Sunday, December 20, 2009

2009 AFE Tour Blog Day 5: Day off in Bahrain

Today was a day off so this morning Hussain picked us up from the hotel and took us all over Bahrain. We visited a Mosque. Unfortunately, it was closed due to a holiday but we still had a chance to walk around and get some pictures.

After that we went to a market where we were hounded to buy anything and everything. Fun Fact: There are more watches per capita in Bahrain than anywhere else in the world…… we made that up but every store in Bahrain is a watch store and everyone wants you to buy one. None of us bought a watch but we did buy lots of other things including t-shirts, rugs, jewelry, spices, etc…. and we only got screwed once. Chris spent about 5 minutes negotiating with a shopkeeper and eventually got the shopkeeper to come down from 4 dinar to 2.5. (actually Chris decided he was going to look around a bit but they refused…. They are very aggressive) The shopkeeper really wanted 3 dinar, he hesitantly came down to 2.8 and then finally very reluctantly came down to 2.5. Here is how the transaction went:

Chris handed the shopkeeper 10 dinar.
The shopkeeper handed Chris 7 dinar back.
Chris: “We agreed on 2.5 dinar.”
Shopkeeper: “We agreed on 3”.
Chris: “no, 2.5”
The shopkeeper then gave Chris .2 more dinar and said “we agreed on 2.8 dinar”.
Chris: “no, 2.5”
Shopkeeper: “no, 2.8”
Chris: “Well, that’s just mean.”

We continued to walk through the market, tried some very delicious deserts, and ended up at the Golden Souq. (Souq means “market”.) We spent an hour or so there before heading back to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel we got some food, did some last minute “shopping”, and then most of us went to bed around 5 or 6 pm. We have a 4am flight and Hussain is coming to pick us up at 1am. It is sure to be another interesting day navigating airports as we head to Djibouti, Africa.

More Fun Facts: The stop lights have a yellow light before both the red and green lights.

The Mosque.


Other downtown buildings

World Trade Center




The market



A delicious dessert.... its a sweet warm jelly with nuts.

Kelly experimenting with new food..... this is rare!

nuts 

spices






The Gold Souq

In 1923 dollar bills were made much larger.

This is the back of a 1914 $10 dollar bill. Andrew Jackson is on the front.
Front







           

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

you tell em Chris!!!!

Ciji said...

I hope there were some gifts purchased for special someones...... :D

alishea said...

Looks a lot warmer there than here...

AJ said...

You guys stick out like a bunch of transvestites in that environment.

P.S. - Buy me a watch... no, make it 6 watches.

Love,
Dad