Vipond Adventures: Formula 1 Grand Prix

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend one of the greatest Autosport events in the World. The opening race to the 2010 Formula 1 season was in Bahrain, convieniently located only 2 countries away from Kuwait. The weekend was a long time in the making as we booked our tickets in November and began planning how we would get there. With only two options; flying or driving the 400kms, we decided on driving but didn't know if it was possible as we would have to drive across Saudi Arabia. After some research we discovered we were able to obtain a Saudi Arabia transit visa, and so the process began. First we paid 25KD for a Bahrain Visa, then brought our passports, hotel ticket, and car insurance card to the company that works for the Saudi Embassy. 10 days later 4 of us each had a 60 day visa for Saudi Arabia in our passports! Ready to go. We were so excited for this drive into no-mans land, and the forbidden place for non-muslims. We were very nervous entering the boarder and had no idea how thorough they would be. There was 8 check points total between Kuwait and Saudi, they took Insurance, sold insurance, stamped passports and briefly, and I mean briefly, searched our car. After 1 hr in a line up we were home free and cruising along the Saudi coast at a meer 170km/h. The speed limit in Saudi is 120 but it is sort of an unwritten rule that you must drive 170-180.....so we did. 400kms total brought us from our apartment in Kuwait to the Bahrain Border. As Bahrain is an Island off the coast of Saudi Arabia we had to cross the 20km long bridge between the two countries. We had a weekend pass to the races and made it there each day to watch all the events. There were qualifying and practice races for V8 Chevy Super Cup, Asia GP2, Porsche, and Formula 1, which was near the end of the day. The country put on a flawless event and had unprecedented organization. Traffic flow to and from the races and parking was as smooth as silk. The parking lot was littered with the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, Masaratti, and Bentley, which we enjoyed very much.

Bahrain was an extremely clean country. There was no garbage flying around and the work force was all Bahrainis. Driving cabs and working at corner stores, it was all local people. Definitely different from Kuwait. During the F1 race we cheered for Micheal Schumacher as it was his debut back to F1 . Richard Branson was also there with his "Virgin Racing" team which took the cake for the nicest looking cars. Ferrari finished 1st and 2nd and that is what the locals wanted so there was huge celebrations afterward.

All in all it was a weekend i'll never forget. We will follow the rest of the F1 season online and continue to cheer on the drivers. The Australian Grand Prix begins March 28.