Bahrain Photologue Oct 2012

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Lovely blue sea! On our way to the Bahrain – Saudi Arabian Border

Many reclaimed land sections like this one in the distance. The drive to the border is very pretty.

Typical mesquite trees found in desert areas. This is outside the Bahrain Tower at the border

Major traffic jam at the border Overall the tower was in need of maintenance, for eg. the elevator chute was filthy. The sitting area outside was interesting but not much of shade hence in the afternoon one can hardly spend time there. A café would be great.

Interesting architecture in the city. What style is it I wonder?

Bahrain Grand Mosque

Lovely ambience for a person to sit in solitude, study their religion or just do their rituals – namaaz etc..

I appreciated that they had a very interactive courtyard with various activities for the new comers like me and also kids and such. In the pic you can see a small session where a lady explained to us about Haj and how it became a sacred place for the islamic folks. There were stalls where they talked about arabic script, arabic attire, culture, islamic books and so on…. There were also volunteers who would guide us through the mosque explaining various stuff and answer questions. It was very interesting and I appreciate but of course I didn’t agree with lot of stuff as is natural of a person from a different faith.

There were boards explaining Islamic edicts, but sadly it did not allay my main concerns for muslim women rights related issues…

All women have to wear a burkha if they wanted to enter the mosque. So considering that modest attire is prescribed for both men and women the restrictions and rules seem to apply only to women.

I spent hardly two days in Bahrain. Lot of Indian expat population so you can find many Indian restaurants, schools and even home temples. It has couple of shopping areas which have supermarkets like Lulu Hypermarket, Carrefour. Some of the areas are like the crowded Indian areas but very clean alongside there are international standard posh areas – it’s a mix. Over all an interesting place to visit for a traveler such as myself but for a tourist there are very few main attractions – Grand Pix track & Basra Pearls probably the most popular. I hardly spent 2 days here so if you have spent more time, let me know about any other attractions I may have missed out.

Hope you enjoyed the photologue

Read my other blogs about Bahrain here: http://travel.priyankawriting.com/category/international/bahrain