Panorama Hotel Manama

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

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 :)

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 ...

... priority, and then mechanical problems (which means that the first excuse was BS), so we ended up sitting on a hot plane with the door open to the heat/humidity with no A/C and passengers getting really restless.  Eventually, after an hour and a half, they made an announcement in Arabic and let us get off the plane, boarding buses back to the airport, but we had no idea what was going on.  There was no Yemenia agent anywhere to be found, and the airport staff would only say to wait ...

... rush to tie up loose end at the plant, package some things to send back to the U.S., and give away some of the small gifts I had bought in Atlanta for the people I’d be working with. The taxi driver got lost in the Industrial City that the plant was in, so I spent about 10 minutes standing in the sweltering heat and sun during the peak of the day, sweating my butt of in my business clothes.

... one driver claimed to know where it was and we set off. I realised immediately why the other drivers had not known the address, the whole city is numbered, there are no street names. After driving me around for about 45minutes the driver admitted that he didn't actually know the address I had shown him and offered to take me to a hotel he knew. I agreed but as soon as I saw the hotel I realised he had been taking me for a ride. I took my bag out of the car and the ...

... I am broke from buying a new car). So I went to my room, unloaded and went back outside to my rental car to get some stuff. When I came back, there was two girls standing outside the hotel. They told me that they where trying to meet a friend in the bar and they couldn't get a hold of him; because they weren't guests, they couldn't get in. So I agreed to help them out. As I was walking them in, everyone in the ...

... we could see on television, but we stayed anyways. What was interesting was that on the way in, we saw people lined up to buy snacks during Ramadan. Ramadan requires fasting during the daylight hours, so we were surprised. Upon approaching the clerk, though, we found out that only children could buy refreshments and adults were prohibited. After Dawn talked with the manager, Colin managed to get a Coke. J After the ...

... superiority complex--something I don't like to admit I have, except in places like Bahrain. The woman behind me asked the friendly clerk, who addressed everyone as "sir" and wore thick glasses that obscured his eyes, if it was possible to remove the cheese from the egg salad sandwich. Upon being informed that there were in fact no egg salad sandwiches left, something it took only a glance to figure out, she thought for a moment, then said, "give me a cheese sandwich." My ...

... we had of the area seem to be mere approximations, and we did not really know where it was anyway, so we were quite surprised to look up and see its sign. It was a bit early for lunch, but this seemed to be our opportunity. Like last night's dinner, it was a reclining type of place, with Shisha waterpipes and food. There were 2 robed couples in the huge place, which was decorated in strong Bedouin motif and deep blue walls and ceilings. (They made reference to the Tuareg Blue Men ...