Movenpick Hotel Al Khobar

... a camel. Later on you might see a mirage of a camel. You may have seen the outskirts of a desert town. Later you might see a mirage of the desert town.<br><br>Well, we chugged along, and at around 1:00 PM, we made an entrance into the beautiful town of Al Taif. I was a bit awed. We had just entered, it was just after mid-day and there wasnt a soul on the mainstreets. Later it reminded me of some town in Austria (minus the greenery), with the feel of hills sloping down into 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 ...

... old was about the same height as me! They were very cute though :)<br><br>We then drove on the Causeway to the Bahrain - Saudi Arabia border [that road in the middle of the sea on the map]. We couldn't cross the border [you need a visa in advance, which is tricky during pilgrimage and they don't just give out visas to lone women anyway.. too much red tape for our likings!] so we went to an observation tower and looked at Saudi looming on the horizon. There was a huge jam of ...

... it out OK, but it would be important to keep a low-profile. This mean clothing, method of transportation, and hotels.<br><br>So I had spent the last week and a half growing a beard (or at least an attempt at one) to better blend in despite my very conspicuous blue eyes.  I think it partially worked---Saad had said that I didn't look "American"---that I looked like from the northern part of the Middle East (e.g. Syrian like my friend Basma had said I could pass for before) because of my ...

6:30AM came too soon&#8212;I shut off the cell phone alarm and went back to sleep. I woke up at 7:35 in a small panic. Saad had an early meeting in the morning (8AM) and he was to pick me up at 7:45. I showered and got ready quickly and ran down to the lobby---maybe 2 minutes "late." After waiting 15+ minutes I began to worry that he had stopped and continued onto the plant, but he ended up showing up around 8. I'm not sure what happened to the meeting, but ...

... God (or Allah) I play tennis! I warmed up with Saad in the next court while a pair was taking a break, then warmed up a few minutes with Farhad while Saad rested. Apparently it&#8217;s important to warm up the ball too, to get the proper bounce. We alternated playing with each other casually, then played a few games. Farhad beat Saad their first game, then Saad came back from a 0-8 deficit to take the second game. I like to think I was the lucky charm, since ...

Woke up at 6am (so tired!), but showered, did my morning exercises, and had a big included-in-rate breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant. I still avoided tap water and anything else risky, so I was left with milk (which tasted a little funny and I stopped drinking when I thought it could be unpasteurized and mean trouble) and bottled water. The buffet was interesting---lots of fruit which I avoided (since not all of it was a "peeled ...

... de stad gezworven, tempels bezocht en een rivierbedding waar hindu's worden gecremeerd. Heel bijzonder om te zien. We hebben net gegeten en gaan zo naar het hotel. Morgen reizen we verder naar andere steden, als ik weer tijd heb schrijf ik wat uitgebreider! Groetjes Nic