I was stuck in traffic yesterday morning and there seemed to be a lot of cars at 7:10am in the morning even while taking different roads then usual. I was surprised there were this many cars, it seems everybody decided to work that day, and when at a traffic light that wasn’t moving much even when the light turns green there were some interesting drivers. There are people who would take the left lane exit and try to force their way into the front and people cutting you off left and right thinking they will make it to the next light. The funny part is the men and women who want to be rude and cut you off, and when you don’t let them they give you the dirtiest look, I honestly took pleasure in that. I just chose different lanes and moving into them comfortably knowing that I will get to where I have to be at some point.

That was one hell of a drive! Over 750 Kilometers traveled and I head my foot to the floor the whole time! I lost count how many cops in Saudi I flashed! We left Kuwait around 10:30am and got to Damaam by 1:30pm and of course with my driving and navigation skills in this area I was going no where fast! hehehe

I have a lot of pictures to put up and we had very little time to do anything last night! Our meeting went for about 4 hours, so by the time we left we only got to Kuwait by 10:30pm and I had to make a quick stop at work to finish up some work before leaving the next day as well!

Didn’t get home until 12:30 am and I had to pack for my flight the next day! I passed out! I woke up the next morning with all my paperwork still open! I passed out without realiziing how tired I was.

I’m going to be doing the driving but the navigation will be done by my boss with me.

Distance: 290 KMs

ETA: 3.5 hours

My ETA: 2-2.5 hours

Essentials:

• Saudi Riyals (For Speeding Tickets)
• Spare Dishdasha
• Briefcase, some cards
• Passport
• Full Tank of Gass
• A Heavy Foot!
• Remove front License plate

This is going to be an interesting day, we will be coming back the same day, I’m curious what time we will be back. I’m not sure what time we are leaving but sooner rather then later.

*Note: This kind of traveling can only be done in a Landcruiser those who think it can be done in any other vehicle are kidding themselves!

Everytime Im driving my car or riding my bike I always keep an eye out for women driving and what they are doing. They are completely oblivious to anything in their surroundings.

Its like they drive with a real intent of killing someone, I dont think if someone wants to kill you they can do any worse then the way some women drive. I was almost taken out this Friday by a woman on the cell phone who was in the middle lane wanting to make a right. We were on Damascus street, and she wanted to exit into Surra while talking on the phone. I was directly on her right, not behind her in a blindspot, but relatively forward so that her side view mirror was directly on my left. She started leaning quickly and I looked at her and she wasn’t even looking, she was just mouthing off on her phone.

When she turned hard right hard I tried getting away but I couldn’t since there was a car in front of me with no opening, I had to break hard and try to cut right. I took the corner extremely hard, I tried break as much as possible before going into the exit. I dropped from 100 Km/h down to 50 Km/h (the whole time she was still on my left) and took a 90 degree turn which I would usually do going 25-30 Km/h. I was stuck between two cars taking the turn and my extincts made me dip hard and pushout quick going at 50 Km/h. She didn’t notice me until we were into the turn and she still didn’t do anything. SHE WAS STILL TALKING! I knew I was going to run into women like that in Kuwait but not like this. Hamdilla I was lucky enough to be able to react, also if I wasn’t on this bike I don’t think I could have taken the corner like I did with it. I dropped extremely low and went in really fast.

I turned to look at her, and my heart was beating at 1’000’000 Beats per second. She didn’t give it a second thought, she didn’t even apologize she just gave me a dirty look and drove off. I was pissed! I was happy I was able to narrowly escape. Why was I not surprised that she was muhajabah, this isn’t my first incident with women muhajabaat driving in Kuwait, its always like that and they don’t pay attention to the world around them. This all took place while I was on my way to work at 3:45pm on a Friday afternoon.

I’ve had some close calls, but this is this was the closest in Kuwait.

Covered: 890 KMs

Locations driven to:

• Hannover to Frankfurt
• Frankfurt to Kelberg
• Kelberg to Stuttgart
• Stuttgart to Koln
• Koln to Frankfurt

Average Speed: 185 KM/H

Range of Speed: 160 Km/h to 230 Km/h

While driving I was driving at 200 Km/h there were a ton of cars that were passing me as if I was slow which pissed me off!

The cars that passed me while I was driving at 200Km/h:

• Audi A6 (HatchbacK)
• Audi A4 (Pre-2000)
• Opel something!
• Ford Mondeo!
• A DAMN VAN!

If you are on the highways and there are no speed limits visible you can go as fast as you want, I was following groups of people going 180 to 210 Km/h, its insane and I can’t believe that the whole lane were just flying. People are a bit aggressive in their driving but they are systematic, so its not as if they are trying to cut you off, they are just trying to go fast too, and if your going faster they will move out of the way. I am assuming I got caught by a couple of cameras, so I will know it a couple of of weeks from now. Another recommendation is never to go faster then a cop, but I did follow a cop and I wasn’t stopped so I got away with that.

The scenary is extremely beautiful and the banked highways were amazing to drive fast on! We literally drove through every season in the last 24hrs! We drove through beautiful sunny weather, through rain, through hail, and everything in between! It was insane, I was confused by all the weather changes it was different. And sometimes me and the navigation just didn’t agree and she would go nuts on me! I was laughing since my bosses in the car thought I couldn’t keep my foot off the accelerator! Everytime we had a distance of 100Km or more to cover I would always shave 30 minutes to one 1 hour & 30 minutes from the time to destination. I need to get on a race track post haste! For some odd reason there is no valet parking in all of Germany!

I just wish I could ride my bike in Germany my cruising speed would be everybody’s cruising speed!

We have been running around a hell of a lot the last couple of days. I will be coming back to Kuwait tomorrow on the Lufthansa flight in the morning and we were running around a lot and finishing up a few thing in Hannover then off to Frankfurt, then a meeting outside of Frankfurt. I honestly loved driving so much, I have a lot of things to take care of when I get back but the first thing I want to do is go riding.

I haven’t had any time to sit in front of a PC and type anything! I would have 5 minutes to check for emails and then take off and go where we have to go! Very little sleep and on the run, it feels good and just getting things done. Too many things to post about at one time, and Driving in Germany is fantastic!

We are done with CeBIT and need to get to Frankfurt. 364 KMs, 4 hours and 35 minutes based on google, but I bet I can shave an hour off of that.

I’m Driving from Hannover to Frankfurt and I have never driven in a European country before, I drove once in the UK but I just dont feel like driving much around here. I’m happy I managed to get the car with navigation. I got a BMW 525 from Hertz and its me and two of my bosses with me in the car. The thing is, I said I am going to drive no matter what. I love driving so its going to be really interesting driving in a European country and I know I will be pushing my luck with all the damn cameras. The Hertz guy turned out to be an Arab and he told me if I’m leaving Germany in two days not to worry about the speeding tickets, only when a cop stops you they will make you pay and they don’t take your license, you just have to pay right there and then. I’m willing to pay a few fines to go he speed that I want, its a misconception that there are not limits on German highways. I will just see how fast the fastest is going and go a little faster! I only wish the car was manual but you can’t get everything!
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On Sunday night just after sunset on the 31st of December I’m getting in my car to head towards the shalaih. I like driving, and I enjoy long constant drives. I don’t like traffic, but I don’t mind long drives at all. The best part of it is the good music and the comfortable drive, I took my beanie with me because of the damn cold, I heard it was going to get ridiculously cold and I just wanted to keep my head warm.

As I was driving the roads were packed with people going to Mukhayamat (camps) or the shalaihs. The roads were filled with police and so many cameras were switched on. They even had two or three mobile cameras parked on the right side, one of them went off on me while I had my Landcruiser set at 140kph which surprised me. At that point I was relaxed and too lazy to look for them, 20kph over the limit was going to be too much but I was surprised that they made it that sensitive. After that I set it at 120kph cruise until I reached the shalaih, and it was pretty damn cold. When I got there it was 7 degrees and it was only 7:00pm so there was many hours to go to freeze later in the night.

The other day I was running around so much that I kept forgeting little things. Basically what ever wasn’t work related I ejected from my mind for the morning since I was running around like crazy. From meeting to meeting and getting things done. It was insane, but then I felt the Landcruiser just sort of drop, and I looked down realizing that it was empty since the morning.

I switched to the other tank and it was empty, but it seemed to be able to move. I was running out of gas and I had to figure out where the hell to go.  I was in Shuweikh but the closest one I know of was pretty far off and I needed to make a few stops which I didnt want to do, I wanted to keep the momentum going. I called my cousin he knew the ins and outs of the back area in Shuweikh and he pointed me in that direction. I went there and filled up two gas tanks, and took off flying around again. I was happy I could switch between the two tanks again and again to squeeze out what little gas it had left!

I had a meeting in Salmiya at Marina with some clients for a bit around 2:30pm on Saturday, and I had to be back at the office at 4:00pm so I left Marina after a good discussion to go back to the office and I had some time so I decided to take the seaside since its a more pleasent drive back to work, and its away from the traffic jams even though there are more lights its still moving.

I was on the Gulf Road heading towards Kuwait Towers after passing the second ring road stop light. There were a bunch of cars around, and I just wanted to get around them to move forward. So when the light turn green I moved to the left when there was a comfortable opening since I was all the way in the right lane. Then I was behind a white GMC Envoy and I was taking it easy since I was good on time.

When that car moved forward more, I noticed that there wasn’t anything blocking it in front of it so I moved forward as well but I had a comfortable space between me and him. We were moving about 80 Kph and speeding up. Then suddenly he slammed on his brakes and so I hit mine and saw the guy behind me about to say hello to my back end. I swerved left after knowing there werent any cars to my left since they were all making a left turn on to the second ring road.

I thought something must have happened for him so slam the brakes like that and I was lucky to have an opening. Then I saw two young men high fiving each other while leaning to their right on a BMW 7 series with two really pissed of girls. These girls seemed pissed as hell at these to hooligans. I literally lost it! First they screwed up traffic and almost made two cars get into an accident secondly they were harrasing girls that didnt look like they appreciated what those two idiots were doing. And they hit the brakes to see the girls.

Then they went forward and to the right to take off laughing. I was so pissed off I wanted to rip the drivers’ throat out. So I chased them down and opened my window and went off on the driver who was screaming back at me but who seemed shocked that somebody went off on him. I asked him if he is a complete idiot for driving that way and harrasing, and he said everyone else does it so I asked him if he considers himself an animal like everybody else. I was pissed off and he asked me to pull over and I told him to stop acting like a 5 year old, and I told him to come with me to the police station. And that scared him half to death, I could tell that he didnt know how to react to that but keep shouting. Then he said do you consider yourself the respectable one and I said yes at least more respectable then you. Then I told him he is trash and he isnt worth tiring myself with. And then I drove off but I noticed that we slowed traffic down to a snails pace because I was shouting at these two idiots. The other guy didnt say a word, and they just kept looking at me and took the first turn to run away.

That really pissed me off, and I know there is a lot of trash on the streets but I couldnt help but get upset this time. Since he could have made me crash into him, and he almost hit the girl. And it was clear as day that these girls didnt want to have anything to do with them, and they probably were just enjoying a lunch out.