Vietnam!

First I have to apologize because I have not been keeping up with this blog.  And I have no excuse.  I am from this moment pledging to be much better about regularly posting.

So as some of you know, if we are Facebook friends, I visited Vietnam in February (because I blew up your news-feed for a week with pictures of me eating food).  Now I will continue to blow up your news feed with much delayed blog posts about Vietnam. This will be followed with regular updates about my travels.  Because a paragraph or so ago I promised to post more regularly.

I had a lot of feelings about this trip, and part of me treated it as a "homecoming" of sorts.  As you may recall, I taught in China for two years, and while I do not regret my decision to leave China, there are many things I miss about my previous home-away-from-home.  I knew Vietnam was not China, but geographically, its the closest I'd been to China since leaving in 2013, and I had a lot of hopes that (particularly food-wise) I'd be able to satisfy some of the cravings and nostalgia I'd had since leaving China.

Vietnam was not like China, it was it's own thing.  However, it did not disappoint in any way, including culinarily.  And I am going to begin the first of several posts about Vietnam by talking about all the things I ate. Because priorities.

Now, I have always advocated that when you are traveling, especially for a short period, that you not over-indulge (if not out-and-out avoid) street food.  Because you never know when that delicious street food is going to wreak havoc on your digestive system.  But I ignored pretty much all of that on this trip and my digestion was largely fine--or at least not prohibitively terrible.  Lesson: Street food at your own risk.

I risked it.  And I'd do it again!

Throughout our trip, we found several vendors selling a variety of different types of food--from sweet, to savory, and everything in between.   And I indulged in as many of them as humanly possible.

All of this was delightful.  But my favorite by far was the lady on the far right, who was making a rice-paper-dried-shrimp-and-spices/veggies taco.  And oh my goodness it was so good I kept going back!

So you cannot go to Vietnam without trying Pho (pronounced sort of like Fuh).  Not only is it like the national dish of Vietnam, but I don't think you can actually avoid it as it is literally everywhere.  Not that you would want to avoid it, because its freaking delicious.  And I am not a huge soup fan, which is sort of what Pho is; its steaming hot broth, with a slightly fishy flavor that is jam packed with meat (usually beef), vegetables, and lots of noodles.  You may order Pho a variety of different ways in range of different spice levels.

We had our first experience of Pho in Vietnam in Hanoi on our second night in Vietnam.  We were recommended to go to a very well known place, but when we found it (we think we found it anyway) we were somewhat intimidated by the complete lack of a picture or English menu (I am very good with picture menus, but also disappointed in myself for not taking a risk and trying to figure it out sans English/Picture menu).  So we walked a ways until we found another restaurant--it also did not have pictures but it did have a menu that I could read, so we ordered our Pho at the counter and then had a seat with our Coke and patiently awaited our beef noodle soup--which did not take long.

Phoooooooooooooooooooonomenal

This second day in Hanoi also included the moment all my dreams came true.  Now, American fast-food brands have largely made their way across the globe (yay globalization!) but some have yet to make it to the small island nation of Bahrain.  And one of those things is Dunkin Donuts.  Dunkin has, however,  made it to Vietnam (I saw it during the ride from the airport, in which I just pointed at the Dunkin sign and screamed and Jaime promised we could find it)  We found it.  And we found in again three days later in Ho Chi Minh City.

We all need to follow our bliss....some of us have a really basic bliss. 

As teachers, we are limited to our vacation time, so we wound up visiting Vietnam during the Tet New Year...which every single travel blog recommended that we did not do.  Because things would be closed. And while I think we probably paid more for some tours, there were still tour companies who were willing to provide services during this time.  And it was great because no one else was there--we had a whole junk boat to our selves (more on that soon).  However, there is a lot of internal travel as people travel out of the big cities to get back to their home towns to celebrate this typically family-oriented holiday.  Ho Chi Minh City was very crowded and noticed this in particular when we went to a few restaurants after a day of sight-seeing.   We would enter a restaurant, peruse the menu, finally decide on what to order...only to be told that the things we wanted were sold-out.  This literally happened three different times.   We figured out that we just needed to be a few blocks away from the center of the city and then this stopped happening.  So again, don't hesitate to travel to Vietnam during the Tet Holidays.  During this search for food, we did take the opportunity to try several of the sandwiches available as part of the street food, but alas I have not pictures of it. Which is a shame, because it was so good.  (You can find pictures and info of Bahn Mi here)

We were not totally disappointed in the lack of river crap meat.  But still. (Also, if I had to write a whole menu in another language it would be filled with many, many, many hilarious typos). 

Now the hotels we stayed at provided breakfast...and most of the tours we went on provided lunch, so we dinner was where we were able to search for our own Vietnamese culinary experience.  On one such jaunt I had my moment of reconnecting with my time in China.  One of my favorite dishes in China was a simple vegetable dish that consisted of mushrooms and bok choy.  I ordered this and pretty much ate the whole thing (despite it being served family style).  I cannot stress to you how much I love this vegetable .

Our hotels did not disappoint meal wise either; they offered a lot of different types of breakfasts, including a pork dumpling featuring my very favorite vegetable.  But more importantly this is where I fell in love with Vietnamese coffee.  Which is made in this super cute (cute because its so little!) little cup in which the superfine grounds are placed.  The cup has a strainer inside, then the bottom of the cup is also a strainer and it sits in a little dish that also has a strainer in it.  This little dish is placed above your mug and the the strained coffee slowly drips into the mug.   The coffee it creates is very strong, kinda chocolaty, delightful brew.

Bok choy on the far left, bok choy dumplings in the center.  And the real star of this show is the mini coffee creator to the far right.  It's so good. 

Vietnam provided some of the most culinary satisfying moments I have had since 2013, including the opportunity to drink my body weight in milk tea.

I began with my most personally satisfying part of this trip; the food.  It was, however, by no means he only satisfying part of my trip.  I will be posting several posts over the next week or so that highlights different aspects of my trip to this lovely country.  I hope this post was as satisfying for you as eating this food was for me...and if it convinces you to visit Vietnam, I only hope that you also indulge in eating all of this wonderful food---and even more that I did not get a chance to try.

P.S. Vietnam also has Coconut Oreos...which are ammaaaaazing and I have not been able to find anywhere else.

A Taste of Bahrain

So many of the rewarding things about being a teacher are the often-lengthy holidays.  When you live in the middle of the world, your question is always: should I travel during this one or should I just take staycation with my sweatpants and my couch?  Since I am planning a trip to Vietnam in the spring, and since the only place I'd want to be during Christmas is with my family any-who, I chose the staycation and my sweatpants.  However, there's only so many days you can spend laying on your couch, and thus these are good times to explore the local things Bahrain has to offer.

It can be difficult sometimes when you live in such a small country, especially when you are used to living in such a huge country.  In the States, we could hop in a car, drive for hours, hike through some pretty stunning nature, etc when on vacation.  When in China, we could hope on a train and in a few short hours be in another part of the country.  There is a lot to do in Bahrain, but you do have to actively look for it...or have friends who do most of the looking for you. Thank you Amy!

Besides seeing Star Wars with the entire world, this year we took advantage of some local holiday promotions.  Many of the restaurants in a trendy little neighborhood in Bahrain did a promotion this year.  Participating restaurants advertised a Taste Tour at the yearly art instillation in the same neighborhood.  If you picked up a booklet, you could bring said booklet into each restaurant and for 3BD per restaurant, you got a sample platter of what each restaurant has to offer.

Look at this cute (and sometimes strange) art!

Basically, it was a good opportunity to try some of these restaurants (you know, the ones you think of maybe going to, but instead choose a tried-and-true favorite to guarantee a satisfying food experience) without committing to a full (and possibly disappointing) meal at an unknown venue.

Each restaurant stamped your booklet and at the end of the meal, you rated the restaurant on presentation, service, taste of food, ambiance, overall experience, and whether or not we would consider visiting again.  We ranked them on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best (except for the last question which was yes or no).

    


So naturally when we met up in 338 district in Adliya, we decided on a "Go Big or Go Home" approach and we were going to hit as many restaurants as we could before bursting.

Our first stop was Cafe Amsterdam and Barcelona.  These are two different restaurants but they share an outside seating space and we are pretty sure they are owned by the same people.  It is right on the edge of this neighborhood and directly across from the Gulf Hotel.  The best part of this neighborhood is that everything is within walking distance through little back streets and at this time of year, that art instillation makes these back alleys extra cute.  It's also never cold in Bahrain, so walking about in December can be something you do in sandals.

So we sat down and they passed out menus.  We slid out the booklet and told them we'd like to do the tasting from both Barcelona and Cafe Amsterdam.  We asked for just the one platter, despite their telling us (and this would happen repeatedly throughout the day) that the platter was best for just one. But knowing we planned on hitting several restaurants, we insisted that we would share the one platter.  This was a good decision, trust me.

We ordered drinks and while waiting for our platters, began to rate our restaurant's ambiance, which we gave full marks for because it was super cute--terraced outdoor seating, a stage (empty of performers because it was 2pm), lots of flowers and fairy lights.  We imagined it was quite adorable in the evenings.

Yummmmmmmm!

I would categorize Cafe Amsterdam as being like fancier comfort food; it was a lot fried and things came in creamy sauces.  We got fish and chips, salmon puffs with cream cheese, and muscles. I was in love with their french fries; they were like the think wedges, no seasoning, just some salt. 

Barcelona was...different.  One dish was seafood in what looked like a fish bowl with a martini glass in it.  The dry ice was in the fish bowl, under the martini glass, so our seafood was smoking.  Which is more than I need seafood to do.  In the jar was warm veggies and what I swear to god they said was tuna, but it tasted like chicken (it may have been chicken and we just misheard her).  We are not sure why it was served like it was pickled in a mason jar.  The little cups in the center none of us were sure what they were and I believe Christina described it best as a deconstructed french fry (again, not what I'm looking for in a french fry): it was a little potato cup that we believed, based on taste, was filled with a mixture of ketchup and mayo.  I will say this however, those sticks?  They are fried cheese...on a stick.  And they were pretty great.  It was like a fancy, social acceptable version of eating the crispy cheesy bits from a pizza pan.  

Cheese on a stick!  Could life get any better?!

Overall we were pleased with our first stop.  And it was really pretty.  And they had the literal cutest bathrooms. 

Look at this! And the toilets flushed by pulling a little ring at the end of a chain! It was everything I could want in a bathroom. 

Now we were quite pleased with this first stop, although man it did not hold a candle to our next stop: Passion.  Like so many restaurants in Bahrain, Passion is a fusion restaurant that combines select Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Thai, and American dishes.  But the stand-out for Passion is it's loose tea selection.  It also has iced tea, which is great because that does not seem to be a thing that has caught on throughout most of Bahrain.  

So we sat down and eagerly awaited our platter.  Passions is super cute, particularly it's outdoor seating.  Its got a half wall around the courtyard with plenty of trees giving you a good balance of closing  you off from the street and not making you feel too closed in.  So now that we were pretty much food critics, we gave it full marks for ambiance.  I don't have any pictures of the place...whoops. 

Then they brought out this adorable thing. 

I mean, look at all that loose tea!

When the server delivered this lovely tray, she also explained why Passion had paired it with a particular tea.  It took her like 2 minutes.  They had this stuff rehearsed.  I was impressed.  

We left Passions feeling pretty good, upon which we made a mistake.  We decided to check out something called Salad Boutique.  Now I'd originally crossed this off the list of possibilities because of the name, but Amy pointed out that the platter did not include jus salad and I was like, well may be it just has an unfortunate and misleading name?  So we went.   This is what greeted us. 

Keep in mind this experience, and our opinion, represents only what they decided to offer for the Taste Tour. 

Despite a really cute interior (if you like fluer de lis, mirrors, and lots of pink and silver) we were not particularly impressed with this restaurants platter.  Now it is important to note that this does not reflect the full menu of the Salad Boutique and it is possible that it's menu is fantastic, but it did not impress us with it's contribution to the Taste Tour. 

Our next stop was Amy's favorite by far, although I think we all had different favorites.  It is called Houseboat and like Passions, its another fusion restaurant. Its noodles were really good and the peanut sauce I would literally like to put on everything I eat for the rest of my life. 

I have also heard great things about their sushi. 

At this point we were feeling pretty full; we'd been to four restaurants.  But we felt we could power through a fifth, so we marched our way through Block 338, admiring more of that art, on our way to La Cuccina, an Italian restaurant.  Which I am glad I did because it was wonderful; it was like the best, most wonderful comfort food.  I would like a bucket of their mushroom risotto and I would like to eat it on my couch...maybe with some of Houseboat's peanut sauce? 

So at this point we were about to die.  Because we ate so much wonderful food.  We struggled (you know, with locomotion) back to our cars, casually viewing the art again, with a full appreciation for the culinary experince to be had a five new restaurant and gratitude (even through the pain of food baby) that we did not spend the day on our couches watching Netflix.   I was also reminded that it is important to make sure, when moving to a new country, that you make the effort to find things to do, even when your new home doesn't necessarily have the same things to offer that your previous homes have had.  The Taste Tour was fun and the get-out-and-explore attitude served us well as it encouraged us to find New Years plans, which I will blog about soon.  Happy 2016--do something new today!

Sky Diving and Other Terrifying Things

A good friend of mine once told me that my life was governed by fear and she wished that would change.

It was one of those statements that hits you full in the solar plexus.  After knocking the breath out of you it worms your way up past your heart and settles deep in your brain.  You deny this thought and you bury it deep in the layered, complex organ that is the brain and try to forget about it.  But inevitably, throughout the course of events, it pops up again, shorting out your mental circuits and bringing you to a cognitive halt.  You examine that statement for truths; reflect on if the events in your life either live up to the statement or refute it, and then you do your best to bury it again. You reboot the system, and continue with the status quo.

As I said, thoughts like these do not stay buried, and they refuse to leave you in peace; you eventually have to take that statement out of your mental vault, sit down with a good cup of tea (or gin), and examine the truth in it that is making those words impossible to forget in the first place.

It turns out this good friend of mine was right. Fear did rule my life.
Fear of disappointing people.
Fear of letting people down.
Fear of failure.
Fear of doing the wrong thing or making the wrong choice.
Fear of spiders, heights, and large social gatherings.

Well, a little more than a year ago, I decided to try and stop this.  You can't help being afraid of things.  But you can help how much you let that fear influence your decision making.  Or deciding not to allow it to affect your peace of mind.  And that is the change I was determined to make.

I can't say I've been 100% successful.  If my life has been governed by fear, well that governing body has been ruling the system unchecked for 28 years, so change is gradual.  Like saying "no" when I don't want to do something instead of agreeing to do it just because I am afraid of disappointing someone.

And then sometimes this change is a tad drastic.  Which is why in a few weeks I will be throwing myself out of a perfectly good airplane (blog post about that will follow--hopefully) strapped to the back of a professional, and attached to a parachute (and probably just a little drunk).

Am I excited about this? Yes. And also no.  I am terrified.  I am omgomgomgomg-what-am-i-doing-piss-my-pants-terrified.  But it's something I've been thinking about doing for a few years now (actually, ever since my sister told me that I would never do it--implying that I was too afraid.  Or maybe her statement was implication-free, but that's the message I received).  So when one of my co-workers mentioned wanting to go, and I mentioned a similar desire, we booked it.  It's happening. Because I refuse to be too afraid to do it.  Maybe that's stupid.  The Fear agrees that it is stupid.

I'm not going to lie, if I were to do something this terrifying again, I would probably not book it two months in advance.  Two months to wonder what the hell I was thinking.  Two months to tempt me into backing out of it.  Two months for the Fear to make some pretty compelling arguments.  Two months for the Fear to win.

I am not sure (being several weeks from the jump) who will win.  Me or Fear. (hopefully not gravity). I'll keep you posted.

Living on a Tropical Desert Island

Since moving to Bahrain, there has been a lot that has been a challenge, particularly in terms of climate/geography, but also, a lot that I really like.  Here is a list of a few of them.

1.  I am from Syracuse, NY. The snowiest city in all of America.  The one that just broke a record low temperature this past February.  The place that is a cold miserable desolate tundra from November to April. That place.

So I am going to say that my number one favorite thing about living in Bahrain is that it has not dipped below 62 degrees all year.  My birthday is in March.  And while my birthday activities usually include being wrapped in animal skins and huddling in doors around flames, I am went to the beach this year.  And not to cross country ski, either (because that's a thing the people of CNY do at beaches, and pretty much all a beach is good for until mid-spring).  This year I sat in the sun and quite literally basked in 70 plus weather.

The previous month I ended every social media post in #flipflopfebruary (obnoxious on several levels, I know).

On the sweatier side of this perk, is July, a month that does not get below 95 degrees, even at night. Bahrain, despite being a desert, also likes to sport 100% humidity almost all year.  This means that I go outside once or twice every few days and has (almost) got me missing mid-December New York. Plus boots have no practical application here, which makes fall fashion somewhat of a bummer.

I have a whole other context for heat.  The warmest month in the whole year for CNY is going to be at least 20 degrees cooler than the temperature of Bahrain at the same time.  The average high in July in NY is 80.  The average high in July in Bahrain? 100.  It has been known to be as high as 110.

Oh, you know.  Just a billion degrees out, nbd. 

2. Which I guess leads me to my next observation.  Bahrain's climate is largely desert, although with the humidity I cannot actually call it arid, but since it never rains...it's climate is confusing.  The main point of this is since it never rains the predominant color of the place is taupe. Sand colored.  Brown. To make matters duller, the majority of the buildings are painted brown so as not to show the dirt. We don't have rain often, but we do have dust storms (sand storm's younger, less threatening cousin), which pelts the buildings with sand, prompting most property owners to paint their buildings shades of tan so all that sand doesn't show.  I suppose this is smart, but it makes for a really really uniform landscape.  I am pretty sure when I land in the States my eyes are going to be overwhelmed by the sheer variety of colors--don't be surprised if I am just looking dazedly around at my surroundings drinking in the color.

Not the end of the world, just a dust storm.  I mean, the shades of tan makes sense,when you are hit with this fairly regularly.  The picture far to the left is about 9 in the morning sunshine trying to burst through all that dust. 

On the other hand, it makes giving directions sometimes really easy.  For example, the odd property owner that chooses fly in the face of the taupe trend.  Friends of mine live in an apartment building behind the blue house.  There is literally only one blue house anywhere near where I live.  So it's like, super easy to find.  Now, if you live no where near an outstanding landmark, directions are actually really difficult.  It makes matters worse in that few of the smaller streets are actually named, instead the road numbers and block numbers just have numbers.  So its like, oh, I live in the brown apartment building in Hidd on block 9759, off of road 2232. Good luck, look for the smoke signals.

Who knew tan could come in so many shades?  The sky is pretty though, and it's always this color (except during a dust storm). 

3.  All that tan does have an upside however, and leads to my next point.  You see a large contributing factor to that tan-everything is all that sand.  Sand equals beach...and everything is covered in sand which means everything can be a beach.  It literally all looks like beach.  Now, being a more conservative society, not all this real estate is used as beaches, but beaches exist and can be found relatively easily.  And get this: there really isn't a time where you can't go to the beach (please see previous points).  Like, it really is never too cold for the beach.  Let me just say this again: beach twenty-four seven, three hundred and sixty five days.

Look at all this beach!

4.  You know what happens when you live on an island the size of Onondaga county?  Or rather, a little smaller, actually.  Well, you never get lost.  I mean at first, sure, you get a little lost, but after you've been here a few minutes, what's going to happen? You drive around enough and you are going to be back somewhere you recognize. Because it's just not that big.  You literally cannot get lost.  I suppose the only fatal mistake you might make is if you wind up on the causeway leading to Saudi, and there are a LOT of signs warning you about that, so you got plenty of "turn the heck around" opportunities.

You also rarely have to factor in travel time to your daily plans (as long as you are avoiding rush hour, because a tiny island with a million people makes for heinous rush hour traffic).  I mean, let's face it, it's not going to take you long to get anywhere because there is just not much of it traverse.

On the flip side of this, you can go ahead and scratch road trips off your list of things to do on a long weekend.  You wanna travel?  You are taking a plane.  You have no choice--where ever you are going to go, you are going to have to fly there.  As someone who is used to hopping in a car (or in China, a train) and taking a nice long little weekend trip to a whole other climate zone, this feels restricting.  On the bright side, however, it does encourage "go big or go home" attitude towards travel.  I mean, if you're flying anyway, you might as well vacation in Tokyo...or Capetown...or Helsinki.

There are some solid pros and cons for living on a tropical desert island, and personally I am about evenly split 50/50 on this climate closing in on the end of my first year here.  I mean, there basically is no winter, there is just a time of about 3 months where you can comfortably be outside without immediately sweating out all of your bodies water reserve and needing to shower immediately after returning home.  The lack of winter is a huge plus.  The needing to shower multiple times per day is a pretty large negative.  The fact that Bahrain is so small, with a large expat community, means anything I might need in my daily life is pretty conveniently located within 10 minutes of me is a huge plus (particularly compared to the struggle-fest that was China).  The fact that traveling anywhere is something that is meticulously planned and will include airfare is sort of a bummer. Anywho, I am willing to give it a couple more years to decide where I all on topical desert island spectrum.

From Coffee to Tea: A Caffeine Odyssey

Pre-travel me was not a big tea drinker.  It was pretty much just coffee.  Not that I don't still love coffee, but post-travel me acknowledges that pre-travel me had no idea what the hell she was missing.

Since leaving China I have been in deep mourning for milk tea, specifically Coco's Milk Tea, a beverage chain from Japan.  For those you who are not familiar with milk tea, I both am piteous of you, and equally envious.  I pity that you have never had the ambrosia that is this extra sweet, perfect blend of milk ,sugar, and tea.  I also envy the fact that you don't have to live your lives without it, having tasted it.  Milk tea comes iced or hot, and it is a black tea mixed with large amounts of condensed milk and sugar, with an option to add tapioca pearls to it (bubbles).  It's sweet, caffeinated, delicious and terrible for you; I love it.

For those of you that live in China, Japan, Taiwan, NYC, or San Francisco, do me a favor?  Go to your local Coco's and order their bubble tea and drink one, for me.  Thank you, and also I hate you, just a little.

Now, despite the desperation in the above paragraphs, I had pretty much resigned myself to never have this beverage ever again.  I'd gotten pretty zen about it--I had it while I had it and I loved it and now it's gone.  The end. Dwelling would be pointless.

The one and only CoCo's. 

Well, I have encountered recently milk tea's Arabic cousin: Karak.  And its just about the greatest thing since...well, since milk tea.

Karak Chai (literally strong tea) is popular in the Gulf region, although its origins lie in India and South East Asia, and is also referred to as Masala Chai.  The flavor varies by region, depending on the types of spices added, and the the mount of each spices.  Here in Bahrain (and elsewhere) cardamom is the prevalent spice (among many others my uncultured taste-buds cannot discern other than to appreciate its combination as a whole).  It is blended with spices, condensed milk, and a ton of sugar.  And next to milk tea, it's the best thing ever.  I actually think if you poured it over tapioca bubbles, I could die happily.

The best thing about this tea is that just down the road (because everything is basically just down the road in Bahrain--its a very small island) there are several Karak places.  And the best thing about many of these stands is that all you need to do is roll up, park (or double park...or just pull slightly over to the side and throw on your hazards), lean out the window and wave your carafe.  This will alert one of the employees to your desperate need for Karak.  He will come over and take the carafe and for about 2.35$ refill the whole darn thing.  And then you drive away to wherever you are going and enjoy your Karak.  If you are not feeling like a Karak-starved maniac, you can also order a single cup.  Which, diabetically speaking, might be the better option anyway.

You drive up, you shout over, they brink you tea, you bring your tea home...victorious. 

I don't think I've met anyone who dislikes it yet.  I was initially concerned because cardamom is not my favorite spice, but it just works.  I would not leave Bahrain without trying this tea.  And dang, but I am going to miss it when I eventually leave.

Speed Bumps Are the New Stop Signs

In China, we did not drive.  In fact, I can think of only two times, in the whole time I was there, that I was not going from Point A to Point B (bicycling/walking not included) in some form of public (bus, taxi, rickshaw) transportation.   And honestly, I didn't really feel that something was missing from my life.  Sure, I missed my car, and I missed driving...but if you've ever seen the traffic in China, well you'd understand.  I had no desire (or need--public transportation rocks there) to drive in China.


Well, in terms of desire, Bahrain is pretty much the same.  I do not want to drive in this land.  However, public transportation here?  Not really a thing.  Yeah, they're taxis, but you have to call them, they are not just littering the streets, loitering, practically waiting outside your apartment complex just for you (as they are in China).  Buses are not really popular.   So in terms of need, you sort of need to be able to drive if you want to feel like you have any mobility or independence on this island.

Thankfully, renting a car, particularly when you start working with a bunch of other newly arrived teachers, is quite simple.  Everyone is looking to rent a car and no one really wants to take on the entire financial burden themselves, at least not initially.  I began renting a red Nissan Tilda with four other teachers, for about $100 dollars per month per person, insurance included.  Which, when  you think about rental companies in the States, this not bad at all.  If you are American, you basically just need to apply for a Bahraini driver's license and they pretty much just give it to you. You can drive with your American one for the first 3 months anyway.   Also, filling up your gas tank in Bahrain?  About $13 dollars.

Now, I know what you've got to be thinking right about now (especially if you thinking about the soaring gas prices): what is this girl complaining about?!  Well, let me tell you a little bit about driving in Bahrain.

1.  These are some of the most aggressive drivers I have ever encountered.  Imagine everyone on the road is a New York City cab driver.   These guys take no prisoners when they are driving.  There is no right of way; it's whoever has the biggest stones to wedge their car in that space first and then not blink (or budge) as others try and push their way in.  If you are going to make a move (change a lane, try to budge into a crowded lane in high traffic, etc), you just got to do it--any hesitation means you are not getting in that lane. Like you know that two foot gap you leave between you and the car in front of  you when stopped at a light?  Yeah, someone will come careening up to you at a breakneck speed and angle the nose of their car into that space, the rest of their car parallel to yours and about a layer of paint away. Signalling is not really a thing; a signal only seems to be turned on when trying to budge your way into a lane does not work (like when they edge in and you are all like, "oh heeeell, no" and proceed to inch up closer to the bumper of the guy in front of you). And no one is afraid to liberally utilize their horns...for any reason. Driving here requires nerves of steel and blood pressure medication.  And an ability to adapt and to tap into latent aggression. Check.

2.  Speed bumps are the new stop sign.  There are very few honest-to-goodness stop signs in this land  Instead, to slow people down at the intersection that is too small for a traffic light, but too busy to just leave alone, we have the speed bump.   These are not your average speed bump.  They are huge. If you go over these much over 10-15 mph you are going to seriously bottom out your car (this is really easy to do, especially at night when you cannot always see them).

Now, these work, for the most part, to slow people down and allow people a chance to complete a turn at those medium-traffic intersections.  However, at intersections without speed bumps (stop signs are ignored), it's pretty much every-man-for-himself chaos.  Again, the person who is going to get where they are going first is the one that is the most aggressive.  There is no allow-the-person-to-your-right to go first nonsense when you both pull up to an intersection.  Sometimes two people of equal parts aggression will go at the same time, getting in each others way, and in general mucking up traffic, until they manage to squeeze past each other by about a centimeter.

3.  Parking.  Unless it is specifically marked that you cannot park there, then pretty much anywhere is a potential parking space.  This means that many of the side streets are lined with parked cars.  Parked cars, particularly when making turns at these speed-bump-controlled intersections, make perfect covers for oncoming traffic (and the occasional jaywalking pedestrian).  They also have a tendency to narrow the streets considerably (and some of these back streets cannot really afford to be narrowed).  This means that if you are on one of these narrowed streets and someone is headed towards you (because they are two-way streets, technically) you get to play this game where you sort of squish your car into any available space (or really, really close to those parked cars on the side of the street).  You then sort of hold your breath as you slip past each other by about a nano-meter.

4. Roundabouts.  I know (like pretty much all of these) that the complete and utter confusion inspired by the roundabout is a completely American problem.  Or maybe it's just mine.  But back home, we don't have very many roundabouts.  This means that we (or, at least I) have no idea how to drive in one.  Particularly during heavy traffic, a relatively small roundabout, and some very aggressive drivers.  Every time I enter one of these I pretty much forget everything I have ever learned about driving and I just get out and hope that the exit I manage to make it to first is the one that I need.

However frustrating (and sometimes terrifying) these four things are, they are all my problems.  The drivers on the road?  They are doing things right--they are simply driving the way that is driven in Bahrain.  I am the problem, because I am the the one that is used to driving in different circumstances.  But I'm learning.  I also apologize in advance for anyone on the road with me when I return to the States.

I am so sorry I don't have any photos/videos of this,because its something to see.  But hey, I'm driving people, not on my phone.

"You Are Named After the Dog?!"

Petra, for those of you who were asleep during 2007 (or who has, shamefully, never watched the action classic Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is a series of temples and tombs--a city really--carved into the side of a canyon in the mountains in southern Jordan.  It was nominated in 2007 for one of the new seven wonders of the world (the previous seven having been mostly destroyed/disappeared), and it won one of the seven spots.

Personally, seeing Petra is on my bucket list (along with the remaining seven wonders and a mixture of other lofty (and some mundane) life goals).  Our trip to Jordan this winter was largely to see this one site, all though we did see some other attractions Jordan had to offer, the tale of which can be found here.

Without further ado, Petra.

Getting to Petra is an adventure in and of itself.  From Amman, it's about a 3 hour drive through some fairly fantastic countryside.  Mountainous and lovely and green it was a startling--and much appreciated--contrast from the largely flat and sand-colored Bahrain.  The greenery eventually gave way to the browns and reds of of the mountains.

Once arriving in Ma'An Jordan, the site is simply a few curvy, crowded roads away.  We stopped and got some shawarma's (sort of like a lamb, french fry, veggie taco) and a ton of water.  We were dropped off by our wonderful driver, Mr. Ramadan, at the ticket office (50 JD, which is roughly 70USD per person).  What we were unaware of at this time was how far the ticket office is from Petra proper.

We exited the visitors center and began about a half mile trek leading to the canyon.   The first thing that hits you after leaving the visitors center is the smell (and overwhelming presence) of donkey/camel/horse poo.  Throughout the tip, you have the option to ride a camel or donkey through parts of Petra (even up stairs!!) for about 5JD (or so they say).  We opted to walk, although it was not due to a lack of offers from some very persistent camel chauffeurs.

The path leading to the canyon

So many options for transpo...and so many sources of poop. 

Along the way to the canyon are caves and some carvings--a teaser for what is to come.  After that initial trek down a well marked path you enter a canyon.  You are in this canyon for about another half mile, give or take--the canyon is gorgeous and we spent far too long meandering through, admiring the colors and shapes of the canyon--and again the occasional hint-carving at what would be coming at the end of the canyon.

The canyon

Hints...

The canyon opens out into the stunning and highly memorable (again, you gotta watch Indian Jones) view of the treasury.  From here, you continue downward, where the canyon opens up.  Here you have some options, as there is so much to explore.  You actually could spend a couple of days here at Petra and I think that if you were to come visit it, spending an overnight in Petra, or Ma'An and getting a multiday pass is probably your best bet.  There is literally so much to see.

The Temple of the Crescent Mood...erm, the Treasury. 

We had heard from an Petra veteran that the place you want to get to, besides the treasury, is the monastery.  The monastery is located almost at the end of the park. Since the park is so big (according to an iphone, we walked 10 miles that day), we headed towards that monastery almost immediately, photographing the views along the way.  To get to the monastery, you must not only walk to the end of the park, but you must also climb up the mountain.  And as it was in China, climbing a mountain in Jordan means stairs.  Lot's and lot's of stairs.  Which some of you may know, are my arch-nemeses.

The stairs...so much stairs. 

Eight hundred stairs later, we reached the top (actually, you could continue for what I am told is a pretty spectacular view of the mountains) and rounded a bend and saw the monastery, which is just as spectacular as the treasury.  We had arrived in Petra around noon and at this point it was almost 2:30.  We decided we had better start back in the direction of our driver, a he was supposed to pick us up to take us back to Amman at about 4:30.

The Monastery

We made our way back down the stairs, surrounded by some truly amazing views of the mountains--and better able to appreciate them now that we were gong down the stairs instead of the much-more-arduous-up.  We paused along some sites on the way back to the entrance, including the tombs, albeit from a distance.

We also purchased some souvenirs along the way, including these bottles with designs inside made from sand--they use ground up rocks from the region for the colors.  A simple thing to remember Petra by, especially with the camel detail, as we passed several camels and their very vocal riders. I had read about these before leaving for Jordan, and was warned to get the ones with the natural colors as the dyed sands fade over time.

Again, you could easily spend several full days in this park, exploring every one of the numerous nooks and crannies, and if Petra is the only thing you wish to see in Jordan, I highly recommend you do--the city of Ma'An has several options for boarding, although it may be difficult to do on a budget as Petra is Jordan's biggest tourist attraction in a country whose economy is dependent on tourism (plus the U.S dollar does not win against the Jordanian Dinar).

"I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds and the sky."

Despite the stairs (and the persistent camel-ride pushers), there is nothing disappointing about Petra. We definitely did not choose poorly.