Windsor Tower 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 ...

Bahrain!

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

Firstly we drove through the big banking district, and I was reminded of a less-trafficy, shorter ...

... about 8 girls that I think were Philippino, because they were asian and what they spoke sounded like Spanish, sat across from me.  They were definitely talking about me and laughing---not sure if thought I was cute or just making fun of my lame attempt at a beard, haha.  One of them had no issue with staring at me and making it obvious when she talked about me, seemingly wanting attention.  I was too tired to really get involved, but thought of a few phrases to say if they got any more ...

... before I got picked up, but I got to straighten things out for my transport to the Bahrain airport later that day.

The guy that picked me up was a quiet Indian guy that worked in maintenance. I threw my bags in the bed of his truck and jumped in. The guy’s English was decent, but he wasn’t a natural conversationalist, and I didn’t force it much.

The shortened day ...

Bahrain is a strange place, everything seems so new and yet artificial. This may sound odd but in my opinion the city has no soul. It reminded me of LA in that respect. There is no down town, no street life, no old monuments or particular sights to see. The new commercial areas with soaring tower blocks are certainly impressive. But maybe my opinion is biased I didn't have a very welcoming start. Anyway we should start at the beggining. You may remember that I had ...

... albums/mm29 1/petepaccione/IMG_0178.jpg http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm29 1/petepaccione/IMG_0179.jpg http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm29 1/petepaccione/IMG_0180.jpg The above links are of my hotel. I went to the front desk to check into the hotel when they told me I needed a credit card to reserve the room. I told them that my company (ATR) had paid in advance. The hotel advised me that I needed another ...

Saturday, September 22, 2007 Y...a...w...n! Needless to say, after our exceptionally late night last night, we weren't up with the roosters today. In fact, it was around 10 that we started moving, and not until 11 that we phoned James and found we had woke him up. Oops! (sorry James) Yet another wonderful breakfast full of yummy good food and we were on our way to...well. It was 1:00 and we had a movie to see at 2:00 P.M ...

... and arrived early. Overall impression: Bahrain was the first of the Gulf States to "westernize". Now left behind by Dubai and Qatar. It needs another injection of funds. Might get some more tourists when they build the causeway between Bahrain and Qatar. Good for young people who wish to go out for the nightlife. 5 star resorts would be good for a relaxing break but costly. If you have a choice, do Dubai or Doha. Not for tourist sigtht seeing like Jordan.

... very friendly, even though it was a busy, working market. Most shopkeepers were Indian or Pakistani, although there were certainly numerous Arabs, Afghanis, and Saudis. They let us photography freely, and were usually amused to see the photos on the digital camera. With some effort, we also found the fish market in another building. Although not huge, there was still quite a range of fish and seafood, including grouper, tuna, octopus, blue crabs, catfish, anchovies, squid, parrot ...