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About the Land of the Two Seas

What is “The Land of the Two Seas”?

It is the Kingdom of Bahrain, a small island off the coast of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Arabian Peninsula) in the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf. It is called the Land of the Two Seas because in Arabic, “bahrain” means “two seas.” What are the two seas? The locals tell us visitors that there are fresh water springs that come up from the ocean floor near Bahrain. The two seas refers to both this fresh water and the ocean’s salt water. Interestingly, locals call fresh water “sweet water.” So the two seas are sweet and salty water.

Some Facts About Bahrain:

  • It is a kingdom and has a king.
  • Its time zone is GMT +3. For reference Eastern Standard Time zone in the U.S. is GMT -5. GMT being of course Greenwich Mean Time or 0.
  • It is a bilingual country, both Arabic and English. Everywhere signs are in both languages and the people speak both usually.
  • Its religion is Islam.
  • There are other religions here, too. Christianity is one of them. Yes, some Arabs are Christian. My husband and I attend a local church. The services are in both Arabic and English. We find this to be interesting.
  • There are a lot of what Americans call TCNs here, Third Country Nationals. These are people, mostly men, from nearby countries, like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Thailand. This is not necessarily a complete list. These people come to work in the restaurants, hotels, construction, and similar “blue-collar” jobs. These people come here for economic opportunity, but the average restaurant worker makes 100 dinar a month. That is equivalent to $266 a month.
  • There doesn’t seem to be a middle class here.  People can afford to live in nice villas or apartments where the rent is three or four times the restaurant worker’s monthly wage or they are that restaurant worker.  But then I was informed by one of the church members that those who live in the nice villas are the middle class.  Rich people are related to the king and live in palaces.
  • That being said this is a very booming place. There’s construction all over the place, all the time. Most of what is being built is high-rises. They are also building new land–they actually create it from the sea, I guess by dumping dirt into the water.
  • Bahrain has United Arab Emirates envy.  They want to be just like their bigger neighbor to the south. They still have a ways to go.  Bahrain is part of the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council.  It’s an economic union or “co-op” that ties the Gulf countries together in, well, economic cooperation.  Maybe someday it will rival the European Union.
  • It’s very liberal for an Islamic country, and especially for a Gulf country.  People are pretty much free to live as they like.  It’s been called the “Vegas of the Middle East.”  Alcohol, for example, while forbidden in Islam, is quite readily available here.  And a lot of Muslims drink it too.  Every weekend Saudis come over across the Saudi causeway and party it up all weekend, getting drunk and everything.  Yes, this country is quite liberal.