Best Western Elite 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.

... wee hours.<br><br>Well, towards early morning I got into a deep sleep, and when I awoke it was way past 7:00AM, and when I rubbed my eyes, thought AM I IN THE MIDDLE OF A FOLKTALE FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS! Well, the desert looked superb with the view looking somehow infinite but at the same time very defined ( I dont know how to describe that), and it was basically sand, hillocks and scattered shrubs. At this point, I wondered: exactly how far were we from Jeddah?. I mean, I ...

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 ...

... it to back home.  It was pretty much the same, but the sauce was a little different (and not in a good way for me), and fries were pretty much the same too (though these ones not particularly fresh).<br><br>OK, so time to come clean.  With the family at home really worried about me being in Arabia (especially Pop), I'd been trying to keep from scaring them.  All of my trip was basically safer than being in certain parts of Atlanta, except for Yemen, but tried to keep this on the down ...

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... just left and I banged on the glass to get their attention. They were embarrassed but I thought it was kind of funny...but only after my freedom was ensured. Last thing I needed was to spend the night in some store. I went to my car and then found that the doors to the garage were locked and I couldn't find any way out. I searched and searched for a security guard and the one I found had broken English. It was bad but a lot better than ...

... doesn't really merit any discussion (certainly any positive discussion), I arrive at the airport and check in for my flight. The flight, which it seems is some sort of bizarre hybrid; an Air Arabia flight on a Free Bird airplane (it's a Turkish charter line) and a split crew. FYI, if you're ever deciding between Air Arabia and Free Bird, the former has more comfortable seats; the latter has better looking flight attendants (or at least ones that don't have kewpie ...

... his gun at me, while the others were frantically waving at me not to do so. My driver freaked out and pushed my camera down, but not before I could get off the greatest picture i think i may have ever taken. I spent much of Friday bumming around, I went over to Manama's claim to fame, the Seef Mall. Every Bahraini will tell you that people from Dubai LOVE coming to Bahrain for all its shopping and splendor. They will also tell you the US soldiers ...

... shop on your way home to get a bottle of wine, I'm on rations!) - Swarmmes/kebabs in every food shop(I LOVE IT) - Construction, Construction, Construction, Road Works, Road Works and more Road Works And Lastly - Paying 32 Ryial for a tank of petrol!!!!!!!!! that is about $11Aus Everything else here is going really well am defiantly enjoying the experience although at time things can be frustrating, but that is all part of living in another country. So life outside of ...

... souk to the Craft Center, which has a program for local women to make and sell handicraft. Some of them also cook food at home and serve it in the café. Except that they don't - the café is closed. We got to see them make paper, and looked at a few other things, including some rather impressive stained glass. It can be customer ordered, but it is likely not made by the 40 women supported by the Craft Center. Heading further south, we walked through some gardens to Adliya, which looks ...