RANSVESTIA

take me to dinner, give me a "little present," etc. all the usual. It was kind of hard finding excuses not to accept. I told him I had a hus- band at home and that I didn't really think he would look too favorably on my bringing home an Arab in a white robe to join the family. But that only slowed him down a little and brought on a change of tactics. Next afternoon when we got back from sightseeing there they were again and Hameed Hassan, which was his name, "wanted to talk to me." So we went through it again. This same process was carried out with one of the other women so she and I had fun all the rest of the trip talking about taking away each other's "boyfriend."

My other memorable experience in Kuwait was something of a sur- prise. We had taken a boat ride quite a way out into the gulf to visit an historical island that had been fortified by Alexander the Great on his way back from India. There were some ruins there to be seen Since the trip took about an hour and a half each way I had quite a long discussion with the special Kuwait anthropologist guide about the Israeli-Palestinian question. It was low key, no acrimony, just a discussion. We parted friends so far as I knew but next morning at the airport our tour leader looked kind of sourly at me and I asked him if he had a belly ache. He said yes and I had given it to him. I was sur- prised and asked what he meant. He said that he and the local tourist agency had spent a rough night with the Kuwaiti police chief trying to keep me out of jail. It seems that you don't even mention the name of Israel in Kuwait even the newspapers don't print it so when I freely talked about it the guide, who was a Palestinian himself, hied himself promptly to the police and reported me. I slept through it like a baby and didn't even know what I'd caused until the next morning.

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Kuwait is a strange place. Vast numbers of new villas for the better- off Kuwaitis. Even the poorer native-born Kuwaitis have it made with education, free medical care. But the ordinary work of the society seems to be done by Palestinians, Saudi Arabians and miscellaneous laborers from other nations. And from some of the letters to the editor in the paper they aren't too happy by the cost of living versus the wages they make. Seems that even in Paradise they have labor problems. It was 120 degrees F. there so one didn't lounge around in the sun very long, but it is a very busy and growing city and seaport.

From there to Shiraz in Iran again and a long, 40-mile taxi ride to Persepolis. This was the capitol of Darius the Great of Persia and was sacked and burned by Alexander something over 300 years B.C. The