I got a SIM card! It took me 3 days and the card isn’t actually in my name, but I can call people now, especially taxis.

Let me start by saying: I have been scarred by Russian customer service and I can’t trust salesmen anymore.  I went to a small kiosk at the local grocery store to buy a SIM card on my own, but after I heard the price (almost 70$!?!) decided doing this without an Arabic speaking friend is a bad idea. After talking to my co-workers, I found out that price depends on on the memorability of a phone number. Turns out I wasn’t being conned, I was just being offered a phone number that costs more at the kiosk.

Prices here range from 35$ to almost 200$ for phone numbers (with 10 dollars of talk time that goes really fast), and there are no ‘family plans’ or ‘evening plans’, there is just ‘prepaid’ and ‘post paid.’  Makes everything easier, but the prices are still much to high for my Russian mindset.  SIM cards in Vladimir cost 6 dollars and come with 4 dollars of talk time.

Speaking of phones, anyone who has been to Russia knows that cellphones are expensive, technologically advanced and stylish.  But Kuwait takes that further, more expensive and elitist.  Even the kids have 300$ cellphones when they are 5 years old.  More on phones here next week.