A Bahrain Fort and Museum

The fort, from a distance

Pretty ocean view

Seriously, it was chilly

Salutes to the old, old wooden ship

A dead kid in a coffin bowl

Blowing kisses goodbye

After departing the Tree of Life, we made our way to a fort. The fort is actually a World Heritage Site, a shown above. It was a very chilly day, hence the reason for hats and scarves. 

The for was big and made of stone. We spent a good amount of time walking around it and looking at the ocean. It reminded me of how I can't wait until it's warm again and we can go to the beach.

After walking around for a bit, we made our way to the museum. Inside, there were cool artifacts that were recovered from the sight, as well as photos of people around the sight. In the museum, we saw old boats and bones of child who died way way long ago. The put the children into these bowls, and that's how they were buried. We saw old jewelry, and snake skeletons too. The snake represented fertility, so I guess a lot of people back then wanted to have babies. 

We ended our museum tour with a tasty strawberry smoothie that Charmaine ordered, and boy was it delicious! On our way out, we walked along parts of the beach where the tide was out, and picked up some shells.

We headed back home to get ready for a night of partying!

The Tree of Life

Tammy's daughter Jordan, Charmaine, and Me

The tree of life! It's in the middle of nowhere 

For being in the middle of the desert, it was very chilly!

Really, in the middle of nowhere!

Aw yeah! Friends forever!

The tree gave me the power to fly!

Them taking pictures of me taking pictures of them

My sexy pose

Work the camera, Charmaine!

Tammy's daughter, Jordan, came to visit her here in Bahrain for a few days. Since she was visiting, we figured we should do something cultural and touristy, since we have done neither of those things yet. We looked at the list of "Things to Do in Bahrain", and the Tree of Life was one of them. So we piled into the car, got out the GPS, and headed for the tree.

Let me start by saying that we were driving in the middle of nowhere. The GPS had us constantly turning onto unpaved roads, to the point that we were in middle of nowhere desert/oil mining field, or something of that sort. Eventually we reached the tree, and it was very chilly out, especially for being in the middle of the desert when its sunny.

Now, the tree wasn't as tall as a skyscraper or anything like that. But, it is amazing that there is this giant tree growing in the middle of the desert, where there are no other plants or anything. If you look at one of the above photos, you will see that the land is barren and sandy, and it only rains a whole 3 times per year here, so it is rather mysterious as to how this tree manages to live. It is also a little sad to visit because the tree has a lot of graffiti and stuff on it, and its a shame that people would do things to ruin this rather amazing plant. 

We decided we would just enjoy the tree by posing with it and playing in the leaves. The tree even gave me the magical power to fly (as seen above). Lol, well that may be an exaggeration, but we did manage to get a pretty sweet shot of me mid jump, therefore looking like I was flying.

I must admit, that this mesquite tree, the Tree of Life, was pretty awesome to see, and for sure a nice place to spend some time at, here in Bahrain.

Thanksgiving

My first Thanksgiving away from Pittsburgh and my family. It was a nice gathering though. Of course in Bahrain, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so we decided that we would do our own group feast. Ben was nice enough to host the meal at his apartment upstairs. He invited his close friends/colleagues, and had everyone bring a dish or two. I made sweet potatoes and green bean casserole. We had to eat chicken though because there was no turkey. The dinner turned out really nice and everyone had such a lovely time. We had tons of food, and 5 or 6 bottles of wine. 

After the dinner ended, we went more into party mode. We started playing darts and drinking vodka and playing card games (which involved some drink consumption). I learned that I am not very good at card games. The game brought on so many laughs, it was amazing. We had so much fun. 

The night came to an end, as I made my way down the stairs to my apartment. Apparently I was very tired and not thinking right, because I decided to crawl into bed with everything on, including my shoes. When I woke up around 9am or so, I was laughing at myself in disbelief that I had gone to bed in heels! I guess I at least looked pretty while I was sleeping. I laughed it off as I reminisced about the grand feast and party we had.

Sun-downers at Trader Vic's

Here is one of those things we like to do on the weekend. A few times now we have frequented Trader Vic's, a restaurant that I believe is a part of the Ritz Carlton. Anyways, we liked to go here for sun-downers.  What is a sun-downer? Well, it is a cocktail that you drink as you watch the sunset. It's really a nice thing to do. We went here one evening and ordered a ton of food, or at least I did, and a whole bunch of various cocktails. If you are a lover of rum, this is the place to go. The menu must have at least 30 different cocktails to choose from, with about 28 of them containing rum. The nice thing is the portion size. The drinks come in large glasses, one of which we kept to take back to our apartment. After downing a few beverages, we decided it was time for a lovely photo-shoot. We tried various poses and faces, and ended up laughing at it all. We even tried to convince a man to let us join a wedding party, but that didn't work too well.

After leaving Trader Vic's, we decided it was time to move on to somewhere that has ladies night (one of the cooler aspects of Bahrain). We found a cute bar/lounge, where we danced and drank and found our way to a vintage champagne (although I was a bit too tired to drink it). All in all, it was a blast.

Although this was no significant event in my life, it was fun, and shows that my roomie Rachel and I, and her friends, love to go out and have an awesome time, always!

Traveling in Jordan: Day 4: The Dead Sea (and final Jordan post)

The Dead Sea

The rock at the top is the wife lady who turned to stone in a biblical story.

The white at the base of the cliff is all salt!

Our first steps into the sea

Tammy is getting mudded up

I couldn't wait, so I started mudding my face

It was fun to watch

Yay, my turn to get muddy!

This is the one time in life we can be black!

I am asleep in half my pictures, I swear!

We cleaned the mud off in the sea.

Our friend Zaher (on left), and his friend Bashar (on right), with Rhoda and I.

A pretty view

This is Sea Level!

The saltiest place on Earth! What more can I say? After sitting in the car for a few hours, we finally reached the Dead Sea. We stopped to take some photos before we reached the beach. The sea is very beautiful, as is everything else in Jordan. Absolutely nothing lives in the Dead Sea, except for 7 different types of bacteria, but no animals or plants or anything. We stopped at a rock formation, which was above us. There was a biblical story, I can't recall exactly what the story was, but I know the couple had to flee, and they were told to go, and not look back. However, the wife looked back and as she did she turned to stone! So the stone we saw, pictured in the 2nd photo, is the wife who turned to stone. After admiring the stone lady for a few moments, we made our way further down the road towards the beach. We reached the beached and got changed and ready. We made our way into the water. It was very slippery when you rubbed your hands together. We went a little further, and then we went on our backs, and boy do you float! We could put our feet up in the air and not sink at all! So, we began to swim out further and further. It was much deeper, so we couldn't touch the bottom, but it looked like we were standing up! We were floating upright in the water. Amazing! I couldn't believe how well we were floating. We were laughing because it just seemed so funny. I then began to wondering, what would happen if this were a mob movie, and the mafia men tried to tie the cinder block to your feet and throw you in the water? I'm assuming you would sink, but I'm not really sure. It's impossible to submerge yourself in the water. 

After spending time floating around the water, we were ready for the mud. The Dead Sea mud is supposed to be very healing, and very good for the skin. It's a thick, smooth, black mud. We went over to the mud man and he got us good and muddy. We were completely covered in black mud, and had to keep the mud on for about 15 minutes. Then, we rinsed off in the sea. Of course,  you have to be very careful not to get the water in your eyes, because that will burn like you have hot sauce in your eyeball. I actually decided to taste the sea. I only licked the tip of my finger, and I literally had to spit immediately, and spit about 10 times or so, because it was really that salty! It was saltier than sticking your tongue in a pile of salt, I swear! I have never tasted anything so horribly salty in my life. Whenever we got out of the sea, and dried, the salt dried on us and made us look very white. It was funny. Also, the base of the beach, where the tide comes in, is full of salt crystals and rocks, which is good to sit there and exfoliate your feet, just like you would at a spa. 

After a while, our colleague/friend Zaher, and his best friend Bashar met up with us at the sea and hung out with us for a while. As evening approached, it was time to head back to Amman. We met up with the guys that evening for the best schwarma in Amman, as well as some sheesha smoking at a very lovely place. My camera was dead at this point, so I did not get to capture the final evening in Jordan. Needless to say, the trip was amazing, and we had such a fun time. It was sad when we had to depart the next morning, but we were so happy that we did this trip. It was truly unforgettable.