I never made it to Bahrain, but heard a lot of good things from friends and
coworkers.
I enjoyed my time in both Kuwait and Iraq. In Kuwait I didn't get close to
any locals, but really enjoyed the place and the work we were doing.
In Iraq, on the other hand, I dealt with locals in thier environment. Most
were extremely poor by American standards, but happy as long as they were
able to keep the lights on and the kids fed. I found the people I dealt
with, both Sunni and Shiite, were just trying to get by, a lot like people
here, but with a lot less.
I'm saddened by the misconception that all Muslims are anti-American wackos.
They're just people.
Thanks for Mahmood's link. Good site.
MMC

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"MMC" wrote in
:

We got a lot of experience cooking grouper in Kuwait when I was there
after the Gulf War.


We ate Gulf Prawns cooked by the chef of The Marina Club in Manama,
Bahrain, as guests of one of the club's board members during our
shipyard tiger team servicing of the USS LaSalle, one of two white ships
in the USN at Bahrain's port. They are simply delicious right out of
Bahraini Dhows that pull up to the Marina Club's dock to sell them to
the fine cuisine restaurant.

Then, one of the amir's distant relatives dropped by to say hello and
took us for a little ride around the island in his big Cigarette
boat....

I was glad Thursday is the Muslim world's "Saturday"....(c;

I'd go back to Bahrain in an instant. The souk, central market, is like
4000 years old! Many of its buildings have the ends of tree limbs
sticking out that hold the adobe together. Bars of pure gold are melted
down on the sidewalk to be poured into gold wire machines to make hand-
made, 22K, gold filagree jewelry, adorned with real, uncultured, Gulf
pearls found by free-breathing pearl divers who can remain underwater
without breathing aparatus for way-to-many minutes before surfacing for
air.

Great place, amazing people.....no matter what our TelAviv TV says.

Have a little Bahrain with your browser. Meet Mahmood!
http://www.mahmood.tv one of Bahrain's crazy bloggers. His website
has pointers to others. Meet real Arabs and their families and have
some fun.... Mahmood is a good example of the Bahrainis I met in the
kingdom.