Hello my friends,�
As my first month in the Kingdom of Bahrain draws to a close, I wanted to send a bit more information about some of the things I have noticed and experienced and even ingested over here. I am beginning to get used to the heat, and I am getting around pretty well in Juffair, finding interesting places to eat and to shop.� I toured the Grand Mosque (Sunni Muslim) and the Bahrain Museum of Culture, and made a trip across the King Fahd Memorial Causeway to the border of Saudi Arabia.It's been quite an interesting couple of weeks.�
First of all, the food: Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian, and Persian- everywhere you turn you can get these types of fare.� I went to an Indian restaurant recently where, upon seating you, they close a curtain on your table so you dine without outside interference.� Being a professed people watcher, this ended up being a bit of a bummer.� But the food was magnificent: I had chicken tandoori, which was almost like barbecue chicken, a salad of cucumbers, apple, spinach, and various roasted nuts all mixed in a light vinaigrette sauce, some hot and spicy soup (which lived up quite aptly to its name...My lips are still burning), and several different types of hummus served with Turkish flat bread.� Basically more than any human being could eat at a given sitting.� I did my best though.� For all that food, the final bill came to roughly 2 Bahraini Dinar, or about $5.25.� ������� �
Another great place I found was an Italian caf� called El Mantoro. �Brian, the other fellow from my Green Bay unit who was mobilized with me, and I were looking for an Italian restaurant, but our taxi driver kept taking us to different Thai places, saying, "This good, yes?".� I kept explaining that we wanted Italian, not Thai, and he would nod his head in a knowing way, throw the car in a precipitous u-turn, and drive ten minutes to another Thai place.� After forty-five minutes of this, I finally just told him to stop at the next restaurant that wasn't Thai, and we found this little hole in the wall cafe.� The menus were hand written, there was a bathtub in the restroom, and we proceeded to have the best meal since arriving here.� I had a bowl of Tomato soup, which was fresh tomatoes steamed and pureed, with a hint of lemon and mint.� It was wonderful.� I also ordered a sandwich; roasted chicken pulled from the bone, with avocado, fresh mushrooms, all on a multi grain, homemade bread.�
The coffee here is also very good.� A lot of Turkish and Arabica bean-based coffees, and they grind their coffee to a fine powder before brewing.� It makes Starbucks' Sumatra roast look like cool-aid.� A cup of that at 5:30 a.m., you're set until about noon.���
As far as culture goes, women are second class citizens here.� At the swimming pool in our apartment complex, often we see the fully covered women, sitting poolside watching the kids, while the husbands are off going out and partying.� Some of the females stationed on base, when they go out shopping, have to take at least one male with them because quite a few shop owners won't speak directly with women.� Even in the mosque, the men pray in the main area and the women are in a separate room off the main hall. �It is very interesting. �They just passed a law in Bahrain recently that allows a woman to divorce her husband if he takes a second wife without her consent.� That's the kind of forward thinking that makes a country great.�������
And finally, camels.� Ahh, the glorious camel.� We went to the Prince's camel farm, where they raise camels for food.� I have never tried camel, but I can imagine from the olfactory nightmare that they are while living, they can't smell much better cooked.� I have some pictures I will forward along in the near future.��� �������
Take care, all- I hope this finds you all well and happy!
Sean