Coral International Al Khobar

... a camel which I tried to capture. They were just too elusive for me. At one point I saw a beautiful little camel cum goat farm, but I couldnt capture it at the right angle.

Now I would like to tell you that I have a new definition of the word 'Mirage'. After my trip across, I have come to realize that it is not just an 'illusion' but 'an illusion of something which you had seen sometime before in your desert journey'. - You might have seen a camel. Later you might ...

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

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 ...

... being Ramadan pretty much everything was shut! And it was roasting hot, if cooler than Dubai would be, so I grabbed a few provisions from the supermarket and retreated to the hotel room!

We might go explore the restaurants later tonight [will probably end up in Hard Rock Cafe.. when it comes to Arabic food we're not the most adventurous!] and we'll see what happens tomorrow! Leaving tomorrow night though.. It's a nice little country though. If a bit small and empty :)

... I doubt a direct Yemenia would have been any more successful), so I dropped the issue, somewhat relieved to be avoiding the heighted vigilance I would've needed in Yemen.  Dina helped me get new baggage tags for Dubai and needed to talk to Mike.  I told her he was up at the bar and she asked if I was coming with-actually I was already supposed to have met him up there.

The bar was nearly empty and Mike was sitting alone when we got up there.  Apparently no one had joined him and ...

... before I got picked up, but I got to straighten things out for my transport to the Bahrain airport later that day.

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’s English was decent, but he wasn’t a natural conversationalist, and I didn’t force it much.

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’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).

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.

Flight from Athens to Bahrain was unremarkable. However, my first taste of culture shock occurred as I enterered the Bahrain airport. In case you do not know, Bahrain is an island in the Middle East. There are signs in English and Arabic. Turkish style toilets (squat style in the floor with a hand sprayer like at your kitchen sink...enough said!) There are also western style toilets and signs for mens ...