American University of Sharjah: Fall 2008: 17-19 December 2008

The past few days have been rather eventful ones. I went to Bahrain for the day on Wednesday, which was an experience. I went by myself because no one else wanted to come which proved difficult at times. Since I was only there for the day, I only had time to explore the main section of the city known as Manama. When I arrived in Bahrain, I was immediately shuffled into the "visa transfer" group. This consists of people who flew to Bahrain to immediately turn around and go back to Sharjah so they could reenter the country and renew their visa. Luckily, one other person was also mistakenly put in this group, so we figured it out together and got on our way to passport services.

Once within the actual country, I got a taxi to the Bahrain National Museum. I'm pretty sure my taxi driver was a local, which never happens in the UAE. He asked about what I was doing for the day, suggested some things to do, and then gave me his card in case I got in any trouble. The Museum was nice and had a lot of scale models depicting Bahraini heritage. There were also some old documents and an entire room on graves. Gravesites supposedly occupy five percent of the land in Bahrain.

After the Museum, I walked along the Corniche (waterfront) to the al-Fateh mosque. The walk was relaxing by long and really cold and windy. It was a lot colder in Bahrain than in the UAE. When I got to the mosque, I had to put on an abaya (black cloak) and head scarf in order to go in. The mosque offers free tours, but unfortunately, the only tour going when I got there was in German. So I got to look around but understand nothing of what was being said. After the tour, I stayed in the mosque for awhile, just sitting down and reading my Lonely Planet book trying to figure out where I was going to go next.

At this point, it was time for noon prayer. A security guard came up to me and told me I had to leave. By this, I assumed he meant the mosque since it was prayer time and I'm not Muslim. Actually, he just meant I couldn't be sitting outside the mosque, which I was. He brought me inside, and the people who were conducting the tours found me a chair and put it in the sun, where I would be warm. They also gave me a lot of pamphlets on Islam and let me sit there during prayer time. It was really nice.

Eventually, I had enough energy and was warm enough to move again. I thanked the people at the mosque and then went and got a taxi. I asked him to bring me to the Manama Souq which was on the other side of town. Again, this taxi driver was very nice and talkative. When we arrived at the souq, I was very disoriented and couldn't seem to find it. By this point I was really hungry, so I temporarily gave up on the souq, got some lunch, and relaxed a bit more. I tried to study the map in my Lonely Planet book, but the map was proving more and more incorrect the more I used it.

After lunch, I again tried to find this souq. In the end, I concluded either the map was completely wrong or the souq no longer existed. I ended up walking down a bunch of back alleys and little streets, which was not comforting as I was traveling alone. After that, I did my best to stick to main roads. I eventually found the Bab al-Bahrain (Gate of Bahrain). From there I decided to go to the Pearl Diving Museum, which according to the map was only .2 miles away.

A mile later, I figured once again the map was either completely wrong or the museum no longer existed. Along the walk, however, I had passed a lot of interesting buildings in the financial sector, so being lost wasn't a complete waste of time. Once again, I consulted the map, this time not to get directions but just to see what other sights there were to see. I eventually decided to go see the pearl monument, so I waved down a taxi to go.

He had no idea where the pearl monument was, but according to the map it was near the fish market, so I asked him to bring me there. At this point I was all out of small change, and the driver didn't have change for me, so he very kindly stopped at a market to make change. This took a little while since, in keeping with Arab culture, he had to say hello to everyone he knew and inquire about their health and well-being. Anyway, after paying the taxi, I walked to the Pearl Monument which we had passed on the way.

It was an interesting structure. Nothing too grand but nice. At this point it was about 2:00 PM. I could either go back to the airport or continue to look around for a bit. I still had two hours before I should be back at the airport, so I decided to try and find the water gardens which were listed on the map in the guide book, but there was no description. I tried to use the map for awhile, but a fair amount of the roads on the map were not labeled nor did the roads in Bahrain have street signs, so I was pretty much effectively lost with the map. I ended up using the sun and place markers like the police station to figure out where I was and where I was going. After about a forty five minute walk, I arrived at the water gardens.

The gardens didn't really live up to their name. It was more like a lake with geese and ducks, a roller coaster, and a little carnival-like area. I feed the geese for awhile and tried to take some pictures of the birds flying. Other than that, there really wasn't too much to do there. Once again, I had to make a decision as to whether I should try to see more or should just get a cab back to the airport. I looked at the map, which had on it the Andalus Gardens and the Old Royal Palace, both of which sounded interesting and both of which where in the direction of the airport. So I decided to walk that way and see how far I could get in the time I had left.

It took awhile to get there, and when I finally got to the Andalus Gardens, I discovered they werer closed. I could still see it through the fence, and it looked like it was under construction. The Old Royal Palace was supposed to be in this area. I think I may have seen it, but I didn't have time to find out for sure since it was now 4:15 PM, and I really had to get back to the airport.

Finding a cab in Bahrain is no problem at all, and I was soon on my way back to the airport. We left Manama for another smaller island known as Muharraq. The airport is on this island. We past a lot more monuments on this island, including one of a hawk, which made me wish I had explored it a bit more, but it was too late. Check in at the airport was easy, as it usually is at airports not in the US.

After check-in, I was amazed to find the entire duty-free section was decorated for Christmas. The decorations were very intense and well done. They even had Christmas music playing. It was like I had been transported back to a mall in the US. I went in every store, enjoying the Christmas atmosphere.

My plane ended up being over an hour late, but we managed to land in Sharjah only forty minutes late. From there, I just got a taxi and went back to campus. I found out the following day (yesterday)that on Tuesday Bahraini officials had arrested fifteen people planning on carrying out various attacks on Shi'ite Muslim sights in Bahrain on Wednesday, the day I was there. This was a little unnerving, but I was glad I found out after I went and also that they had managed to prevent the attacks from happening. I had noticed a lot of police presence in Bahrain, but since I had nothing to compare this with, I didn't think much of it.

Yesterday after school, a bunch of us went out and got some pizza and then went to the beach. It has gotten pretty cold here lately, and the beach was no exception. Surprisingly, the water was still really warm, but we didn't go in. There is a jetty at the beach, so we walked out onto that. From there, one can see a great view of the Dubai skyline. I tried to take some pictures, but it is hard to capture the skyline in the dark. One of these days before I leave, I have to get some pictures of these buildings in the day time.

Aside from all of that, I've just been trying to get schoolwork done. I just have one more presentation to give and then finals. I just cannot wait for the semester to be over. AU has been out for almost a week now, and I am extremely jealous. But for good news, the day I get home is no in the long range weather forecast meaning its coming up! This is good and bad. I want to go home, but I also like being here.

-Lindsay

Corniche: