First I had to make a couple of phonecalls to try and rearrange the remaining flights and I was very happy to hear that one of them would both change the dates and allow an extended stop over in Bahrain for no additional cost, at least none that they told me about. This meant that I was now able to visit a couple more friends who are now in Bahrain, friends that I had first met about seven years ago in Spain and then again in New Zealand.
I would not have made a proper visit to Bahrain if it was not for them, as I know nothing about the place and it is not on my list of places to go or things to see, but when my flight from Dubai to Cairo stopped there anyway as part of its normal schedule and then I found out that my friends had recently moved there and were near the airport it seemed like fortune or fate were lining up to enable me to see them so I thought why the hell not.
After that I had to send out emails to all the hostels, hotels and contacts that I had yet to visit and either tell them that I was unfortunately unable to stay there or that I was and sooner than originally planned, all of which took up another few hours.
Finally I begged a packing box from the hotel and bundled up all the recent soveneirs, receipts, fliers and dvd's plus a coupld of sweaters that I doubt I would be needing again before I make touchdown back in the UK, before heading off to the nearest post office to see if it would be cost effective for me to have it shipped home. Thankfully even though it was about 4 or kilos they only charged me about US $30 for sending it by boat, the only down side is that they said it would be about 10 weeks getting there so I would arrive home well before my package would.
Feeling very good with myself for the run of good fortune I stopped off to have a nice sandwich and icecream overlooking the small lake just down from my hotel and for a moment I was in heaven. The day could not be going better, the food and the view was nice, I had a managable weighted rucksack again and it was still only mid afternoon.
Making the most of the remains of the day I grabbed my camera and took a motor cycle up to the tall Buddha pagoda just north of the old distict and then slowly meandered my way back towards the hotel. Here there was plenty of opporunities to take photographs if you did not mind doing so under the watchful gaze of the armed security force that was outside the main political and presidential buildings. At first I was too put off to be obveous about taking photos, instead using the guise of a tourist checking his map as a cover for my stopping in front of them, but as I continued to walk I spotted other tourists taking photos without being molested or taken away in cuffs.
All the main buildings seemed to surround a huge green park, carefully tended to and with divided up into squares by a lattice of thin concrete paths.
I finally came to the conclusion that the many 'no camera' signs and armed guards were more for show and relics of the past than current requirements, when I spotted a young couple ride up and park their motorcycle, the girl actually standing tall on the bikes podium to get a view over the shielding fences, not five feet away from a pair of guards without raising even the slightest alarm.
With time getting on the sun began to dip low in the sky and I began to get the idea that this might be a great opporunity to take some usnse shots overlooking the lake and pagoda near my hotel so I started back toward the old district. I got a little sidetracked when I came to a nice historic tower and then a tall statue of Lenin standing tall and proud, but I found myself again in time to get back to the lake.
The sun was a little too weak and the sky a little too cloudy for a truly magnificent view but it was still quite spectacular to see the suns reflection break up around the old temple located in the middle of the lake.
Once the sun had set I made it back to my hotel and then finished off the day with a drink and watching the first Harry Potter movie, Hanoi not being known for its rousing nightlife and I wanted to save the last of my Vietnamese dong for any last second expenses incurred during my mornings trip to China.
It was just as I was touching up the last of my photos and packing up my clothes that the icing fell off the days cake as I spotted that not only had my camera somehow developed a hair line shadow in the top right hand corner, quite noticable on pale sky shots, but also that soe thoughtful laundry attendant had thought to write in permenant marker on the inside of some of my shirts so as to identify who they belong to. I doubt it was this hotel as I checked and they dont have any such markers, so it must have been someone between here and leaving Singapore, so the culprit has managed to get away clean, pun intended.
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