Inside Bahrain via...Three taxis

-Late night on a weekend, a Bahraini taxi driver (they are all Bahraini) named Abdullah picked up a random visitor from the other side of the causeway. The passenger was both very wealthy, and very much inebriated. The passenger demanded that the driver take him around town in an apparently bizarre, random manner. Soon after, the passenger forcefully proposed paying Abdullah a large sum of money to continue and take him around for the entire night. A growing argument ensued, quickly escalading to a fight. Abdullah kept his dignity in tact during by kicking the passenger out of the car, to the side of the street with a forceful shove. He then proceeded to scream at the man for trying to use him for illegitimate purposes.

-I snagged a taxi from Adliyah to Exhibition Road (short trip, all in Manama) to join for an AIESEC team dinner/meeting over Mandi and Bokhari. When I got in, I said (in my broken Arabic), “Hello, to Exhibition Road please”
He started driving and said, “You know we don’t like to go to that area.”
I, already aware of the answer asked him, “Why not?”
He quickly replied “Too many people doing bad things, mushkila (problem). Men come here now with too much money and use it for drink and women…”
He then went into a quick rant on how he didn’t appreciate that his country was becoming known for allowing things which are so blatantly against Islam solely for financial gain.

-A few days back Bahrain was hit by some terrible dust storms. They were so bad that you risked saturating your lungs if you went out too often or for too long. On my way home I was trying to get a taxi as quickly as possible to avoid it. I could hardly even recognize that the sun was setting, but I could easily still hear the call to prayer from the nearby mosques.

It is a short walk from our office to a high profile area where we can easily grab a taxi. During this walk I saw a taxi whiz by me at a very fast speed. Naturally, my first thought was that this driver was in a rush to make the Al Maghreb (evening) prayer.

To my surprise he stopped about 50 meters past me and switched his car in reverse. I got in his car and he said, “Hey, I saw you back there and couldn’t let you walk any more in this *expletive* terrible dust storm.”

I said ‘Thank you’ in Arabic as any good student would, and told him to turn around and go toward my home.
He said, “One minute, I need to go pick up some *expletive* beer.”

I was a little taken-a-back, and asked, “Beer?”
He snickered back, “Yah, *expletive*, I will be drinking later on tonight, not now,” as he smiled.

I am still a bit shocked as this was the first I had heard of the generally perceived poor and decent taxi drivers in Bahrain drinking.