Having crammed in so much to the first half of the Bahrain trip everyone, including the tourist board reps, is at a bit of a loss about what to do with the second. There's definitely enough here to justify a three or four day break, but we were so keen to get a little taste of everything in the first day that now we're heading back to the national museum for a second time.
It's woeful for pictures, but at least great for information, making any real writing I have to complete all the easier. More impressive is the site of the burial mounds en route. Today there are only about 50,000 still standing, all of which have been excavated or raided. Yet in the bygone days of yore, there could have been as many as 10 times that amount. Alas, in the searing midday sun, taking definitive pictures is pretty tricky. In fact, taking pictures of pretty much anything is a difficult business with barely any shadow to be found. Still, as we've got bugger all else to do, I at least have the chance to go have a look around there and a pottery thing. When a tourist board thinks a pottery thing is worth taking a travel writer to, you know that points of interest are, well, a little thin.
It's woeful for pictures, but at least great for information, making any real writing I have to complete all the easier. More impressive is the site of the burial mounds en route. Today there are only about 50,000 still standing, all of which have been excavated or raided. Yet in the bygone days of yore, there could have been as many as 10 times that amount. Alas, in the searing midday sun, taking definitive pictures is pretty tricky. In fact, taking pictures of pretty much anything is a difficult business with barely any shadow to be found. Still, as we've got bugger all else to do, I at least have the chance to go have a look around there and a pottery thing. When a tourist board thinks a pottery thing is worth taking a travel writer to, you know that points of interest are, well, a little thin.
Unexpectedly, lunch is the biggest – and quite possibly best – sushi selection I've ever had. Then there's a bit more time to take pictures before heading to the airport, with all of us still scratching our heads about how to kill the time.
And in the end, there really wasn't much else to do.
Still, I'd recommend Bahrain, I really would. In the future, I think anyone with a brain won't choose to holiday in one particular Gulf country or another, but rather tour them all. Considering the hideousness of some of its neighbours, it'd be foolish to skip the Kingdom.