Bahrain’s City Centre Shopping Mall during Ramadan

Two nights ago I took a bus across the King Fahd Causeway from Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. As I mentioned in my previous article, this is my first Ramadan in the region and I wanted to witness the season in Bahrain. Ideally, I would have liked to have visited an old part of the city and experience somewhere with more history and tradition, but my transportation options were limited to a weekly bus service that goes only to the main shopping mall. Every week there is a small bus (that I prefer to call a “minibus”) that travels across the causeway to City Centre in Manama. I almost missed the bus. I drove my borrowed car to the parking lot from where the bus departs, with literally only seconds to spare before the bus was due to head out. I was running late because I had been fasting during the day for Ramadan and I had to eat and drink some liquid before starting the journey, which I knew would be about two hours because of the typical jumble of vehicle traffic and the customs procedures that had to be endured each side of the Saudi/Bahrain border. After fasting for about 15 hours, going another two hours without food or drink would have made the journey even more uncomfortable than I knew it would be as a result of the usual inconveniences. So I had to have a little water and food and that didn’t leave me with much time to get to meet the bus.

baklawa1

A display of baklawa sweets at Wafi Gourmet restaurant.

After traveling for a little over two hours we arrived at the mall. I had studied the layout of the mall earlier in the day, and this was also my third visit, so I knew that Costa Coffee was a short walk away from the drop-off point, near the Carrefour hypermarket. So this is where I headed to get a flat white coffee. The Costa Coffee restaurants in al-Khobar do not sell this type of coffee, so because it is my favorite at the moment, I always try to get one whenever I come to Bahrain. After buying my coffee and a bottle of Badoit natural sparkling spring water (a product of France), I found a table and sat down. This Costa Coffee is quite a large cafe, with seating outside on the “street.” There is a mixture of round tables with comfortable cloth padded seats and sofas next to low-lying rectangular coffee tables. The service was friendly and efficient, which is something that I’ve always experienced at these cafes, even in England. A young asian women served behind the counter and greeted customers with welcoming smiles. The cafe had attracted all sorts of people, from men and women wearing traditional Gulf clothes, with women wearing either fashionable scarves or black niqab, and some western expatriates. A man sitting at one of the outside tables with a young girl of about five years old reminded me of my own daughter, who is now seven. Seeing them made me look forward, even more, to showing my own family around the mall and discovering more of Bahrain. Women in black walked by: some pushing babies in strollers and one woman carrying a small baby over her shoulder. Groups of young women in their late teens or early twenties walked by, their plain black abayas contrasting with the designer handbags they were carrying. People from a lot of different ethnicities walked by the café, reflecting the position of Bahrain as a major regional trade hub. Men in traditional Bahraini and Saudi clothes walked by, some hand in hand, as is the Arab custom. I finished my coffee and bottle of water and left the cafe to look around some shops. Right across from the cafe there was a Boots pharmacy and I went in there to buy some shampoo. I really wanted to see what different products they had compared to the grocery stores I normally use every week. Next, I bought some books at the Jashanmal Bookstore, which belongs to a regional bookstore chain that started trading in Basra, southern Iraq, in 1919. This is a reasonably good bookstore that sells a lot of books in English, including on topics related to Bahrain. I found a guide book that will be useful for future visits to the island and a collection of short stories by local writers – Bahraini and foreign. Many of these writers are members of the Bahrain Writer’s Circle. I bought it to get some insights into what it is like to live in the country, and the Bahraini point of view on expatriates. I went up to the third floor, looking for the Timberland store because I wanted to buy some of their jeans and found the “souk.” This is an area that includes a multitude of different stores that sell a variety of traditional Gulf-area products, such as perfumes from Saudi Arabia made from oud wood, jewelry, clothes and food. In the middle of this area there is an Arabian cafe called Al Bindaira Cafe, which offers local dishes. Upstairs, there are toilets and separate prayer areas for men and women.

bread

Flat breads

After finishing my shopping – around 11 p.m. – I ate at a beautiful Lebanese restaurant called Wafi Gourmet. This is also located on the second floor, next to the cinema. The prices were very reasonable for such a nice restaurant. It is a large place, with tables inside at the front and back, as well as outside in front of the restaurant. Inside, the restaurant also sells baklawa and other sweets. I sat at the back of the restaurant, next to windows that overlook part of the city. I ordered lentil soup, a lamb kabob dish and iced tea, which tasted like it was flavored with lemon. There were a few ice cubes floating at the top of the glass underneath a thick throthy head. Unlike what I am used to drinking in Texas, it wasn’t a glass full of ice with some iced tea poured over it; it was a glass of iced tea with a few ice cubes added! The flavor was really fresh and tasty. My dinner included flat bread, tomatoes, grilled minced lamb, pickles, green peppers, fresh parsley and onion. Some of the bread was covered in a tomato and parsley sauce or spread. It was a very pleasant place in which to enjoy a meal and surprisingly quiet considering it was Ramadan and there were so many people in the shopping mall.

After I had paid for my meal I made my way out but I had to stop and look at the inspiring displays of succulent baklawa and other sweets under glass covers. I bought a small box of delicious pistachio-filled baklawa to take back to Saudi Arabia. After making my selections I had only 5 minutes to get to the bus departure point. I believe in using every minute to its utmost! I had to maneuver down two floors to get to the ground floor and outside the mall entrance from where the bus was leaving. I managed to get there just as the bus was moving off. I was able to get the driver’s attention and he stopped for me to alight. If I had missed the bus it would have meant a relatively expensive taxi ride back across the causeway.

This visit to the Bahrain City Centre shopping mall had been an enjoyable experience. I had arrived at the shopping mall after a two-hour drive along the causeway on a small bus that was only about half full. I had taken my time over coffee at the Costa cafe, while enjoying the restrained exuberance of Ramadanall around me. Then I enjoyed the experience of shopping in British, American and Arab stores; this is a wonderful place for expatriates, especially if they are from the U.S. or the U.K. and miss favorite brands from their home countries. For example, shoppers will find Marks & Spencer, BHS, Boots, Timberland, Chiles, Nautica, and many more western brands here. But of course, there are plenty of local or regional offerings too, including many stores that sell Arabian clothing, food and perfume. After looking around the shops I enjoyed a relaxing and delightful meal at Wafi Gourmet, the Lebanese restaurant, although I could have chosen to eat at Turkish, Italian, South African and Arabian restaurants, among others.

wafi_gourmet_sweets

More sweets at Wafi Gourmet.

There is a lot of information about the City Centre shopping mall, including the entertainment offerings here, at the mall’s website: bahraincitycentre.com. There is even a water park here, which I’m sure will be fun to visit sometime after Ramadan when my family is with me.

Although it was the first time that I had been to a shopping mall that was so full of people until late at night, this did not seem unusual. After a day of intense heat and fasting, it made perfect sense to be out and about at this time. City Centre felt like an oasis where locals, expatriates and visitors can feel connected to the world and relax in safety.


, , , , , , ,

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes