Since the violent repression of demonstrations in Bahrain in mid-February, all expats working in the Eastern Province of KSA have been strongly advised by their companies not to go to Bahrain. But since we hadn't been reading much about the situation in the news, and some colleagues had reported there wasn't more than dozens of demonstrators gathering on a square, we took the risk and drove to Bahrain on Friday.
And we actually did well! The best part was crossing the border: there was absolutely no queue so it only took us 5 minutes! We first drove near Pearl Square around midday, and indeed there were only a couple of dozens demonstrators there. However, when we went out of the mall nearby around 4pm, we encountered a lot of people on the street, men and women, young and old, some wrapped in Bahraini flags, all heading to Pearl Square. The wasteland around it was turned into a giant parking lot and on the highway overlooking the square, the traffic was literally stuck. We avoided it by going back towards the King Fahd Causeway, driving really slow as demonstrators were walking on the street and crossing everywhere. Obviously I felt very intimidated at the beginning - while Richard was literally hanging out of the window taking pictures! - but the demonstrators actually looked very peaceful; some of them would even cheer at us or take a pose!
So our expedition to Bahrain went really well and we look forward to going again soon (the empty border makes the crossing very attractive!) and hope that the Bahrainis will be able to negotiate a way out of the crisis.
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| Bahrain World Trade Centre seen from Manama's old city centre |
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Bahrain World Trade Centre and its wind turbines
(only one of them was working as we passed by, and that's being lucky!) |
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| Our "liberal" neighbour tolerates other religions: here the American Hospital Chapel |
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| Practising my driving skills after two months of not touching a wheel! |
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| Bahraini demonstrators heading to Pearl Square |
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| Manama - Pearl Square |
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Ready to die for Bahrain... let's just hope for a peaceful resolution to the events...
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Great Article! I really like the pictures ;)
ReplyDeleteI agree, great article !!!
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ReplyDeletegood job .. i'm from Bahrain, i will go to pearl square tomorrow .. pray for us :)
ReplyDeleteHi banootawaw, thanks for your comment. I will definitely pray for a peaceful outcome, hopefully you still manage to negotiate a way out of the political crisis. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Regia, thank you for supporting us with your heart, you are a true human .. when you have God with you, you don't need luck :)
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