Bahrain...Check!

Although I don't have three day weekends as I once enjoyed on my grad student schedule, I am afforded super cheap airfare that always seems be perfectly coordinated with my teaching hours. 

My second Gulf country was Bahrain. I spent a terrific weekend with two travel buddies, Blair and Milad, and met up Rex and his good friend Amy.  As a recent Saudi-Bahrain transplant, Amy hosted us for the weekend. Bahrain is the party place for all the Saudis that cross its border. It's a haven filled with booze and uncovered women. CRAZY! This trees that live beside the Gulf outside of Amy's apartment can attest to all the party that happens in Manama.

In fact, Bahrain even boasts Ric's Kountry Kitchen. A fantastic place for any American ex-pat. After an evening out, brunch is the best thing that can happen in life.

Besides fantastic night/day life, Bahrain sports some fine souq shopping.  I love getting lost in the mazes of leather shoes, baby toys, hardware, and kitchen ware.

At this shop, I found some delightful camel decorations that are now proudly hanging on my front door.

After walking the souq, getting turned around a million times, we reunited and enjoyed some tea. Rex is really happy about all the sugar they put in his cup, he's giddy.

The next day, Blair, Milad, and I charge ourselves up for some whirlwind tourism. Despite its small size, Amy's travel book claims that there are 101 things for tourists to do in Bahrain. We take up challenge and cross out 11 in about five hours, of which I will tell you of a select few... 

First/second stop: The Oil Museum and first oil pump in the Gulf (check!) Look at all that oil excess burning away!

This made history (in some small circles, it is still remembered).

Next up: The Tree of Life. Despite Amy's warning that we'd never find it. We did. As we witnessed, this tree is the only one of its kind and grows in the desert without any other signicant growth around it. However, there are some American tanks glowering not too far behind it.

This is how you navigate Bahrain...

Satisfied with our success, we take a detour from our very detailed map and end up sorting through pottery factories and ancient burial grounds. The cemetery could have been a construction site or home to very large moles, but we'll believe the book and check off number 73.

Around the bend, we crossed off this old fort from our tourist list. Qal'at al Bahrain was perfect in the afternoon for a leisure viewing and afford great vistas of the city.

Soon, we put our tourist badges away and joined up a bunch of Navy dudes for a barbeque (it happens). Amy put on her Tex-Mex chef hat and cranked out a fiesta feast like no other.

It was a perfect end to a great weekend in Bahrain. I wouldn't be surprised to find myself back there at some point for another weekend get-away!