From Kuala Lumpur to Athens, via Bahrain

August 5, 2010

We flew from Kuala Lumpur to Athens via Bahrain. Yes, Bahrain, as in next to Iran in the Middle East. We had to stay overnight in Bahrain, due to flight scheduling and to break up the trip. I’ve never been in such a different world. It made going to Malaysia feel like we’d simply traveled to Philadelphia. In fact, it was almost culture shock for me. Southeast Asians cannot say no to you. They speak quietly. They dodge conflict so adeptly that you don’t even know you’ve been dodged. Bahrain-ians practically barked at you when they spoke. I was reminded of some Israelis I knew back in NYC. They were direct, said no a lot, honest, social to the point of being in your face, and loudly charming.

But, that was the men because ALL the women were covered in black burkhas. I mean COVERED. We saw one woman whose entire body, and I mean ENTIRE, was covered – she even wore gloves to cover her hands. Even her eyes were covered. On the flight to Bahrain, I was the only uncovered woman. I started to feel naked. Men might be staring at my bare hands.

Gulf Air got us a free hotel for the night, since our connection was the following day. The Golden Tulip of Bahrain is a nice hotel. It has gold accents. It has a beautiful spread for the buffet breakfast. And we could not eat any of it. In fact, we had to stay in a separate, second-class wing (misleadingly called the “garden wing,” considering that there are NO gardens anywhere in the desert state of Bahrain). This wing is reserved only for people forced to stay overnight in Bahrain due to their flights. People who don’t pay for their hotel rooms. People who don’t deserve an elevator – you had to carry your suitcases up to the second floor. People who have a separate, lesser “Pool Café” to eat in with separate, lesser food. Children who can’t swim in the pool because we weren’t told they’d hold our suitcases at the airport. We were amazed at how easily Bahrain-ians created a second class world, within 1^st class luxury.

As Americans we were outraged by our separate but unequal status. In America, people would loudly protest to the hotel manager over this undemocratic system. No one would settle for it. But, in Bahrain, none of the other second class travelers complained. The Turks and Greeks seated next to us seemed completely satisfied.

We were moping until they put out the hummus. Since there is no decent hummus to be found in Asia, we made like the starved masses for the hummus platter. My kids systematically cleared the entire hummus platter. To the point that my entire family finished dinner, except for Boom, who stayed behind to methodically dip the pita until he cleaned up a huge pile of hummus. You think you’ve had hummus, but you have not really had hummus (creamy like milk!) until you’ve eaten hummus in a desert in the Middle East.

I got in bed, exhausted by 3pm, falling asleep, until I was woken up, convinced that there were bed bugs nipping at me. Ken claims he felt none. Yet another confirmation of my second class status for me.

We woke at 4am, determined to spend at least an hour outside of our hotel before leaving. We’d actually planned on taking a tour of Bahrain the previous day. But, the Gulf Air representative baldly laughed at us when we asked him to recommend a tour bus for the afternoon. He said, “Don’t take a tour of Bahrain. It’s too hot. But, Bahrain is a beautiful country.” I completely doubted that the heat should stop us from touring Bahrain.

He was completely right. The moment we stepped outside of our hotel at 5am, we were shocked at the heat. This is before the sun has fully risen! There was just early morning light. Our glasses fogged up. Our camera fogged up. And, I felt like I was walking through jello, the air was so thick. We walked the block to the beach where there was a waterside walking area, like on the Hudson in NYC. Except there was only one lone jogger, inexplicably jogging in his pants, collared shirt, and un-jogging shoes. Only people without cars walked on this waterside walk – immigrants from India and Bangladesh without enough money to buy a car. It was all sand, palm trees, and a view of Bahrain’s skyscrapers, industrial warehouses, and the city’s growth, not inland, but out onto water.

They were building huge skyscrapers on the water. You can see one above, called the Bahrain World Trade Center, with a luxury mall in the bottom and windmills (unused!) on the front. It was a jarring sight of progress. If you look into the past, just beyond the skyscrapers lining the water, you could see the old city of Bahrain -- It is all sand-colored buildings, looking like a mirage as it seemed to disappear into the surrounding desert sand.

After 10 minutes of walking, we turned around and practically ran back to our hotel. Then they told us we’d have to wait for our breakfast as they served a rich cornucopia of a breakfast buffet to the “regular paying” early bird customers. Starved by 7am, we were finally let into our small side room to eat overcooked scrambled eggs with the non-paying travelers in transit. Then, relieved, we were whisked away to Greece!