Thursday night, a couple of our co-workers took us to a nice patio lounge at the Ritz. We were honored to have one woman with us. She instructed us to just keep following her and look like we belong there. There's an issue in Bahrain where you usually need to be with some women when you go to 'respectable' places. Bahrain is the entertainment center for Saudi men who decide to leave their morals and Koran on the mainland. They usually come here looking for alcohol, movies and, from what I gather, certain migrant workers in the "service" industry (wink wink nudge nudge). So the local establishments usually set rules which are relatively easy to get around if you're willing to drop a few dinars to have an escort for the night.
Ananda and I sat around the Ritz for a couple of hours, just chatting over a few drinks , recapping our impressions after a full work week, still amazed how much there was to talk about our new 'home'. After that, our co-workers picked us up (they were at some dinner), and we headed over to a hotel club called Z-bar. This was one of those couples-only establishments and since we had 3 guys and 1 girl, we had to leave. I overheard a group of Filipino women talking to some guys, "that will be 40 dinars". For those too lazy to go to a currency converter website, that's about $110. Not sure if that covered the whole night, or just the ability to get into the club. You know, at least they're open about the rules here. Better than the clubs back in the states where the bouncer just ignores you while he lets in a group of girls into the club that you were told was "at capacity".
We decided to leave and wound up at some bar that had a Filipino cover band. When we got in, the band was doing a rendition of Whitney Houston's "I will always love you" from the Bodyguard soundtrack. Ananda commented how he thought she was lip synching, but she was actually singing. Impressive. We all had a chance to request some songs and they did a pretty good job overall. It was definitely entertaining. I commented about how one of the female singers sounded like she didn't even know english. She was singing the songs, and had a really nice voice, but it was clear that she was just pronouncing the phonetics and not real words. Still, I was impressed.
The next day, we went to the mall. Yes, we go to malls EVERYDAY. I feel like a valley-girl.
At the food court, we ordered our food along with some water... specifically asking for tap water. Why is this a big deal? Well, it seems like it is impossible to get tap water here. So, I asked the server why we couldn't have tap water (mind you, this was probably the fifth time we had tried and failed to get tap water). Ananda's already written about this so at the risk of copyright infringement, I'll just steal the conversation from his site:
"Could we get glasses of tap water?"
*confused look*
"Oh we don't have a tap for water."
"You don't have running water? "
"No, we don't serve it for drinking."
"Why not?"
"Because you can't drink tap water."
"What do you mean? Tap water's fine."
"No no, it's salty."
"It's not salty. Have you tried it? I mean _you personally_ have you ever tried tap water here?"
"No no, I don't drink tap water, you can't drink tap water, it's salty."
So, yeah, it's all the little differences that are so amusing, and all the big differences which make us appreciative of the life we have back home.
Another example: as you all are used to, when you finish a meal at a fast food restaurant, you usually empty your tray in the garbage while putting any dishes and cutlery in a bin. We did this the other day and I noticed some people staring at us. After wondering if they were just checking out our fine selves, I realized that they were watching us doing manual labor. I commented that they must be thinking, "Look at these Indians, they just can't help themselves from cleaning garbage." Keep in mind that, as I posted earlier, Filipinos and Indians make up the majority of the menial labor workforce.
That's the weekend in a nutshell. Unfortunately, my other day off was spent at the office. I wasn't too happy about it but we got to meet with one of the company's co-founders which was very helpful in understanding the business and the company's products and strategy.
Next weekend should be (read: better be) a full weekend and I'm hoping to get out of the city and check out the beach and desert. I've made contact with a local lounge manager who's looking for a resident DJ, so hopefully I can set up a few gigs while I'm here as well. Finally, my dreams of being an international DJ are coming true!
Peace in the middle east, or, at least in Bahrain.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment