Park Inn Al Khobar

... the bus was keeping on at an average speed, so where exactly were we? Strained my neck to catch the nearest milestone, and when I caught sight of the nearest one, shocked was an understatement: it said Jeddah 775 Km. I had to frantically call Manoj ( my host at Jeddah) and say: dont expect me too soon.<br><br>As I sat back observing, I saw that we were about to bypass a small town. And as I took in the picture of a small Saudi desert town, I couldnt help wondering: Are there ...

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 ...

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>

... and also not having any male family members with us [women are not allowed to cross solo, nor are they allowed to drive in Saudi!], we didn't even bother to attempt to cross the real border to go into Damman [although I wanted to..], so Saudi exploration will have to wait until I'm married :P [I have no brothers and my dad would much rather go anywhere else but a hot desert!]<br>

... being Ramadan pretty much everything was shut! And it was roasting hot, if cooler than Dubai would be, so I grabbed a few provisions from the supermarket and retreated to the hotel room!<br><br>We might go explore the restaurants later tonight [will probably end up in Hard Rock Cafe.. when it comes to Arabic food we're not the most adventurous!] and we'll see what happens tomorrow! Leaving tomorrow night though.. It's a nice little country though. If a bit small and empty :)<br>

... less than 3)---everything was on paper and the guy was placing copies all over the place, adding things, and stapling. It was now past 9 and the taxi still wasn't here. While checking out, the admin from the local company called and said they were sending someone to pick me up. We cancelled the taxi, but this meant that I would probably get to the plant even later. Had to wait another 15-20 ...

... work and headed over to Erwin to see what he thought. He agreed and I offered to by all three (better safe than sorry on traveling start-ups). I wanted to look around a bit, but the store started closing for prayer, so we quickly bought the rollers and moved on. <br><br>Since it was going to be 30 minutes of shops closed for prayer, we decided to head over to our next stop Carrefour. On the drive over, you could hear the speakers blaring prayer outside the car ...

... the shwarma place was really crowded, so popular that police had to park outside to keep cars from parking and blocking the street a few cars wide. Saad asked me how many shwarmas I wanted (I figured one would be enough)---he asked if I wanted juice and I said yes. &#8220;Orange?&#8221; &#8220;Yes.&#8221; I changed my mind when I we walked across the small juice stand and saw all the options---I saw the lemon mint juice that I had heard so much about and Saad ...

... collaboration with the smart and more linear-thinking engineer. <br><br>Got rushed out of the building at 5:40PM since Saad, "my ride," was leaving. More conversation (e.g. most people live in apartments, not houses, since houses cost around $270,000) on the way home (Saad is of Palestinian descent, and therfor not truly a Saudi, which grants many privileges). <br><br>Too tired to eat (and not hungry), I took a nap for a while. Had ...

... of, themselves wrapped in unfamiliar garments and sporting long, salt-and-pepper beards. Hearing English read over the loudspeaker as the 2nd, sometimes 3rd language, rather than the 1st. And staring blankly out the airplane windows as we passed benignly over cities and landscapes whose names I've only heard spoken in the context of occupation and warfare.