Day 3 - Oct 23

First day in Bahrain. I woke up to the sun at 5am. I was very pleased to see it looked just like the sky I did in a recent painting. I painted the sky from my head.

Here are a couple shots of the hostel where I arrived.

It looks like a castle or a fort.

A pretty nice room for a hostel huh? Well, I've only stayed in in one hostel before in a room full of bunkbeds like in those military movies. This hostel was expensive though.

A prime minister, a king and a prince in the common area of the hostel, and everywhere else in Bahrain.

The hostel cost TWICE as much as advertised on their website. They also said I can't get a hostel membership here. I have to apply for it from my own country or something.

So,

Advertised price for members: BD4.500 = $12.00

Advertised price for nonmembers: BD6.000 = $17.00

Actual price I have to pay (according to the receptionist guy who was actually nice and asked how much the taxi charged to make sure I didn't pay too much): BD12.000 = $32.00

Price of stinkiest armpits ever that didn't even happen until AFTER 18 hours of flying and 9 hours of hanging out in airport: priceless

So, that is THREE times the cost I planned on before I even bought flights!!! I figured, oh, $12 a night is the same as a private room in Provo ($360ish/month). Since I'm not paying rent in Provo while I'm gone it will be the same as staying in Provo...

Day 1 and 2 - Travel

 "Mama's gotta squeeze box..."

 I had six hours to kill  in the Chicago airport so I walked out and found some grass. Chicago is too far away to walk to. I wrote Molly Rose a letter and appreciated the sun as I waited for the next 14 hours of flying through the sky around the earth.

 

Somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea on Royal Jordanian. They treat you really well on this airline. I sat next to a friendly engineer, moving from California to Iraq, to follow a new job he was offered there. He is originally from Iraq.

 

Looking through the dusty skies of the Jordan airport.

I arrived to the Salt Lake City airport at 7:30am, October 20th and landed in Bahrain at 8:30pm, October 21st.