Heaven in Bahrain

Two weekends ago, my family and I travelled to Bahrain. I became hooked since that trip.
Although, Bahrain is a small city, but it has so much beauty.

Up up and away we go.

 

At the airport, the hotel had sent us a driver to take us to the hotel. We were staying at Ritz Carlton Private Villas.We arrived there in about 20 miutes. The villas are different from the hotel. They took us directly to our private villa, and then a representative came to do all the check-in paperwork.

This is the living room we sat in first, we were greeted and welcomed by our butler Anita, who will be attending us 24 hours a day during our stay. She offered us all cold refreshments.

 

She took us on a tour of the villa and then unpacked our bags, which was very helpful. Since it was intended to be a relaxing getaway. The villa has three bedroom, each with its bathroom, a living room, dinning room and kitchen. Outside is a private pool, garden, shower and sitting area. The picture above is of the master bedroom, which also have a jacuzzi.

 

 This is the terrace area.

 

 And the pool.

 

 The view is breathtaking. You see the gardens and the sandy beach.

 

 This is the dinning table overlooing the pool.

 

Our first night in, we ordered from the in-villa dining menu.

 

Day 2

 

Breakfast is included with the rate of the villa and you may order it in the villa, or have at the main restaurant of the hotel (La Med) or have it at the Club Lounge.
We personally didn't leave the villa the whole time we were there, and had it delivered to us.

 

Let the fun and splashing begin. We spent the whole day just swimming in the pool and laying in the sun.

 

 Day 2

 

We began our day with an amazing breakfast.

 



 

 And then we were off to swim again.

 We also swam in the sea.

 

This was a great place for a fun family vacation. I loved the villas because they were like an escape from the city and thier design gives you the feeling of staying on an island, rather than in AlManana city. Bahrain, this will not be the last of us, we promise ourselves to visit once a year, since we really enjoyed our stay.

 

 

 

By: @anfalw

Dinner at La Med

Hi, during our recent trip to Bahrain, we stayed at Ritz Carlton Hotel & Spa. On our first night, we dined at their main restaurant La Med. To our satisfaction, thursday nights were the all seafood buffet night, and fish is something my family loves.

 

The place is very elegant and white. It is quiet and relaxing.

 

This is the salad buffet. But if all that does not see your taste, you can create your own salad in the salad bar.

 

And this is the buffet. It has plenty of yummy options. I personally liked their shrimp biryani and grilled lobster.

 

And if you like your fish cooked a certain way, you may choose the fish you like and ask the chef to cook it for you.

 

 I asked the nice chef for deep fried shrimps, and they were done perfectly.

 

If you're a pasta fanatic, this is the corner where you should be. You can make your own pasta by choosing your toppings.

 

I have noticed that if you go to a buffet restaurant and the food is really good, then the sweet will be appalling, like the chefs could not be good at both. But this was not the case at La Med. There was a wide variety of choices, but we were pretty full.

 

My favourite of course was the chocolate fountain.

 

And the scoop-it-yourself ice-cream. The flavours they had were chocolate, pistachio, vanilla and coffee. All were delicious.

 

According to the head of staff, the restaurant is very busy in winter because of its outdoor terrace area that overlooks the pool. The atmosphere was very romantic, in my opinion.
The price per person was 18 ++ bahrini dinars plus tax.

The restaurant was a success. If you're ever in Bahrain, I highly recommend you try it .



By: @anfalw
 

Maldives .................... Continued

Hi, this is part 3 or what I call the fun under the Sun. I will take you along on all the trips we went on, hop on.

 

This is my brother @bowaleed263 showing off how thrilled he is for being in Maldives for the second time.

 

 After sunset, we spent most our mornings swiming and chilling by the beach.

 

 I fell in love with Maldives since day 1

 

from the beauty of its skies and cottton-like clouds

 

 and clear sandy beaches.

 

This friendly person walks around the beach eveyday offering us complimentary fruits and fresh towels for refershment.

 

Its the most relaxing environment, surrounded by coconut trees

 

and true beauty.

The first activity we did was take a one-on-one diving class.

 

This is our diving instructor Mohammed, or nicknamed Momo. First, he gave us a lecture about our equipment and all the signs we need to communicate under water. The equipment is so unbelievably heavy outside, you can't walk in them, but underwater they're not.

 

A sight that becomes common in Maldives is seeing baby sharks, they swim close to the shore. I mean in shallow water. I don't care how baby the shark is, a shark is a shark! If I saw one, I swam away a fast as I can, but they are used to them.

To sum up my experience in diving, its amazing to dive and see the other world under the water, but it is also exhausting and quite complex. Maybe its because I'm still a beginner. As my father says, of all the activities and fun things that you can do on the water, nothing compares to the life under. TRUE.

The Second trip we went on was snorkeling.

 

 All aboard!

 

 We take off, our trip took 2 hours and we went to two different reefs, spending 45 minutes in each.

 

 

 My brother giving me this island as a present. But the humble me, could not except it :)

 

The Coral reefs were went to were astonishing. The fish were gorgeous, but the most amazing thing was seeing the turtle. Turtles are so graceful and calm. People kept going after her, that I never got the chance to take a picture. The colors of the fish and seeing them living peacefully was so inspiring.

 

Fins ons and hand in hand, me amd my brother swam till we lost track of time.

The third trip was the fishing trip.

And we begin our trip at sunset.

 

 

 

 We choose a spot and they through their lines. And wait patiently.....

 

As I admire the serenity, since I don't fish nor eat fish! They tagged my along.

In the end, only the boys managed to catch something. Total yield: 4 fish. Not bad I guess.
The next day, we had lunch at Kurumba Cafe and they cooked us our catch.

My favourite trip was the Sunset dolphins cruise.

Dolphins are truely a man's friend. They weren't afraid of us. They swam next to our boat.

 

 And were playing around and jumping.

 

 And they liked swimming alongside our boat and racing the tides.

 

I could never get enough of them and mashallah they were everywhere.

 

The crew were drumming on their tradition drums, but then @bowaleed263 took over and showed them how its done in Kuwait.

One day, we just stayed put and did some water activities on our island.

 

 Parasailing. The view of the sea and our island from above was simply breath taking.

 

 And my brother doing the wakeboard.

 

Some relaxation time was needed from all the action we do at daytime, so we head for the spa.

 

 

 

We turned the restoration room into our our diwaniya, with laughter and jokes. We booked the whole spa and were the only one's there. We literally owned the place.

 

It was the most incredible experience ever. You feel pamper and rejovenated.

I'm going to miss Maldives and I'm going to miss the friendly people and kind hearts.

 

The smiling guy is from housekeeping, but he made us these love birds from scratch using tree leaves. He was very crafty mashallah, it took him two minutes. I still have it as a souvenir, even though its all dried out by now.

 

 And the lovely sunsets.

A pic of my friend Dana breathing out a black cloud. You forgt all the negativity of the real world and see things brighter in Maldives, that's the magic of this place.

 

I took these pics on the last day.

 

 

 

They used to put this flower on our bed every evening. It smelled like rose water.

 

 

 Our ride back to Male.

 

 Bye Kurumba Hotel.

 

I hate goodbyes, they bring tears to my eyes. This was the most fun trip I've been on. Till next time Maldives.

 

By: @anfalw