Elite Three - Luxury Apartments Manama

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 ...

... in came down.  All the people re-booked onto Gulf Air had been canceled because they were sending a new plane that would be arriving at 4:30 with a 5AM departure!  Since we learned a bit about Yemenia in the past hours, we were pretty sure this one would be later too.  She gave a bunch of excuses about how "this happens to all airlines" and "what is Yemenia to do?"  It was pretty clear Yemenia had canceled the Gulf Air tickets to save themselves money.  It was interesting watching some ...

... 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 ...

... have subscribed. All commands must be sent to the "LISTSERV address," xxxxx. It is very important to understand the difference between the two, but fortunately it is not complicated. The LISTSERV address is like a FAX number that connects you to a machine, whereas the list address is like a normal voice line connecting you to a person. If you make a mistake and dial the FAX number when you wanted to talk to someone on the phone, you will quickly realize that you used the wrong ...

... as they fast all day. It was an elaborate tent, and very elegantly decorated, right down to the coffee & tea cups. They had a Lebanese band playing in the background and from 9:30pm until 1:00am we feasted on everything from lamb brains to baklava. We had a couple of Shesha's. Funny to be sitting in this foreign environment taking a toke of apple from time to time. We had a lovely evening and then came home to christen Paullies' new ...

To quell everyone's fears, no I have not gone to Iraq haha. But I have taken a quick side trip to another Shia Muslim dominated country, Bahrain. Look closely at your maps for this one, its a TINY island just off the coast of Saudi Arabia, to the west of Qatar. It is actually a Kingdom and it evident through the myriad of posters and photos of the king that are displayed around the city and countryside. It is a quint little place, but let me start from ...

... everything you could think of and to top it off - BACON!!!!! & HAM!!!!!!! This might sound a bit sad but when it is the one food you cannot buy in Doha we all went a bit mad with it. The day rolled on from there with endless plates of food and never empty glasses of champagne. We had an absolute ball, the place had a magic man who came to the table to entertain us with tricks and balloon animals, creating a very "interesting" monkey balloon hat that, as the bday girl ...

... but it had a lasting effect on me. I caught up with my buds and we continued enjoying the rest of the day without any international incidents. The next day, my friends and I were to meet another friend at a hotel and take advantage of the room he rented and the pool the place offered. Unfortunately he had already left for destinations unknown, totally forgetting that we were coming to "visit". So we did what sailors do.... We found the hotel bar. That is where we ran into a ...