Trip to Khobar

The Bongyo Samaj, Eastern Province (Saudi Arabia) had organized a Nobo Borsho cum a Rabindra Jayanti programme at Al-Khobar, 140 km from Jubail.

It was an interesting programme with performances by members and their children. The programme started at 5.00 PM was followed by an Indian dinner and we came back to Jubail at 1.15 AM. The savior was the next day being a Friday, was a holiday.

En route to Khobar… somewhere along the Jubail-Dammam highway

Khobar
The design of the building is a copy of a similar building I saw in Beijing… could be the same architect. Recycling designs???

Another interesting looking building

The starting dance recital

“Bhushundir Mathe” -  a play by the Jubail contingent

Flowers

A couple of pictures taken on the recent trip home.

Both the compositions looked interesting.

Taken with the 18-55mm Nikon lens as I was too lazy to pull out the macro to shoot the flowers.

Nikon D200           Nikon 18-55 mm

Ringo (@ 9 months)

Ringo is growing up fast. At 9 months, he is a 28 kilo puppy. Loves to fool around and get in everybody’s way and manages to nick anything that one accidentally drops.

What are you trying to do??

Seriously busy chewing a thick twig that he has managed to get hold of..

I was reading a blog called http://riviera-dogs.blogspot.com/ and its main site http://www.pensionmilou.com/ and came across these interesting quotes:

One reason a dog is such a lovable creature is his tail wags instead of his tongue.
~ Author Unknown

All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog.
~ Franz Kafka

There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.
~ Bern Williams

Home and away

Just a series of interesting pictures taken during my trip home. I had hoped that my next seat would be occupied by someone whom I could chat up with during the long flight.

But that was not to be. It was an office boy on his annual leave from Muscat to Delhi via Bahrain, traveling on his company paid ticket. Nice chap but not one whom you could carry out intelligent conversation.

The Spicejet flight from Delhi to Kolkata was worse. The flight had less than 50% occupancy and as a result, my next 5 seats were empty. So, I did what I could … clicked away and then plugged in my ipod and fell asleep helped by couple of rounds of Smirnoff.

Business end of Bahrain Airport – 12.10 AM

Decending into New Delhi Airport.. about 5.30 AM

Spicejet 9.35 AM shuttle from Delhi to Calcutta

The cloud cover was there from Delhi to about 150 km from Calcutta.

No pictures of the drive home from the airport. Jubail was 18 C when I left and it was a blazing 37 C in Calcutta. It was like a heat shock.

It was more or less the same case on my way back . . . The chap had his fill of scotch and promptly fell of to sleep . . .

Flying out of Mumbai on my way back to Bahrain.

Over the Arabian Sea, with the sun setting

Crusing at 37,000 ft . . .  about 2 hrs out of Mumbai

Nikon D200      18-55 mm Nikon

Bahrain F1

The Bahrain F1 Championship flyer in the seat pocket of the A340 flight from Bahrain to New Delhi had an interesting point – the Bahrain F1 contributed 3% of Bahrain’s GDP last year. So, this year Bahrain has gone the whole hog to promote the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix.

The promotion at the Bahrain Airport was brilliant, with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari F1 car on display inside the Airport terminal, next to the Bahrain Duty Free.

Felipe Massa’s Ferrari F1 Car. on display at Bahrain Airport.

This was my first view of a F1 car from inches away.. a real touch but not try!!!

A low slung 600 HP monster

Ferrari !!!

This is how it looks from close to the driver’s seat

Oooops . . . way too many buttons . . .

Will the white knob in the center of the steering wheel with the Ferrari logo start the car???

A really small cockpit

Can you read “MASSA”

Looks familiar… this is just next to the Bahrain Duty Free shops selling chocolates and drinks…

It is nearly a year after our Egypt trip and I was feeling that I was missing my old colleagues.

You can win this car for BD50.

The Merc was on display when I transited through Bahrain Airport en route to Kolkata

F1 Tshirts on sale

Bahrain Duty Free

Nikon D200   18-55 Nikon Lens

Sky

Another stunning sunset . . .

Shot from my witchen window

Nikon D200    100 ASA    1/40s    18-55 Nikon Lens

China House

China House – a Chinese and Filipino restaurant is our regular weekend haunt. Owned and run by a Bangladeshi family in Saudi Arabia and with Filipino cooks and frequented by Europeans, Indians, Saudis and of course Filipinos . . . it is a true symbol of globalization.

A chinese lantern in the restaurant

The Giordano boutique is visible across the street.

Waiting for the food to arrive.

Nikon D200   18-55 lens   400 ASA

cuisine gastronomique

With ample time at my disposal and most of the best produce available here (barring hams etc. etc.), I have started experimenting with gourmet cusine.

The first experiment of Pasta with cheese sauce and beef mortadella went off with flying colors. The only problem was that it got a bit cold since our Thursday lunch was delayed by a technician, who was fixing our cable connections for us to get some more movie channels.

Nikon D200 with 18-55 mm lens 

 

Will keep you posted how different experiments progresses ….

Sandstorms

After the photographs of the pink sky in my previous post, this seems quite a change. 

This is the scene today evening. In the morning on our way to office, the visibility was down to about 25m. High winds had whipped up the sand and dust. It improved in the evening.. and this is the picture.

Another view. The two high mobile telephone towers are invisible.

Everything seems to be covered by fine dust. This is my first experience of a sandstorm here.

Under the pink sky

View from the kitchen window…

The pink sky looked inviting and hence the photograph.

Evening sky

 

Nikon D200     18-55 mm Nikon    400ASA