It's been snowing in Bahrain...

Not in another ski resort in a mall, and may Bahrain never even think about copying its Emirati neighbour on that one! 

It's been snowing (fake) snow at the Bahrain Exhibition Centre yesterday, which as part of its Bahrain Summer events hosted the famous Russian clown show "Slava's snow show". And the paper flakes worked their magic as well as if they'd been real! 

Slava's snow show is no ordinary clown show: to start with, it's about a sad (kind of depressive) clown, or should I say mime, as he hardly speaks during his performance. And it's not aimed at very young children, since these get more scared than amazed by the characters. The whole thing is a very poetic tale about life and friendship, with beautiful music and nice stage effects. And it's also got its many funny parts, especially in the way the audience is involved in the show. 

It's just a shame the exhibition hall was half empty (especially when so many people complain there's no cultural offer in the area, I wonder where all these people were!). The show is on every night until June 19th at 7pm, I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to go. 

Bahrain Summer events also include concerts and London's West End musical "The sound of music". 

Girls (and boys) just wanna have fun

And the best place for that is across the causeway! 

We spent an afternoon at the Lost Paradise waterpark, which is a fairly big park outside of Manama, near the Formula 1 circuit. It has a lot of exciting slides and rivers and all the things you can expect to find in a waterpark!

In the action

Having a refreshing lemon mint at the pool (too bad they didn't have Piña Colada...)

Me and my huge hands

And after a tiring afternoon at the waterpark (you have to walk up the stairs everytime you want to take a slide down to the pools!) all we wanted to do was sit back and relax. So we found our way to the cinema and enjoyed Tim Burton's latest movie: Dark Shadows. I usually don't like any vampire stories but I enjoyed this one to bits! Not only thanks to Johnny Depp's amazing performance (as usual in this type of excentric roles, I would say) but also thanks to the scenario, the humour and the aesthetic quality of the movie. I highly recommend it!

Another restaurant review

Good restaurants in Jubail are too scarce to leave them unnoticed. Here's one that meets all 3 B-requirements: Bueno, Bonito, Barato (good, nice and cheap!).

It's a Lebanese restaurant located in the Intercontinental hotel in Al-Jubail. The service is very good, the food is delicious and the portions are fairly generous. 

Plus: women can take off their abaya inside the restaurant, and there's usually some music (recorded music obviously, but here in KSA it's a luxury not a to eat in total silence!). 

Starting with delicious mezze to get a taste of everything

Baking fresh Arabic bread

All tables are tucked in cosy alcoves that can be closed with curtains

And on another note, this is where I have breakfast when I go to Al-Khobar:

And that's (the closest thing available in KSA to) what Heaven tastes like!

Ahlan wa sahlan fi Oman ya ukhti!

My sister wanted to come and visit us in Saudi Arabia. Fortunately, her visa was denied (she's a potentially dangerous unmarried woman willing to travel on her own!) so we decided to meet up in Oman instead! And that was much more beautiful, and more fun! We went snorkelling in Muscat, then drove to the mountains, entered a couple of wadis, headed to the desert and drove back to Muscat. 

The pictures speak for themselves:

Boat ride in the Mutrah area

The water was clear, and we saw many colourful fishes, and I even swam with a turtle! 

Music is not much appreciated in Muscat...

Jebel Akhdar

Wadi Ghul

Nizwa, outside the souk

Sinaw

Wadi Bani Khalid

My sister driving in the desert

"Roulé-boulés"!!!

First lights of sunrise

Dhow construction yard in Sur

Qalhat

Wadi Shab

Wadi Tiwi