Gulf Gate 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.

... But I later realized that the hills didnt actually sweep into the town, they were outside the town. (Pardon my illuision!). We entered the SAPTO busstand there which was quite the opposite of lonesome-boy it was packed! It was there that I made a call to Manoj in Jeddah. He asked me where I was and I said that I was entering the last lap of my journey and that I was in Al Taif. He said" Dont miss having a good look - it is like the hill station, Ooty, in India!"<br><br>The ...

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 ...

... the others talking to her and trying to get Yemenia to make better arrangements.  One Yemeni guy was talking in Arabic and making gestures, touching his cheek and then flicking his hand and fingers out.  Mike and I didn't know what he was saying, but we sure knew what he meant!  Another African guy with a Frenchish accent to his English also tried bargaining for a non-Yemenia flight.  The Yemenia girl continued to deflect---it was clear that Yemenia just doesn't have customer service and ...

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... and call again. No harm will have been done. If on the other hand you accidentally make your FAX call someone's voice line, the person receiving the call will be inconvenienced, especially if your FAX then re-dials every 5 minutes. The fact that most people will eventually connect the FAX machine to the voice line to allow the FAX to go through and make the calls stop does not mean that you should continue to send FAXes to the voice number. People would just get mad at you. It works ...

... and balcony furniture, and try out a new drink that Yvonne put us on to - Pink Gin - Gin (clearly) on ice with Angostura Bitters. Not being a Gin lover myself, the first drink was a bit of a surprise, but once the water melted, it was a nice refreshing drink. Something to be savoured on a hot day. So I finished off the night with a malt - a lovely 12 yr old Macellan, which Paullie happily opened just for me. Yay! Went to bed after 5am. Sheisa!

... inside the clear plastic shell was the world trade centers. When the owner of the lighter spun the wheel and produced flame, little LED's light up inside the towers and a two pieces of plastic that were obviously intended to mimic the smoke from the 9/11 attack, rose slowly from the towers. There, in my hand was a lighter, celebrating the attack on my country that cost thousands of lives, and is in some way still taking the lives of my brothers and sisters in uniform. I stood ...