Our first destination is City of Sitra south of Manama. Sitra is a fishing town. Our aim is to find the port at Sitra’ and buy our motor tickets from there to go to Al Dar Island where only 150 people can go a day.. Why 150 people? Because if you line up the island side by side, only so many people can fit in.
However, because the road signs are not enough, we get lost in Sitra’. While we were asking for directions in the bazaar here, an uncle said, “You’ve come in the wrong direction, I’ll take you, but first I need to get the car from home.”. Uncle playing dominoes with his local clothes in front of the market a while ago, gets in our car and describes the way to his house.. We are standing in front of a villa. Uncle gets down and enters the house. We are eagerly waiting for it to come out. The garage door opens and the uncle just came out of the garage with his latest model shining car and says, “Think behind me”. Takes us to the Marina. Thank you and we continue on our way. There is a large harbor and many old-fashioned fishing engines. On the left, ice storages and areas where fish are kept. From the office here we buy our entry ticket to Al Dar island for $20 per person.
At the end of the marina, the police look at our passports and tickets at the place where we get on the motorbike.. Yes, the engine has finally arrived! After a journey that takes about 10 minutes, we set foot on the island.. “Wellcome to Al Dar” is really a tiny island. When we went, there was no one except a group of 10-15 friends and 4 people working in the BBQ restaurant and bar.. There are various activities on this tiny man-made island; such as pedalo, water skiing, diving, fishing. But the water is also blurry here, even if it is clear, the view of the oil refineries on the other side does not depress you.. We did not enter, but advice to those who enter: Be careful because there are too many undercurrents! By the way, the island is open from 10:00 to 18:00 every day except Mondays.
While you’re here, there is Al Bandar Resort where you can swim again.. Instead, we continued by visiting the “Oil Museum” in Sakhir area.. In this museum, the discovery, processing and production process of oil are explained with photographs.
Oil was first found in June 1932 in Bahrain.. This is important in 2 points, firstly, it is the first oil to be found in commercial quantities in the Gulf region in the Arab world, and secondly, it will negatively affect the pearl trade.. After that, Japan started to focus on producing cultured pearls.. With the discovery of oil, they first turned to regulations in the field of health and education.
On our way back from Sitra to Manama, we stop by A’ali village, famous for its pottery.. The historic Royal Cemetery here is much more impressive. Consisting of thousands of tombs dating from 3,000 BC to 600 AD, this cemetery is one of the country’s most important historical landmarks.. In this cemetery, royal people were also buried with their belongings, as they were thought to need their belongings on the other side.
