So , I get a phone call from a cousin of mine at 1:30 in the morning. it went like this :

• " hey, you going to the horse race tomorrow morning? " .
• what *#*$%*  Hey yourself , its 1:30 in the morning . and who would put a race in this cold weather ? (it's like 2 C in the morning)
• " you're the only cousin who sleeps this time of holiday, and you don’t know shit about   horse races.
• I know horseshit when I hear it and thi….
• See you tomorrow –click–

The thing is , he was right I didn’t know much about horse races specially here. so I had to learn.

Most people have heard about Arabia horses but don’t know really what they're specialty is. Long distance and endurance races. That means a race like today's race (90 Km). it was a local race in a local long track but the horses were good (or so I've heard). They're price is something around $ 30,000. Some are higher but you can't make sure because the breeders get upset when you ask about the prices and jockeys are as clueless as their horses.

Facts about Endurance Races (long):

- They are held in cold weather (winter or summer nights) because the horses heat up. I mean I sow steam coming from their body's today. Nicccce.

- After every 25 horses are cooled with water (BRRRRRR) . Then checked by a vet (heart beat and stuff).

- There is no real relation between the Jockey and the horse. Except the IQ level.

- This thing I really couldn’t figure out, Why put the horse race near the old ruins. It doesn’t make it authentic; it just limits the space. (you know like the old days).

- After the first round you should go back home mainly because it’s the same thing all over again. BORING.

Anyways, I went back to bed after the first round . I don’t know who won , and frankly my dear I don’t give a damn! .

Hello everybody,

I'm back home. I had to cut this vacation short due to bad weather. I called a friend and he told me he just came from west east coast and its freezing there.

Anyways, I'm gonna talk about what I got to see there in Kuwait. The city is nice and well organized. The seafront is fantastic. It’s a place you can spend a couple of days (when it's not too cold or too warm). Salmyyah is where you want to go. To my knowledge, that's the place meant for tourist. You'll find a lot of attractions there.

Some Pictures from there

I tried to make the best of the time there seeing that I can't be outdoors. I went to visit the Scientific Center. There were 3 main attractions there. First was the Aquarium (that’s the fish zoo in layman's terms). I got to check out the fishes in the tanks and I also checked out the instructors there. I liked both , but the instructions are not to feed both . I got to tell you it’s a nice place.

The other attraction was A gadget thing. Where they try to make education fun. I still think the only way to make education fun is to higher better teachers. And I mean by better, " Kate Hudson " better. Any ways it was fun , we got to try all the gadget things. The third attraction in there was a 3D dinosaur cinema. I seriously never get these 3D things , they don’t really look 3D they just make your eyes hurt. But dig this , while people are trying hard to understand what the fu** is happening , check out their faces , now that’s your money-worth right there.

Went to some shopping malls, caught a movie ...bla bla bla

Thank God we took these GPSs , they made the trip real easy.

PS: I can't tell you what's bad about the place. Someone on my MSN contact list might kill me.

So , I decided to try the FJ on the road. Phoned my buddy Ahmad told him I was going out tomorrow Friday but I'm not sure where I'm going. The best thing about Ahmad is that he's always on board. I packed and Friday came. I had three places in mind. The ruins up in Ola , a place 800 km from where I live. Second was Kuwait (about 600 from where I live) . Third was the coast. Anyways , we settled on Kuwait.

When I got there , I thought I would find a nice weather. Too cold .. seriously its . I spent one day and I'm thinking of leaving to the east coast.

Will blog about it tomorrow.

Hey you guys,

I just finished watching " The Kingdom " the movie. Actually I shuffled though it. I got to tell you; it’s the lowest point of a nation's pride to try to look good by degrading another. To be honest, I don’t know what kingdom they were talking about in that movie. I only know it's not Saudi Arabia that I saw there . The accents , the customs , mostly the houses and compounds.

Where should I start?

The political and social facts were disturbingly stereotypical. I'm not really gonna talk about it. but I have to say whoever wrote that script never went to Saudi Arabia. He might have seen a Saudi he didn't like though. I don't blame him there. I don't get along with people here either.

The compounds used were 50 years from the past. These days people use something called concrete , look it up its in the dictionary. And the security in these compounds is waaaaay up. Trust me , security here has been an issue for a really long time . You can't walk in and start shooting people. Its not America. Let me give you an example on how security works here:

1- From my town to Riyadh , its something like 300 Km , I pass 3 check points at least (sometimes five) where I have to present my ID.

2- Unlike what was mentioned in the movie , the Saudi ID card is really hard to forge (trust me I'm a nerd and I know better) . not gonna talk about the plastic and currency work they did on it. The problem is on the smart chip inside the ID. I think it needs more than AK47 knowledge to crack it .. check it out ( http://www.smartcardstrends.com/det_atc.php?idu=6243 )

Houses, I mean was it too much to ask to ask for to come and shoot in a real Saudi town. I mean they picked a rundown town in God-knows-where country and start shooting there. VERY NICE. Just go to Google image (http://images.google.com/) and google a Saudi city name (Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam , Khobar …etc ) and you'll know what I mean.

All I'm saying is stop chasing the best nation myth. There is no best nation ; we got our flaws and you got yours. The only difference is we are aware of ours. We are different , and you have to live with the fear of the different.

Ignorance is always bliss.

PS: Why does the sympathetic native just has to die in every American-hero movie ?