A Day of Contrasts

Monday Sept. 29

We had another relaxing evening last night. Peter played "Monster Doggie" with the boys in the pool; they loved it!  We all sat down for a delicious home-made dinner and settled down for an evening of TV football, the 1PM Sunday game, on at 8 PM here. We're trying to figure out how to watch the Patriots Monday night game---4:30 AM Tues. Bahrain time!!!

I woke up this morning feeling like my internal GPS was finally working. The neighborhood looked familiar and I could have found my way to the Navy base by myself. In Juffair, where the Mirisolas live, there are private villas with an entrance gate right on the street and a stucco wall around the whole property, most of it only a few feet from the walls of the house, dividing it from the villas next door and behind it. There are also many high rise apartment buildings with few apartments occupied and many other apartment buildings under construction or construction halted!!  All of the rest of the space is empty sand lots, some used as parking lots, some just waiting for future construction. Hardly anything green amid the whitish houses and lots!!  Lots of cranes visible in the air!!

Suzanne taught her 8 AM Spinning class and I walked 40 laps (3 miles) around the track, ending with some yoga. At home, showered and left with Peter for Bab al Bahrain, the biggest Souq (market area) in downtown Manama, capital of Bahrain. We drove by the Summer Palace and the Grand Mosque again and then reached the financial district. What a contrast!!  Beautiful, COMPLETED sky-scrapers, interesting shapes (one shaped like a screw!) full of blue and green glass and very nicely landscaped!!

We parked in a public, PAVED  lot and walked to the Souq, a huge area with large, air conditioned buildings surrounding hot alleys of small and tiny shops selling fabric, clothing, herbs and nuts, jewelry , kitchen objects, toys,  almost anything you could want or need. All purchase prices subject to discussion!  And all merchants trying to lure you into their shops!  We stopped in briefly at Wahid's trinket shop; Suzanne's a regular there!!  Suzanne then bought some fabric for a couple of tunics. Peter bought a new watch band and had it put on.  And, in the middle of our ambling around the Souq , I finally heard the "Call to Prayer!!"  Quite impressive!

And it was SOOOO hot. The sweat was dripping off us!  Fortunately, we were near a juice bar so Suzanne ordered us each a lemon mint juice. Very refreshing!  Sitting outside the juice bar, we started chatting with a man and woman next to us. She is from the UK, visiting her daughter's family for her granddaughter's wedding. He is her Bahraini son-in-law!!  She's been visiting Bahrain every year since 1980 when her daughter married the Bahraini after meeting at university in England!!  He was dressed Western style but told us he's a Muslim. His daughter and her new husband are of the Bahai sect from Iran. They shared wedding photos with us and were a just delightful mother-in-law/son-in-law combination.

By this time we were still hot and we were beginning to be hungry. So we returned to Walid's, made some purchases, walked back to the car and continued on to City Centre Mall, a multi-storied, air conditioned, sleek and modern mall, comparable to the finest mall in the US. We had lunch at PF Chiang's amid women in full abaya and hijab with their children in total Western dress!!  How do they eat? We didn't watch.....didn't want to be rude!!!

Anyway, an area full of contrasts!!!