Bahrain is the country of escape for many people living in the Middle East, including Kuwait. This is because Kuwait and other nations are dry, meaning that alcohol is illegal. The alcohol that is available is equivalent to Moonshine and could strip paint. The only reason to drink it is to get drunk.

People travel the 1 hour to Bahrain to relax at a nice hotel and go to a bar or club (also not to be found in Kuwait). I decided after a year it was time for me to do the same. I also went because the new school year started out that bad and I needed a drink.

First expense the 90$ visa to enter the country. The bill just kept racking up from there. The two day, two night trip cost almost 1000$ per person once all was said and done.

Bahrain is beginning to bring itself into the modern world. The pictured building is the Bahrain World Trade Centre. A building with wind turbines on it to help offset electricity consumption.

I found that Bahrain was ridiculously over priced. The entire Middle East can be over priced and catering towards the budgets of the wealthy families that reside in the area. But Bahrain was even more over priced than other nations in the area.

When you take a taxi you have to watch out. The meters are kept under material to protect them from the sun. There is often a 1-3BD fee for pick-up, weekend, hotel taxi, and many other reasons. Cab drivers will try to press the button quickly and charge you the extra fee twice if they can. On top of an already expensive cab ride. One way to Del Mar was 9BD, the next cab tried to charge us 15BD.

Our hotel was supposed to be a nice 4 star hotel with a bar and restaurants. It turned out that there were more prostitutes than patrons at the hotel and I walked into the bar to have a drink one night and walked back out in fear, disgust, and shock. I went back to the room and paid for the over priced mini-bar. 16$ for a mini-bar bottle of Smirnoff. 12$ for a can a Heineken.

Also, Friday is the day of prayer and all the liquor stores are closed. So that makes Fridays in Bahrain a bust.

We were saved by travelling to Del Mar island on Saturday. This little spit of land had booze and beach chairs. It would have been better though if the people who built the island up thought about it a bit more and developed on the side of the island facing Bahrain leaving people to relax will views of the open sea. Instead we lay there and face Bahrain with a beautiful view block by fences and buildings. It was still a nice day though.

I know there are some nice sights to see in Bahrain. The problem is that it is prohibitively expensive to go and see them.

I don’t know where Bahrain went wrong for me but the entire trip was a disappointment.

I will not travel back to Bahrain and it is not a place that I would recommend to people. If you want to travel to the Middle East there are better options; Oman, U.A.E, Jordan.