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.