Bahrain - So Boring

I heard aot about Bahrain all which seemed a little surreal. Alcahol all around, prostitutes walking the streets and bars and of course the guys that will sell you a tank or ballistic misile. It was an incredibly long and boring 4 hour drive to the Saudi/Bahrain causeway through some of the most unspectacular desert imaginable, and I got lost at the end. Finally met my driver on the causeway who would take me across and to my hotel, which I hadn’t booked.

I walked around the next day and what a shock, firstly absolutely no interesting architecture or people and secondly absolutely no prostitutes anyway. I didn’t bother trying to find the guy selling tanks. This is seriously boring city, I can’t see one redeeming feature or reason to visit, stayed at the hotel next day by the pool.

I should point out that thousands of people visit Bahrain every week, all with one unified purpose, prostitutes. I found out later that you stay at the 3 star hotels, not 5 star, and you just order them with your room service....not that I would of course.

The only thing interesting to photograph was the buildings lit up at night decorated beyond belief. 

Yemen - Back in Time

Time for another jaunt. This trip landed in my lap. Magnus my mad Swedish mate is an intrepid traveller and targeted Yemen, I was keen to go but also aware of the stories and warnings. I was glad I was going with Magnus. We met a Saudi at the airport, he said where are you going? Yemen we said. He replied, don’t wear any shoes cos they’ll steal off your feet. My colleagues at work were having a sweepstake over who which one of us would get kidnapped.

On the way from the airport we badgered our Hotel driver to score some balckmarket booze and sure enough on the way we picked up some gin and beer for a fraction of the Saudi blackmarket price. While the driver was getting booze I got out of the van for a cigarette, then I noticed someone, it was a soldier with a rifle sitting on a rock a few metres away....it struck me as odd that we were buying booze under the nose of an armed soldier.

We took the hotel guide/driver for a tour of Sanaa old town, expensive but always the best and safest way to go. The entire old town is a Unesco World Heritage site, and you certainly see why. It is like stepping back a century or so. Everyone is dressed in the cultural national gowns and the men are all complete with dagger on their front. The souq’s are out of the world in color and goods. At this stage I was learning about travel photography and although the pics are interesting I would be getting incredible results with my current gear and techniques...I have to go back, it is a photographers dream.         

The next day we did a trip north of the Sanaa and have several sites to see, wow, is all I can say. Out of the city and the poverty is in your face. We passed one place where there was hundreds of people living in tiny cardboard huts on the side of the road. But we also visited some really cool villages and historical sites.

On the way back to the Hotel we scored a bottle of vodka and the rest is history.

What an amazing trip.

My First Jaunt - Jordan

I’d only been in Saudi a few weeks when the holy month of Ramadam arrived. This changed the few things I had figured out. The shops don’t open until night, everything is dead in the day, the muslims work shortened hours and stay up all night praying and celebrating. Work is a different place, the locals are all grumpy because of the fasting, tied for being up all night, have no interest in work and we are supposed to carry on as normal, while fasting, and still get results from business. It is a long month. The only saving grace is that the roads are quiet and it’s a great time to set world speed records on the way to work, my best time yet for the 30 minute drive is 12 minutes.

At the end of Ramadam is Eide, a weeks holiday. I was excited about going to Jordan. Aman isn’t much but it is interesting walking around the shambles that is downtown. A day trip to Jerash has to be done, fantastic Roman site with a huge amount still intact. They have a jazz festival here annually, I am going to come back for that one day.

I was glad to hit the road for Petra, safe in the hands of my driver, Sam Speed! He arranged my hotel with much glee and confusion. It’s a long walk into Petra along the narrow high deep Siq (road) and then you get the glimpse, one of the most photographed sights in the world, the grand Treasury becomes visible, and then a few more metres and the whole grandeur unfolds, it’s incredible. I spent two days wandering around and that was when I first figured that the best photos are the traders, young, old and child....desperately carving out their income from this incredible rose colored place. Petra is incredible.

Arrival in Riyadh

Immigration at Riyadh can be a scary process for the uninitiated. There's always lines on labourers from the sub continent coming in by the plane load, it seems at first that you could be there for days but religiously they clear a queue for whiteman and women get mustered into the GCC lane so before you know it you are through, if the you have the visa stamp in your passport it it the most painless country in the world to enter.

The driver met me wit the 'Norconsult' sign, that was good news. He told me boss was here meeting his wife so he introduced ne to Jarl. I had been travelling for 36 hours and he said he would see me at 9.00am, I should have realised then how relentless the pace would be for the next three years.

I tried to get around town for some snaps over the coming weeks but pretty soon realised that there really isn't much to snap, it is far too hot to walking around and every escursio had the feel death by car accident about so I gave up. I did get some interesting shots of the fruit sellers operating on the sides of very busy roads, centremeters from the

speeding careering traffic. That was one of the nice things about new infratsru

cture meets old cultures, Saudi's love to get their vegetables from the side of road, very busy roads. 

On my first weekend there I went to the desert with

Jarl on what is calles a 'hash', it'sa big gathering of good folk who meet on a Thursday to walk and run acourse in the desert and then sit around a fire tasting homemade produce.    

Kingdom Tower is certainly the most recognisable and interesting landmark in city. It is the tallest building by a long shot and is visiable around the entire city, great for when you are lost.