Gulf Pearl Hotel Bahrain 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 ...

... the Board of both Yemenia and Felix Airways that would get me on a Felix flight from Sana'a to Seiyun.  I told her I needed a ticket or ticket number first since Felix wouldn't know anything about the Yemenia arrangement when I got there and that I wouldn't fly to Sana'a without one since I was going to Seiyun, not Sana'a.  She tried to satisfy me by saying that the board member would write a note and sign my ticket which should assure the people at Felix.  I decided that was acceptable ...

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... the fact that the windmills would shake the building, they are not used. X - Excess (forgive the stretch, but "x" is a tough letter). I've seen more Maseratis, Bentleys, Ferraris, and top-of-the-line BMWs on this small island than I've ever seen in the US. Y - Y'all. While it is an expression that goes unused in many parts of the US, people generally know what you mean when you use it. Say it here and be prepared for blank faces. Z - Zed. Not zee. I don't know if I'll get used to that.

... then drove to the East coast of the Island to Durrat. They're building a huge island/city (similar to the Palm Tree in Dubai). Very cool and VERY EXY! From there we went to the Bahrain International Raceway, which will be hosting the V8 supercar series in November. What a facility! We were even taken to the 8th floor of the tower (something exclusive to the ...

... me for 6 dinars, I laughed at this knowing that no where in the city should cost more then 5, so I talked him down to 4. I probably still got ripped off, but he had the advantaged of knowing the distance to my hotel. The drive to my hotel was nice, fairly short and as it turns out my hotel is in a very good part of the city. I checked into my hotel room without any problems, tidy-ed myself up and hit the city. I can best describe Manama as a Dubai 10 ...

... everything you could think of and to top it off - BACON!!!!! &amp; 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 ...

... I could tell that this guy fully expected that the large, cru cut wearing American, to manually fold him into an unnatural shape and insert the entire case of 9/11 lighters into various unpleasant orifices. Yea, I'm big, and my knuckles drag the ground some times, but I have never gotten enjoyment from seeing fear in someone's eyes. Those who know me, know I'm a big, tire swinging, luggage smashing, banana eating, Ann Darrow saving, teddy bear. What the guy didn't know is that ...