So we knew when we got to San Diego that we would both eventually be PCSing to Manama, Bahrain. Both my husband and I were very excited for this because this now meant we wouldn’t have to spend 6 months together and 6 months apart. Much better that I get to stay with my husband and only miss him a few weeks at a time rather than several months.
We were originally set to depart San Diego on February 14, 2014. Valentine’s Day. This would have been our second year (In a Row!) moving on Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, the Tuesday before we were set to depart, our red government passports (finally…) came in. Normally, this would not have been a problem but since we didn’t have them when they first purchased our plane tickets, they used my maiden name on my tickets and I was going to just use my blue civilian passport (I’m a slacker and never had it updated with my married name). But dang it, when those freaking red passports came in I had NO CHOICE but to now use my red one……This presented a problem. My beautiful, new, red passport had my married name on it and my plane tickets all had my maiden name. Great. At first we thought it would not be a big deal and all they had to do was change my name but no. They had to cancel my tickets and re-submit them which meant I got bumped from my flight and so my husband did as well. Here I am, all prepared to leave on our amazing adventure Friday and we get delayed until Monday. Awesome. I mean, we did get to spend a little more time in the great state of California and admire beautiful San Diego a little longer but my fur babies were already gone and this meant we really did not have a reason to stay! This whole, leaving later thing, presented us with other problems as well.
Since we were supposed to leave Friday, we had it all set up and prepared that our truck, which we were shipping to Bahrain, would leave on Thursday and we would just figure out a way to get from the car place and also to the airport. Not a big deal. NOW, however, we not only had to figure out a way from the car place and to the airport, we have to figure out what to do with ourselves all weekend since we also had a relatively low amount of food. We pretty much had no choice but to get a rental car. Not too big of a deal, but annoying none the less when we were not anticipating the need. We ended up getting one from Enterprise in Lemon Grove and they were nothing but helpful. We rented it Thursday from Lemon Grove and just returned it to the airport when we arrived for our flight. So here we are, Monday afternoon, sitting at the San Diego airport waiting for our flight to board. We did not get there a ridiculous amount of time early so it was not bad at all. From San Diego we had a 5 hour flight the the Dulles airport in Virginia where our plane was actually supposed to land 3 minutes after our next flight was to start boarding. Luckily, the flight from San Diego to Virginia went really well and we actually ended up arriving about 30 minutes early. I even had time to squeeze in some Dunkin' Donuts before boarding! Yum! (My secret addiction ever since living in Newport…) We boarded our flight in Virginia and were bound for Kuwait where we had a 1 hour 15 minute layover before getting on our 1 hour flight to Bahrain. Overall, the trip was pretty easy going and not bad at all. We, well, I, got really lucky on our international flight because we did not have anyone sitting in the third seat next to us and so got to lay down for most of the 12+ hour flight! My husband was too tall so he got to be my pillow and foot rest intermittently….
When we arrived in Bahrain, we had to go through customs which, to be honest, went much quicker than when you are trying to get back into the United States (Don’t even get me started!) We were actually through in probably less than 15 minutes. To me, from past experience, that was insane! These Bahrainis really know what they are doing! From there we joined the crew’s ChEng (Chief Engineering Officer) and another sailor to go and collect our baggage. Now, the movers packed most of our stuff but we knew it would not be arriving for about 70 - 90 days…….that’s a long time to go without a variety of clothing….So, needless to say, we brought quite a bit of stuff with us! Ok, maybe it was more than quite a bit…..We brought nearly our entire wardrobes with us so we would be prepared for anything! In grand total we had 5 sea bags, 2 suitcases, 1 carry on, and 2 backpacks as our personal items. If you have any idea what a sea bag is, you were thinking how crazy we are before you even go to the rest of it! Let me tell you, those are the way to go when packing clothing. Not only are they cheap, about $23.00, but you can fit an insanely huge amount of stuff in them if you know how to pack them right! My husband knows how to pack them right… Lucky for us, when on official military business, all active duty personel and dependents traveling with them, can have up to 4 checked bags weighing up to 70 pounds each + 1 carry on bag + 1 personal bag EACH! Thank you United!! Needless to say, we had a ton of crap to collect form the baggage claim. Thankfully, if all made it together, none of it got lost, and so far, we have nothing damaged. That, to me, is a very successful flight!
We gathered all of our things, as did the other two with us, and we made our way out to meet the Senior Chief. He met us and we piled into the two vans that awaited to take us to our hotels. The Navy truly takes care of it’s people when they PCS to another country because we were lucky enough to have the vans take us to our hotel and thankful to not have to get a rental car right away. Phew! That has saved us a little money so far, for that, I am thankful! Now, we were on our way to our hotel, The Dragon, in Amway.
A few days prior to leaving, we made a reservation through the proper channels at our hotel. When the Navy Gateway Inn and Suites gets booked up, they send us out in town until we can find somewhere to live. Let me tell you, this freaking hotel is nicer than any apartment we have ever had. The standard of living seems to be much higher here and the places are huge because their culture has different family dynamics than we do back in the states. Our hotel room is two bedrooms, 1 office (which has a futon and could be a third bedroom), a living room, a full kitchen (sans dishes, etc.), a dining room (adjacent to living room), and each bedroom and the office have their own full bathrooms plus a little half bath in the hallway between the living room and front door……Um, can we live here? Not only do we get all of this, we also have floor to ceiling windows in both the master bedroom and the living room with an amazing view of the picture-perfect light blue lagoon/bay. Oh my gosh, I never want to leave! The water is so beautiful and clear and sparkling…..It is seriously straight out of a movie. Oh but wait, there is more! Not only do we have the amazing room and view, but we also have a free breakfast every morning! They will even make us omelets, pancakes, or waffles to order. Yum! Everyone there is also very nice and accommodating. I would recommend the hotel to anyone whom would be here for any length of time.
So once we were at our hotel, we pretty much crashed. We were not yet tired enough for bed so we watched a little tv, not for very long, and then made our way to our comfy bed and were OUT. We had to get up the next day to go to a housing brief on base but that really wasn’t an issue because our bodies though a couple of hours of sleep was long enough! Five days later and we still can’t sleep very well past 4 or 4:30 am….ugh. We had other things to do on base as well such as get new sim cards for our iPhones among other things. Once we were done on base, we headed back to our hotel with the other families that were staying there in our “Dragon” van. That night we had Papa Johns (Real adventurous, right?) and crashed somewhere between 5 and 6. Nothing too big in our day but we were still wore out.
The next day, Thursday, we were to go house hunting with Senior Chief and the realtor Annette. Seriously, I still cannot believe what $2,200.00 will get us here versus in the US. It’s amazing! We started out with places in Juffair. Basically the city/ downtown right outside of base. It would be nice because of the convenience and delivery from pretty much anywhere 24/7 but the places we were seeing were either not the nicest or tiny! I knew, from looking online, that we could do better. Our second area was Hidd. The first place we saw there was amazing. It was 4 or 5 bedrooms with another room that could be used as an office and the main area, with the kitchen, dining room, and living room, was huge and open. All one floor and I loved it! Actually, we both did! The only down fall was, no private parking/garage area. There was covered parking which is certainly a plus but my husband has been dreaming of having a garage forever. This is why the second place was even better.The second place we saw in Hidd was just as nice as the first one and bigger but it was split up between two floors and the roof. There is the kitchen, dining room, living room, and a bedroom on the first floor as well as a small bathroom, three bedrooms on the second floor with one having THE most amazing closet (Which I have already claimed!) and it will probably be our master bedroom. All of the bedrooms also have their own full bathroom. Then, if you go up to the roof there is a room, maid’s quarters, with the washer and dryer. This I also claimed to be my art room! Haha Hey, my husband is going to be on the ship a lot…..he doesn’t need as many rooms as me. So each of us will get an office and we will even have a room for a new addition, if that time comes. This place would also be really great for entertaining for when we want to have people over. We really liked it!So on the Thursday after we arrived we tried to go in and get our pre-contract but did not have all of the paperwork we needed (even though we technically did…) so, since the weekend here is Friday and Saturday, we had to wait until Sunday to go and get our pre- contract (with the darn paperwork we had with us that would have worked on Thursday!) Now, we just have to decide what we want to negotiate with the landlord!
On the Sunday after we arrived we had to go through something called INDOC which is an indoctrination to the base. There were all kinds of briefs over Sunday and Monday talking about safety, programs for families, the local culture, and so much more! Most of it was quite boring but some was rather interesting. For example, my husband and I really enjoyed the Arabic culture brief and plan to go to more classes given by the same person. It was quite interesting but the whole thing was very, very long.
Since INDOC we have just be taking care of stuff we need done such as applying for our visas to be able to get our CPR cards. You need the CPR card to do any kind of contract here such as phones. I also went back to our villa to take more pictures and make a list of what we want and what we want moved and to where. It also gave me a better idea of which rooms would be what. I did this with our realtor while my husband was underway on the ship for a day getting a feel for what they need to do when they take over the hull. I cannot wait until we get to move into the villa!So far, I really like Bahrain. The people are very nice even though you do get the occasional strange look. Driving is certainly different as people seem to have no regard for traffic laws at all. Overall, though, I really like it and I already told my husband I never want to leave!! (At least 2 years is a start!)
We were originally set to depart San Diego on February 14, 2014. Valentine’s Day. This would have been our second year (In a Row!) moving on Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, the Tuesday before we were set to depart, our red government passports (finally…) came in. Normally, this would not have been a problem but since we didn’t have them when they first purchased our plane tickets, they used my maiden name on my tickets and I was going to just use my blue civilian passport (I’m a slacker and never had it updated with my married name). But dang it, when those freaking red passports came in I had NO CHOICE but to now use my red one……This presented a problem. My beautiful, new, red passport had my married name on it and my plane tickets all had my maiden name. Great. At first we thought it would not be a big deal and all they had to do was change my name but no. They had to cancel my tickets and re-submit them which meant I got bumped from my flight and so my husband did as well. Here I am, all prepared to leave on our amazing adventure Friday and we get delayed until Monday. Awesome. I mean, we did get to spend a little more time in the great state of California and admire beautiful San Diego a little longer but my fur babies were already gone and this meant we really did not have a reason to stay! This whole, leaving later thing, presented us with other problems as well.
Since we were supposed to leave Friday, we had it all set up and prepared that our truck, which we were shipping to Bahrain, would leave on Thursday and we would just figure out a way to get from the car place and also to the airport. Not a big deal. NOW, however, we not only had to figure out a way from the car place and to the airport, we have to figure out what to do with ourselves all weekend since we also had a relatively low amount of food. We pretty much had no choice but to get a rental car. Not too big of a deal, but annoying none the less when we were not anticipating the need. We ended up getting one from Enterprise in Lemon Grove and they were nothing but helpful. We rented it Thursday from Lemon Grove and just returned it to the airport when we arrived for our flight. So here we are, Monday afternoon, sitting at the San Diego airport waiting for our flight to board. We did not get there a ridiculous amount of time early so it was not bad at all. From San Diego we had a 5 hour flight the the Dulles airport in Virginia where our plane was actually supposed to land 3 minutes after our next flight was to start boarding. Luckily, the flight from San Diego to Virginia went really well and we actually ended up arriving about 30 minutes early. I even had time to squeeze in some Dunkin' Donuts before boarding! Yum! (My secret addiction ever since living in Newport…) We boarded our flight in Virginia and were bound for Kuwait where we had a 1 hour 15 minute layover before getting on our 1 hour flight to Bahrain. Overall, the trip was pretty easy going and not bad at all. We, well, I, got really lucky on our international flight because we did not have anyone sitting in the third seat next to us and so got to lay down for most of the 12+ hour flight! My husband was too tall so he got to be my pillow and foot rest intermittently….
When we arrived in Bahrain, we had to go through customs which, to be honest, went much quicker than when you are trying to get back into the United States (Don’t even get me started!) We were actually through in probably less than 15 minutes. To me, from past experience, that was insane! These Bahrainis really know what they are doing! From there we joined the crew’s ChEng (Chief Engineering Officer) and another sailor to go and collect our baggage. Now, the movers packed most of our stuff but we knew it would not be arriving for about 70 - 90 days…….that’s a long time to go without a variety of clothing….So, needless to say, we brought quite a bit of stuff with us! Ok, maybe it was more than quite a bit…..We brought nearly our entire wardrobes with us so we would be prepared for anything! In grand total we had 5 sea bags, 2 suitcases, 1 carry on, and 2 backpacks as our personal items. If you have any idea what a sea bag is, you were thinking how crazy we are before you even go to the rest of it! Let me tell you, those are the way to go when packing clothing. Not only are they cheap, about $23.00, but you can fit an insanely huge amount of stuff in them if you know how to pack them right! My husband knows how to pack them right… Lucky for us, when on official military business, all active duty personel and dependents traveling with them, can have up to 4 checked bags weighing up to 70 pounds each + 1 carry on bag + 1 personal bag EACH! Thank you United!! Needless to say, we had a ton of crap to collect form the baggage claim. Thankfully, if all made it together, none of it got lost, and so far, we have nothing damaged. That, to me, is a very successful flight!
We gathered all of our things, as did the other two with us, and we made our way out to meet the Senior Chief. He met us and we piled into the two vans that awaited to take us to our hotels. The Navy truly takes care of it’s people when they PCS to another country because we were lucky enough to have the vans take us to our hotel and thankful to not have to get a rental car right away. Phew! That has saved us a little money so far, for that, I am thankful! Now, we were on our way to our hotel, The Dragon, in Amway.
A few days prior to leaving, we made a reservation through the proper channels at our hotel. When the Navy Gateway Inn and Suites gets booked up, they send us out in town until we can find somewhere to live. Let me tell you, this freaking hotel is nicer than any apartment we have ever had. The standard of living seems to be much higher here and the places are huge because their culture has different family dynamics than we do back in the states. Our hotel room is two bedrooms, 1 office (which has a futon and could be a third bedroom), a living room, a full kitchen (sans dishes, etc.), a dining room (adjacent to living room), and each bedroom and the office have their own full bathrooms plus a little half bath in the hallway between the living room and front door……Um, can we live here? Not only do we get all of this, we also have floor to ceiling windows in both the master bedroom and the living room with an amazing view of the picture-perfect light blue lagoon/bay. Oh my gosh, I never want to leave! The water is so beautiful and clear and sparkling…..It is seriously straight out of a movie. Oh but wait, there is more! Not only do we have the amazing room and view, but we also have a free breakfast every morning! They will even make us omelets, pancakes, or waffles to order. Yum! Everyone there is also very nice and accommodating. I would recommend the hotel to anyone whom would be here for any length of time.
So once we were at our hotel, we pretty much crashed. We were not yet tired enough for bed so we watched a little tv, not for very long, and then made our way to our comfy bed and were OUT. We had to get up the next day to go to a housing brief on base but that really wasn’t an issue because our bodies though a couple of hours of sleep was long enough! Five days later and we still can’t sleep very well past 4 or 4:30 am….ugh. We had other things to do on base as well such as get new sim cards for our iPhones among other things. Once we were done on base, we headed back to our hotel with the other families that were staying there in our “Dragon” van. That night we had Papa Johns (Real adventurous, right?) and crashed somewhere between 5 and 6. Nothing too big in our day but we were still wore out.
The next day, Thursday, we were to go house hunting with Senior Chief and the realtor Annette. Seriously, I still cannot believe what $2,200.00 will get us here versus in the US. It’s amazing! We started out with places in Juffair. Basically the city/ downtown right outside of base. It would be nice because of the convenience and delivery from pretty much anywhere 24/7 but the places we were seeing were either not the nicest or tiny! I knew, from looking online, that we could do better. Our second area was Hidd. The first place we saw there was amazing. It was 4 or 5 bedrooms with another room that could be used as an office and the main area, with the kitchen, dining room, and living room, was huge and open. All one floor and I loved it! Actually, we both did! The only down fall was, no private parking/garage area. There was covered parking which is certainly a plus but my husband has been dreaming of having a garage forever. This is why the second place was even better.The second place we saw in Hidd was just as nice as the first one and bigger but it was split up between two floors and the roof. There is the kitchen, dining room, living room, and a bedroom on the first floor as well as a small bathroom, three bedrooms on the second floor with one having THE most amazing closet (Which I have already claimed!) and it will probably be our master bedroom. All of the bedrooms also have their own full bathroom. Then, if you go up to the roof there is a room, maid’s quarters, with the washer and dryer. This I also claimed to be my art room! Haha Hey, my husband is going to be on the ship a lot…..he doesn’t need as many rooms as me. So each of us will get an office and we will even have a room for a new addition, if that time comes. This place would also be really great for entertaining for when we want to have people over. We really liked it!So on the Thursday after we arrived we tried to go in and get our pre-contract but did not have all of the paperwork we needed (even though we technically did…) so, since the weekend here is Friday and Saturday, we had to wait until Sunday to go and get our pre- contract (with the darn paperwork we had with us that would have worked on Thursday!) Now, we just have to decide what we want to negotiate with the landlord!
On the Sunday after we arrived we had to go through something called INDOC which is an indoctrination to the base. There were all kinds of briefs over Sunday and Monday talking about safety, programs for families, the local culture, and so much more! Most of it was quite boring but some was rather interesting. For example, my husband and I really enjoyed the Arabic culture brief and plan to go to more classes given by the same person. It was quite interesting but the whole thing was very, very long.
Since INDOC we have just be taking care of stuff we need done such as applying for our visas to be able to get our CPR cards. You need the CPR card to do any kind of contract here such as phones. I also went back to our villa to take more pictures and make a list of what we want and what we want moved and to where. It also gave me a better idea of which rooms would be what. I did this with our realtor while my husband was underway on the ship for a day getting a feel for what they need to do when they take over the hull. I cannot wait until we get to move into the villa!So far, I really like Bahrain. The people are very nice even though you do get the occasional strange look. Driving is certainly different as people seem to have no regard for traffic laws at all. Overall, though, I really like it and I already told my husband I never want to leave!! (At least 2 years is a start!)
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