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Bahrain(Fri 27th -Mon 30th March 2009)
Arrived in the Kingdom of Bahrain after a bumpy 4 hour Gulf Air flight from Mumbai. The main reason we have come here is because it was Gwen's home for 5 years in the early nineties and she wanted to see some old friends and re-visit some of her old haunts. We have been staying with her friends Yvonne and Kees Kemp who have lived in Bahrain for over 30 years.
We were met at the airport by Anne and Bill McKelvey, some other old friends of Gwen from Scotland who coincidentally happened to be staying in Bahrain after their holiday in Nepal. We had a couple of drinks in their hotel before being picked up by Yvonne who drove us to their lovely house set in a compound half an hour from the main town of Manama.
There is not a lot to do in Bahrain for the average tourist but that has not been a problem. It has been lovely just to relax and chill out for a couple of days watching TV (haven't seen Jeremy Kyle for a while), playing tennis and helping ourselves to cheese and tomato sandwiches whenever we felt like it. We did a bit of sight-seeing - Yvonne took us to the new Banyan Tree resort and spa which has recently opened up in the desert. Hiring an apartment there costs 3,000 Dinar (£6,000) per night. We had a cup of tea. Another day we borrowed their car and visited the motor racing track which will host the Bahraini Grand Prix in 4 weeks time. We also drove along the Causeway to the border with Saudi Arabia (where Kees works) - not sure why -seemed a good idea at the time.
Gwen has spent some time re-visiting old haunts such as the Dilmun Club where she played a lot of tennis and which became her second home. She was chuffed that a couple of the Dilmun staff still recognised her after 14 years. She also visited her old compounds and the schools her children attended. She met up with another friend Judy for coffee and on our last evening some more old friends Sue and Greg and daughter Steph came round for dinner.
Bahrain itself is quite a small island about the size of Singapore. It is basically a desert with very little greenery. There is lots of construction work going on but nobody seems quite sure why or who it is for. They don't seem to go in much for landscaping. There are plenty of nice houses ,apartments, shops and hotels but the land between these buildings is just sand or rubble. Being a Muslim country Friday is the main holy day and Saturday and Sunday are normal working days. Women's fashion is interesting. Some wear western style clothes, some have their head covered with a scarf, some wear black but show their face and some go the whole hog and wear the burka to cover their whole face. To me there is no more ridiculous sight than to see a couple, the man wearing jeans and tee-shirt and his wife covered from head to toe because of some weird interpretation of the Koran.
Finally thanks again to Yvonne and Kees for making us very welcome in their comfortable home. Kees - there will be no cause to sue me for slander or character assassination (although your tennis needs working on ! ). I only say nice things about people I stay with (well apart from the Dane !)
Hope to meet up again this summer in Edinburgh.
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