Shaikh Hamad must be a proud man... n y not.. He is the first king of an arab emirate to have held elections. Though I am a bit wary if the members have anythin to do (i.e. legislate) or only shout their lungs out...(For that matter even Indian Parliament does nothin but keep shouting)
Anywayz Bahrain.... the oldest nation to have discovered oil (back in 1932) is amongst the youngest nation in attitude (u just cant miss the zing on the face of an average Bahraini!!!). The Pearl of the Gulf will also in about a months time become the first Gulf nation to host a Formula 1 race (at the newly designed Sakhir race track in the south of the country). Though I would like to add that it would be better if the race was being held in the winters...
Bahrain has grown manifolds and has come up as an international tourist destination in recent times... A sense of arriving in a peaceful nation strikes you as soon as you get off the flight and enter a really great airport terminal where I have never probably been caught up in the work for more than 20 minutes in total (except of course the first time when the visa was being stamped on my mom’s passport and we had to wait a long time for the procedures to be completed)... This nation accepts anyone with a warm ’’Ahlan Wa Sahlan’’(Arabic for welcome)... you can see that even on the taxi driver who will gratefully take you to any part of the small island nation... unlike any Indian city where one has to fight it out with atleast two drivers..... Though I must admit that taxis are pretty costly.... so what there are always other means...
As far as places to see go there is not much but then it is nothing like there is nothin... The modern Manama Beach, The bustling Souq, The exquisite Gold Souq, absolutely any mall in Al Seef, Al Zallaq Beach, Al Areen Wildlife Park, The great clubs, Hawar Islands, Al Dar Islands, The Saudi Causeway or just roaming in the streets and bylanes of Manama... This country is truly cosmopolitan in nature housing more expatriates than locals... And most of the expatriates(as usual in any gulf nation) are from Malluland... U get anything under the sun in the shops, markets and the malls.... Well for that matter I would like to mention the GEANT hypermart (which has very few marts of its kind in the world) where it is as easy to buy a computer system as it is to buy a can of coke...
As far as eating joints are concerned , Bahrain boasts from some of the most famous food chains including Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Yum-Yum and KFCs.... The best eat outs according to me is the Charcoal Grill or any outlet of Dairy Queen(especially the Salmaniya one if u manage to get there without losing your nerve having guided your car through Bahrain’s busiest rounabout... The Dairy Queen roundabout). For veggies there are a lot of Indian restaurants spilled across Isa Al Kabeer Avenue and the Shaikh Isa Avenue...
The people in general are very cooperative and even a slight road accident will have more than 3 cars stopping jus to enquire whether you need anythin..
What Bahrain really misses is a kind of promotional festival like the DSF or the Malaysia Trade Fair... And I would like to mention that if u r going there dont miss the mid-December fete of exclusive laser shows during the national day celebrations...
Bahrain is definitely the place to be if you love your trips to be as happening as they can be and also as peaceful as they can be.... In short Bahrain is for anyone and everyone.....be it a two-year old or a ninety two-year old!!!!!!!
All my life is in brackets...
Imperious but not immortal...