Looking forward to...

It's been weeks since I've gone there and I'm looking forward to spending the weekend in Bahrain! 

But I have to be fair, life in KSA is actually very enjoyable and I hope that's the feeling you get from reading this blog. Still, I always look forward to going to Bahrain for the weekend! 

Anyone watching people queuing up on King Fahd Causeway, waiting to cross the border to Bahrain would think that they are after alcohol and/or women. This may be true for some Saudis, but I guess most people are actually after something else. I'm not saying I don't enjoy having a drink, still it's definitely not what I'm after when I go to Bahrain. Going to other Islamic neighbouring countries (Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain), you notice so many differences with KSA, which go way beyond the legality of alcohol. 

What I enjoy so much abroad is: 

- I can practise my driving, 

- I don't have to wear an abaya (black long-sleeved dress) on top of my clothes (and I can therefore enjoy wearing nice clothes!), 

- I can actually try on clothes before buying them (in KSA you first buy, then go to the mall's bathroom to try the clothes on, then go back to the store to exchange the items if they don't fit), 

- my shopping is not interrupted by prayers (in KSA, shops close around 25-30 minutes 4 times a day) 

- and I can enjoy eating out in nicely decorated restaurants, in an open, lively dining room, playing live or recorded music.

Just so you get an idea, that's how restaurants look like in Jubail:

There are always two entrances leading to two sections: single section and family section. However, your marital status doesn't really matter. If you are a married man going on your own, or with male friends, you have to go to the single section. If your are a single woman, you have to go to the family section. So the single section is more like a man-only section, and the family section is for women and the men who accompany them. 

And that's how most family sections look like around here: rows of compartments closed with curtains, so no one can accidentally see a woman's face. There's obviously no music, no TV, no decoration. You hardly hear anything apart from "excuse me!" screamed from the compartments to the waiters when they need anything. If the compartment is closed with a wooden screen, like in the picture below, the customers simply knock on the screen to get the waiter's attention. (Obviously the women put their niqab back on before the waiter opens the curtains to attend them).

Now you know what I'm looking forward to this weekend! (And that's not having a nice glass of red wine to accompany my meal!)