Atlas Manama

Out of the widow Bahrain looks like lots of dust with skyscrapers on. Inside it is a strange mix of Christmas decorations lots of tour groups who look like they might be going on pilgramage, 25k rolexes in duty free, mcdonalds,costa and free internet to keep us amused. We've got 2hrs to kill - body clocks already out of sink! Am going to try and learn some nepalese from a podcast.

... a camel. Later on you might see a mirage of a camel. You may have seen the outskirts of a desert town. Later you might see a mirage of the desert town.<br><br>Well, we chugged along, and at around 1:00 PM, we made an entrance into the beautiful town of Al Taif. I was a bit awed. We had just entered, it was just after mid-day and there wasnt a soul on the mainstreets. Later it reminded me of some town in Austria (minus the greenery), with the feel of hills sloping down into the ...

... to the west and Qatar to the east. We didn't know where it was until we were due to fly home via the island. It's interesting to note the road bridge (King Fahd Causeway) which links the two countries and is 17 miles long. Soon to be surpassed by the Bahrain to Qatar 'Friendship Bridge' currently under construction at 25 miles - it will be the longest bridge in the world.

... of Dubai. There were two interesting buildings - the World Trading Centre, which has 3 wind turbines in the middle of it that produce its power, and a pair of buildings I dont remember the name of that's shaped like two quarter-pikes [skate ramps]!<br><br>Our driver then took us to some random palace grounds thingy - basically, it's where the king keeps all of his camels. And there were LOADS of the buggers! We got to go in and stroke one of the baby camels, who at 3 ...

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... it can't rain with all this humidity. You know how much we like flying the ATR in summer? It's like that but only one that has been parked all day at the hangar with the window shades up and no air conditioning. And take that heat and times it by two. That's the Arabian Gulf for you. I flew here on Jazeera Airways again and once again got to sit in the jumpseat on the Airbus A320 for the entire ride. Jazeera Airways flight attendants and ...

... editions in a number of languages; a woven rug with Qu'ranic verse on it (a wall rug, the sign stressed); verses written on grains of rice and the like, and an incredibly tiny whole Qu'ran. Stop the third was the Al Fatah Islamic Centre; the largest mosque in the country. (This makes 3 of 4 -- for some reason, I couldn't get into the largest Saudi mosque). It was done in a little more traditional style, with rich materials (Italian marble), but less decoration than some of ...

... I had my hotel call me a taxi, as I planned for the taxi to take me to the bus station and I would then hop the buses around the country. Instead of calling a legitimate taxi company, she called a friend of hers. In Bahrain many of the taxis are illegal and unmarked, so this was not something of alarm. I explained to him what I was trying to do today and he told me how difficult such a plan would be since many of the attractions are in the middle of ...

With a five hour layover, I was left with no clue as to what I would do with myself. So it was that I ended up in the SkyBar. Ambiguously marked, the traveling drinker must know to follow the signs to the elevator which will lead you to the fourth floor. Take a look to your right and you're there. The bartender collects coins from all over the world. He's a handy ally to have.

... Tree of Life. It is a lone 600-year old Saudi mesquite which taps into water far below the surface, and is a bit of an icon. While it seems respected, it also is pretty abused. It is covered with graffiti, and even has a line of bullet holes where some soldier shot it with a machine gun. Trash littered the area. Still, it survives. A military unit was conducting exercises just beyond the tree. As we were driving down, we were stuck behind a slow-moving caravan of oil drilling ...