Not much to say really. Frankly, I’m just too tired to type. I’ll let the photo captions do the talking. My boss resigned and will be moving on to a new job in Geneva early next year, so everything has become quite busy for me all of a sudden.
The last couple of days have been very emotionally draining. It’s the feeling of life moving on that has hit me quite hard. I feel like shit. That aside, everything’s great. Enjoy the photos.
My flight back to BAH was quite bizarre. On board I bumped into Sarah Geronimo, Mark Bautista, and entourage (pls refer to your local Filipino) who were to perform at a CX-sponsored concert in Bahrain, so I had a quick chat with the two of them during the trip. I also knew the inflight service manager (Jang Jang) and first officer (Steve) personally. Met Steve once in Bahrain when I showed him this place for really good and dirt-cheap local food, and he had been thankful ever since. He invited me to the cockpit for takeoff and landing, allowed me to listen in on air traffic control, and explained the entire processes to me. All the fun without the pain of applying for and enduring a jumpseat for 8 hours! The view from the cockpit of the stars scattered in the cloudless night sky with flames from gas wells across the Arabian Sea below you is TO DIE FOR.
Got back to the office and the first thing my personnel manager said to me was that we had a situation - a senior purser passed out during check-out the previous night and was ambulanced to the hospital. Paid her a visit at her hotel room and she was visibly in bad shape. She was freaking out before because she was afraid of falling ill out in the Middle East where not only would there be no one to help, you’d wake up in a desert cave and be subjected to a brainwashing session called ‘Literal Quran 101′ followed by ‘Suicide Belt Fundamentals’. She was therefore quite surprised but relieved to see an Asian face. Managed to take her to a private hospital to get a second opinion. She was certified fit to travel the next day, so I updated HQ of her status, made sure she got a comfy business class seat home and that she had enough cash for her extended stay.
We had extra sponsor VIP tickets to the Sarah/Mark concert, so I went over to the crew hotel and invited Abby, the lone Filipina flight attendant on her flight, to the concert and a private photo session at the CX office that afternoon. She was shocked throughout her entire stay in Bahrain, but who could blame her? Definitely not your typical crew outport experience. Had to leave the concert early for the airport to make sure everything was ok with our sick crew member’s flight home.
Went diving over the weekend and explored more of Bahrain’s sea urchin-infested waters. We bought compact knives with us to kill/break them open and feed the fishies - doing our part to revive the Bahraini corals. All-you-can-eat raw sea urchin, anyone?
CXBAH said goodbye to Mercy, our senior res officer who retired this week. A sad occasion but got a chance to hang with most of the CXBAH team.
Daytripped to the one place outside of Bahrain immediately reachable by car. This city known for its heavy industry, particularly in oil drilling (surprise?) and construction, and is connected to our little island by the King Fahd Causeway. Made good use of my spanking new Saudi visa to visit one of the most conservative Muslim states in the world, where the King recently declared his belief in women’s rights by saying that "one day" women would be allowed to DRIVE. Good stuff. I’m sure a woman’s right to wear a t-shirt is right around the corner as well, say, within the next two decades?
Younas, our messenger from CX Saudi Arabia was kind enough to come over to pick me up. He did some serious speeding, which combined with his connections with Saudi immigration got me from one office to the other in one-and-a-half hours when it would have taken anyone else three.
I had to cut back on photography for fear of getting my camera confiscated - a woman’s consent is required if she is included in a photo in any way, and 9 out of 10 usually say no. The causeway was where most of the shots were taken, though I did sneak in a shot of that Chinese restaurant. Dhahran was quite a dead city due to Ramadan, so I’ll definitely return soon now that everything’s back to normal.
Survived Ramadan with a final score of -5lbs. Went back to HKG for a few meetings with the head office and saw a few friends. It was quite disorganized due to the last-minute nature of this trip. Sorry guys and girls.
Oh yes, one more thing - While cruising through several Dhahrani streets on my way home Younas casually mentioned (with a straight face) that before 9-11, the area I was passing through used to love the US, but that today no American or British person ever gets through without getting shot at. Thing is, Younas doesn’t have the best English around, so our communication was limited to the point where we couldn’t really joke with each other. And you wonder why they sent me to this region.
I’ll keep that American passport of mine safely tucked away in my bedroom and bring out the Canto-English, fank yoo felly mutchu.
So I arrive at work Sunday morning and find a Park & Shop bag with two packs of Calbee potato chips on my desk. I was absolutely puzzled. After asking the ticketing desk staff where it came from, they told me some lady with glasses that they believe to be cabin crew dropped it off Friday morning (when I was off on my weekend).
Then it came to me - I had mentioned on several occasions to CX crew visiting Bahrain that out here I missed Calbee chips more than Cantonese food (which I mentally substitute with Korean food here). Looked inside the bag. Nothing but a receipt. No message nor name. Very sweet of her, whoever she is.
Deployed to Dubai on an inventory study, as well as to meet the troops. James, our Country Manager UAE & Oman, was the most gracious of hosts. Spent most of the weekend talking about everything from route strategy to top 5 hottest women. Drove around the city, saw all that there was to see, ate all there was to eat, and even went on a run with him.
I originally planned to stay no longer than one night considering Dubai’s notoriety for bloodsucking hoteliers. Hard to fully despise them since part of my job is to be a bloodsucker myself. However, the rate for one night at the five-star Shangri-La during normal periods turned out to get me four during Ramadan, and so four nights it was. Yummy.
Called up Jin, Dubai’s own feng shui guru. A good Singaporean friend of mine from back in my days in Taipei who quit life as a doctor (and as a heterosexual) to have the time of his life in the Middle East. Did lots of catching up with him, and laughed about how we would never have imagined meeting up out in Dubai. I’ve learned to react to his gay sexual innuendos with nothing more than a shake of the head and a smirk. It helps that he’s emphasized over the years that I’m ‘not his type.’ Look out, Matt Swisher! I’m not trying to advertise on his behalf, but do look up his weekly column on the back page feng shui section of the SCMP Sunday Post!
My request for a visa to Iran was rejected, which I’ve been told was standard practice for first time applicants - apparently my next attempt, provided I have the same paperwork, will be approved now that I’ve popped my cherry. Can’t wait. To go to Iran, I mean.
Many other trips lined up for more unusual places - Dubai is ‘Middle East for Beginners’ just as Hong Kong is the same for Asia. But seeing as nobody ever leaves comments on my blog entries (ahem), I could just be talking to myself right now.
Mom just finished performing in the last stop of her Canto Opera World Tour ‘05 in London, but was getting increasingly worried as she will be unable to catch a flight home due to no seats available. With a little back office magic I managed to arrange for her to pick up free tickets to…Bahrain. She’ll get to see le monde de Max before she boards her flight, wide open in business class, back home. Lets hope she copes well with Ramadan.
Managed to spend a full week in Hong Kong when it ‘just so happened’ that I had meetings at CX City 4 work days in a row, and ‘just so happened’ to sandwich a long weekend in between : P Met up with friends and did the usual stuff. Owen milked a big hot-pot meal out of my re-departure, and Francis managed to seduce me and Peter into an overnight game of AOE2.
Sat in the back both ways, but considering the trip was free, I really shouldn’t complain. Was welcomed back to BAH with my ‘new old’ ride - a silver 2002 Nissan Sunny. It’ll get me from point A to point B, so it’s all good. FT really took the time to make sure it got a decent restoration, replacing the tires and cleaned up the interior. The leather was a little overwaxed though, to the point where my hands would feel waxy just from touching the wheel. I don’t know why, but they even waxed the brakepedal (?!) so now it squeaks a lot down there whenever I’m in a traffic jam.
Travelwise, the biggest disappointment so far has been the shifting of the Regional Meeting from Islamabad to…Bahrain. Pakistan visa problems for many of the managers. By missing out on Islamabad, it did make attending the Chinese National Day Celebration possible though. Lots of drinking, lots of eating and lots of standing and ‘blowing water.’ Bahrain indeed is not a huge place - over my 5 weeks’ worth of meeting people, I realised I already knew about a third of all the big shots that were at the celebration. There was so much variety at the celebration buffet I had to resist the temptation to try everything (which would have been impossible), and stuck with what I knew I liked. I wasn’t hungry then. I’m hungry now, and that buffet is all I can think about.
Speaking of hungry, Ramadan’s right around the corner. One month of daytime fasting up ahead, so I went to the supermarket to load up. Wendy and Alice showed (pointed) me around as I drove, and even led me to the local Asian market. Frozen shumai, chasiubau and fishballs…mmm…
More pictures uploaded. Hopefully I’ll be able to include a few shots every time I post. My thoughts on a few things:
ALCOHOL - You’ll find posers everywhere, and Bahrain is no different in that aspect. What IS different is that over here, you can’t do anything but pose. You’ll see guys with black leather jackets, baggy pants, slicked-back hair, bling, and a bottle of…neon-red fanta cherry soda. Thing is, you won’t find booze on any supermarket shelf in Bahrain. It took me 3 attempts to find a specialty liquor store for white wine to cook with, and these stores are legally prohibited from selling to Muslims. I see many nights of alcohol-free business dinners ahead of me. My liver is happy. But then, there’s the hubble-bubble. I hate it when they make me inhale…
FOOD - It’s what the cabin crew enjoy the most here, but they’re only here 2 days at a time. There’s good Iranian, Lebanese, Italian, Thai, Korean, Indian, Filipino, Persian, American cuisine, and some decent Japanese stuff. See something missing? Yes. I brought over two bottles of oyster sauce, and found nothing to use it with. I dream even of the Cathay City food court now.
ROUNDABOUTS - Bahrainis are obsessed with roundabouts. They are everywhere throughout the island, and I pass through a minimum of six of them everyday. I’ve gotten good with handling them though, as you will see in the pics. At least they’re good for buying me thinking time when I’m lost.
WORK - A couple of trips lined up for September. Going back to HKG on the 16th for a meeting with Big Rick, KT and Gay-on, and also to sort out a few matters on behalf of the BAH office. Big Rick told me of his Frankfurt and Prague duty-travel plans, which placed alongside my itinerary, made the two of us feel like James Bond and…well…Osama bin Laden, respectively.
Met with the Chinese and Japanese ambassadors to Bahrain early on. The local Chinese/Japanese/Korean community is small and very close-knit, and CX seems to command a lot of respect because of its identity. I stuffed myself with Korean food once, which was as close to a ‘fix’ as it gets for me. But upon receiving my business card, the owner sat me down with his buddies as I tried to leave, and for three hours, made me drink, eat even more (the food just kept coming), and sit through the Korean conversation with his friends. Once in a while he’d throw me a line or two of broken English out of pity. A very warm guy though. Communication was almost entirely based on body language, but it was enough. I was just looking for a quick meal then, so now I don’t go alone unless I know I’ve got time to kill.
WOMEN - People in HKG kept telling me about how beautiful the women were here. Well, they’re not.
Before I start, I’d like to apologize to everyone who got spammed by Friendster due to my blog update. I looked into it, and the only way to stop it is to turn off ‘friend updates’ under account settings>blogs. Sorry again.
My HKGDXBBAH flight was masterfully overbooked - every passenger that showed up got on, and the aircraft was filled to the brim, leaving precisely one seat in JCL for the lone offloadable passenger - me. Sat next to a chef that got recruited by the Burj Al Arab, who was cool enough to share a few kitchen secrets with me, and even offered to host me at the invite-only underwater seafood restaurant, where he will be working!
So I’ve been told this has been one on Bahrain’s ‘cooler’ Summers. It’s been averaging ~43-45° C. Lucky me. Weather forecast for the next 2 months: Bright and sunny. Hot as hell. Aside from that, all has been great. Met with the boss and the rest of the CXBAH team, reviewed what’s at hand that needs to be looked into. Even went bowling with the airport crew, who collectively seem to have the makings of a pretty decent Arab hip-hop group, on par with Kim Jong-Il and his boys.
Uploaded some pictures of the desk and the pad to the photo album. Very modest office space as you can see, but won’t be spending too much time there anyway. All settled in now, and even got internet hooked up, which is why I’m posting so soon. The place comes with Satellite TV, ADSL internet, rooftop pool, gym, games room, sauna and steam room, and even housekeeping service. They just came in and even did my dishes. Can’t complain about that. Have my own walk-in closet too…Cathay has been kind to me, though a little cost-of-living allowance sure wouldn’t make things worse (right, ELAINE?).
The previous A2 totaled the car prior to my arrival, so we’re waiting for ECC approval to get a ‘new’ second-hand car. Boss on leave, so using his for now. Ever dreamed of driving recklessly but was afraid you’d get honked at by the world? Everyone does the former, and no-one the latter. So it’s been fun driving here. I’ve been here for a few days, and have yet to see someone signal.
