THREE adventurers embarking on a round-the-world trip in search of the secret of happiness are set to visit Bahrain.
From sampling street life in Madrid to relaxing in the Finnish saunas of Helsinki, American Tony Martin, 30, Belgian Kelly Ferris, 23, and Mexican Antonio Santiago, 24, are nearly a third of the way through their 206 country journey.
They began the 275,000-mile trip-of-a-lifetime, sponsored by Coca-Cola, in Madrid in January and have already toured South America, Canada and much of Europe.
The team also witnessed the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and will visit the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa later this year.
Appointed by the company as "happiness ambassadors", they will begin their tour of the Middle East by travelling to the UAE and Qatar before arriving in Bahrain on April 9.
A single-day visit to Manama will involve the country's suqs and the Bahrain National Museum.
After that, they will move to Saudi Arabia and Yemen before travelling to south-east Asia, Africa, Australasia and America.
Mr Martin is a Munich-based kindergarten teacher, while Ms Ferris and Mr Santiago are students.
They have been tasked with visiting every country where Coca-Cola is sold to find out what makes people happy.
The team received 206 specially decorated Coca-Cola bottles from company chairman and chief executive officer Muhtar Kent before setting off to give some of their hosts as part of the expedition.
"We are delighted to bring forth a project that embraces the Coca-Cola's positive outlook and evolution of our "Open Happiness" campaign, launched last year in the UAE," he said.
At the end of the trip, due to conclude in the US in December, the bottles will be displayed in a special collection at the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, US.
More than five million people have been following the team's progress on Facebook, which is also charted on Twitter, YouTube and the blog website TypePad.
Real-time updates of the trip are available at www.expedition206.com where people can interact with the team and become "virtual travel agents" by suggesting new places for the team to visit.
Copyright 2010 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group
'In search of happiness...', Gulf Daily News, March 27, 2010, Jennifer Gnana
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