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Every month my friends and I gather at one of our homes to catch up and chit chat over dinner. Today was that day and boy was I in for a real treat! Since we usually have a really heavy dinner, I decided to skip my usual lunch and mid day snack. I went home, got dressed, and drove to my friends place. After all the reminiscing, catching up, and non-stop gossip; dinner was served…

The cook served us a lovely garden salad, some hot sweet potato soup, the usual finger foods, and for the main dish (please brace yourselves) – Locusts with a side of rice! Locusts? LOCUSTS!?? Did I really skip my lunch for this? I sat back in my seat, took a deep breath and tried to take it all in. I was in shock and my mind began to wander off, I know some cultures are accustomed to unusual cuisines but I have never seen this in Kuwait before… I was brought back to reality when three of my six friends sitting around the table all said simultaneously, “you have got to be kidding me right!?” This then caused us to roll off our chairs laughing while my friend tried to explain that this is actually a delicacy here in Kuwait.

Apparently, when Locust season is over, the locusts are taken ALIVE and sold at Souq Al Rai (seasonal market) along with Truffles and many other seasonal goods. The Locusts are sold by the kilo in a red sack and mostly the elderly are the ones who are a fan of these rare delicacies. The Locusts are currently brought from Saudi Arabia and the price of the bag is between 4 – 5 KD depending on the size but since a lot of people enjoy these little brown creatures, you have to be quick to get your bag first or else to reserve a bag one day earlier.

My friends and I decided not to be rude and at least give it a try. I must say personally, I did not enjoy it but two of my friends actually found it to be really tasty. I came back home and told my dad about our interesting dinner and he actually told me that Locusts have several benefits such as: stimulating blood circulation and they can also be used as a treatment for rheumatism and back pain. “What do you know,” he said, “you’re the McDonald’s generation.” That’s right, what do I know. But hey, you learn something new each day and today’s dinner will definitely be a dinner I will never forget. Bon Appétit!  

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I was checking my e-mail and came across this article from CNN, and thought it would be of great interest to you guys:

Bolivia was ranked the unfriendliest country for travelers in the World Economic Forum report. The category ‘Attitude of population toward foreign visitors’ is just one of many used to rank countries in the new Travel and Tourism Competitive Index. Bolivia ranked 110th out of 140 countries in the overall index results. On the positive side, it performed well in price competitiveness due mainly to low hotel accommodation costs.

(CNN) — When traveling, some countries just don’t like you. Or at least, it can certainly feel that way.

A new report, put out earlier this month by the World Economic Forum, has ranked which countries roll out the welcome mat to travelers and which give the cold shoulder.

The “Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013″ ranked 140 countries according to attractiveness and competitiveness in the travel and tourism industries.

Unwelcoming

Among the extensive analyses, one of the most interesting rankings was how welcome tourists are in each country, under the category “Attitude of population toward foreign visitors.”

And the world’s most unfriendly country, according to the data?

Bolivia took the dubious honor, scoring a 4.1 out of seven on a scale of “very unwelcome” (0) to “very welcome” (7).

Venezuela and the Russian Federation were next.

Interestingly, despite their huge tourist arrivals, South Korea and China tied with four other countries for the eighth least friendly spot.

At the other end of the scale, Iceland and New Zealand were ranked the world’s most welcoming nations for visitors.

You can see a top 10 for friendliest and unfriendliest at the bottom of this article.

Strengths and weaknesses

The “friendly” ranking was just one aspect of the report, analyzing each country’s competitiveness in travel and tourism. That competitiveness is “based on the extent to which they are putting in place the factors and policies to make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism sector.”

In the overall Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Europe was the top region with the first five positions all held by European countries. Switzerland, Germany and Austria were the top three in that order. Switzerland has headed the ranking since the index began five years ago.

Excellent tourism infrastructure and facilities, business travel appeal, sustainable development of natural resources and rich cultural resources were among the key factors in landing the highest positions in the rankings.

Safety/security, underdeveloped infrastructure and concerns about sustainable development were among the factors bringing down countries’ competitiveness.

Haiti scored the lowest on the competitiveness index.

The United States (6th) topped the combined Americas, Singapore (10th) just pushed out Australia and New Zealand to lead the Asia Pacific region, the United Arab Emirates (28th) was the highest performer in the Middle East and the Seychelles (38th) overtook Mauritius to head Africa.

The report emphasized the need for continued development in the travel and tourism sector particularly for its role in job creation in a relatively stagnant global economy. The industry currently accounts for one in 11 jobs in the world.

The report used data compiled from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey and hard data from private sources and national and international agencies and organizations such as the ICAO, IATA, UNWTO, World Bank/International Finance Corporation, IUCN, WHO and UNESCO.

Attitude of population toward foreign visitors

(1 = very unwelcome; 7 = very welcome)

Friendliest

1. Iceland  6.8
2. New Zealand  6.8
3. Morocco  6.7
4. Macedonia, FYR  6.7
5. Austria  6.7
6. Senegal  6.7
7. Portugal  6.6
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina  6.6
9. Ireland  6.6
10. Burkina Faso  6.6

Unfriendliest

1. Bolivia  4.1
2. Venezuela  4.5
3. Russian Federation  5.0
4. Kuwait  5.2
5. Latvia  5.2
6. Iran  5.2
7. Pakistan  5.3
8. Slovak Republic  5.5
9. Bulgaria  5.5
10. Mongolia  5.5

Kuwait is ranked #4th Unfriendliest country in the world? Really CNN? Is that all you got? This article outraged me. What do you guys think? If Kuwait was to be rated, where would it fall? Waiting for your feedback.

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I was heading toward Kuwait City and saw they fixed billboards near traffic lights showing February National Day celebrations for each governorate of Kuwait. The one I saw was for Assimah governrate. It included festivals, musical fiestas, sports tournaments, fireworks and entertainment shows so I made you a brief list.

If you spot the activities for the other governorates please send us so we could share with you all.

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Kuwaiti students in California have requested us to share their peaceful protest in which they expressed their absolute support for the Emir of Kuwait and their objection for any chaos. Sadly the recent political issues and developments have made us all concerned, democracy certainly has a price but we now need to work closely together and put Kuwait’s interest and stability above all. 

Thanks [Abdulrahman AlRabah]

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Our friend Luke has shared with us his new Rock N’ Roll version of Kuwait National Anthem to be a simple gift to Kuwait and it’s people, nice. If you like it you can download it as MP3 audio file here

I’m going to use it as a ring tone for my mobile.

Thanks [@LukeZain]

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