Chris and Cole Goodbye to Saudi

The departure wall at Dammam Airport, just prior to passport-exit-check: we bid farewell to Chris; then we all drive to Bahrain (typical 90-minute crossing time at the frontier), check in at Holiday Inn Express, walk to dinner at the nearby Arirang Korean restaurant, then drive Coleman to Bahrain airport to bid him farewell. Ironically, due to the vagaries of air-ticketing, Chris flew to Bahrain to make his flight connection--he passed through there an hour before Coleman. Then back to the relatively-conveniently located hotel for an easy night's sleep (too-smoky bar, cough! cough!), a pleasant breakfast meeting a Saudi ex-military guy (apparently visiting Bahrain in order to boost his blood alcohol content, now hungover, still quite red in the face, and very amicable).

Barb is at Ellie&Jean's Beauty Salon to get her hair done while I wander through Bahrain's business district looking for lunch with wi-fi. There is a McDonald's clone -- even the logo is a yellow lightning-bolt that resembles golden arches...but they don't have wi-fi, so it's not a real clone! (Yes, Bahrain has real McDonald's, too, across the street--the local clone probably is owned by the Crown Prince's cousin).
And I found a pleasant Indian buffet tucked away in a multi-story shopping mall, with wi-fi to boot, so I can write up my blog entry.
On to Bangkok this evening...

Comments

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico . There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver. Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government. As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time. I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government? And what will it take to recover from the damage? Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever? Only ni...

Yikes! Russian Chocolate!

The other day we chanced upon a Slavic grocery store. We went inside, marveled at all the products from various eastern european countries, from Czechia to Poland to Yugoslavia to Russia to Kazakhstan. I grabbed a chocolate bar... and now I realize that it's Russian, imported via Germany. The ingredients list is written in Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; and a separate ingredients sticker pasted over it in German. No Portuguese or Spanish or English. Hmm. How did it get here? And what sort of sanctions are imposed on Russian confectioners? The chocolate itself is just okay, nothing special.

De Montpellier à Bayonne

[25mar22] De Montpellier à Bayonne: Easy morning, clean up the apartment, walk the suitcases to Place de la Comédie , take Tramway one stop to the train station, get breakfast (regional specialties), train first class car #2 to Montpellier, changing trains is Toulouse. Second class is 2X2 seating while first-class is 2x1 seating with a bit more legroom and slightly nicer seats, but otherwise not much different. Fortunately these intercités trains have good wi-fi. Arrival at Toulouse is a bit delayed; Jeff runs to the ObjetsTrouvés office seeking his eyeglasses. Fortunately the office is open, the guy helpful; he shows me his box of found eyeglasses. Mine are not there. Disappointing, yet it's somewhat reassuring to know for sure that they are truly lost. I run back to Track #3, where our next train is boarding—we (and others) struggle to identify car #13. Even other passengers cannot find #13. Eventually I ask a worker, who...

Thomas journals

Search This Blog