Elite Grande 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.

... lap of the journey was very picturesque, with a totally different desert scenario. It was basically a mountainous desert terrain.The highway took us along myriad ranges, and at one point I even saw a plateau out yonder.<br><br>It was at around 3:30PM that we finally cruised into Jeddah, and I saw Manoj had come to receive me. Well, he and his family looked after me and gave a great time, and Jeddah was a great city................... but that would be another story- a story of a city!

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 ...

... about 8 girls that I think were Philippino, because they were asian and what they spoke sounded like Spanish, sat across from me.  They were definitely talking about me and laughing---not sure if thought I was cute or just making fun of my lame attempt at a beard, haha.  One of them had no issue with staring at me and making it obvious when she talked about me, seemingly wanting attention.  I was too tired to really get involved, but thought of a few phrases to say if they got any more ...

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A - Arabian Gulf. It may be known as the Persian Gulf elsewhere in the world, but GCC countries aren't too friendly with Iran and prefer not to give them any credit in body-of-water nomenclature. B - Bakshish. This translates to "request for tips" -- also known as bribing. It's a pretty common transaction around here but maybe nowhere more famously than Kuwait. The tiny country gets the brunt of the heat in the region, making necessary a law which prohibits anyone from working outside ...

... isn't that far away, so I decide to head there and ditch my main pack, at least. Only the hotel is on the NW corner of the main corniche and the causeway road, and I'm on the SE corner. And there's a roundabout in the way. And the hotel is actually a block or two away. And that's the back entrance, so I have to wander the whole hotel to find the concierge. I drop my bags, and deflect the question about when my flight leaves (I'd also converted to the degree ...

... Dubai itself, you see no camels or terrorists. I've rubbed many lanterns, yet no genies have appeared... YET I came here to experience the Middle East, yet I often find myself speaking to someone who is Hindi, with an Indian accent, and calls me his "friend" who he'll give all the good deals Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi are all immaculately clean cities Fujairah and Manama are not clean in any sense of the word Call to prayer is ...

... Nanine decided for her Birthday she wanted to do something different, so why not head to Bahrain! After not much planning and lots of excited emailing back and forth to organize in a week, eight of us decided to help celebrate and make it a bit of party weekend in Bahrain. Flights Booked (Check)... Hotel Booked (Check).... Work finished for the week (Check)... Thursday night and we were packed and ready to fly. The other six girls had caught an earlier flight so after a ...

... to Sydney next day. As i am privileged to have all the time in the world right now i kindly accepted. After a five hour flight and some more waiting in line to get to the hotel in Bahrein i was at last heading out of the airport. The expectations were high as it was supposadly warm outside. And it was. The first feeling of summer air on your face after arriving from under freezing temperatures is just wonderful. You may try to picture it ...