Journeys with George: I’ll Take Islands in the Middle East for $1,000, Alex

Lets just say that the view from my hotel room in Bahrain was AMAZING.  The Ritz Carlton-Bahrain is right on the water on this small island country.  The view when we flew in was also pretty spectacular.

We arrived in Bahrain and headed straight for the filing center - The Gulf Hotel.  It’s a very nice hotel, but no Ritz.  I headed over to the Ritz with the pool swap-ins again and instead of getting lost this time, the 10 minute ride took 45 minutes due to all the check points set up by Bahrainian security.  Our van was sniffed by bomb sniffing dogs at least three times, and we were stopped about 5 times before getting to the hotel.  As I said, the hotel was amazing - I had two bathrooms, one of which I didn’t notice for the first half hour I was there!

I took a nice drive to The Gulf Hotel the next morning after working from the Ritz.  Since Sunday is a work day here (Friday and Saturday are the days off) we were in the midst of rush hour traffic.  But the skyline of Manama is really cool with very interesting looking buildings and more seem to be popping up everywhere we go.  All the hotels (this is also true of Kuwait) have many portraits of local leaders - also have seen lots of billboards of the same in Manama.  I got a lot of pictures, including one of the Grand Mosque of Bahrain.

One important note: I have yet to see a McDonalds or Burger King.  During the Latin American Adventure we took in March, I took a picture of one in each country.  I have heard of other people seeing them, but have yet to myself (BK was used as a landmark by our guide in Kuwait City on the three hour tour of darkness - I can explain offline).  Next…Journeys with George: Abu Dhabi-Abu-Dha-Bu-A!