Golden Tulip Al Khobar

... wee hours.<br><br>Well, towards early morning I got into a deep sleep, and when I awoke it was way past 7:00AM, and when I rubbed my eyes, thought AM I IN THE MIDDLE OF A FOLKTALE FROM THE ARABIAN NIGHTS! Well, the desert looked superb with the view looking somehow infinite but at the same time very defined ( I dont know how to describe that), and it was basically sand, hillocks and scattered shrubs. At this point, I wondered: exactly how far were we from Jeddah?. I mean, I ...

... to the west and Qatar to the east. We didn't know where it was until we were due to fly home via the island. It's interesting to note the road bridge (King Fahd Causeway) which links the two countries and is 17 miles long. Soon to be surpassed by the Bahrain to Qatar 'Friendship Bridge' currently under construction at 25 miles - it will be the longest bridge in the world.

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<br>

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 ...

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

Last day in Saudi&#8230;woke up, showered, packed, and headed up to the usual breakfast. I called the front desk before I left and asked for a 9AM taxi. Breakfast was the same as before except this time there was mango juice. Was really good and reminded me of the stuff I had in Korea. Brushed my teeth and packed the last few items and went to check out. It took like 15 minutes to check out (U.S ...

... was half Office Max (office supplies, laptop bags, digicams, etc.) and half craft store. Erwin was looking for a liquid/glue rubber material to make a rubberized layer on top of a plastic roller, while I went looking for rubber stamp and craft rollers. After a bit of looking, I found a bunch of them in various sizes and rubber materials (actually more than a Ben Franklin or even a Hobby Lobby would probably have back home). I grabbed the three that seemed like they ...

... Saudi, and chicken shwarma was quickly decided upon. On the way, we discussed the many athletic clubs in Khobar, all apparently with football (soccer) clubs, and I explained the rules of American football to Saad, who seemed to understand pretty well despite my somewhat poor explanations. Despite some small attempts to explain the amount of skill involved, I&#8217;m pretty sure he still thought it just a game of &#8220;hitting people.&#8221;<br><br>About 9 ...

... like 6:30AM my time. My Coke was still a Coke though. <br><br>We struggled through the first day getting things running, and really only found some interim solutions to running the product, given some material issues from a supplier. It took a great deal of patience and collaboration to get to the solution, and fortunately, many of the folks I was working with got burned out throughout the day or went home for the day, facilitating ...

The flight from London, through Bahrain and Oman, was long and arduous, as expected. It was at least made somewhat interesting by feeling myself slowly becoming submerged in a sea of alien culture. Womyn fully robed in black abayas, bowing and praying to Mecca in the airport waiting area; hordes of men looking just like the ones I've been taught to be ...