Frsan Plaza 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.

I must admit that it took them an effort to coax me but the trip I made was eventful. Well, I am based at Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia and my relatives at Jeddah invited me over more than once. I had been putting off my visit simply because of pure laziness, no doubt, but basically my life here is office and back, so I guess I just got used to that. Well, our Ramadan holidays were coming up and I decided to get on the bus to Jeddah (1500 Km away), mailnly because there were no flights ...

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 ...

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... jpg On the way to base: http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm29 1/petepaccione/IMG_0185.jpg Thats about it. That night our boss took us to a ***** house..... My god is that place weird. Imagine giant hukas and clowds of smoke, with about 100 ugly chinesse girls all grabbing at you saying they want to sleep with you.. Now I know how girls feel at any bar haha. Anyway, after turning down the entire bar, we left there and went back to the hotel, had to be up early in the morning.

... br><br>After the short stay in Bahrain we headed to Dubai so Curtis could met the rest of the guys for work.<br><br>Too many flights and way to much time change and back home.<br>We ended up staying in Canada because they wanted us to move to Saudi instead of Bahrain - and being a woman in Saudi isn't something I'm quite prepared to do in my twenties. But a great trip and I recommend anyone wanted to see the Middle East to check out Bahrain and Dubai!!

... swim, headed out for dinner shortly after, then went to the theater to see Rush Hour 3 with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. It was a very good movie, the seats were awesomely comfortable, and we enjoyed the experience very much. Upon finishing we went to the Chocolate Bakery and then home to enjoy a late-night snack before bed. All is all, it was a very low-key, pleasant day. Tomorrow - We go to the beach and visit a Lost Paradise...

... back to the hotel room and watched some TV. Had a good pizza and fruit cocktail drink for dinner at the Al Seef Mall. Bought some more stuff at Toys R'Us - saved 50%. Drove to the airport. Good duty free section. Had a bar where I bought some red wine and chatted to some South Africans who were working in Kuwait. Kuwait is a dry country they were envious that I had a liquor licence for Qatar. Flight back was good - half empty plane that left ...

... It is not what we'd normally expect of reserved Arab women. Clearly, we don't understand. We walked over to the central market, which had primarily fresh fruits and vegetables. We found a wide range of common stuff, with a few of the more exotic items thrown in, like custard apples, bitter melon, many varieties of dates (some of which we bought after sampling), long green things which were neither beans nor burdock, and more types of cucumbers than I'd ever seen. The stall owners ...

... less conservative than most of their neighbors. The airport is quite modern and nice. The only real difference between it and, say, Memphis is the uniformed military doing the screening. Also, I don't know if this is a Heathrow thing or a Gulf Air/flying into Bahrain thing, but every passenger was sniffed by bomb-sniffing dogs before they boarded this flight. The thing I did notice ...