A’salamu alaykum!

(That, according to my new Time Out Bahrain guide, means greetings in Arabic)

The Time Out Dubai blog will be coming from Bahrain for the next few days.

Slightly off topic I know, but the 5th Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix takes place on Sunday morning and Time Out will be trackside to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the Middle East’s biggest sporting event. After all this is being billed as a Grand Prix for the entire Middle East so it will be nice to support our (almost) neighbours.

I’ve actually been wanting to come to Bahrain for a couple of years. Like a lot of Dubai residents I have heard the island offers a more relaxed pace and a less hectic lifestyle than we have come to expect from the emirate we call home.

So, ridiculously, I have chosen to come on the busiest week of the year!

Event organisers are hoping to see 100,000 spectators/visitors, plus the Formula 1 teams themselves and the touring media circus that follows the drivers around the world.

So there will be as much chance of getting a taxi as I have getting a lift from Lewis Hamilton.

Anyway, armed with my trusty Time Out guide (should be out in shops any day now - a great effort from my colleagues Chris Anderson, Dana El-Baltaji and their teams) I hope to give you some of the highlights of a weekend in Bahrain.

Check out our Bahrain Grand Prix preview here.

Or get the lowdown on some of the top drivers here.