Thursday, October 25, 2007

Al Manshar and Al Kout



Today I did some laundry and cleaning before setting off on some exploration. One thing I forgot to mention is that the apartment is largely furnished, complete with many new items fresh from IKEA (far, far away from us apparently). Many of them are exactly what we had back in portland, so it's kinda funny to be using the same dishes.

The washing machine took me a while to figure out, as I inadvertantly set it on the "forever" cycle. I had to wait around for it to finish before I could finally leave. My roommate never woke up so I left without him.

First on my list was a haircut. I immediately headed across the street to the little shops that sell all sorts of stuff, cell phones, computer equipment, jewelry, shoes, handbags, etc.... Most of these places expect bargaining. I found a small haircut place staffed by several filipinos and got great haircut there. Then I found a glasses shop to repair my sunglasses that broke the other day. Then I wandered, pricing cell phones and sim cards. I ended up buying just the phone for 11KD (a very basic nokia) as you need an ID to buy the SIM card and I can do that on base.

I wandered the bazaar, just checking stuff out. Eventually I found a filipino restaurant called Mario's and had lunch there....very good. Headed back to the apartment to dump some stuff, then went back out again, this time wandered the mall (Al Manshar) and went down to the gulf area (Al Kout). Took pictures and stuff.

Then I went home...that's about it! Bought some electronics for hooking up the laptop and things, but that's all. Tomorrow is my first day at work, I can't wait!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm surprised at how beautiful everything is. I wouldn't have expected that. Are most places this luxurious, or is it just the area you are in? And where are all the people? It looks deserted!

Jesse said...

I'm sure there are places worse, but we were told that this area was pretty yucky a few years back and that it's been recently re-done. Nonetheless, apparently the "nicer" malls are further north, where the really rich people live. I have deliberately not taken photos of people, as they aren't fond of indescriminate photography. I tried to take more of the Al Manshar mall inside, but the guards told me it wasn't allowed.