I love riding so much I dont care when I ride, but there is a very thin line of safety in Kuwait. I ride pretty comfortably and stay in my lane cruising down the highways or the seaside. Im always trying to avoid traffic. If cars are stopped at a light I will slowly move to the front of the pack so I can get away from the vehicles. I do this to keep myself safe so I can ride away from the pack of cars and enjoy myself. But I have run into problems doing this before. When I move to the front of the pack I usually ride at a very slow pace, because people are very unpredictable. One time someone decided they wanted to open the trunk so they suddenly opened the door, and I came to stop just before the door opened! You always have to prepare for the worse and I knew it was a mistake on the man’s part. But another time this happened the man did it intentionaly and gave me a dirty look! Trying to set an example of better riding manners in Kuwait is difficult.

I have had incidents when women would cut four lanes across without looking where they are going and almost hitting me. I’ve managed to get out of most of these situations, and some were close calls. And even when you tell these women to look where they are going they just ignore you thinking your hitting on them! Its annoying, but I live with it because I love riding so much. I wont let others ruin it for me.

Riding in the morning is preferable because there are no cars, but I cant do that every morning. And its difficult to find a comfortable place to go cruising on the bike during the afternoon, but I still go. The problem I had before the heat came along are all these idiots who are pulling stunts in the middle of the highway. I wont lie I like seeing stunts, but not the way these guys do it. They cause a havoc in the middle of the road making everyone come to a complete stop and act like its cool. I usually saw people trying stunts in huge parking lots in the US and sometimes in the highways for short periods of time or even in secluded roads. But these guys pull stunts in busy streets in the middle of traffic causing more traffic jams. And all this without wearing a helmet! They really do have a death wish riding without a helmet, because they will end up as road pizza.

So I have came up with a list of Hazards in Kuwait.

Hazards:

1) Veiled women driving (no peripheral vision)
2) Sand or Gravel on the road
3) Mud spots (water mixed with sand, water from the sprinkler systems)
3) Oil on the road (leaked from cars)
4) Lorry’s carrying debris in the back

When riding always make sure you have an air cushion around you. Meaning your not surrounded by vehicles so you can get out of a bad situation quickly. Always try to have routes planned out in your head so you have exit plan if you need it. I hope this information is useful to people to certain extent. Im going to keep posting information about different riding technics to help people ride in the Middle East or other places.