Just arrived back from Bahrain. It was an interesting place. They're building like mad and there's lots of interesting buildings that are going up around the island, yet there's still a sense of days gone by; walking around the hotel, I could see some dhows on the shore across the street being loaded up with goods.
The souk was like all of Dubai's souks rolled in to one. There was a gold souk area, a tourist area and a spice/clothes souk area. It was neat to walk around, but there really wasn't anything there that I couldn't find in Dubai. Thursday night in Bahrain is hopping with all the Saudi nationals coming over (Saudi's linked to Bahrain by a bridge) to do shopping. I enjoyed it, but it is definitely not Dubai.
Flying back from Bahrain was an adventure. It's a 45 min flight and we were 1.5 hrs late leaving-- not sure why, but it will definitely be the last time I fly Gulf Air. I was not impressed with the service at all. I'm switching to Emirates! The one nice thing about the flight is that I could look out over the ocean and see the waters dotted with dhows, all lit up as they floated along. It was so amazing-- it was black as far as they eye could see except for these bright yellow/orange dots on the water.
