Get it? Bah-Rain! There are no sheep and no storms here. It's perhaps the only country with "rain" in its name yet there's very little rain in this tiny oil-rich Gulf country. Most of these countries seem like they have more oil than water. For the past few days I've been staying with a CouchSurfing host named Awwadh who recently moved to Al Khobar from Mecca. We discussed a trip to Bahrain for the day but he's been really busy so I decided to go it alone. Since he lives so close to the King Fahd Causeway I didn't have to walk very far and it didn't take long to get a lift. My driver, who is from Bangladesh, was able to enter for free since he had a Saudi residence permit but I had to pay 5 Bahraini dinars (BD) to enter the country. I had no cash, so my driver paid and I put 5 BD worth of petrol when he stopped at a servo. From there I started walking.
Utahns go to Vegas and Aussies go to Bali but Saudis go to Bahrain to unleash their hedonism. As the most liberal country in the Middle East, Saudis flock here for shopping, drinking, massages, and nightlife. Unlike in Saudi Arabia, I found postcards, magnets, and stamps straight away at the souq. Bahrain is my 90th country visited and in one short trip, I've visited most of the Gulf countries. The only Gulf country left to visit is the United Arab Emirates and the only other country in the Arabian Peninsula left is to visit is Yemen. I began my Bahraini afternoon by sending myself two postcards and having a stroll around the souq.
I can't seem to go anywhere these days without finding at least one geocache, so my first "find" in Bahrain was a virtual cache at the souq. From there I took the bus to the Al Fateh Grand Mosque. Opened only in 1988, the mosque is one of Bahrain's top attractions but is only open to visitors on Fridays.
Most mosques tend to look similar on the inside, therefore I didn't complain about not being able to go inside. I signed my first physical geocache in Bahrain next to the mosque after borrowing a pen from a bus driver. From there it was a warm evening; a nice one for a walk with sand between my toes. These cats look all nice and cozy.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? When in Bahrain, do as the Saudis do! Since I hadn't had a glass of wine in weeks it was time to unleash. At the pub I had a few glasses of wine all whilst working girls were trying to get me to use their services. Smoking is still allowed inside many places around the world, even though I wish it would be banned everywhere. A guy was really heated with me after I got upset with him about smoking inside.
I couldn't drink too much wine as I had to find my tipsy way back to Saudi Arabia, so after a few glasses of vino, I was on my way. Two different buses would get me back to the border and I hitchhiked across. Bahrain won't win any awards for being one of my favourite countries but it made a nice afternoon and evening away from Saudi Arabia, as well as having the ability to have a few drinks and add another country to my travel collection. It's one of the very few countries that I've spent only a day in. It's my 90th country or territory overall and my 73rd UN member country.
