Oasis

The base has fifty-some insulated plywood boxes scattered about, which are full of ice and bottled water and refilled throughout the day. There are at least four different kinds of bottled water available, including reliable standby Masafi, which is the one usually found at Al Udeid and Al Dhafra.

A new brand here is called Oasis. One bottle of Oasis proclaims its contents are a "Love Potion." Really. "You're loved ones are 65% water," it says. "Make sure they stay topped up."

Another bottle of Oasis says "Cool Workout." It adds that "Drinking cool water causes your body to burn extra calories to heat it up." Amusingly, this bottle of water came from a cooler in the chow hall, which does not keep things cool at all, or even tepid. I thought it was an interesting point. It's certainly true, I guess, though one wouldn't want to extrapolate. Your body burns more calories when you eat ice cream than when you don't eat ice cream, but eating ice cream to burn calories would be a bit silly. Still, there is ice cream here, in the chow hall, available 24 hours a day. Mmm.