Africa/Middle East 2014:
Day 13 - Bahrain


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Africa/Middle East 2014: [Day 1 - Virginia] [Day 2 - Senegal] [Day 3 - South Africa] [Day 4 - South Africa] [Day 5 - Zimbabwe] [Day 6 - Botswana] [Day 7 - Zambia] [Day 8 - Tanzania] [Day 9 - Qatar] [Day 10 - Abu Dhabi] [Day 11 - Dubai] [Day 12 - Oman] [Day 13 - Bahrain] [Day 14 - Jordan] [Day 15 - Jordan] [Day 16 - England]

Thursday, November 27, 2014: It was our last morning waking up to this view. We had one last breakfast in the executive lounge, then checked out and headed to the mall.
We walked through the mall to get to the Mall of the Emirates Metro station. It was easy to find by backtracking our steps from the night before.
Harvey Nichols offered these elaborate window displays, ...
... each titled, "Beyond your wildest dreams."
Some dreams were a little scarier than others.
We had already purchased our tickets during our little Metro excursion the night before so we just had to get to the platform. We opted for tickets in the first class car. It was pretty crowded but not nearly as crowded as the other cars and it had a nice luggage corral for our suitcases. As we got closer to the airport, it got less and less crowded.
Spotted from the Metro train: the biggest Tim Horton's sign we have ever seen.
Well, it turns out that the KFC sign does come in Arabic as well. I wonder what it says?
We disembarked the Metro at the Terminal 1 stop, checked in for our flight, and set about spending the last of our dirhams.
We bought a tiny Burj al Arab statue, some Arabian tea, plus a couple of candy bars and bottled water for later, and some Toll House cookies for right now. Yes, there was a Toll House Cookie shop at the Dubai airport.
As we boarded the first of our Gulf Air flights, we saw the Royal Jordanian jet to our left. It's supposed to be one of the best airlines in the sky so it would have been cool to fly it, but we were very pleased with every one of the airlines that we did fly.
We took off from Dubai and got one last look at the Burj Khalifa and the buildings along Sheikh Zayed Road.
Here's a view of the World Islands, with Palm Jumeirah in the distance.
On our short flight to Bahrain, we got sandwiches as a snack, continuing the trend of getting significant food on every single flight once we left the US, no matter how short the flight. In contrast, we didn't get a single morsel of food on our nearly two-hour United Airlines flight from Indianapolis to Washington DC.
A little over an hour after takeoff, we were landing in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Manama is the capital city of Bahrain and its skyline is pretty impressive for being in such a small island country.
Here's the Bahrain International Airport, where we had a four hour layover.
Welcome to Bahrain!
Our first order of business was to eat at McDonald's. Every other restaurant was some sort of American food chain, such as Chili's, Papa John's, and Macaroni Grill, so we didn't feel guilty choosing something American.
Besides, we had some specialty items to try: the McArabia chicken wrap in a pita on the left and the Red Chili Chicken sandwich we had seen advertised in Dubai. Both were delicious and as a bonus, they were served with actual large Coca-Cola Lights, not the tiny size that passes for a large in some countries.
So, Tang. We don't know what the deal was, but these large containers of Tang were for sale in every shop. The duty free store had all the usual items (Toblerone, M&Ms, etc.) and then it had several displays of Tang so someone somewhere must be buying this product. Tom was mean and wouldn't let Debbie buy one to take home.
We passed quite a bit of time in the airport. The sun went down over Manama.
Finally, we were back in the air for our flight to Amman, Jordan. Shortly after take off, we were looking down over Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia.
We landed in Amman, exchanged money, etc., and met our driver for the next three days, Shadi. He drove us the half hour to the Regency Palace hotel, where we'd be staying the first and third nights of our tour. Here's the bedroom, ...
... and the bathroom, ...
... and the bathroom again.

It had been raining in Jordan and the streets were wet, which made for a pretty night photo as seen from our balcony window.

Day 14 >


Africa/Middle East 2014: [Day 1 - Virginia] [Day 2 - Senegal] [Day 3 - South Africa] [Day 4 - South Africa] [Day 5 - Zimbabwe] [Day 6 - Botswana] [Day 7 - Zambia] [Day 8 - Tanzania] [Day 9 - Qatar] [Day 10 - Abu Dhabi] [Day 11 - Dubai] [Day 12 - Oman] [Day 13 - Bahrain] [Day 14 - Jordan] [Day 15 - Jordan] [Day 16 - England]

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