Oman, Saudia Arabia, Bahrain

I know that it has been awhile since I have made any posts, but last week I had the opportunity to go on a trip to Muscat, Oman; Riyadh Saudi Arabia; and Manama, Bahrain.  Below are some of the pictures from the trip.

Seriously, we were roughing it, this is the view of the Gulf of Oman from my hotel room

In Oman we had a traditional Omani dinner outside on the roof of a building.

here is a view of old muscat from dinner

old muscat in the daytime

in muscat we visited the royal stables and saw some horses

we even got a carriage ride, felt like i was part of the royal wedding

the grand mosque in muscat, amazing...

inside the grand mosque courtyard

lobby of the restaurant where we had dinner in oman

From Muscat, we flew to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The first stop in Riyadh was the Kingdom Tower, we went to the 99th floor, the arch you see at the top

This is the view of riyadh from the 99th floor

Then we drove out to the "edge of the world", about 30 miles outside of Riyadh

What is now barren desert used to be ocean, this is the landscape created by the water

anther picture from the edge of the world

Our group in  the open desert

there was some serious carpet shopping done

the next stop was manama, bahrain, the scene of some recent protests.  the street below was where many of the protest marches took place, but as you can see it has returned to normal.

the view from the hotel room

inside the grand mosque in manama

it was a whirlwind trip, but definitely filled with some once in a lifetime experiences.