I sent the
link for a larger version of yesterday's blog photo to an ex-colleague who is in Bahrain now. Actually, he's been there since the time I took that photo, making it neigh onto twenty years. In retrospect, I probably had a better life in the UAE, but Bahrain still remains dearer to my heart. I always said the people there were nicer due to the fact they were poorer. Don did send along this comment when I asked if the Adhari Hotel was still there.
Yes it is there along with 88 other hotels, half of them in the new Juffair. The area around Adhari is real run down and trashy nowadays.
You would not recognize Bahrain. High rises all over the island. Your old building there is dwarfed by other, bigger buildings beside and behind. There's not a sqaure inch of empty land any where in Juffair AND the area has doubled in size.
There are several 20, 30 and 40 story towers in downtown Manama, and in the Seef District, there are even more with a 75 story building being planned. Juffair looks like Diplomat area but 5 times the size. Not a place to park anymore and the road to the base is busier than Exhibition Road was; supermarkets, every chain restaurant, coffee shop and pizza place you can think of and some you can't.
All the roundabouts all over Bahrain are being done away with and flyovers are being built in their place. No more roundabouts at all in Manama and they are putting flyovers in at the Manama end of the Sitra Causeway, which will tie in with the new causeway. Also Isa Town, Salmabad and A'ali roundabouts are gone. BTW, they are building a causeway to Qatar.
There's a whole new city being built off the southern tip and a new series of islands were created east of the southern end of Muharraq and already they are built up and all the villas and condos (were talking thousands of 'em) are being sold from 200,000 to 1,000,000 dollars. There are about 25 condos in the Manama, Juffair, Hoora areas built and most of the apartments are sold, starting at $100,000. Just beside Pearl (Lulu) Roundabout, there are three 25-floor towers all sold out. Prices started at $250,000. There are several new universities with entire campuses dotted over the island, too, and 4 or five huge new private hospitals. Dubai might be where it's at, but Bahrain isn't far behind considering its size and resources.
