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
It wasn’t just Al Zeinah Plaza. There were a lot of shut shops in Manama.
It was kind of sad to see the changes walking through Manama.
This is the Oriental Palace hotel — one of the hotels I considered staying at in Manama
Next, I walked to Yateem Centre — Bahrain’s first major shopping center
Opened in 1981, Yateem Centre was a shopping centre popular up until the late 1990s
Three levels of shopping and an office tower above it
But by the late 1990s, the Seef area saw multiple massive malls come up
Once buzzing in the 1990s, the crowds have all but disappeared at Yateem
Plenty of ‘For Lease’ signs all over Yateem Centre
Olympia Sports was the only name I could recognize that is still here since my school days
Yateem Centre and Al Zeinah Plaza seem to make more money now from paid parking than from leasing
It was kind of sad to see the state of Manama honestly. Up until 2002 (when I was last in Bahrain) Manama was packed and even on weekdays, finding car parking in and around Bab Al Bahrain was a challenge. Now though, the major brand stores have all but gone. My Bahrain-based friends said they moved to the malls but even my uncle, who once worked in a jewellery store inside Yateem Centre, told me business overall is down in Bahrain post-COVID.
And as I write this, the US-Iran war problems have made things even worse for Bahrain’s economy 🙁
On the back side of Bab Al Bahrain was a small open display showcasing old photos of Bahrain
Across the road from Bab Al Bahrain was the old Manama Police Station. Right next to the police station is a Bahrain Post Museum. But as I was taking a video of the entire building, a police officer from the station waved at me and asked me to show what I was recording. He asked me not to take photos of the police station, and I said sorry since I didn’t know.
This is the building that houses both the old Manama Police Station (it’s to the left) and the Post Museum — which was the main post office back in the day
The Bahrain Post Museum is free to enter and is open daily from 8AM to 7PM, closed only on Fridays.
Here’s a brief history about Bahrain’s postal service and the museum
Basically, Bahrain’s postal service was setup by the colonial British and it actually reported to the India Post office in Bombay for a while
In fact, this is a model of a ship used by the postal service, named after the port city of Dwarka, in the Western state of Gujarat
A whole bunch of Bahrain stamps, both old and new, are on display in these stands
I haven’t been into stamps since I was a kid but I recognized many of these designs from back when we used to mail letters to Kerala
I wonder if kids born in the 2000s even know what postal stamps are!
In this room was a massive filing cabinet with pullout drawers containing thousands of stamps
But these drawers contained stamps from all over the world! Just select the number associated to the country and open that drawer to see their stamps
Check out my video at the end of this blog post for footage from inside the Bahrain Post Museum.
This room housed equipment that was used by the post office. Pretty interesting stuff in here.
If you love stamps or history, I highly recommend visiting the Post Museum when in Manama. It’s free and won’t take up too much of your time either.
On the way back, I picked up some potato samosas as I was hungry
At night, I stepped out to walk to my relative’s house for dinner
A lot of shops run by Bangladeshis in the direction I was headed
Although the shop signs may have changed, I still knew the routes of inner Manama by heart 🙂
This is a typical kuboos shop. Kuboos is a local bread, like naan, and prepared the same way. It’s still ridiculously cheap!
I arrived at my relative’s place, had a nice home-cooked dinner, and stayed for a while talking to family
When I walked back home, the night was still alive… although I only saw South Asian men outside.
Coming from India where people are fighting to keep their local languages visible on shop signs, I was amazed to see Malayalam-only signs in an Arabic-speaking country
Anyway, this concludes my first day of sightseeing in Manama. Watch my vlog which has more footage of all that I saw today:
