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.....
and then?
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