Carlton Al Moaibed Hotel Al Khobar

... 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.

Not much - just waiting at the airport for the flight! Bahrain was both nicer and more boring than I thought, the weather is a lot more forgiving but it's not worth more than about 3 days exploration tops.. Unless you like to get really nittygritty :P<br>

Apparently the Bahrain-Saudi border is on a little island [not sure if it has an official name], which hosts a rest point on either side of the border, complete with matching observation towers. The whole road, which is 45km long, is called the King Fahad Causeway on the Bahraini side, with a different Saudi name.. Interesting stuff! :) Due to it being Ramadan and us not being ...

Bahrain!<br><br>Got here yesterday, the flight in was only an hour and you got a really good view of all of Qatar from the air! [stupid wing blocked photo ops though]. No problems so far, immigration was a breeze, found the hotel OK and after relaxing some more [yes, we're lazy!] my mum and I hunted down a taxi to see the few sights in the built up north of the island<br><br>Firstly we drove through the big banking district, and I was reminded of a less-trafficy, shorter ...

... before I got picked up, but I got to straighten things out for my transport to the Bahrain airport later that day. <br><br>The guy that picked me up was a quiet Indian guy that worked in maintenance. I threw my bags in the bed of his truck and jumped in. The guy&#8217;s English was decent, but he wasn&#8217;t a natural conversationalist, and I didn&#8217;t force it much. <br><br>The shortened day ...

... tried recording it, but pretty sure it was still too quiet for my camera to pick up on video setting. We got to Carrefour but it was still closed for prayer, so Erwin bought me some ice cream (he got peach mango, I got green apple), and we wandered the mall that it was attached to. The ice cream didn&#8217;t really taste like ice cream to me---kinda like the texture of gelato, but way watered down. Still good though, especially as the humidity picked up more than it ...

... my order (which was made right in front of us). All men---almost all wearing white thobes, some with western-style hats (baseball, etc.), and one guy wearing some pretty tight jeans. I felt really out of place in my ridiculous clothes, especially as the wait wore on in what felt like an eternity with many stares. The juice was good, though somehow seemed to sour and too sweet at the same time (could taste the grit of sugar).<br><br>We got the order to go ...

... of going to dinner, exchanging dollars for Saudi Riyals at the bank downstairs, and going to the mall/Carrefour, but decided on more rest, bumming, and watching TV. Ended up getting a little hungry at 10:15PM, but with not being motivated enough to out, the hotel restaurant having closed 15 minutes earlier, and nothing on the room service menu looking particularly appealing, I ate a couple of granola bars and went to bed around 2AM. <br>

We landed in Bahrain a bit late, and in the middle of the night there. Had to rush through airport as we thought we only had 30mins to get on plane. Where Jim got the knickname "Grandma" because of his worrying. The airport was quite "western" but would recommend not wearing shorts and use American Dollars if you are buying stuff in DF.