InterContinental Al Khobar

... it was then that I realized: I loved the desert (deep down inside), why then did I not think of making this trip before?! The bus began to accelerate and we were soon on the Riyadh highway. It was all night, and I could see cars zipping ahead. We went on for abot 200 Kms and the driver decided to make a stop at a highway restaurant. All got down, some to stretch their legs, others to grab a bit/a cool drink, or simply to take a walk around.<br><br>Soon, we were back on the ...

... 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 ...

Bahrain!<br><br>Got here yesterday, the flight in was only an hour and you got a really good view of all of Qatar from the air! [stupid wing blocked photo ops though]. No problems so far, immigration was a breeze, found the hotel OK and after relaxing some more [yes, we're lazy!] my mum and I hunted down a taxi to see the few sights in the built up north of the island<br><br>Firstly we drove through the big banking district, and I was reminded of a less-trafficy, shorter ...

... Te gusta los ojos ajules?  Un bon bon, no?").  Boarding was late, so I could tell the plane was going to be late too.  Eventually we got on a bus and were taxied to our plane.  Oddly enough  I had the only other white guy on the plan sitting next to me-a guy with a pretty southern accent---from South Carolina, but now in Oklahoma.  I slowly stopped caring about using English, figuring I wasn't going to fool anyone who would try to do me harm anyway. We were delayed because of ...

... Khobar (since I mentioned wanting to explore the area). We had until 8, so we had time to check out a few local stores and see the local people. On the way there, Erwin talked about marrying his wife in Saudi (also a Christian Philippino), his 2-year-old daughter, and his 12-year-old daughter living with his mother and going to school in the Philippines. I didn&#8217;t really understand why he&#8217;s send his daughter away like that (though I didn&#8217;t press ...

... good of exercise the game really was&#8212;much more intense than tennis given the speed of the game and the enclosed space. I definitely want to pick it up back in The States if I can find a convenient and inexpensive place to play (due to convenience and being indoor, I doubt it&#8217;ll replace tennis for me). On the way out of the club I confirmed that it was a men-only club and that there weren&#8217;t any &#8220;women days&#8221; (something that only ...

... was very good and we made conversation on the way to Dammam's 1st Industrial City. <br><br>I won't go too much into detail on work, but the work had already been started when I got there at around 9:15am (30+ cases already finished, which appeared to have been of general insufficient quality). Overall, a bit of a struggle relating to the "do first, learn, then think about" thought process, but I was overall very impressed with the quality ...

... the store in bold headlines on the american paper: IRAQ WAR NOT A MISTAKE nestled in between all of the newspapers in arabic. It's a bit surreal! Oh and the best: the disneylandesque fountain whith the two scaled puppet arab fisherman in their boat swaying back and forth. The bottom of their boat sprayed with water. I am stuck in the Bahrain Airport right now because my flight to Kathmandu is delayed ...