Area Tour

This is a changeover day between days and nights so having come off-watch at 7pm yesterday I will be on-watch at 7pm this evening giving me 24hrs between watches and so a little bit of time to have a look around. Consequently I had a drive around with one of my fellow watchkeepers to get a bit of local orientation and see where things are and where not to go - there are a few, literally 'Black Flagged' Palestinian areas to keep well clear of but the rest of the place is largely benign.
We went for a drive out to two of the big, and I mean really big, malls that are out here and encompass just about every shop name you have ever heard of including Marks and Spencers, Carrefour and Debenhams as well as endless rows of very upmarket clothes and jewellery shops. One which did catch my eye was a massive toy store where you could get stuffed animals that were only about half the size of the real thing – fair enough for your run of the mill cat or bunny but how about a half-size gorilla, or elephant! Or if it really takes your fancy and the room is large enough a half-size camel or giraffe for goodness sake. I'll try and get some photos the next time I'm out there so you can see I am not making this up.
We briefly visited the Souk area but due to difficulties in parking did not get out but the area looks very interesting with lots of little shops including tailors who will happily knock you up a hand made suit in any design you fancy for about £50 which has to be a bargain – I will definitely be looking into that. From the sublime to the ridiculous we came from the slightly tatty area of the Souk back past the Bahrain World Trade Centre which consists of two towers in a very point sail type shape joined by two propellers which are wind turbines to provide power to the building.
So all in all a quick but good introduction to the area and a few ideas for places to explore later.