Grand Hotel Hoora

... sitting around all these businessmen...  waited on hand and foot... hot towls, Champagne, French wine, white table cloth meals...  so just when the crowds and pushing and shoving at the Cairo airport was about to make me explode, I was placated.  In conclusion, all Airlines in the US are **** compared to the service you get elsewhere, and for less money.

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.

... the bus was keeping on at an average speed, so where exactly were we? Strained my neck to catch the nearest milestone, and when I caught sight of the nearest one, shocked was an understatement: it said Jeddah 775 Km. I had to frantically call Manoj ( my host at Jeddah) and say: dont expect me too soon.

As I sat back observing, I saw that we were about to bypass a small town. And as I took in the picture of a small Saudi desert town, I couldnt help wondering: Are there ...

17/10
Time to be honest. We're heading home.
The last country is a stop-over in Bahrain (for 2 hours) as we fly through the night back to England
We wanted to surprise a few folks so have sneaked home quietly.

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 ...

Well, a few of the girls at work and I got together and decided to take a weekend trip away... Was originally planned for Beirut, but as we couldn't get a timely enough flight for us all to be back at 12 for our Saturday shift, plans were changed to BAHRAIN!

Bahrain is a little island just off Saudi, with a booming economy, literally expanding coastline (a lot of it being reclaimed land) and is rapidly becoming the next Dubai... Very tourist-oriented, very ...

... 15 91;ق اللي فيها واللي مافي احلى منها في البحر 10;ن إلا قلوب البحر 10;نيين الطيب 10;ن ...

... my own. After a leisurely bite at yet another American coffee shop, I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and was off.

I was pleasantly surprised when, within minutes, I saw the U.S. flag flying high from a rooftop just off the highway. That's where the party ended. It then took me an additional 40 minutes to figure out which road to take to actually get to the Embassy entrance. When I did finally arrive at the security gate, I started laughing ...

Here we go with the first of several stops in the Middle East. First of two for the Bahrain port, which was delayed because of (go figure) a traffic jam at sea. We were not allowed overnight liberty here, so we had no choice but to stay on ship after curfew. Something about the guys with the terrorist label.

... row of seats in the tail section. Hels immediately into conversation with a man who turned out to be a Consultant Psychiatrist on a lecture tour with two nurses. They were sitting in economy despite the fact that they had 1st class e ticket. They had been told when booking in that all first class was booked ( or overbooked ), that there was only one seat in Business Class so the only way they could get to heathrow was in Economy. It later transpired that ...

... to tell whether someone is actually looking at you or not in these situations but I am fairly confident he was. As I continued to watch, he put down his binoculars, smiled a big cheeky smile and gave me the finger. I have seen him a couple of times since and I decided to nickname the cheeky bugger Baz, after another smart **** I know. Speaking of smart *****, there must be one working in the Titan shipping company. We regularly see ships from this company up here and their names ...