Bahraini Love

Life of an expat in Saudi Arabia can be stressful. He spends the whole day working his tail off and goes home after. There is not much spots in the kingdom where he can fill his leisure time, especially during long holidays. Most of the expats opt to spend a short vacay at the neighboring countries.

This year, Eid Al-Udha holidays lasted for 10 days. Having wanted to unwind, we thought of breathing some fresh air from a never-seen environment. We had 3 choices; Dubai, Qatar, or Bahrain. We've been to Dubai when I was still in high school. Qatar is closer to KSA than Bahrain. But we ended up voyaging to the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The moment I set my foot down to the island country, I took off my abaya. Oh how my skin missed the kiss of the sun! I kid you not. I felt like all burden and stress in me evanesced. I am certain my companions felt the same way.

We stayed at Al Manzil Suites. It was a prepossessing lodging.

First day was a mere city tour. We took a stroll around the city. The island is known to be small but it appears to be very ample due to the number of unoccupied lots. We had lunch at City Center Bahrain and watched "Into the Storm" in the movie theatre. We had a grocery at the Danube as well.

Tito Sonny would like to satisfy his long-drawn-out craving for pork, so we looked for "Bahay Kubo" the next day. It is a Filipino restaurant recommended by fellows who have been to and who live in there. They serve delish dishes! Afterwards, we headed to Souq Market which is super crowded. We transferred hurriedly to the nearest park. It is an amusement park nearby bay port. We stayed by the bay. The wind eased the high temperature letting us enjoy the beautiful view of the floating yatchs and the next city from afar. Our last stop for the day was the Bahrain National Museum, where you could have a view of their history. The part of the place that I enjoyed the most was, of course, the shore. But wait! We went bar hopping when the clock struck 12.

We were supposed to return to Riyadh on the third day. However, my parents and Tito Sonny found a great pleasure in Bahrain. Hence, the 1-day extension. We transferred to another hotel which is in the midst of the city, Windsor Hotel. The day was not perfectly spent. We spent the whole morning til afternoon at the immigration office to clarify if we could extend. Last destitation should've been a zoo. But we lost track that caused exhaustion, so we went back to the hotel.

The next day, which was our last day as well, we just ate lunch at Chili's with gusto. We could not go to another tourist spot for we had to return to Riyadh.

Bahraini allayed the stress in us!