Weekend in Bahrain!

Getting There

So this past weekend, we loaded up our new Kia (see previous post) and headed over from Jubail to Bahrain for a weekend away (about an two hour drive plus border crossing)

This trip was about pleasure and relaxing but it was also a necessity. We have a multiple entry/exit visa and we had three months to activate it or face a $265 fine each. (Basically we needed to leave to country in the first three months here) No problem since Saudi is a pretty boring place anyway! And a weekend in Bahrain is very close by. (see the map above)

Just a bit of background, our working week is Sunday – Thursday because Friday is the holy day. When we talked to our colleagues about our trip, they suggested not trying to cross the border Thursday after school. Apparently, everyone wants to go over to Bahrain then to do very un-Saudi things – like drink and eat pork.

I don’t have much hair but at 4am it goes everywhere!

Because of this we decided to leave early Friday morning. 5am early! Everything went smoothly and the roads were light, until we came to the border crossing.

On the causeway heading to immigration checkpoints

The Saudi-Bahrain border crossing is interesting. We stopped at a total of 7 toll booths along the way.

Toll Booth #1: Pay the toll to cross the causeway

Toll Booth #2: Saudi Customs – get a small slip of paper

Toll Booth #3: Passport control (Saudi) – give passports and Iqamas for exiting Saudi Arabia

Toll Booth #4: Hand over small slip of paper from Toll Booth 1

Toll Booth #5 : Bahrain Passport Control – give passports for Bahrain stamp

Toll Booth #6: Bahrain Customs – This was an interesting experience because the customs official was waving at me (I thought hello but apparently is was to stop. I drove through and then got scolded for not stopping!)

Toll Booth #7: Get car insurance for 3 days for Bahrain

This system followed a similar trend of advanced yet backwards. Backwards in the sheer number of stops that we had to make, but advanced in the fact that when I came up to immigration, the official said, “hello Mr. Kevin” before I said a word because the computer had automatically read my license plate and my information popped up.

The trip from there was relatively straightforward.

Booking Accommodation

Our preferred hotels are either Starwood Hotels (Sheraton, Westin) or IHG Hotels (Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn). I also have credit cards to help earn points in each of their loyalty programs. (SPG Amex and IHG Rewards Mastercard)

If the hotels we are staying at are not from these companies, then I usually book through hotels.com. The reason why is because the prices between the different websites are usually negligible and with hotels.com if you stay for 10 nights you get one night free through their rewards program. I figure, since we are going to be traveling a lot, and using hotels anyway, we might as well earn some free nights along the way!

The Gulf Hotel

What a Lobby!

After asking for recommendations from our colleagues, we chose to stay at the Gulf Hotel Bahrain. The reason why we chose this is because it had all of the all-inclusive things we would want should we choose to, plus it had activities for Simon. On the hotel sight were a Kiddie Pool and 11 Restaurants.

Also at the Gulf Hotel, the Sherlock Holmes Bar!

For our dinner Friday night, we decided on the Mexican Restaurant. It was open the earliest for dinner and seemed to be the most kid-friendly.

The salsa was great, the chef was from Mexico, and they served Sol beer. I count that a win on all fronts.

Simon enjoying the camel outside of the hotel

We decided to stay in a one-bedroom apartment. This actually came out cheaper than a suite and it still provided us a separate room where Simon could sleep. I think it was cheaper because it wasn’t technically in the hotel.

Main hotel is on the left, executive apartments on the right

Personally, I don’t mind the 5-7 minute walk to the hotel to save a few extra bucks.

Activities

I suppose the luxury of staying a this type of hotel is that you don’t have to really venture out and do anything is you don’t want to. Most of our time was spent at the kiddie pool. But this had a huge playhouse type water park thing.

Kiddie pool on steroids

Simon especially enjoyed the kiddie pool!

Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to go to the grown up pool. Although the swim-up bar and the grotto waterfall thing looked really nice from afar!

Pining over the adult pool from afar

Even though we could have stayed at the hotel the entire time, that is not really our style so we did a couple of small excursions. Our first excursion started with our first breakfast early Friday morning. We eventually arrived after our unique border crossing too early to check in. We decided to go exploring, and found a lovely breakfast place called The Breakfast Club. Lindsey had the Indian breakfast, I had the American-style breakfast, and Simon had pancakes and Nutella.

We also went to the Bab el-Bahrain Souq. There is a more modern part of the souq. There we bought some kitschy Bahrain coffee mugs and a bowl from Palestine.

It was quite beautiful there.

The gate to the entrance of the souq

Very cool gold ringlet installation that chimed in the wind.

Past the newer modern looking part of the souq are windy street with vendors selling basically everything. Also there were cool little cafes in alleys where men drank tea and smoked. Lindsey bought a pair of elephant pants (for sleeping) and a top, but mostly we just wandered around and got lost.

One of the winding little streets of the souq

Total Cost = $500

We splurged. For trying to be more frugal and save for retirement, this is not a trip that we should do every weekend. That being said, it was a wonderful weekend away for the whole family. Simon was able to play outside in a fantastic pool, and we got to relax and see a few new things. Plus we get to tick another country off the list!