Two Crabs

Happy Holidays from Bahrain!

Merry Christmas to all our friends, family and blog readers around the world! 

Christmas in Bahrain

The Two Crabs are preparing for our second Christmas in the Kingdom of Bahrain.  Unlike certain neighboring countries I won't mention, Bahrain really gets into the Christmas spirit.  All the shopping malls and hotels are decked out in Christmas decorations.  

A few recommendations for where to find Christmas democrations: Of course, the U.S. Navy base has a huge selection of Christmas trees, decorations, and goodies.  Geant at Bahrain Mall has a huge Christmas aisle and sells everything from Santa suits to gift wrapping, artificial trees, tons of toys and even New Years eve poppers and noise makers.  Most of the local nurseries/garden centers sell Poinsetta flowers; the best ones we've seen are at Jawad's and Alosra grocery stores, but expect to pay at least 4BD (almost $12 USD!). 

For the first time in our lives, Mr. and Mrs. Crab broke down and purchased an artificial tree. Unfortunately with our Foreign Service lifestyle, it's not always going to be possible or practical to buy a real Christmas tree. Surprisingly, you can order a REAL Christmas tree at some local stores including Carrfour and Alosra. However, the prices start at 60BD (about $160 USD), and they've been shipped from Finland and not exactly fresh cut by the time they get here!  We got a really nice 6.5 foot tall tree from Balsam Hill and had it shipped to us by HHE. It actually looks pretty nice, decorated with all our worldly ornaments we've collected from our trips around the globe.

Many of my colleagues will be going home for the holidays, but most of us are staying in Bahrain and celebrating with house parties and dinners, and sharing our traditions with our Bahraini colleagues.  The weekend before Christmas also happens to be Bahrain National Day, so everyone will be in a festive mood! The streets and palm trees of Bahrain are decked out in red and white (national colors) lights, banners and flags. It's a beautiful time to be in Bahrain! 

(Sorry about the low-quality photo above, taken from iPad 2.)

Greetings from "Oz"

 After 14 months in Bahrain, the Two Crabs took advantage of one of the best benefits/job perks of the Foreign Service: R&R. 

R&R stands for Rest & Recuperation, and it is a benefit and means of allowing employees to briefly get away from a high-stress, dangerous, isolated, uncomfortable post.  The amount of R&Rs depends on the hardship of a post. For our tour, we were entitled to one R&R during our two-year tour.  As part of this park, the government pays for one airline ticket back to the U.S. or the designaated "R&R point.  For our post, the R&R point is London.  Most people tend to fly back to the States. We went for a third option and decided to spend our R&R at a far-away destination we have always wanted to visit: AUSTRALIA!

The Two Crabs started our trip by flying to Bangkok for three days, then heading off to Sydney. For the next two and a half weeks, we drove from Sydney to Airlie Beach, camping or staying with friends along the way. The photo above was taken in the picture-postcard perfect Whitesunday Islands, off the coast of Airlie Beach. No, this is not a screen saver! 

After Oz, Mr. Crab has now visited every continent (not counting Antarctica), and 65 countries total; and Mrs. Crab has one more to go (South America).  The stop in Bangkok also gave us our first brief glimpse at Southeast Asia, a part of the world that we are looking forward to exploring on our next tour!  

Back in Bahrain, and back to the grind!