By the time I woke up and finished my work, it was already past noon. I hadn’t had much of a breakfast.
Lunch was at Haji’s Cafe. I had Bahrain-style beef biryani. Although not as strong on the masala, it was still very good and the beef so tender! Cost: BD 2 (₹500/$5/€4.5)
This is Manama Post Office… although I don’t know who uses it these days
The iconic KFC at Bab Al Bahrain — it’s been here for some 30+ years!
Yateem Mosque, next to Batelco Tower, and to the extreme right is Downtown Rotana – a 5-star hotel
That’s InterContinental Bahrain. I swear I thought that building was a lot bigger back in the 1990s!
I used to walk down this same path everytime my family used to go to Manama Corniche
Jasmi’s is a Bahrain-based fast food chain. Where it stands now used to be a Hardee’s before.
This is King Faisal Highway, which extends all the way to Seef district — which is where the mall craze in Bahrain began in the late 1990s
I had to cross King Faisal highway to get to where the corniche once stood
The pedestrian press sign on traffic signals is written in Hindi and Malayalam, besides English and Arabic
That blue building is the Conrad Hotel at Bahrain Financial Harbour — another 5-star property
A view of Manama from the former corniche
Manama Corniche was a long stretch of land with a seaside public park. Just a green open space where people could go for walks and jogs. All that is gone now.
Land reclamation extended the land further into the sea and many buildings have come up. BAPCO is Bahrain’s national oil company.
The corniche’s destruction began in the early 2000s with this project — the Bahrain Financial Harbour towers
Bahrain Financial Harbour towers were the last project my father worked on for his company before leaving Bahrain. After the success of BFH, the area just kept expanding.
It may not be as impressive or vast as Dubai — but Bahrain doesn’t have to be
This is the Kempinski Bahrain Harbour — another luxury residential and hotel project
There are eateries and coffee shops with sit-out areas overlooking the marina
Needless to say, the residents of Bahrain Harbour are wealthy
But these are the labourers who built Bahrain Harbour
University of Strathclyde’s Bahrain Campus
I then walked towards the Bahrain Bay area, where more new constructions are coming up
Over in the distance are the iconic Bahrain World Trade Center twin towers
This upcoming skyscraper is the Future Generation Reserve Tower
When I saw that sign board with the name of the contractors, it reminded me of all the construction sites where my father worked and would take us to once in a while. This should be standard in India as well.
I was walking towards that spiral tower, called United Tower
Everytime I walk along nice pavements, I am reminded of how much of India still lacks the basics like clean, paved or bricked footpaths
United Tower houses the offices of American-engineering major AECOM, and other multi-national companies such as Regus, CBRE, and Deloitte
But as I was talking photos, a security guard informed me that photographing United Tower is not allowed. In fact, photography is restricted along Bahrain Bay. Why? I don’t know.
So I just took the view of Manama from Bahrain Bay and decided to leave
BIBF’s building in Bahrain Bay. BIBF is the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance.
I walked back and decide to head to Avenues Mall next
That will be the next post. I just had one more night in Manama before I shifted to Juffair to join my school friends.
I walked through the alleyway which used to house a popular magazine store. While my father went in there to pick up newspapers, I would browse through British pop magazines like Smash Hits and video game magazines. But that store was long gone. I did find a lot of Nepali eateries though. See the vlog video at the end of this post for that footage.
I walked through Manama Souq to get Al Zeinah Plaza, my first stop.
Where F&F Watch Company stands now used to be a Dadabhai store — the most popular toy store chain in Bahrain
Dadabhai may have gone but across from it, Al Zeinah Plaza still stands…
…mostly empty 🙁
The main reason I used to frequent Al Zeinah Plaza was for this arcade. Also shut.
In fact, the only thing livening up the inside of Al Zeinah Plaza was this Filipino restaurant, which also had karaoke (no surprise there)
Kewalram & Sons, Dadabhai, Babasons (MegaMart) are among the many big business groups founded by Indians who settled in Bahrain more than half a century ago
After arriving in Bahrain yesterday, I woke up today with one goal in mind — visit ‘home’.
By home I mean, visiting the apartment building I spent much of my years growing up in Bahrain. It’s why I stayed in Awal Hotel, it was very close to everything I wanted to see in Manama (the capital of Bahrain).
As I was walking from Awal Hotel to my old apartment, I realized Bahrain Hotel was still standing
Although abandoned now, Bahrain Hotel was the first proper hotel in Bahrain, having first opened in the 1920s.
Where this empty plot of land sits, used to be an old petrol station… and the pick-up point for my school bus
There is a vlog at the bottom of this post which shows the path I walked, so do watch the video later.
There it still stands — Tawfiq building. My home for much of my childhood.
Where Omega Restaurant (left) stands now used to be a sandwich and tea shop during my time. And the cold store (to the right) is still there.
A ‘cold store’ used to be the local grocery store. The name ‘cold store’ came about because it implies the store had refrigeration, to store soft drinks and frozen foods. Cold stores were where my family did all our grocery shopping before supermarkets took over in the 1990s.
Next to Tawfiq building is… or was… Ambassador Hotel. Now turned into flats for bachelors.
