This is getting expensive!

Damage report:

Watch - MIA
Sunglasses - Broke
Backup Sunglasses - MIA
Bank Balance - Depleted
Liver - Hanging on by a thread

So what hav I been up to the last few days since my last post? We were supposed to go to the Souq Market on Wednesday but Debz was too ill. So instead I Basked in the sun all day and planned out my road trip for next week. In the Evening we went to the pub quiz that Kate (Ashley's fiance) hoasts every week for work. Stupidly I left my watch on the table so that's the end of that. Pretty gutted as it was a nice watch but I suppose if I lost it within the first 2 weeks of travelling it was always doomed.

Thursday was by far my most fun day yet. Kate and I went to the coral beach club which is a really nice seaside members club. They've got a bar by the pool that you can swim up to that do some bad ass coctails called bull frogs.

 Couple of bull frogs later and I was pretty cooked so I decided to take a jet ski out for half an hour. Jesus balls those things are fun (I put a video on FB if you're interested). My backup sunnies (ash stood on the first pair!) ended up in the sea when I fell off! Still, riding that jet ski was the most fun I've had yet so no regrets. That night we went to this pool bar and topped up the old alcohol blood level. After that it was on to JJ's (an Irish bar) where we threw some shapes and had a quality evening. Got to bed about 4am and the following day we were booked into brunch....

Friday, woke up feeling (and probably looking) like hammered shit. We headed to the brunch which is basically 40 quid for all you can eat and all you can drink. Champagne, beer, cocktails and some very good food accompanied by pretty good live music. The only down side was one of the guys we were with (Ash and Loaf's mate) was a bit of a dick. One of those rugby types that rips the piss out of everyone but not in a funny clever way, just annoying. We went back to the flat and busted out some rock band for the rest of the evening. Annoying rugby guy was sick in the toilet then passed out on the sofa (ideal).

And there we have it. Sat watching Dexter with Ash and Kate (i've moved in over here now so as to share out the time spent with each of the couples). Not sure what we're up to tonight, might head out and watch the manu game later.

We bomb the mosque...

Finally made it to the grand mosque today. There's no point in talking about the last couple of days as I've done sweet FA except play xbox! My excuse on sunday was that everyone was at work so I could play with the guys back home and my excuse yesterday was that Ash pulled a sicky after we went out and got hammered on Sunday night! Food update: Loaf has cooked diner the last couple of days and that boy has some skillz on him! Shepards pie yesterday and spicy cajan burger with a hash brown, cheese and bacon ala (no pun intended) KFC.... but better!

So yeah, went to the mosque today which was actually probably the best thing I've done so far. The chap who was giving me the tour was really friendly and talked in great depth about Islam and the history of the Qur'an. I didn't realise how many cross overs there were with Christianity and it was impressive to hear how much emphasis there is on peace and harmony and respecting others despite their own religious beliefs (dispite what the media would have us believe). I don't think I mentioned it earlier in my blog, but when I was on the flight over here I spoke to a local chap and asked him how I should act to get on with the locals to which he replied "Respect yourself and others will respect you". In hindsight I can see now that this philosophy is carried through from Islam. For the record, this isn't me finding god, but simply learning to respect a somewhat misunderstood group. Also managed to get a cheeky little photo of Tiggs in the mosque:

Interesting fact of the day, the TV channels out here have a very particular sensoring policy. They'll happily broadcast Horrifically violent films in the middle of the day but they always sensor out any sexual swear words. So F's and C's don't fly but any other swears (eg shit) are fair game any time of the day. Better still, they sensor out the word 'pork' so if you're watching masterchef they'll say "today I'm cooking sweet and sour ...... with rice"!

Right, gunna watch the end of dog soldiers, even though it's shite.

Asalamalakum bitches.

End of the first weekend

If you didn't know, in Bahrain the weekends are on Friday and Saturday so this is effectively Sunday night. I'm sat watching Ash and Loaf play zombies and I'm absolutely stuffed on American Junk food. But let's go back a few days:

Thursday: Hmmm, what did I do 3 days ago?! Hit the onsite gym for a bit which was a bit limited, but as it's an on site gym I can't really complain! There was a blind guy there using the running and cycling machines (not at the same time I might add!) and it was quite humbling to see him going about his day, un assisted, just using his cane to get about. Pretty impressive considering he has to walk past the swimming pool to get to the gym. Oh yeah, there's a swimming pool too! Took some underater vids on my camera which is always a giggle (cheers dad!) and basically just killed some time before Ash got home. He managed to get a half day so we went to the driving range to smash some golf balls FOC (ash works for a booze supplier so gets all sorts of cool perks). Then the two of us headed to a traditional resteraunt and I had Iranian Kebaab which was lush. That evening we went off to the rugby club to watch Ash and Loaf's team play an 11 a side match against the marine team. They were some pretty big lads (being marines and all) but they seemed to be more skillfull. They lost 4-3 and it was a bloody close game to watch for the nuetral. After that we all got tanked up at the club and I busted some shapes with some of the ex-pat who were all really friendly. Tear gas was being let off like 2 miles away and it was still stinging everyones eyes so we went inside. It was a few of the ex-pat's birthdays so they had a fancy dress theme of song titles and there were some pretty good efforts, notably by the dick in a box guys (see my facebook photos for more).

Friday: Bit of a hangover so Debz and I headed to the mall to get some comfort food. Had a nice little Al a Haag mixed grill to get some more 'culture' and bought some speakers for my i-pod. That evening we had an 80's film night at Ash's gaff accompanied by a pretty damn good chillie that he cooked. Is it me or am I talking about food too much on this?! Had a few more jars and hit the hay after no less than 5 films in one evening!

1) Flight of the navigator
2) The original Transformers cartoon movie (sick!)
3) Back to the future,
4) Rocky 4
5) Gremalins

Saturday: Bit of a slob day really, went to Ric's which is an american diner that do ma-ha-oh-sive portions of food. Chicken wings and onion rings did the job and we headed home. After that me and Kate (Ashley's fiance) chilled in the pool for a bit and made some pretty funny video's of me kicking the hell out the inflatable horse Ash stole from a pub one night. Showed Ash the video and he was less than impressed and threatened to do the same to tigger. Didn't realise he had such an attachment to it!

So that brings me up to date. They're now on level 25 and don't look like dyng any time soon so I might go and grab something to eat.

Hope you're all doing well, I miss you guys (already!) but I'm having a ball.

Peace.

Arabian Nights

What a ball ache this site is, bearing in mind it's a travel blog website, it translates itself into the local language you're in so I haven't been able to blog the last couple of days as it's been in arabic!

That's enough ranting! Ok, so obviously I'm in Bahrain now and I'm having a great time. Before I came here certain people who will remain annonomous (Chall and Phil!) painted a rather glum picture of this place. All the locals I've interacted with have been really helpful and I've managed to keep myself entertained every day even though the guys have been at work.

Day 1: Arrived in Bahrain and was met by Debz, Ash and Liz (who they refer to as their maid/cleaner!) at the airport. First impressions were that it was fookin hot, all the people drive like nutters and the skyline of all the big towers was really impressive. Chilled the first night and cought up on gossip here and back home.

Day 2: Debz sent me on a mission (as I requested she did) to get a spare key cut. I walked. Big mistake! Scorching heat and I got massively lost and had to flag down a taxi to take me 2 minutes down the road for 3 dinar (c6 quid). On the way home I managed to find my way back to the Aljazera (the 'jizz' as they call it) which is the local shop but got lost trying to get from there to the flat. Debz had to pick me up :-(! We then spent the rest of the afternoon driving around getting used to the land marks so that I wouldn't get lost again. So I was pretty exhausted after that ordeal so we ordered a Macdonalds to the flat. That's right, they deliver Macdonalds here! And KFC, and subway and even Nandos!

We also went to the shopping mall which was pretty impressive (saw a watch for sale for 8,000 dinar = c15,000 pounds!) and went to a sheesha cafe (see video). That night we went to a wine tasting evening and I got pretty toasted for absolutely no money! Happy days.

Day 3: Wondered up to the local health spar thing to see how much the thai massages where. 22 dinar (40 odd quid) so no thanks. Then I called CJ (their local illegal taxi man) to take me to the musuem for some culture. Not bad really, learnt about some local customs, islam, history etc so that kept me entertained for a day. Then I decided to call CJ to pick me up and he said I'd have to wait an hour as he was on another job. So I then had to figure out how to cross this massive duel carraige way thing in the scorching heat with all these mental drivers top get to the resteraunt area on the other side. For half an hour or so I walked around trying to work out how to do it whilst the India workers watched me looking like a standard lost tourist mug. eventually I gave up and went to this marina club on the side of the road I was on and it was only after CJ picked me up that he explained there was a bride 2 minutes further up the road! Cheers for the heads up on that one mate, could have told me when you dropped me off!

So that evening Ash and I went to get a hair cut and a proper cut throat shave. That were pretty scary when some dude that barely speaks english is holding your head with one hand and has a razer blade to your throat with the other! They did a pretty sterling job though and managed to keep the old 'craig david' chin strap in one piece :-). Then we went to the brit club and watched all the champo league football. Giggs scored a blinder. The end.

More to follow later.....

Nearly time!

Right, 4 sleeps to go!

It's my last day at work today so that's a bit sad. Gunna miss the banta and especially my chineham lunch crew. Have to give my phone back which is a ball ache as I'll have to go the next couple of days without it. It'll be like being 10 again when I have to use the house phone.

Hopefully selling my car this evening, which is the final big hurdle. Jabs all done, got my anti malarials, got my visas, got some currencies, got all my equiptment (midge net, torch, swiss army knife etc) and I'm booked in to a hostel in mumbai. Can't wait to get to bahrain and see Debz and Ash's smiley faces. Gunna get properly ruined I'm sure!

That's enough for one entry I think, suffice to say I'm bricking it and really excited. Hopefully I won't get bombed in india as it's kicking off a bit over there......