Bahrain wasn’t exactly at the top of my bucket list, but I’ve harboured an irritation that I couldn’t pass through it on the way to Saudi Arabia on my 2021 trip as I’d wanted, as Bahrain didn’t recognise COVID vaccination certificates from Senegal – so I was happy when I saw that the small number of international destinations from Multan included Bahrain (which was on the way to Turkey where I needed to be next). There appear to be no hostels in Manama, and the (relatively) cheap hotels I found online had received ratings of between 2 and 3 out of 10, with comments about baths thick with algae, cockroach nests in cupboards, etc. Enough to put even me off! So as I had to spend rather more money than usual and stay in a proper hotel, I decided to limit myself to three nights – two full days to see the place.
I prepared a list of the main sights I wanted to see, and set off on the first morning. I’d decided to walk rather than go by bus, as the latter involved two different buses whilst the former offered the chance to get more of a feel for the place than I would have through a bus window. My first stop was the big Al Fateh Grand Mosque, some 6.5km from my hotel – except that my sandals broke on the way there, so I guess I walked another kilometre or two whilst looking for a shoe repair place. I got to the mosque … or at least to one of the road entrances to the site, but this was closed so it seemed I would have to walk another kilometre or two to a different road entrance on the other side … but was too hot and dehydrated to continue. So I found a bit of pavement that was in the shade of a tree, and sat there to gather enough strength to set off in search of a grocery store. I did have an apple in my bag, so decided to eat that on the basis that it would have some juice in it, but I quickly vomited it back up. This was not looking good!
There were no other pedestrians around, and very little traffic going past, but I noticed one car passing me for a second time, going very slowly. The car stopped, and the driver got out to see if I was okay, and if he could take me to wherever I was trying to get to. Nice! I very gratefully got into his car, downed a bottle of water, and explained that I had been trying to get to the mosque, and then to the Beit Al Qur’an and National Museum. He drove me round to the front of the mosque, and gave me time to get out and take a photo from the front, but I didn’t like to say that I’d actually wanted to see the inside, as he was waiting to take me on to my next destination. We drove along a big road, and he gestured out of the window to the left to point out the Beit Al Qur’an … again, I didn’t say that I wanted to go inside, as I still felt that I needed a little longer in the cool air of his car. So we continued, with him giving me information as best he could on the places we were driving through (he was Bahraini, but his English was rather stilted).
Then we stopped. We were at the 16th century Arad Fort – not on my list of sights to see, as I’d considered it too far from my hotel, so this was a real bonus! We got out and looked around the fort, and he nipped into a store to buy some food for me – what a gentleman! He continued to show me around, to other sites I’d considered to be too far from my hotel (ancient Dilmun burial mounds, the Riffa Fort and the Al Khamis Mosque – the oldest in the country but unfortunately covered in scaffolding as major reconstruction works are underway) and past the modern side of Bahrain including the Bahrain World Trade Centre building, and asked me what else was on my list – what did I plan to see the next day?! He said he had to work in the morning (great – my chance to go back to the Beit Al Qur’an and the National Museum) but would pick me up from my hotel in the afternoon to show me the Bahrain Fort!
He then asked me if I had ever smoked shisha, to which I responded that I had, that I liked to indulge once every few years, usually when passing through Istanbul. He was delighted as he likes to smoke, and prefers to do so in company, so he asked me which flavours I like and we continued some way in his car, finally turning behind some nondescript buildings into a kind of unsurfaced big parking lot behind them. Strange … and I wandered briefly whether I was getting into an awkward situation, whether he had anything other than smoking in mind … but on the way into the parking lot he called out something to a young man, and just after we parked the man turned up with two plastic stools which he placed beside each of the front doors, and he then returned with two shisha pipes!! I didn't manage to get a satisfactory answer as to why people go and park in such a place to smoke, rather than sitting around in a nice cafe such as in Turkey or Oman, but I'm guessing it's not so socially acceptable in Bahrain?
The next morning, I took a bus most of the way to the Beit Al Qur’an, which had some absolutely beautiful illustrated Korans and other examples of Islamic calligraphy in its collection, and from there I walked to the rather impressive and extensive National Museum. I was not going to repeat my mistake of the previous day so I took a taxi back to my hotel. I initially asked him to take me to the bus station, explaining that I’m on a budget, but he then offered me a discounted rate to my hotel, explaining that I wouldn’t get that rate from any of the immigrant taxi drivers, but as a Bahraini he wants to encourage more tourists to visit his country.
Back at the hotel, I contacted my Bahraini friend, who said he’d been worried about me (it was already early afternoon), unable to get out of his mind a picture of me sitting on the pavement hiding from the sun… He turned up quite soon afterwards and took me to the site of the Bahrain Fort, the 2,000-year-old remains of Tylos Fortress, and with time for me to look around the Bahrain Fort Museum.
He asked if I wanted to smoke shisha again and I said no, but he drove us to the parking lot anyway, and smoked a pipe whilst I just sat and waited. He told me I was a nice person with a good , kind heart, and he wanted a hug. I allowed a brief hug although in a posture that ensured his hands couldn’t wander, and I turned my face away when he tried for a kiss. It was a little awkward but did not feel threatening. A sweet man, and he certainly helped me to see more of Bahrain than I would have seen alone, although I hope the follow-up WhatsApp messages (he loves me, wants me to visit Bahrain again, etc) stop soon. If I ever get the chance of another stopover there I’ll take it as I didn’t get to follow the ancient pearling trail, but I certainly wouldn’t tell him I were back in town!
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