a stopover in Bahrain
Bahrain wasn’t exactly at the top of my bucket list, but I’ve harboured an irritation that I couldn’t pass through it on the way to Saudi Arabia on my 2021 trip as I’d wanted, as Bahrain didn’t recognise COVID vaccination certificates from Senegal – so I was happy when I saw that the small number of international destinations from Multan included Bahrain (which was on the way to Turkey where I needed to be next). There appear to be no hostels in Manama, and the (relatively) cheap hotels I found online had received ratings of between 2 and 3 out of 10, with comments about baths thick with algae, cockroach nests in cupboards, etc. Enough to put even me off! So as I had to spend rather more money than usual and stay in a proper hotel, I decided to limit myself to three nights – two full days to see the place. I prepared a list of the main sights I wanted to see, and set off on the first morning. I’d decided to walk rather than go by bus, as the latter involved two d...