Crowne Plaza Manama Bahrain

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

... and also not having any male family members with us [women are not allowed to cross solo, nor are they allowed to drive in Saudi!], we didn't even bother to attempt to cross the real border to go into Damman [although I wanted to..], so Saudi exploration will have to wait until I'm married :P [I have no brothers and my dad would much rather go anywhere else but a hot desert!]

... wanting to come into Bahrain and next to nothing going into Saudi - apparently it's easier to access alcohol in Bahrain! :P

Our last stop was the Bahrain Fort [aka Portuguese Fort]. Nothing particularly new to me, seen plenty of them, but it was weird knowing the whole area it was on was reclaimed land from the sea!

Today, my mum had a conference so I was left to do as I pleased. I had a walk around the Juffair neighbourhood which was where my hotel was ...

... it out OK, but it would be important to keep a low-profile. This mean clothing, method of transportation, and hotels.

So I had spent the last week and a half growing a beard (or at least an attempt at one) to better blend in despite my very conspicuous blue eyes.  I think it partially worked---Saad had said that I didn't look "American"---that I looked like from the northern part of the Middle East (e.g. Syrian like my friend Basma had said I could pass for before) because of my ...

... 8217;t as productive as I’d hoped it would be, but with the key objectives already accomplished, I wasn’t as concerned. Knowing I was interested in local/Saudi food, the admin ordered traditional lamb for the team’s lunch. Again, it was a ton of food with the lamb/rice dish, a cucumber/tomato/dressing salad, yogurt, olives, hummus and bread.

At around 2:30, I was in a ...

... No more comments needed. I made a little walk through the city. The contrasts are really big. The new skyscrapers and promenades close to the beach are soon replaced by narrow dirty streets and bleak houses a few hundred metres inland. There are a lot of small shops and each and every one of them seems to sell everything from food to plasma TVs. The day flew past and soon i discovered myself from the plane again. Though this time they ...