Best of Bahrain

Aiwa! Aiwa! Aiwa! (Yes! Yes! Yes!) The Moroccan dancers flick back their long tresses as the swing band lurches into the old favourites, and the white-robed audience responds with gusto. Fancy the one in the red satin dress? Throw her a garland! Slap another US$30 (RM114) on the tab . . .  

Bahrain (impress the locals, give it a big throaty “HHHH”) is right up there in the mass-tourism stakes with 2.7 million arrivals each year – but 80% of them are Saudis flooding across the 25km King Fahad Causeway, opened in 1986.