April 11
We did not know that Bahrain is a group of islands, the main island known as the Kingdom is thought to have been torn from the Arabian peninsula around 6000BC. It has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Oil was discovered here in 1932, it was the first discovery of oil on the Arab side of the Gulf. Bahrain’s oil production is minimal now only producing 50,000 barrels a day. For hundreds of years, and still continuing today, Bahrain is known for its pearl fishing.
Whew!!! We made it here safely. Must have been the black dummy watching over us on deck 10. He is the perfect Princess employee, he works 24/7 and does not need to eat or sleep.
We arrived at the dock at 7:30, docking right behind the USS New Orleans LPD 18. The U.S. has a large military base here in Bahrain.
The ship is docked across from a refining plant, Bahrain refines oil from Saudi Arabia. There is an oil pipe line under the water from Saudi to Bahrain. Since we are not near the city, we are taking the shuttle bus to the Bahrain City Centre Mall as the tours offered did not seem very interesting. Our dress must be conservative, women cannot wear revealing or tight fitting clothes. There cannot be public display of affection and you cannot photograph females wearing traditional Arab dress. Consumption of alcohol ashore is not permitted and can lead to legal complications, so maybe I should stay on the ship.
Welcoming committee of Arab Bagpipers, one of the strangest things we have seen!
Bahraini Falcon
We got off at 9:30 and took the shuttle to the Mall, it was a 45 minute drive that took us all over the city. The drive took us by the Bahrain World Trade center, the twin towers are over 700 feet high and are linked by three sky bridges equipped with wind turbines.
We also drove by the Al Fateh Grand Mosque, named for the founder of the Al Kalifa dynasty. It is one of the largest mosques in the world and accommodates over 7000 worshippers.
The mall was very large and included a water park and 20 screen cinema. Everything was quite expensive and the US dollar is only worth 37 cents. We walked all three floors but the only thing I bought a book on Dublin as it was on sale. We tried to buy a camera card but none of the 6 camera-related stores sold an XD card. So much for buying Olympus cameras. They had a Fuddruckers so we stopped for lunch and had a couple burgers, I had to drink Pepsi as they do not sell beer here in restaurants. The restaurant had a 8 lane bowling alley and some pool tables and video games. All the workers in Fuddruckers were from the Philippines, and we were told that most of the construction workers were from Pakistan.
We returned to the dock at 3:00 and I had to have a beer here in Bahrain so I bought a six pack of Corona in the duty free store in the terminal. I also bought some Cuban cigars to go with it.
We sailed away from Manama, Bahrain at 5:00 and will set reciprocal courses out of the buoyed channel and once past the break water we will set various east-south-easterly courses toward Dubai. I am sure we will be on the outlook for trouble as we sail during the night. We are scheduled to arrive in Dubai around 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.
