Life in the Desert

We made it out to do some sightseeing today, yip yip! We decided to go for a little desert road trip to check out the Tree of Life. We grabbed the necessities: a bottle of wine, some gummies, a couple sandwiches, sodas and hopped in the car. We had to wait until we were on the open highway to eat so no one saw us eating during the daytime, (Ramadan). Being so conscience of the Muslim religion is not something I've ever really experienced, so I didn't even stop to think that eating and drinking while the people here fast would be rude. Amanda gave me the quick rundown on Ramadan etiquette. As a teacher, I remember kiddos that refused to even sip from the water fountain during Ramadan. This has definitely made me understand their culture more and makes me really respect their dedication to their belief system.

The Tree of Life is a mystery of the desert of Bahrain. It is a big tree literally in the middle of the desert that is guessed to be about 400 years old. What makes the tree so special is how it has managed to live in the middle of nowhere in the sandy dunes of the desert. We had fun taking the journey, and getting lost, on our way to "THE" tree. It was pretty much a drive full of a scenic view of sand, oil rigs, and refineries.

The one plus to getting lost was that we got a great sunset to enjoy!

We made it to the tree and it was pretty neat to see. We had fun climbing...or I guess I should not include Amanda in the "we" had fun. She was so terrified to attempt to climb the tree that her whole body was literally shaking :)

We passed a military base on our journey to and from the tree. We couldn't resist taking a few pics as we drove by, but the guards standing by the road with huge machine guns pretty much steered me clear of taking too many pics!

We also spotted some sweet sand dunes that we just HAD to park the car and climb. Hugh freaked me out when he told us that he "hoped there were no land mines". Not funny!

I was SO glad that we stopped to climb. It was amazingly quiet and peaceful out there. Pretty neat to see and actually felt a little surreal to realize I am actually in the Middle East! Gah. I find myself feeling so overwhelmed at moments like this. I take a deep breath and realize that I am literally living out my dream. I am seeing things I may never again get a chance to see. LOVE!
It didn't take long before we were out of breath and covered in sweat and sand, (goodbye peaceful surreal moment!), so went to a cute little resteraunt for dinner and then next door for some delicious desserts. After that we headed over to pick up some of Amanda's friends to come over for some drinks and hanging out. We went the wrong way and ended up in a little alley near a questionable neighborhood. I looked up and what did I see:

Kind of neat, and kind of scary! Later that night when Amanda took her friends home, she saw a fire. These fires are for protesting. A bit crazy to know I am so close to things that I've only read about or heard on the news before!

Today was a great day! I am absolutely loving my journey & am learning so much about other places and people. Tomorrow we are going to the spa....a manicure/pedicure here is only about $12 US! Woo Hoo! Counting down to the end of Ramadan so I can enjoy food during the day and life at night! Oh, and being able to grab a drink is a plus too!

I'll post a link to more pics tomorrow!

HoOt!