Bahrain!

After 1.5 years of waiting, I've arrived in Bahrain!  The word "Finally" doesn't half describe the agony of waiting and getting disappointed time and again.

We're staying at the Somerset Al Fateh, part of the Ascott Group of Singapore.  The apartment on the 12th floor is really nice, and I'm staying in the Master Bedroom, which has an attached bathroom with a JACUZZI!  Haha, I've been using it every 2 days so far, and it's fun just to lie down and soak in the bubbliness of the waters after an exhausting work-out.  The apartment is kind of out of the way of all the restaurants and malls.  Thankfully we rented a Toyota Camry (TABASCO-coloured) 2008 model, and have drove exploring a couple of evenings after work.

Here are some pictures of the apartment! 

The living room has tv, stereo (never used before), and the ironing board.  We have wireless internet all over the building, but it basically konks out every single day, especially in the mornings when I need to conference call Singapore.  Did I ever mention that I hateeee ironing?  Absolutely the worst activity ever.

The kitchen is very well-equipped, has all the pots, pans, spoons, cups and all.  Shouldn't have wasted my luggage space carrying my cutlery, but at least now I have chopsticks and soup spoon (which I have yet to use, and will probably never ever use in my entire month of stay in Bahrain.

We have a balcony which we hardly step out (the winds are very strong, and blows alot of sand all the time, so we keep all the windows and balcony shut all the time).  Heard there was a sandstorm the week before I arrived, and Bahrain gets the equivalent of haze too, from all the sandstorm and the winds.  It has a good view actually, and we're close to the 'sea', but it feels super duper man-made and artificial, since the land is reclaimed, there's no beach, and no ships or sea life whatsoever.  Wonder if the entire Middle-East is like that as well.

A close-up view of Manama City directly from my balcony.  They have pretty decent architecture here, and land is super plentiful.  Oh, we discovered that the Bahrainis don't really have the concept of addresses.  When asking for directions, they only say it's in so-and-so district, and not provide things like unit number, street number or what-nots!  Even Government agencies and all only utilise a P.O. Box number for their stated addresses.  Damn weird right?

This is my bedroom!  The bed is uber comfortable, can, and have been rolling around when i sleep.  There's also a work table, and even a tv (with cable).  I have been watching Wimbledon on the tv, showing at a much more decent timing than in Singapore.  Same for the World Cup, but it is only available on the ground floor.  That's ok, better to watch with others and cheer/jeer together than to watch by oneself.  Too bad there's no alcohol to drink while cheering on the teams.  Would have generated alot of sales.

My jacuzzzzzi!  I think I want a jacuzzi next time in my place, really removes all the aches and tiredness away chop-chop!  As a service apartment, they come in and replace the towels and stuff daily, EXCEPT fridays, which is their day of rest.  The weekends here are Fridays and Saturdays, so I guess their equivalent of end of workweek night out is Thursday evenings?




The pool!  There's actually two pools here, one on 7th floor, and other on the ground floor, but my colleague tells me the 7th floor one is directly in view of the construction workers in the next building.  The pool looks good, right?  But it's actually super murky, with all the accumulated sand and all.  Can't even see the wall very clearly until I'm almost hitting it.  The palms trees show you how strong the winds here can get.

Our first meal, we ordered in Macs, haha!  I had the McSpicy, and it was quite delicious!  No such thing as an Arabian-y type smell or taste, they are very good at maintaining the quality of fast food here!  Will talk about that next blog.




Oh ya, I've been jetlagging very badly lately, last night slept at 10pm, but woke up at 1am, then 3am, 4am, etc.  Plus, there's construction going on all around us, and they freaking start work at 1+.  I swear I hear them clanking and hammering stuff in the middle of the night, it's super duper annoying! 

Alright, I'm done posting this time round, so will write more later.