And the Souk…  Restaurants, etc. in this one little area, and there are 5-6 of these spread around the city.  Some that we are NOT welcome in, and the cops will actually stop cars with caucasians and tell them to turn around and leave an area… Sorry for the lousy spots, the wind causes dirt to stick to the windows and they can’t keep em clean…

Thai, Italian and Mexican are popular restaurants. Last night we went to the Movenpick (big Swiss Hotel chain) for the seafood buffet.  Absolutely unbelievable!  Fresh fish, shrimp, etc. cooked to your liking a variety of ways, various other dishes (seafood related), Sushi (freshly prepared), and a desert bar with probably 30 items, with wine for $51 US; and it was all you can eat!!!  


Needless to say, I shot my diet right square in the ass last night… sigh 


Interestingly, most of the hotel ’employees’ are contract workers, with Philippine, Indian, and Asians representing the majority. The ‘managers’ are all Bahraini, Saudi, etc.  Apparently, most of the contracts are one year contracts, so if you don’t perform, you don’t keep the job, so service is excellent pretty much everywhere.


And there is DEFINITELY a double standard in this part of the world. Two instances, one was in the lobby, where there is no smoking, and a ‘royal’ (wearing a keffiyeh with a gold rope) lit up in the middle of the lobby and not a word was said…  He stubbed his cigarette out with his shoe, and someone was right there to pick up the butt.

Second, driving in this morning, again a ‘royal’ driving an Aston Martin comes up in the right turn lane, honks, bulls his way into traffic, then cuts across 3 lanes to turn LEFT!  Bahraini police at the corner did NOTHING… sigh…


Oh yeah, and one last picture- The ‘spare’ palace…
They keep it fully staffed, lights, A/C etc. just in case a visiting Sheik or King shows up on short notice (or maybe long notice, I don’t know)…

And in the background is the financial district with the ‘sail’ building. It’s one of the central buildings for the financial district and home to a bunch of banks, investment firms etc.  


Oh yeah, one last thing… Beef Bacon is ‘different’, to put it mildly…