Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
( 2543 0343; House 61, St 3, Block 4, Qurain; 8.30am-noon & 4.30-8.30pm Mon-Thu & Sat, 4.30-8.30pm Fri)
Located in the residential suburb of Qurain, a 20-minute taxi ride southeast of the
city centre, this small museum is a memorial to a cell of young Kuwaiti patriots who tried
to resist arrest in February 1991.
To understand what invasion meant to the ordinary Kuwait family, allow half an hour to
visit this sobering museum, if only to see copies of documents issuing instructions to
'burn and destroy' homes and 'fire on demonstrations'. Bus 101 stops within a 10-minute
walk of the museum, but it is difficult to find the precise location without assistance. Go
by taxi.
Al-Hashemi Marine Museum
MUSEUM
OFFLINE MAP
( 2567 3000;
www.al-hashemi2.com
; Ta'awen St, behind Radisson Blu Hotel, Salwa)
For proof that
the Vikings made it to the Middle East, albeit only model ones, it's worth visiting this mu-
seum with its impressive collection of large, scaled-model dhows. A novel shop sells
21-piece knot boards and Gipsy Moth lanterns among other nautical souvenirs, such as
barometers and sextants. You can even buy your own Nelson figurine, incomplete with
one arm.
On the wall of the museum is a certificate, dated 2002, from Guinness World Records
announcing that
Al-Hashemi II
, the huge and unmissable wooden dhow adjacent to the mu-
seum, is the largest wooden boat on earth, measuring a world-record-breaking 80.4m long,
18.7m wide and weighing an estimated 2500 tonnes. The vision of Husain Marafie, owner
of the Radisson Blu Hotel, the dhow was completed in 1998 from mahogany and ekki
logs from Cameroon, planks from the Ivory Coast and pine logs from Oregon. It's worth
taking a five-minute walk inside the lavish, parquet-floored interior, used for conferences
and banqueting.
A smaller dhow in the complex, called Al-Boom, is a restaurant (
Click here
)
; it's a
great place for dinner. The complex is next to the Palm Gardens Hotel inside the grounds
of the Radisson Blu Hotel (currently under
reconstruction).
Activities
Kuwait City's location on the seafront provides many opportunities for fun with water - in
it (swimming), on it (water sports and ice skating), alongside it (jogging along the cor-
