Bahrain

Nicole and I decided that Bahrain was our honeymoon, even though our trip there came nearly fourteen years after our wedding.  On our last weekend together in the Emirates (at least this trip!) we took a very short flight from Sharjah Emirate to the island nation of Bahrain and found the country pretty, interesting, and maybe best of all distinct from other places we've visited in the region.

Bahrain's actually a collection of islands (think of Hawaii) but they're small and very close to one another.  If not for the constant vistas of the blue waters of the gulf, you wouldn't even notice you were crossing a bridge from one island to the next.  Bahrain's one of the only countries where Shi'a Muslims comprise a majority, though the Kingdom is ruled by Sunni royalty closely aligned to the ruling families of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.  The ruling elite has kept recent demonstrations and uprisings pretty much in check and we saw absolutely no evidence of the protests, even in the capital city of Manama where a lot of the demonstrations have occurred.

Bahrain's connected to Saudi Arabia by a 20-kilometer bridge which facilitates easy travel between the countries (at least for Saudis and Bahranis--it's hard for non-Muslim Westerners to get visas to Saudi unless they work there), and there are loads of Saudis most everywhere in Bahrain.  They're visible because they are generally wearing traditional Gulf Arab clothing.  Their money is everywhere too.  Literally.  When you buy something, you often get part of your change back in Saudi money.

We stayed right on the beach (thus it felt like a honeymoon) and swam A LOT during the weekend.  The Persian Gulf is very warm, very salty, and very blue.  Good seafood, of course, and one night we ate at a little dive along the water and had grilled kingfish (very popular all over the Gulf), and also a really rich and tasty combination of shrimp and crab meat in a cream sauce.  The National Museum was walking distance from our hotel, so we managed to learn quite a bit about the ancient civilization that inhabited present-day Bahrain: the Dilmun, made famous in the Epic of Gilgamesh as the dwellers of an island where nobody gets sick.  Fun fact: The Dilmun created burial mounds, humongous ones, and buried the dead with sacrificial snakes housed in their own decorative bowls.  The Qulat-al-Bahrain, the centuries-old fort, is the very, very unique centerpiece of the island's heritage.  The outermost walls were built during Portuguese colonization but inner portions are much older, for example, dating to early Islamic dynasties who ruled here just a few years after the birth of Islam.

One of the great things about the region is that, if you love history, you can learn about eras and peoples more obscured compared the Greeks and Romans.  It's one of the reason going to Petra, Jordan, home of the Nabateans, is so unforgettable.  Same goes for visiting Bahrain and finding out about the Dilmun.

Pics here.