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Blogs from Manama, Bahrain, Middle East - page 2
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March 5th 2011
I left Minnesota at 8:00pm Thursday on a direct flight to Amsterdam which arrived there at 11:00am Friday. That's about eight hours travel and a seven hour time difference. I passed part of the three hour layover there by visiting a branch of the Riks Museum and just wandering around checking out the shops and people. A seven hour flight with two more hours of time change got me to Bahrain at 10:00pm Friday night. Bahrain is a relatively small airport but very busy. Customs and immigration went very smoothly and Jason met me in the lobby. He is only about 15 min from the airport so we were at his place by 11:00. Needless to say, spending 20 hours in travel is not pleasant but all went well considering! Slept thru the night with the ... read more
December 19th 2010
Hi Everybody and a very Merry Christmas from the sunny desert island of Bahrain! Another year done and dusted and before ya know it 2011 will be well underway, scarey scarey... Here’s hoping 2010 delivered all you asked of it and that you’ll be getting some time off at Chrissy. We’ve become masters of distraction to help the time pass on the small isle in the Persian Gulf which has been home for nearly 18 months, - where a road trip means turning around at 60km. Along with Buddies Roger and Karen, Jude and I moved apartment from our beloved Burj Omran when our 12 months lease matured. The market had dropped majorly so we were able to a secure a brand new three (as opposed to 2) bedroom apartment at a much cheaper rate – ... read more
December 7th 2010
I have a possibility to spend 3 weeks in Bahrain in December 2010. We were staying in the new urban area close to the airport called Amway Islands. I work as a flight attendant for one czech airline company. We did fly from Manama (capital of Bahrain) to Sri Lanka and indian Goa. During the mean time we were discovering this little interesting island. Here are some pictures from my "vacation". I am looking forward to your comments.... read more
October 2nd 2010
Kia Ora! ........ from the Desert Island of Bahrain Folks, and profound, untold and immense apologies for the big gap in Blog episodes since Feb 2010! Read on and you’ll see why time has flown for us, what we’ve been up to and why I’ve been so slack in maintaining the Blog (Did I say that out loud?) Okay, after having a blast in Goa, - India’s beautiful and economical beach area, we settled back into island life - Jude going to work all day and me doing the House Hubby thing, - you know, lying by the pool, coffee mornings, playing cards, cycling the back streets on Myrtle, cooking dinner etc etc and suddenly the excitement and hoopla of the Formula One meeting descended on Bahrain. In March, the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) hosted the ... read more
September 6th 2010
Flying on from Singapore(after the usual hours of waiting,Meal upstairs in food court with $7 Tiger beer) we arrived in Dubai and straight on to Bahrain. It was a smooth entry into the middle East except for the warnings about eating and drinking in public during Ramadan. A quick taxi trip and we were installed in the Landmark Suites in central Manama. Very comfortable and about 5 times the size of our Vietnamese rooms-Bedroom bathroom,kitchen,living rooms. There was no one on the streets during the day because it was 43 degrees and Ramadan. Most of the shops were closed. After the fast was broken each day at sunset it was more like a soccer match-thousands on the streets and every restaurant full until about 3 AM and the Mosques bulging and the ever present call to ... read more
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July 31st 2010
Bahrain by night La surprise ! Arrives a l'aeroport de Manama ou nous etions deja a la recherche d'un recoin isole ou etaler nos sacs de couchage pour la nuit, on nous apprend qu'en raison de la longueur de notre transit, la compagnie aerienne est tenue de nous offrir le visa d'entree dans le pays, le diner, la nuit d'hotel, le petit dejeuner et les trajets en taxi qu'ils impliquent ... imaginez notre excitation ! Le seul "tampon bonus" sur nos passeports aurait suffit a nous rejouir pour ces 12 heures d'attentes, alors l'hotel 4 étoiles, le buffet a volonté, la promenade en ville pour la nuit ... ca fait presque trop, mais on ne se fait pas prier ! Toutes ces richesses, une entorse a l'esprit inch'Allah ? On s'en sort en se disant que ... read more
April 15th 2010
Hi Friends and Family Just thought it easier to post pics of our new Apartment here rather than clogging the internet capillaries....... We lurved our 3rd floor apartment BUT the traffic noise was diabolical. Seems #32 is the apartment people move in to before they move higher up to avoid the noise!! The previous tenants to us did exactly that. The Apartment management are sneaky tho, they say "We have an apartment available on the 3rd floor (closest to traffic) but thats unavailable to view today, but we can show you an identical apartment on the 11th floor" Anyways - I moved us with multiple trolley loads during the day so when Jude came home, She just slept in a different apartment than she left in the morning! Fortunately the furniture is all the same, so ... read more
April 3rd 2010
Bahrain is not a country you would immediately expect to host the Tree of Life, or be mentioned as the location for the Biblical Garden of Eden, yet the Tree is there, in the desert, and Eden? Well there is some mention of Bahrain being called paradise and the abode of Enki, the God of Wisdom and the Sweet Water From under the Sea. Where is it described as being paradise? In the oldest poetic saga in the world, the Epic of Gilgamesh, an island called Dilmun is described exactly like this. And wouldn't you know it, Dilmun is what Bahrain used to be called a long, long, time ago... Let’s say some 5000 odd years ago. In the Epic, Gilgamesh travels to Dilmun, a paradisiacal island and the dwelling of Utnapishtim and his wife, who ... read more
March 1st 2010
Bring on Twenty Ten! Well, after a fantastic break in Chiang Mai, we eased back in to life here in Bahrain - a change of currency, back to driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, and, for Jude at least, WORK! We have managed to have some fun tho, “as you do” when away from home and friends, we tend to knock around with fellow expats and share birthdays, etc - and “socialise with selected refreshments” when appropriate. One outing recently was to the Horse Races - held every Friday over “winter”, remembering our weekend is Fri/Sat, back to work Sunday. Entry is free, and it gave us the opportunity to pull on some glad rags (why do we call them glad rags? More likely they are glad when we take them off) and head ... read more
January 5th 2010
We are the Fitzsimmons' family. Shane and Heather have moved few times over seas but the kids have never been . You could say that we are your average family. With Makenna(9) and Ian(6), You could say they have there handsful not to mention we are moving overseas. This is the blog that we will keep you posted of our travels. So far, Ian and Shane have traveled to Doha and then switching off to Bahrain. Now it is Mother and Daughter team, Heather and Makenna's turn to take the plunge. They go to London and switch off to Bahrain. The girls have made it to London, and they have about another hour of a layoff. We will keep posted... read more
