At the movies

My little girl went to the movies a couple of weeks ago. There is nothing remarkable about this, except that it was her very first visit to the cinema:). Perhaps her parents were a little more excited by this than she was. All expectant and nervous were we... will she be scared of the life sized television set? Will she sit through the entire film without wanting to go to the toilet? Will there be any scary bits that we will have to counsel her through? We ended up selecting something right up her alley (but perhaps not ours). The Disney cartoon, "The Princess and the Frog" was the right choice and particularly suitable for a three year old little girl who is, these days, obsessed by princesses and fairies.

Our expectations were exceeded. She sat through the entire 90 minutes quite patiently, gobbling and gulping down her popcorn and juice (thankfully cinema kiosk food in Bahrain is not exorbitantly priced) and although she did get a little antsy a third of the way through when the story-line wasn't going quite as she'd hoped - she persevered and held her attention span till the end (having said that - she did better than her parents - dad was constantly fiddling with his blackberry and mum was fighting off a bad headache which wasn't helped by all the overly-cheerful musical numbers)

There are several comfortable and modern movie theatres around Bahrain and we visited the one that has recently opened up at Bahrain newest shopping complex. Going to the movies here feels just like it does back home, except that as well as English language films there is a choice of Arabic, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam. It's quite the hangout for teenagers looking for entertainment on the weekends, young couples (and maybe young men and women looking to become couples) and families. There's usually a variety of choice in terms of what you can watch. Lots of Saudis who visit Bahrain over the weekend like going to the movies here too... especially as there are no movie theatres in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, not everything gets released here. Sure, the big blockbusters all make it but not small, independent films. This can be disappointing. Sometimes you'll be hanging out to watch a movie, only to find out that it's not going to be released in Bahrain. Lots of flicks go straight to dvd. Take a look at this site to get an idea of what's on offer at the movies: http://www.bahraincinema.com/.

....By the way, we did end up having to counsel a little on this creepy looking character from the film (the Shadow man)...thankfully, there haven't been any nightmares...

Sightseeing in Jordan

No post for weeks and then two in one day!!

In my previous post, I mentioned that we visited Jordan. A couple of the places we visited there; Mount Nebo and the Baptism site of the Jesus. According to Jews and Christians, Mount Nebo is where Moses was buried but whether the current site is the actual Mount Nebo that these faiths refer to remains a source of debate for scholars. Whatever the case, the view from the look-out point at Mt Nebo was amazing:

The Baptism site of Jesus we visited is considered by all major Christian traditions as being the authentic site where Jesus was baptised:

A short walk from the Baptism site is the Jordan river that divides the East Bank (Jordan's name until 1921) and the West Bank.

Then there's also "Lot's wife" - I'm not talking about the Monash Uni student rag...

In Christianity, Jusaism and Islam, Lot is recognised as the nephew of Abraham. In Islam he is recognised as a prophet. In the Bible (the Book of Genesis) there is a story of  Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt. Some believe this geological formation overlooking the Dead Sea to be Lot's wife:

But, a more popular theory is that the so-called Lot's wife is located at Mount Sodom in Israel.

...And that was sightseeing in Jordan 101:)

A glimpse of Petra

It's been a long time between posts.

The last couple of weeks were hectic as we made a short trip to Oz for a wedding and then returned to Bahrain via Thailand and Jordan. We got back to Bahrain a couple of nights ago and it's nice and cool now, there's a definite chill in the air and it's been raining too...the warm, balmy nights of just a couple of months ago seem like a distant memory.

In Bahrain, just a few raindrops can cause chaos on the roads and even minor flooding (the roads here weren't really built for wet conditions) so when a friend told us (just before we got back) that there was "lots of rain" - we were skeptical. It turns out the rain did wreak some havoc as we returned home to find our phone/internet and television out of order. Luckily, in Bahrain - tradesmen don't make you wait -even on weekends (clearly, there is a surplus of labour in the country - we're not complaining). So it's all fixed and we're back in business.

Anyway, getting back to our sightseeing - Petra in Jordan was definitely a highlight. Getting there was a bit of a disaster - it's a 3.5 hour car trip from the Dead Sea (where we stayed) - and we chose to take the scenic route up to Mt Hor (where Petra is located), which didn't really agree with poor H's tummy. So a couple of vomits later, we made it there to see this amazing site:

Also knows as the Rose City (because of its colour) or the Lost City (as it was unknown to the Western world until 1812), Petra was once home to the Nabatean people and provided a centre for their caravan trade around 100BC. My understanding is that Petra is also referred to in the Qur'an in Sura Al-Fajr where it is called "Thamud".

People say it usually takes up to 4-5 days to explore all of Petra - we were there just 4 hours!

Just a glimpse of our snaps...

Holiday's over - back to real life!