Bahrain!

So I have hit a port, Bahrain! We've been underway for so long that when they told us that we were going to hit port we didn't have our hopes up. We were supposed to hit a couple ports earlier which got cancelled. We don't get a lot of liberty, but a few hours a day is just fine. Here are a few things you need to know about Bahrain:

• Desert, lots of sand and heat
• Gold City and Gold Souq
• A Navy Base

And that's pretty much it! It's extremely hot and not a whole lot to do. The best part about it is being able to get off the ship, go to the NEX to finally get some much needed supplies, and get food. The base is pretty nice, with a decent food court and stores.

Gold City and Gold Souq are places where you can buy gold. Gold City is ALL gold. It's pretty much a mall dedicated to selling Gold. The gold is really cheap and the owners very aggressive in trying to sell you something. It was a really neat experience. The Gold Souq is a mall that has a lot of Arabic food, clothes, etc. I haven't had the chance to go yet, but there is supposedly a lot of stuff there.

The suits are also very cheap. It's easy to get a custom suit of high quality for a few hundred dollars. Speaking of dollars, the American Dollar isn't worth anything. The Dinar (currency for Bahrain) is worth far more than the American Dollar.

Besides the heat, the next thing that will kill you is the taxi drivers. They are really aggressive and are not afraid to use their horn to let you know that they are coming into you lane and suggest that you move. We went 5 miles and the taxi driver must have laid on the horn about 20 times. 

The ONE thing that almost everyone was excited about was the WiFi. People NEED updates. Our phones are extremely out of date. People who bought Xbox One's need to download the update in order to use it. Watching people make a bee line for the WiFi lounge with backpacks full of xbox's, laptops, tablets, etc was awesome. The kicker was the WiFi was awful. Almost no one could connect and people spent hours trying to connect.

Besides the mall, gold souq, gold city, and the NEX, there really isn't a whole lot to do. Just go to one of those places, come back to base and drink a lot.

One interesting thing about being here is Ramadan. Ramadan is an Arabic holiday where they fast during the daylight hours. There can be no drinking (not even water) or eating during this period. Our chain of command beat this into our heads. The reason it's so important is we can be arrested out in town for violating the fast. And if we are arrested, the government does not have to turn us over to the Navy. We do not have an agreement with them, which means they can keep us for as long as they want. This is really important because there is no separation between religion and state. The religion is the law. If you break their religion you break the law and will be arrested. It's really weird seeing all the restaurants closed during the day. McDonalds, everything. There aren't water fountains either, at least none that I've seen.

Well that's all I've got for now!