A day in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates ( U.A.E. )

I woke up early, too early for some unknown reason, and checked my cellphone for the time only to find that it had eeriely drained itself of charge overnight and needed to be recharged. Once I did this I then found my watch and realised it was not even 5am and so certainly worth going back to sleep for another couple of hours.

My second attempt for waking up was a much more personally acceptably time of around 8am, which was perfect as it meant that I could have breakfast and then plan the day ahead, which with local friends, a map and the internet should have been quite easy but it would seem that Bahrain is suffering that all too familiar 'not really set up for tourists' problem.

There are a few forts and museums that might appeal, but only if you sign up for one of those all day tours as they are spread out quite far and wide apart, and the kingdoms water park is about as south as you can go and on the map there is nothing else lower down that is labelled so I am guessing it is all just dessert, roads and occasional industrial or housing projects.

I am a bit curious to find out how many people currently live here as everywhere I look they are building huge multi story apartment and office blocks, yet on the street I have yet to pass a crowd or even a large group of people to make them seem necessary.

Together A' and I worked out a vague plan that we would visit the National Museum first and then after that possibly go to a fort, or to a mall before heading back for lunch, it would have been a bit more exciting but of course we would be taking along her young daughter which limits things a bit, plus I dont drive, there is no public transport system ( there are only a very few people here and those who are here all seem to drive ! ) and getting a taxi everywhere is not my idea of value for money, especially in a country that has as stronger currency that England.

Yes, for the first time here I dont have to try and divide the currency by any number or fraction to try and get back to English money for an equivalent value, here you simply double it.

Around 11am we made our way over to the museum which was very well laid out but the first few rooms seemed to be more about paying homage and respect to their kings, with info boards and photos everywhere, and not so much about the actual place itself. Thankfully later rooms did go into detail about the history and culture of the land and had relics and articacts dating back about five thousand years, with mention of its legends written down in Mesopotamia 2000 BC.

As always, I am never 100% certain of the accuracy of facts but if the info boards are true then it would appear that Noah had a rival in the Arc building department by a fellow of the name of Ziusudra who also happened to be the only person left alive and was the preserver of plants and animals alike.

There was also plenty about their customs of births, marriages and death which were a little foreign to me, like your cousin being the first logical choice for your husband or wife, but again they were all displayed very neatly and made some sense when I stopped to think about it.

The only downfall of the museum was that it was a little empty, like they were expecting to have many more exhibits to show and so built it bigger than it realy needs to be, but then here space is not at such a premium as in other countries so I guess they can build it as large as they want.

As the sun had come out again and chaced the mornings dark clouds away we decided it would be a good opportunity to visit one of the kingdoms few archaeological sites, Arad Fort, which seemed to be quite important when I was researching it but upon arrival I couldnt understand how as it was so very small, looking more like a fortified watch post than anything more than anything else.

However, despite its small stature, in the sun it did look great and I had plenty of fun taking pictures from various angles. The place was free to visit which was nice, but as it was empty except two security guards around there was no place to buy drinks, souveneirs, postcards or even to guide you around and so it felt like this place was far more remote and hidden away than it actually is.

Ten minutes later we were back in the taxi where we headed off to the local mini mall where we enjoyed a coffee and donut before heading back and relaxing the rest of the day eating pizza, chatting and wondering if it is worth me trying to venture out on my own with one of the few tour companies for a tour of the city and then meet back at my friends apartment later on.