Back from Bahrain
This wasn't my first trip to that tiny quiet island. I've been there about 3 or 4 times, not including the lay-overs on my way to and from Saudi, courtesy of Gulf Air's flight plans.
Never the less, I always enjoy my time whenever I'm down there. If you take away the infrequent socio-political unrest incidents, the seasonal lets-bash-Saudi-cars-during-new-years-eve-parties, Manama is a very nice cozy little town.
Skip the traffic rush hours, everything is about 10 to 15 minutes away from each other. Like every typical business traveler, I stayed in the Bahrain Sheraton. I have no idea why everyone goes to that hotel. Please let me know if you have any other recommendations.
Don't get me wrong, the hotel is nice and everything, but renovation works are taking way too long and I really think its kitchen staff need a new head chef.
I didn't have much personal-time, but I caught up with a couple of friends whom I haven't seen in a while, I actually managed to see one of them, watched one of the FIFA games and had dinner at a Chinese place which a friend recommended thats called "Hong Kong". Good food and quite inexpensive as well.
On my way to the airport back to the airport, I noticed 3 things: (1) cab driver tried to rip me off - what ever happened to "Bahraini people are the kindest in the GCC?" (2) Bahrain Financial Harbor is starting to take shape. Hopefully, it will redo the extremely flat/horizontal skyline of Manama, and (3) noticed something about traffic lights: ALL OF THEM are barricaded with a metal brace at the bottom. Not sure how this will protect that piece of public property, but just something I thought I'd share with you.
Never the less, I always enjoy my time whenever I'm down there. If you take away the infrequent socio-political unrest incidents, the seasonal lets-bash-Saudi-cars-during-new-years-eve-parties, Manama is a very nice cozy little town.
Skip the traffic rush hours, everything is about 10 to 15 minutes away from each other. Like every typical business traveler, I stayed in the Bahrain Sheraton. I have no idea why everyone goes to that hotel. Please let me know if you have any other recommendations.
Don't get me wrong, the hotel is nice and everything, but renovation works are taking way too long and I really think its kitchen staff need a new head chef.
I didn't have much personal-time, but I caught up with a couple of friends whom I haven't seen in a while, I actually managed to see one of them, watched one of the FIFA games and had dinner at a Chinese place which a friend recommended thats called "Hong Kong". Good food and quite inexpensive as well.
On my way to the airport back to the airport, I noticed 3 things: (1) cab driver tried to rip me off - what ever happened to "Bahraini people are the kindest in the GCC?" (2) Bahrain Financial Harbor is starting to take shape. Hopefully, it will redo the extremely flat/horizontal skyline of Manama, and (3) noticed something about traffic lights: ALL OF THEM are barricaded with a metal brace at the bottom. Not sure how this will protect that piece of public property, but just something I thought I'd share with you.
posted by moryarti at
6/16/2006 01:40:00 PM
9 Comments:
Glad you enjoyed your trip moryarti :)
the reason the traffic lights have that metall barrier at the bottom has more to do with saving the lights and costs of replacing them... lotta' accidents we've seen here have had drivers smash into the lights in the night.. hence the yellow strips at the base which illuminates during the night... ... we stil have traffic light crashes though.
As for cab drivers.. well they rip us off too.. thats nothing new... but not all of them are like that and the ones that rip folks off for sure don't represent all citizens or residents in Bahrain :D
Next time you're in Bahrain don't bother with the local caps, call up a radio taxi (http://www.speedymotors.com) they're honest, fast, friendly and have a whole hostof local and foreign cab drivers that give you a fair deal -- meters switched on of course! Their number is 17682999 :)
Sheraton has been doing renovation for God knows how long... there's better places than them like Crowne Plaza, the Ritz, novotel, etc. I'd opt for novotel as its really awesome!
By
Angelo Embuldeniya, at June 16, 2006 at 6:40 PM
Welcome back Moryarti. Why would anyone wanna steal traffic lights anyway?
Actually, there is a cafe here in stockholm that is decorated with the strangest things... among them enormous traffic lights...hmm maybe they "found" them in Bahrain.
And, Allah '7alleek... word verification...
By
Shaykhspeara Sha'ira, at June 16, 2006 at 8:18 PM
I hope you had a good time here.
I don't know why they stack up businessmen in Sheraton hotel. That hotel is kinda old, needs a bit of exterior changes. ;)
As for restaurants, there are much more, delicious fusion restaurants. The next time you're here, try Monsoon, Mirai, Sato, or Trader Vic's. ;)
By
N.A., at June 17, 2006 at 10:40 AM
The last time I was in Bahrain i slept.
A weekend of sleeping.
It was exciting.
By
One Nine Seven One, at June 17, 2006 at 10:43 AM
ahem ahem.. let me don my engineer's hat...
like angelo said, this is simply to protect the column from impact. as the post is only fixed from the bottom, this is like a ruler. The bending moments (torque) are at a maximum at the bottom and that's where it needs to be protected. Also it happens to be that that's where the cars hit (unless the are flying, which by looking at some skid marks on some tunnels/walls in Dubai you would think cars can fly).
Anyway it's a cheap and inexpensive way to protect it. For most crashes this barrier will crumple and not the post. It's much quicker and more convenient to replace the barrier (without any loss of functionality to the lamps).
I never been to bahrain.. i wanna go! gotta see my friend Ali!
By
BuJ, at June 17, 2006 at 11:31 AM
welcome back Professoré.
By
*, at June 18, 2006 at 9:19 AM
i've been to bahrain once and it was winter and we stayed @ novotel !! the room has a sea view and the night breeze was just amazing !!! i agree its very quiet and the people are so welcoming !!! i love bahrain!
By
Mother Courage, at June 20, 2006 at 1:43 AM
oh how rude of me !!!
Welcome baaCk monsieur ;-)
By
Mother Courage, at June 20, 2006 at 1:45 AM
Welcome back and what happened to power-blogging? (Or even normal blogging?)
By
Keef, at June 24, 2006 at 5:01 PM
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