In honor of what is going on in Bahrain I decided to post some snapshots. I thought of posting some photos of Egypt but decided that we were getting inundated with enough from the media. I have a lot of love for Bahrain. I've made some amazing friends in the city of Manama. Bahrain is hands down my favorite place to go ashore in the Middle East - it's always the people that make a place special. I have found the Bahraini people to be smiley and very gracious. When I first started coming in and out of the tanker terminal the terminal workers were all a little wary of me and gave me a pretty wide berth. It didn't take them long to warm right up! When I go down to the dock to deliver samples the loadmasters are always trying to coax me into the hut to sit down have tea and sample the different types of foods their wives have packed for them. They are very curious about why my family has sent me to work (I'm very curious about this too) - they are also very concerned that I'm not married yet (I'm not going to lie, sometimes I find this concerning too). Our agents name is Hameed - he found out that I was going to have to spend my birthday aboard - the next day he showed up to the ship with a pair of gold earrings that he and his wife had gone shopping for. Hameed is always calling me on the VHF to make arrangements to attend the vessel when we pull into port. It goes something like this: 'Miss Megan, Miss Megan, How are you, How are you?' 'I'm fine thank you Hameed...' 'Miss Megan how is your family? Your Father? Your Mother?' 'My family is doing great Hameed, thanks for asking!' 'Okay good Miss Megan. So, I see the berth is available...' and so goes the conversation. See! Lovely lovely people!

My favorite things about Bahrain in no particular order are: eating and buying shwarma from my favorite shwarma boys; staying at the Gulf Hotel and gazing up at the glorious chandeliers; rug shopping - oh my, I so love rug shopping (if anyone ever wants a rug let me know and I'll get one for you); feeding the pidgeons; smoking sheesha at my favorite hookah bar; going to the gold souq and looking at jewels - and I have to tell you the pearls are amazing....my list could go on forever!

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