Friday, December 19, 2008

A Hiatus of Sorts

I have really let the ball drop on my blogging the past couple of weeks. I've been busy, but it's the kind of busy that if you asked me what I had been doing, I wouldn't really have a good answer for you. And I am leaving in 20 minutes to go to the airport, which signals the beginning of my 2-week vacation to Israel, so I imagine that things are going to get worse before they get better. I have been keeping a list of things to post about, so I will get all caught up when I get back. Tonight I get to look forward to spending the night in the Amman, Jordan airport. It turns out that most of the Gulf countries have a pretty healthy disregard for Israel, and it is really hard to get a flight with decent connections in to Tel Aviv. I have to make sure that customs in Israel don't stamp my passport (they need to stamp a piece of paper I have paper clipped inside), because if I have an Israel stamp, chances are that Bahrain won't let me back in. Bahrain and Israel are not friendly neighbors. A few examples: there are many people here who want to ban Starbucks because it supports organizations that are friendly towards Israel, one of my coworkers was told that they stopped carrying her favorite variety of Toblerone in all of the grocery stores because Israel started importing it too, and... I guess I can just think of two examples right now. In other news, Gaza called off their cease fire with Israel last night, so I am hoping that things stay somewhat peaceful while I am there (and after that, too). I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and I will post all about my adventures when I return!

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is probably the most famous tourist attraction on this little isle (if you can honestly consider any attraction here famous). Bahrainis believe that it marks the location of the Garden of Eden. I have my doubts.Wikipedia provides the following information:

The Tree of Life (Arabic: شجرة الحياة; transliterated: Shajarat al-Hayah) is a 400-year old mesquite tree in Bahrain that is considered a natural wonder.[1] This unique tree stands alone in the desert about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the Jebel Dukhan, the highest point in Bahrain.[2]

The source of water for this tree remains a mystery because it stands in a place completely free of water.[3].

The tree is mentioned in the movie L.A. Story.[4]If you ever visit Bahrain, I would put the Tree of Life last on your list of places to visit. Very last. First of all, let me say that there is no mystery surrounding its water source. It started to die a few years ago, and now they bring in water trucks every night to make sure that it doesn't. It is a bit of a drive to get there, and it is in the middle of nowhere, so make sure that you have plenty of gas. There is no road that goes to the tree, so be prepared for a bit of offroading as you must set off into the desert to get there. And finally, there is very little signage, and that is confusing, so make sure you build in plenty of time to get lost. Once you arrive you will notice that the tree is covered with graffiti, and the ground is littered with trash, but everyone has put so much effort into getting there and listened to so much talk about it being a must-see that they pretend to like it.