Sand Village at night

One evening this week, Nathan, my dad, mom, and Tes went to see the Sand Village at night. They said it was beautiful lit up at night, and they enjoyed it very much. The detail of these hand-carved sand sculptures is incredible.

The Grand Mosque

Earlier this week, my dad, mom, and I toured the Grand Mosque, which is the largest and the official mosque of Kuwait. Construction on the mosque began in 1979 and it was completed in 1986, at a cost of 40 Million Kuwaiti Dinar. The mosque can accommodate up to 10,000 men in the main prayer hall, and up to 950 women in the in the women's prayer hall. During Ramadan, the entire mosque grounds lined are with worshipers and they can accommodate over 100,000 people. We had an amazing tour guide, a young woman from Egypt, who gave us lots of great information about the Mosque and Islam.

                                    

                                    

The main hall is almost 250 feet wide on each side, is lined with Egyptian carpets, beautiful teakwood doors from Turkey, chandeliers from Germany, and stained glass from France. The main dome is decorated with the 99 names of God.

                                               

 The mosque has 7 niches in the main prayer hall, facing the direction of Mecca, where Muslims pray.

 All women entering the Mosque must be covered, and they lend you and abeya for the tour. 

 Dad and mom on the pulpit where the Imam gives the Friday sermon.

 A copy of the original Quran.

 The walls were incsribed with beautiful Kufic style caligraphy

 Next we went to the ladies prayer hall.

                                 
The stained glass in the room was beautiful.

Finishing the tour walking through the outside grounds. These beautiful lanterns were made in Syria, weighing 350kg a piece. I would love to see how they look lit up at night,with the different color stained glass panes.

During Ramadan, this area is filled with people praying. And with Ramadan being in the middle of the summer, they thought to put a sprinkler system (the lines running overhead) to keep everyone cool in the 130+ degrees of summer.

View of the main dome and minaret.

We really enjoyed the tour, and were so glad for the visit.

Afterwards, we went to the gulf to eat lunch at one of our favorite restaurants.

How cute are they?

They were still serving breakfast, and it was delicious!

We had another very fun day together,and are so glad they are here to visit!

Sunset Boat Cruise

A few days ago, my mom, Nathan and I went on a sunset cruise of the gulf. Abeer's husband owns a sea tourism and fishing business, and they took us out for an amazing evening. This is the marina where his boats are parked.

Some pre-cruising pictures :)

Bon voyage Kuwait...

Captain Nabyl gave great commentary of the boats we were passing, and history of things we were seeing.

Iranian ships carrying vegetables and fruits

A shipwreck from before the Gulf War. 

The company that owned the boat unfortunately did not have enough money to repair it. Everyone was safely rescued off of the boat, but the boat found its new home in the middle of the sea.

They tried to remove the boat some years back, but found it is now part of the ecosystem so they left it in place.

Watching the sunset over the shipwreck, just gorgeous!

As the sun set, we turned on the music, enjoyed food and drinks, and great company.

Abeer made a delicious hot tea with saffron for us to enjoy.

Nabyl introduced us to line fishing, au natural without the rods. He and my mom fished for a while, and his first line in he caught a fish!

Nathan and I rarely get pictures of just the two of us these days. I couldn't decide which one I liked best, so I included them all. Do you have a favorite?

We sat for a while and talked and laughed as we watched the Kuwaiti skyline come to life. Everything looks so beautiful lit up at night.

From the water, it felt like we really could have been off the coast of just about anywhere.

Finally we began making our way back to land.

And into the marina

And then it got even better. Nabyl got us the best falafel we have ever tried from the market. And we left with fresh fish…minus the head :).

Thank you for the fun evening Nabyl and Abeer. We will do it again!