Bahrain Sheraton Hotel 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.

... little towns like this too in Saudi?! (I knew only the big city!). The bus trailed along like a motorized camel, and I began to notice that the sides of the highway was wired all along the desert. Wondered why that was: surely we were not driving past anyone's prime desert property! No it was to keep the camels from straying across. It was then that I got sight of my first camel, its mouth edging towards a shrub. From then on it was a variety of camels-black, white and brown ...

... 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.

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... home." Room wasn't anything special, and below Western business standards Couldn't sleep (since only 4PM my time-EDT) and ended up ironing business cloths (iron, ironing board, and sheet brought up by housekeeping), typing these entries, and watching TV until 2am. Called front desk, but no word on when I would be picked up the next day-set a 6am wake-up in case of a 7am pickup. Wondered if I'd get bed bugs in room, but a little too tired to care, and not much I could really do anyway.

... embarrassingly American. The grocery store, Al Jazira, offers the same foods as Kroger: Amy's Organic frozen meals, Coca Light, Folgers, Splenda, Boursin, Carr's Table Crackers, organic eggs, limes, tonic water, even pork bacon, although it is found in a section marked "Food for non-Muslims". The liquor store, with it's exterior completely devoid of any markings (except a sign on the door that reads something to the effect of, "According to law, we cannot sell to Muslims ...

... Bahrain is one of the possible sites for the Garden of Eden, and the Tree of Life is a tourist attraction for Bahrainis and others. We made our way down south past Riffa Golf Club, which is being turned into Riffa View. The golf course was supposed to be running until December, but it appears they have gone ahead and shut it down anyways. As we continued towards the Tree of Life, we came across collection pipes for the smaller ...

... was well worth the 1 BD (500 fils each). Had a good history of Bahrain and some very good displays. The recreation of the burial mounds was interesting - real bones and skulls etc. Al Seef Mall reminded me of the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai without the ski field. Many shops had 50 % off. We saved a lot of money. My wife kept saying that "we couldn't buy this in Australia". Probably why it is cheaper to live in Australia. There was an ...

... even Italian. Of course, we did not, and instead ordered Daal Baht and curry chicken, which came with rice, sautéed greens, and a tomato sauce. It was all mighty tasty, but turned out to be rather pricey, probably mainly because we got twice the amount we had ordered. Our luggage had arrived intact, so we did a bit of organizing and then headed out to the island of Muharraq, and onward to Arad Town using our newfound bus knowledge. There we found the Arad Fort (Qala'at Arad), built in ...

... Regardless, I am still going to talk about BaHrain as "the island" although that is technically not pc. meh. On the island is a fairly large U.S. military base. Haji told me that upon visiting BaHrain, I might understand why some Middle Easterners have such a bad opinion of Americans...and boy was he right. I am not going to generalize and say that all the U.S. military men on BaHrain were pigs, but the majority that I saw were ...