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Flag of Bahrain.

     On my first visit to the Maldives, we departed on 23^rd August 1987, and after we passed immigration inspection, at Malé International, they lined us all up at the customs’ tables.  Under the guise of hunting for drugs, porn, booze or Bibles, they made us open our bags.

     Okay, dear reader, let’s get a grip.  Myself and my crew were leaving the Maldives, an Islamic, shariah-controlled country, so how could we possibly obtain booze, drugs, pornography or offensive Christian literature there?  I did note, though, that the dark, munchkin customs men spent an inordinate spell sifting, and sniffing, through our dirty underwear!  Was this an Islamic, Maldivian sexual thing?  Hey...one has to grab sex where one can find it.

     As we used to say in Saudi Arabia: “If it weren’t for the pickpockets in the souk, my sexual life would be batting zero.”

     Once aboard our 747-212, we whistled up to the small island-country of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, arriving there in two and a half hours.  We landed on a modern, 13,000-foot, international runway with a fully functional instrument landing system – providing both Localizer and Glideslope feeds to our Flight Directors and HSI’s.

     Hooray!  At last a proper Glideslope, dear reader!  Thank Allah for Arab oil money!

     Nevertheless, the Jepp-Plate cautioned that both ends of the runway were subject to thousands of feeding cormorants; an outsized, dark-colored, voracious, long-necked seabird with a distensible pouch for holding fish.  A bunch of these birds gobbled up by a fan-jet engine would not be good; mainly for us! 

     Evidently they heard us coming, dear reader, and got the hell out of the way.

     The Kingdom of Bahrain is actually an archipelago, with a main island that’s 34 miles in length and 11 miles in width.  Based upon “improving commercial links and bonds” between the two Kingdoms, the King Fahd Causeway was constructed (1981 to 1986).  It links Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, using a series of causeways and bridges, stretching its four lanes 16 miles across the Persian Gulf.

The King Fahd Causeway, with Saudi Arabia in the distance. 

     SIA put us up at the Marriott – comfortable rooms and good food - and although Islamic-governed, the booze-laws were more relaxed; officially allowing non-Muslims to purchase alcoholic beverages.  Un-officially, under the table, I also noted Saudis getting in on the “booze action.”

The Al Muharraq Souq.

  Manama, Bahrain.

     I don’t know about the causeway improving Saudi-Bahraini relations, dear reader, but I did hear from the locals that there were some very spectacular vehicular accidents on that causeway - caused by drunken Saudis returning in their high-powered cars - after zipping over to Bahrain for a “quick drink.” 

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