 Young Bahraini with his hunting falcon / Herbs and spices in Manama Souq |
 by Philip Game
Aiwa! Aiwa! Aiwa! (Yes, yes, yes!) The Moroccan dancers flick back their tresses as the string band lurches into local favourites, and the white-robed audience responds with gusto. Fancy the one in the red satin dress? Toss her a garland! And wack another thirty dollars on the tab
Bahrain is right up there in the mass-tourism stakes, with 2.7 million arrivals each year but 80 per cent of them are Saudis flooding across the 25-kilometre King Fahad Causeway. These weekend refugees blend into a population which shares their cultural heritage with a few crucial differences. The rest of us can drive out to the hour-glass island midway, marvel at this billion-dollar engineering feat and peer through the haze at the Forbidden Kingdom.
This Singapore-sized island kingdom offers the ideal stopover introduction to the Middle East sunshine and sparkling turquoise waters, smart shopping and a few sights, six hours short of London. In the northern winter, the air is delightfully mild and the skies a piercing china-blue.
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