Bahrain

Bahrain is a small, island country only 30 miles away. Theoretically, it shouldn't take very long to get there. But it does...scroll down and you'll learn why!

Let's begin with a selfie, shall we?! Bahrain or bust!

At peak times, traffic moves at snail-pace. Add in 6 checkpoints (toll fees, insurance fees, passport/customs, etc) and crazy Saudi driving...it's often a battle to move 6 inches. This photo is at the 1st checkpoint (if I remember right)- it's actually relatively civil at this point. I should've taken a more "crazy" photo.

It took us about 3 hours each way. It's my understanding this is about average. If you're lucky, it's only an hour. If you're unlucky, 4+ hours. Once we got through all the checkpoints and into the city I took a couple of photos of some unique buildings- this cool building has 2 towers with windmills in between:

This new building is nicknamed the "twizzler" building for obvious reasons:

Our first stop was to the water park at the mall. Part of the waterpark can be seen from the street:

At the entrance of the water park

Most of the water park is indoors- which is actually really nice (no sunscreen...)!

One outdoor shot.

After spending the afternoon at the water park it was time to eat. The kids loved Wagamamas when we lived in Perth so there was no question where they wanted to eat dinner- Wagamamas!

Our hotel ended up being really close to the Al Fateh Grand Mosque. This photo was taken at night from the car as we drove to the hotel. We decided we wanted to try and see it the next day. So we did.

Bahrain is a pretty modern-thinking Muslim country. You can pretty much wear whatever you want (although you probably want to dress somewhat conservatively). However, if you visit a mosque...break out the abaya!

A few outdoor shots:

Those doors! We learned during the tour that all the wood came from India and was hand carved.

Panoramic shot of the inside. I was so surprised that our tour guide encouraged to take pictures of anything we wanted. So yes, we took a lot.

Brian in a thobe (that is too short). He was wearing shorts & needed to cover up those legs!

Kaiya and I both had to cover our hair. Um, and since we didn't know how a kind Muslim woman wrapped our heads in scarves for us. I need to learn how to do this...

Isn't Kaiya so cute?

Emiko was required to wear an abaya also!

Mina isn't sure what to think about Brian wearing a thobe.

Girls in the outdoor courtyard of the mosque.

Coouple shot!

This chandelier weights 3.5 tons. Ack! That's heavy! All of the glass lighting is hand blown glass from France.

When this dome was built it was the biggest in the world (for a mosque). Our guide told us it's now the 3rd largest.

Brian and I enjoyed listening to our guide talk to us about Muslim beliefs and the various prayer rituals they do 5 times/day. We were even more impressed and surprised that they offered guided tours...and the tour was led by a Muslim woman. (No way would that happen in Saudi.) But Mei struggled...

So I pulled her off to the side and had her read the Quran. (I really did do this!)

And then let her take a picture of tiger in the mosque. Which led me to realize that tiger is like our Flat Stanley. He goes with us everywhere, every trip/country we go to. We probably have tons of photos of him at landmarks across the world...

After leaving the mosque we decided we needed to sweat (not really...but it's inevitable at an outdoor market). We went to the Bab Al-Bahrain Souq- Mina is posing in front of this historical building that serves as the entrance to the souqs.

I heart BH!

A couple of pics inside the souqs where we let the kids pick out a souvenir.

And that concludes our brief weekend in Bahrain. We'll be back again soon, I'm sure!