Bahrain!!

so peeps i have arrived, marvelled at, and left the kingdom of bahrain. yes it was sweet, hot and humid but also a teeny bit boring (sorry locals!) so what went down??? arrived at 5.30 in the morning and was collected by the delicious rory skinner who really has only gotten better with age ;) a former model and trinity student (although he only managed to attempt trinity for 2 years) i met rory through tom murphy and he has been always asking me over. so he brought me for a trip around the island with the sun rising and the mist clearing, all the while trying to avoid damage to his wonderful bmw from crazy saudi drivers.for those of you who are not aware saudi is joined to bahrain by a giant bridge thing so over Eid (the holiday after ramadam) the place was over run by saudis hanging out, men and women together!!! this is not allowed in any shape way or form in saudi, we're talking no cinema together, no beaches,restaurants,queues..etc the list just goes on an on, but the result being that in bahrain they can be together so the place was jammed with them when i arrived and the bahraini's no like them! adn i can concur that they are just crazy on the roads but to be fair, the ex pat brats werent much beter with their driving under the influence etc! but thats another story. so i arrived and promptly fell asleep on the couch, it was a long trip! when i finally joined the world the rest of the house was up, rory lives with caroline and george, all english and lovely and kate, george's girlfriend is pretty much a constant guest as well. they have a pool and had set up a pullout bed in rory's room for me, but he mentioned that if i wasnt comfortable staying there that his parents were down the road, no such worries for me!!! although i was slightly grossed out by the amount of black ants about the place, i was told that they dont bite (a lie!!) so be warned! so my first night there was a bar bq at one of the guy's houses, and we all went and gorged ourselves and i met loads of people and managed to hold my own in a drinking game! the next day rory brought me around the new large mall that just opened... arabs do love to shop! it was just awesome, but shock shock horror horror im just notinterested in shopping right now!then the next night we all went out to this top class cocktail place called trader vics.. its a chain i think, well i was welcomed to bahrain with a rainbow shot.. i was quite scared as it involved many layers of alcolhol and a lighter... bu i finished it in one with a straw as required and didnt puke.. bonus! that was the beginning of the end for me there.. the night progresed with me meeting some reallynice people, mainly guys (the ratio is so in our favour ladies...) doing some midnight swimming in a pool with some of them, getting a lift (along witht the rest of the party) with 2 local bahrainis to a house party and then waking up at 11am!!! wasnt even that hungover till i got to the rugby club (an ex pat hangou that serves booze) spent the day there but had to head to bed early that night to pass out!!!

this was all well and good until on monday morning rory had to leave for dubai for work until thursday, now this was not as bad as it sounds because in the time that he was gone the others were working anyway so i hung out with Dave, his parents live in bahrain but he was just visiting, handy cos he drove me places during the day, like the portugese fort, the malls and passed the tree of life buti didnt see it.then it transpired rory intended to stay in dubai until sat night!! but didnt tell anyone!! just put it on facebook... so everyone was shocked and appaled for me and ralley around me even more. there was this rugby tournement on and i was taken to it and then to dinner another night and even to brunch.. so in the end he did me a favour! brunch was on my last day and it consisted of getting really dressed up and heading to the diplomat for an all you can eat 12-4 experience, with unlimited champers!!! Stef brought me there, lovely girl. then there was a bit of drama cos the guy she had been seeing for 2 months, who hadnt returned her calls for about 4/5 days turned up with a barbi look-a-like and didnt really talk to her! it was like being in the hills! after the brunch we all drunkenly meanderd down to the irish bar where i got to talking to this navy man, delicious but way to conservative for my tastes, so i just enjoyed myself shocking him! then there was more drinking adn about 8pm i headed back to traders for a birthday party! i managed to stay until about 11.30 before the tiredness took me and i got a cab home! quite impressed with myself to be honest, was even sober when i got into bed at midnight... got a cab at 5am to the airport for my 7am flight to dubai... gross... although bahrain air really dont understand the concept of low cost = no frills, it was very comfy. got out to Sharjah to kerryanne's ok where i spent the day hanging out by the pool at the english club, learning about what she does in her teaching role, its really fascinating....i might try it (although me.. teach??) then cos she works from sunday to thursday i have headed and arrive in abu dhabi to stay with a friend of hers! its exhausting but fun!

will be here til thursday being a tourist, then back to dubai.... then oman, then india with wally, phew am tired thinking about it! but will endevour to update this more...

xx