Since arriving in Bahrain, I have openly encountered various scenarios where people have tried to identify my "type" of Asian. Almost to the point that I believe it may be a favourite Bahraini past time to guess where foreigners are from. Chinese, Japanese, Korean... are the typical responses, I have even on occasion been greeted with ni hao and konichiwa, I'm sure people mean well but to me it's just weird.

Today, I was referred to as the Filipino lady while I was enquiring about my insurance claim, to my face. My defining characteristic as described by a stranger was so off, though half tempted to correct him that I'm actually Vietnamese, people don't know where Vietnam is which makes it even more challenging.

Ari's taken to explaining to people that I'm from "near China" lol instead of "she's Australian but her family origin is Vietnam". I guess he's not incorrect...