AROUND BAHRAIN

After a great barbecue evening organized by Karel for other Czech / Slovak community members, Martin invited us for another delicious traditional Slovak dinner. We also got many useful contacts and advice from Edo, who recommended us Vendula, the official licensed guide in Bahrain, who was so nice and spent a half day showing us some places around the island.

We visited The Tree of Life (Shajarat-al-Hayat), a 9.75 meters high Prosopis cineraria tree over 400 years old. It is on a hill in a barren area of the Arabian Desert, just 2 km from Jebel Dukhan, the highest point in Bahrain. The tree is abundantly covered in green leaves, and it is unknown how it survives. Due to its age and the fact that it is the only major tree growing in the area, the tree became a tourist attraction,

We had a short stop at the 5,412 km long Bahrain International Circuit opened in 2004 for the annual Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix.

And our last stop was the first place on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, where oil was discovered, and it coincided with the collapse of the world pearl market. Oil was first spurted from this well on 16 October 1931, and the well finally began to blow heads of oil on the morning of 2 June 1932.