Letter of the Month: Bedazzled by Bahrain

January 2009

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Neil Kenyon eschews Bahrain's shopping malls in favour of some more traditional activities

On a long weekend to visit a friend in Bahrain, I passed through customs with some apprehension, thinking I'd be dragged around the many shopping malls that proliferate on this tiny island. How different my weekend turned out to be!

We started off with a sumptuous Friday brunch at the Movenpick, a favourite with the expat community. Then I was then whisked around on a tour of the many attractions of this underrated island.

In just a few days, we squeezed in a trip out to the desert to see the eerie tree of life, a visit to the viewing tower overlooking the Saudi Arabian border, a speedboat trip out to an outlying island where our only company were cormorants cooling themselves on the rocks, an evening journey to the strikingly illuminated Bahrain fort, and a visit to see the king's camels, where we witnessed the birth of a camel.

These were just a few of the many highlights we packed into the weekend. Oh, and we visited a mall as well!