Awal 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.

... But I later realized that the hills didnt actually sweep into the town, they were outside the town. (Pardon my illuision!). We entered the SAPTO busstand there which was quite the opposite of lonesome-boy it was packed! It was there that I made a call to Manoj in Jeddah. He asked me where I was and I said that I was entering the last lap of my journey and that I was in Al Taif. He said" Dont miss having a good look - it is like the hill station, Ooty, in India!"<br><br>The ...

17/10<br>Time to be honest. We're heading home.<br>The last country is a stop-over in Bahrain (for 2 hours) as we fly through the night back to England<br>We wanted to surprise a few folks so have sneaked home quietly.<br><br>Never the less, Bahrain International Airport looked very nice at midnight, all lit up. This small island state lies in the Persion Gulf alongside saudi ...

... old was about the same height as me! They were very cute though :)<br><br>We then drove on the Causeway to the Bahrain - Saudi Arabia border [that road in the middle of the sea on the map]. We couldn't cross the border [you need a visa in advance, which is tricky during pilgrimage and they don't just give out visas to lone women anyway.. too much red tape for our likings!] so we went to an observation tower and looked at Saudi looming on the horizon. There was a huge jam of ...

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... are just about the nicest people I have encountered in my travels and they have treated me so well. This is definitely one part of the world where being an airline pilot really gets you some respect. I am definitely not used to it, and it's awfully strange to be at the top of society because of a job of all things rather than just an everyday worker like in the US. Airline jobs in this part of the world are hard to come by, pay ...

... others. I don't think the simplicity hurt the space as a place of worship, though. My guide was quite charming and engaging, although our tour was cut short by the call for the noon prayer -- which saw done inside the main mosque, by a caller of some skill and melodic ability. The fourth stop, or stops I guess, was a set of frenzied efforts running around the Bab al Bahrain, with the ultimate goal -- as I realized later to my chagrin -- of mailing garbage to Canada ...

... and poorly marked. He offered to take me to anywhere in the country for a fairly good price. Since he was illegal and as I later found out, unemployed, he was just doing any odd job he could to make money at the time. We road though a myriad of small towns and suburbs of Manama. Only when you get out into the country do you realize how small the country really is. Don't let the maps fool you, towns that are halfway across the island are only a ...

... need to spend at least 10 minutes outside just to thaw out! So the two jumpers I brought over have come in handy. I have been hear for 2 months now and time is flying, I'm getting use to the little differences you notice when you spend enough time in a country, some are great others a bit strange, so to keep you entertained I have listed my top ten things to look out for in Doha: - Crazy Driving with no indicators whilst talking on the phone (police included) - The fact ...

... Like a band of Bedouin, the line of trucks was moving a full operation to start on a new well. We encountered them again after we visited the tree; they were starting what is probably the island's newest oil or gas well. We continued past them to Bahrain's oldest well, the one that totally changed the economics and politics of the region, and possibly the world. Its oil is long gone, but it still produces natural gas, which you can hear whooshing through its pipe. From there, we ...