TBK travels- Finding my way around Bahrain

My walking holiday in Bahrain- 2020

It is a standing joke in our family and among my friends how easily I get lost. In the UK I worked for a company with restaurants on both side of the road like Aberford North and Aberford south or Rivenhall East and Rivenhall West and I would often go to the wrong one. On numerous occasions I would leave one restaurant thinking I was driving North when I was actually driving south. Mark Johns, my boss at that time, gave me a card with a key ring in and wrote "Congratulations on driving further than anyone else last year ( but how far did you really need to go?)"

When I moved to Bahrain as it was a small island ("At 780 square kilometers (300 sq mi) in size, it is the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore." ( according to our friends at Wikipedia) I thought my life would become easier. When I landed at the airport on 14.2.2010 to start my new life, I was met at the Airport and driven to Awali, and then the next day I was driven to my new office at the Refinery and given the keys to a rental car.

I had never driven an automatic or on the "wrong side of the road" and was petrified. I persuaded my then boss, Peter Conway, to drive me home and on the way he pointed out all the landmarks. "This is pipeline road ( big oil pipeline down the side of the road) and this is the Golf Course" and so on. I followed his advice and drove around Awali that night ( very quiet roads) to get used to the car and headed out very early the next day ( The area around the Refinery used to get very congested from 6.30 to 7 am as everyone headed to work , and the night shift headed home). I looked for all the landmarks Peter had pointed out the night before ( "When you get to the three tall red and white chimneys of the power station you are nearly there"). However there was thick fog and I could not see anything. I turned off at the roundabout and then saw a queue of cars heading into a security gate and joined the queue and flashed my badge, and said, "Hi, I am new here, where do I go?". The security guard said "Welcome sir, but this is Alba and you work at Bapco! Go back to the roundabout and take the next exit!"

                                  Welcome to Bapco- when I find it!!

Not a good start! Thereafter if I was going somewhere new I would get someone to draw me a map and in one case, after I got lost following his directions to the gym in Awali , Keith typed me a one page email on how to get to the key cutting shop in Riffa. I set up a file in my car and kept all these directions for future use.

One other problem is many expats had lived here so long and places change name so often, that they would still refer to the old name, which was very confusing. Peter, and his wife Denise, where great at answering the "where do you buy this" question ! The answer was usually "Spinneys on Budaiyah Highway.". The first time I went I spent ages driving around looking for a shop called "The Spinneys" and was very frustrated to only find a shop called Alosra. Eventually I parked in the Alosra car park and asked an old Expat guy if he knew where the Spinneys was. He laughed, pointed at Alosra, and said "This was called the Spinneys 20 years ago!".

               Alosra , that replaced Spinneys in Bahrain many years ago

The same applied for pipeline road, which I searched for in my new GPS. My brother, Richard, bought this for my 50 th birthday when he visited and we got lost several times! Pipeline road simply did not exist! It is actually called Alriffa Avenue! When I asked Peter why he called it pipeline road he said it was because "It had a pipeline running beside it". You cannot fault the man's logic!

                   

              The oil pipeline runs from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain

I never updated the Sat Nav and soon it was out of date. Bahrain expands very fast by reclaiming land from the sea, linking islands together( "The Kingdom consists of 33 natural islands and a number of man-made ones.")  and Bahrain today is much bigger than it was when I arrived .

According to Arabian Business.com: 

"Land reclamation is a vital process in Bahrain because there is a shortage of land space for our residential needs. Bahrain has increased in size by 26km2, that's 11.4%, since land reclamation statistics were recorded in 1981. In 1981 Bahrain was 665.3km2 and in 2007 it increased to 741.4km2"

( source https://www.arabianbusiness.com/bahrain-s-reclamation-rules-82088.html#:~:text=Land%20reclamation%20is%20a%20vital,it%20increased%20to%20741.4km2. accessed 16.7.2020)

Many times i have been driving along with the Sat Nav running and it has shown my car swimming in the sea, or between islands, as a new causeway is added , or in the Amwaj Islands, Dilmunia and other land reclamation projects.

The other problem with the Sat Nav is that many places are not on it because they are new, or the roads do not have a name , so when you search for your destination it does not appear. This always caused many rows when my brother  Richard, visited. ""Search for Seef Mall, Muhurraq" he ordered. No results. I explain it was only opened the year before. "What about Arad Fort" he said , pointing at the old Fort next to the Mall. "They didn't have Sat Nav when that was built!" I quickly replied!

Even when you can find a place, like La Fontaine, the roads frequently have no entry signs as they change the traffic flow . La Fontaine was voted the most romantic restaurant in Bahrain with an outside fountain around which the tables are set in the winter months. I and several guests have tried in vain to find the restaurant with hand drawn maps, detailed typed directions and Sat Nav but it's impossible to find! Once  I took Richard having got detailed instructions and with the Sat Nav and printed maps but many of the narrow roads were blocked by parked cars and cranes, delivery lorries and roadworks. When you follow the diversion you go round in circles and eventually give up. Of course he told me off for being incompetent and not doing a recce before we went. So I said " ok you navigate" , and we got even more lost! The only time I found the place was with Jay for a birthday massage ( they have a spa too). I had phoned to check they could accommodate two guys and they said yes, so we turned up and the owner said no, they would only do massages for straight couples. So I never went again!

One of Peter's hand drawn maps showing me how to find two shops

The first time I went to the parcels customs office in Muhurraq to collect a parcel I got completely lost in the narrow roads of the Souq. So I parked and walked and eventually found the right office and collected my parcel, I then spent two hours looking for my car! That was my first week in Bahrain and I got so frustrated I was crying and wanted to go back to the UK. Some areas expand so fast here      (like Juffair) that you wake up and there is a new building when you look outside.

Juffair, easy to get lost

One stay-cation I went in search of food from the apartment block I had rented a flat in , and could not find my way back. All the tower blocks were new and looked the same. Eventually I remembered I had been taking photos of the breathtaking skyscrapers on the way to the shop and traced my way back to "The Spot residence" by going back through the photos one by one until I found my way back!

Keith's amazingly detailed directions to the key cutting shop in Riffa from 2010!

I am hoping that it will be a lot easier to find my way around Palawan. But somehow I doubt it!

This Blog is dedicated to all those who gave me directions , drew maps and typed instructions or guided me in Bahrain! Thanks Peter, Denise,  JJ, Keith, Patrick, Richard, Steve and Sian, and many more!