instructions (unlike me), you hand over the necessary documents, pay your fee and all the paper shuffling is done out of sight before you're told to come collect the finished product. Dealing with Kuwaiti officialdom is somewhat different…
There must have been 30-40 bikes, mostly Beamers plus a sizeable showing from the Kuwait Ducati Club, some noisy open pipe HDs, a mean looking V Max and a 'busa or two. Plus a few cars full of families and kids - it was that kind of outing. And of course the Tristar team led by owner Mr Jafar and his manager, the ever-smiling Salem.
There was a barbeque, games for the kids, shisha pipes to enjoy and a chance to relax in the warm sun and blether to other bikers about… bikes and stuff and the weather and bikes, making it a thoroughly pleasant day out. But the lasting memories are of the greenery, birds twittering in the trees, calmness and tranquillity. All a very welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of Kuwait City with its incessant background soundtrack of traffic noise – well, till the Harleys fired up again anyway.
Back to what passes for normality, I belatedly discover I no longer have enough pages in my passport to take all the visas and entry/exit stamps I'm likely to collect en route - oops. A quick chat with the friendly folk in the consular section at the Brit Embassy assures me the turn-around will be 10 working days – provided the paperwork is in order.
I duly download and complete the form, get it and photos I already have endorsed by a suitably qualified Kuwaiti colleague and submit my application with the requisite fee. That done, I wait for the call to collect. But the call, when it comes, is to say that the Vice-Consul has rejected my application because the photos I submitted were too similar to the one in my old passport. As I then discover in the application guidance notes, they should have been '…taken within the last month.' This is all my fault. I had the pics, didn't think I'd changed that much and, in the interests of speed(!) thought I could avoid the hassle of getting new ones done.
This call came just before the weekend late on a Thursday afternoon (impressive in itself as the Embassy hours are 08:00-13:00) and the sympathetic and helpful lady on the line then explained the consular section would be closed the following Sunday for team training so I should hand in the new photos on the Monday.
Recalling the '10 working days' caveat, I began to panic as I was due to fly out of Kuwait just over a week later and I still had to get my residence visa transferred to the new passport. She assured me it should be possible, so I got the new pics done over the weekend, re-certified by my colleague at work and handed them in on the Monday. The Embassy then called the next day to say my passport was ready – how's that for service? But this is what we're used to. Provided you follow instructions (unlike me), you hand over the necessary documents, pay your fee and all the paper shuffling is done out of sight before you're told to come collect the finished product. Dealing with Kuwaiti officialdom is somewhat different…
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"calmness and tranquillity"? Aye, until you lot arrived!
ReplyDeleteFinally following, mate. I'm green with envy, and wish I could accompany you. Looking forward to your installments, and FWIW, yes, you made the right decision on the GS over the KTM thumper.
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