Bahrain is an island.  Who knew?  Actually, it’s an archipelago of 33 islands joined to Saudi Arabia by a causeway.  I guess I should have zoomed in more when I was checking out Google.  I did read up on it on TripAdvisor and it seemed not an easy place to see on one’s own so I took the easy way out and booked a ship’s tour.  Just a 4 hour tour!

Bahrain isn’t big on sights, it’s really so new. It’s been around since 3000 BC, mostly as a backwater trading port.  It was under British rule for 200 years back when the sun never set on the empire.  Funny story, back in 1968, 3 years before independence, they switched from driving on the left, UK-style, to the right in just one day.  Not a single accident.  But there was only 100 cars on the road at the time.  Big change happened more recently in 2000 when new guy took over and made it a kingdom, wrote a new constitution conversely giving more power to the people, freedom of religion, opened up to foreigners & foreign investment, and allowed a building boom.   Much of Bahrain is now reclaimed land, just like other cities I’ve just visited.

Our first stop was a mosque.  Never caught the name but a good-sized, able to accommodate several thousand worshipers.  Again, my attempts at dressing conservatively were for naught, all women were handed abayas to wear.  The mosque guide was unfortunately impossible to hear, so I know nothing about the place.  I just wandered about taking photos and having mine taken until it was time to leave.

Next we drove through Manama, the capital, marveling at all the new buildings and at how all the old beachfront hotels now only front sandy parking lots (reclamation).  We stopped for a photo op of some weird shaped skyscrapers, then headed off to the obligatory shopping stop at the old souq.  

Lastly, and uniquely, we visited a camel farm.  The single hump kind, which we were assured, were not the spitting kind.  All the camels we saw were anywhere from newborn to several months old and were sold 1. for nostalgia reasons, 2. to be pack animals, or 3. for their milk or meat.  Bahrain has outlawed camel racing as it’s inhumane (in racing there’s no jockey, instead the camels are spurred on by electric shocks).  
Back to the ship for a lovely cheeseburger lunch, read, walk, read, etc, etc!