Ramada 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 ...

... of Dubai. There were two interesting buildings - the World Trading Centre, which has 3 wind turbines in the middle of it that produce its power, and a pair of buildings I dont remember the name of that's shaped like two quarter-pikes [skate ramps]!

Our driver then took us to some random palace grounds thingy - basically, it's where the king keeps all of his camels. And there were LOADS of the buggers! We got to go in and stroke one of the baby camels, who at 3 ...

... was powerless to provide any.

Mike invited a bunch of guys for a beer and headed up to the airport bar.  I stuck around because it was clear now that with an 8-9 hour delay and a 6 hour layover, I wasn't going to make my connecting flight to Seiyun (I think I was "special" as the only one with this circumstance).  Eventually everyone wore themselves out berating her and knowing nothing would change, leaving me as the last one.  She had promised that there was a person that was ...

... felt rude and, considering there was no where to run to, a bit at risk if some Saudi husband didn't appreciate my gazes. Seemed like maybe a bit more men coming back than women/families. 4) Finally Saudi customs, where we stopped, the driver showed our papers, and we moved on without any check. Unbelievable that I could have smuggled forbidden alcohol, pork, or pornography for my trip! And here I was so worried about the OTC "drugs" that I was bringing in that I even printed ...

... to do again. I learned a lot at dinner; it was the most diverse group of which I have ever been a part. France, Pakistan, Australia, Lebanon, Canada, India, and Turkey were countries represented and the conversation was delightful. The only disturbing part of the evening was finding out that every so often, a water truck is sent out to nourish the Tree of Life! We're off to Dubai for the weekend -- I'll write another report from the UAE...

... we attributed to Ramadan. We had nice dinners of burgers, chicken quesadillas, and pork chops. It was quite nice. After that, we headed off to Starbucks to pick up a Bahrain country mug. Every country we have visited or lived in in the Middle East has a country mug so we have three of them (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan). We went to Seef Mall, where I went in to find the Starbucks and everybody else debated seeing a movie. The Starbucks ended up being closed for ...

... they feel obliged to serve something) the captain said "20 minutes to landing - cabin crew please prepare for landing". We were in the air for 25 minutes maximum. Very few passengers on the plane as most Qatari would fly Qatar Airways direct to London. Airport was easy - not many people. I paid for our visas in advance on the eVisa site. I thought this was a good idea - one less hassle at the airport. Cost 7 BD(Bahraini Dinar) (25AUD) each ...

... local schedule so that we'd not wake up hungry in the middle of the night. Once again shooed upstairs to the family section, we had a Greek salad (although there was the traditional feta, there were also carrots and corn), hummus (bitter and tasted like it was from a mix), Lebneh with zatar (basically sour cream), and Shish Tikka (meat). All of this was served on Disney-themed placemats and snowman-in-winter plates. I'm not sure what the recommended specialty of the place, but in ...

... less conservative than most of their neighbors. The airport is quite modern and nice. The only real difference between it and, say, Memphis is the uniformed military doing the screening. Also, I don't know if this is a Heathrow thing or a Gulf Air/flying into Bahrain thing, but every passenger was sniffed by bomb-sniffing dogs before they boarded this flight. The thing I did notice ...