A Few Days in Bahrain

I was lucky enough to work in Bahrain twice – from 1982-1984 and again from 1994-1996. I was with the British Bank of the Middle East (now HSBC) and on both occasions lived in Adliya and worked at the old Main Office of the bank in Al-Khalifa Avenue, next to Jashanmals Department Store.

After leaving Bahrain in 1996 I did not have the opportunity to visit the island again until a few weeks ago. After 14 years away I was truly shocked, but also pleasantly surprised, by the scale of the changes that I saw – the shiny new office towers in the Financial Harbour and Seef District, new shopping malls, many new hotels, the fabulous F1 Grand Prix Circuit and the lovely golf club at Riffa. Lots of new development too down the Budaiya Road where whole new districts have sprung up. I was also struck by the sheer number of vehicles on Bahrain’s roads with Saudi number plates.

Doing my “Stig” impression at the Bahrain Karting Circuit

What has not changed though is the island’s warm and welcoming atmosphere. You notice this as soon as you arrive at Bahrain International Airport, where the immigration officials have a smile and a few friendly words for each arriving passenger as they collect the BHD 5/- visa fee.

I jumped into a taxi at the airport and had a nice chat with my very engaging driver as he took me to my hotel. Bahrain’s taxis may not be cheap but you always get chatty drivers willing to share their views on what’s happening on the island.

Bahrain has some great hotels

I had arrived in Bahrain on a Wednesday evening and it soon became apparent that this was party night, at least for the Saudis, whose weekend starts a day earlier than Bahrain’s. The island’s nightlife has always been pretty vibrant but the weekend partying of thousands of visitors from Saudi Arabia has definitely added a whole new dimension.

I was quite unprepared for the sheer volume of traffic on Bahrain’s roads, not just in the evenings but throughout the day. I’m sure that the island’s population has grown a lot since 1996, but where on earth did all these cars come from? Fortunately the road network has developed a lot too, but a journey from Delmon Avenue to the Suq, which used to take ten minutes back in 1996, takes much longer now.

An evening spent in Adliya was a trip down memory lane. I was particularly keen to see this area where I had spent four years of my life. I was delighted to see Mansouri Mansions and Cico’s (Italian restaurant) still going strong. Lots of new eating-spots have opened up since 1996 of course but Adliya still retains a pleasant, cosmopolitan atmosphere with lots of people strolling around in the evenings.

My old house on Delmon Ave. – now a building-site!

Bahrain was always a bit of a gourmet’s paradise and I was pleased to see that this hasn’t changed. The choice of cuisines available now is even more extensive than when I last lived on the island. I also noticed that development seems to have started on a new pedestrianised restaurant and bar area in Adliya. This will surely be a great addition to the evening scene in Bahrain.

My stay lasted for a week and I was fortunate enough to be based at the offices of one of Bahrain’s premier banks. Access to banking services has really improved for Bahrain’s citizens, with ATM machines everywhere and elegant Financial Malls and well-appointed bank branches now covering the island. In 1996, banking services were mostly concentrated in Manama, Isa Town and Riffa.

The “Bab-Al-Bahrain”

I was also pleased to see that a lot of money is being spent on preserving the island’s unique cultural heritage. There are some lovely old buildings which, since my days living on the island have had a complete makeover. Most of the Suq seems to be a building-site but it’s great to see Bahrain looking after its past.

I was a bit sad though to see my old branch, which is now closed. It has famous doors that feature the “Dilmun Seals” and I do hope that these will be saved for posterity. Bahrain has a more interesting history than most other places in the Gulf so there is much to be proud of and worth preserving for the benefit of future generations.

I really enjoyed seeing Bahrain again and I hope to be able to return soon.

A Look at Kobe - Japan's Most Attractive City

There are so many great places to visit in Japan. My personal favourite is the port city of Kobe, the capital of Hyogo Prefecture in the Kansai Region, Western Japan.

Perhaps this is no coincidence because it’s my wife’s home city. I’ve been there many times over the years and got to know it quite well.

Kobe’s Port Tower and Meriken Park

Although Kobe suffered a devastating earthquake in 1995 which killed over 6,400 people, the damaged areas of the city have been completely rebuilt. Few signs of the quake remain.

Foreign visitors to Japan mostly seem to take a well-trodden path, which doesn’t usually bring them to Kobe – the typical “see as much of Japan as you can in a week” tourist itinerary includes a few days in Tokyo, a stop at Mount Fuji, a bullet-train to Kyoto to see the temples, then back to Narita for the flight home.

If you do find yourself in Japan, and you’re not on one of these guided tours, I recommend that you try to visit Kobe – you’ll find it very rewarding, but you’ll need to set aside 3 or 4 days in order to see all the sights mentioned in this blog.

For a start the city has a wonderfully attractive natural setting, sandwiched between Osaka Bay and the Rokko Mountains. From Mount Rokko, which is easily reachable by cable car, a panoramic view of the whole Hanshin region (Kobe and Osaka) can be had. By day the view is impressive. By night it’s simply stunning.

Kobe’s $10 million night view

Kobe’s location and climate makes it a very pleasant city in which to live. People who work in the neighbouring and much bigger city of Osaka (20 minutes away by train) often prefer to live in Kobe, although it’s pretty expensive. So many celebrities now live in the Ashiya area of the city that it’s known as the Beverly Hills of Japan.

Kobe has a vibrant food culture. This is after all the home of world-famous Kobe Beef. This isn’t just beef that comes from Kobe – it’s beef that comes from a particular breed of cow (Tajima-ushi). The cows are raised in a specific place, in a particular way, and the meat is graded according to some very strict rules. It’s illegal to export Kobe Beef, so the only way to taste the real thing is to come to Japan and try it.

Kobe Beef

It’s a city with rather a sweet tooth as well. The cakes at Morozoff are sublime as are the handmade chocolates at Goncharoff and the Kobe Fugetsudo gaufres. Tins of Kobe gaufres make great souvenirs.

The city also has some great shopping. The quality and variety of both the shopping and restaurants in Kobe, particularly in the downtown Sannomiya area, is every bit as good as you’ll find in Tokyo or Osaka.

Kobe has been an important port city for centuries and was one of the first places in Japan to be opened up for foreign trade in the 19^th century. As such it has always had a relatively large community of non-Japanese residents, particularly Chinese, Indians and Europeans. Today the city has a vibrant Chinatown (Nankinmachi area), a sizeable Indian community and a surprising number of long-term western residents.

Nankinmachi (Chinatown) Area of Kobe

At the foot of the Rokko mountains is Kitano-cho (北野町, Kitanochō) an area where diplomats and wealthy foreign merchants settled in the second half of the 19^th century. This area features a number of grand mansions, known as Ijinkan, more than a dozen of which are open to the public as museums. This is a lovely area to walk around as its steep, narrow streets have a nice variety of cafes, restaurants and boutiques.

Ijinkan area in Kitano-cho

Kobe has long been famous for its sake – the Nada district of the city is the world’s top sake-producing region. The Hakutsuru Sake Brewery has a brewery museum in its grounds where you can see the whole process of sake brewing and there is usually an opportunity to do some sake-tasting.

Kobe certainly makes the most of its location by the sea – Kobe Harborland is a lively waterfront shopping and entertainment district and Meriken Park is a waterfront park full of modern art and home to some of the best examples of the city’s iconic contemporary architecture, including the bright red Kobe Port Tower and the Kobe Maritime Museum.

The city also has some attractive gardens and shrines. The Sorakuen (which has a Japanese garden and a Western-style garden) and Ikuta Jinja (a shrine) in Sannomiya are well worth a visit.

Sorakuen

Other places not to be missed around Kobe include Arima Onsen, a famous hot spring resort town on the other side of the Rokko Mountains, and the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which, at almost 4 kilometres, is the world’s longest suspension bridge. It spans the Akashi Strait and connects Japan’s main island of Honshu with Shikoku.

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

The city also has its own airport. Kobe Airport opened in 2006 and is built on an artificial island only 8 kilometres from the city centre. The Port Liner (monorail) will take you from Sannomiya to the airport in just 18 minutes.

Once you’ve seen all the sights of Kobe and sampled some of the great food you can either jet off from Kobe Airport or take a bullet-train from Shin-Kobe Station and continue your travels around Japan.

A Japanese Garden in Kent

When we moved into our house a few years ago it had a semi-circular area of garden at the front which for some time we weren't quite sure what to do with. It wasn't really very attractive (to us, anyway) and it needed constant weeding.

My wife, who’s from Japan, spent some time figuring out what we might be able to do with it, then one day she came up with a bright idea - if the soil was good perhaps we could create a Japanese Garden there.

This seemed like a great idea, although neither of us had ever done anything like this before. Neither of us are gardening experts so we knew that this would be a bit of a journey into the unknown.

 

    The Semi-Circular Garden in 2003

So, in the spring of 2005 we started digging up the garden and levelling the whole area. Three skiploads of soil and shingle were taken away.

To our great disappointment the soil turned out to be quite sandy and a lot of rubble also had to be removed – when the house was originally built this area must have been used as a dumping ground for discarded building materials.

It wasn't a very promising start but having just dug up the garden there could be no turning back.

 

    2005 – Digging Up The Garden Begins

My wife had sketched out a plan for the new garden based on some books she had read on Japanese Garden design. The plan was to keep it very simple, in a minimalist Zen sort of way. It was to have a dry river bed, a stone bridge, a rockery area, a lantern (toro), a stone bench and there would also be a stepping-stone path leading through the garden.

Most of these items were sourced through a great local business, Rhino Rock, who specialise in Japanese garden supplies. We also enlisted a bit of assistance from a local landscape gardener on the "heavy-lifting" parts of job such as concreting things in and digging out the soil for the dry river bed.

Once the “old” garden had been completely dug up a protective membrane was put over the whole area to stop weeds coming through. A very large quantity of grey shingle was ordered and this had to be evenly spread out across the whole area. Large paddle stones were then delivered and these had to be carefully set into the dry river bed.

We decided to leave some of the original plants where they were and added a variety of new ones. The new plants were all Japanese varieties - bamboo, azaleas and acers. We also planted a pair of Japanese cherry trees (sakura) and some alpine plants along the stone path.

 

    2005 – 1^st Stage Completed

The Japanese cherry trees initially grew very well, and flowered beautifully in the spring. Sadly, in their third year neither of them flowered. They subsequently dried up and died. We remain puzzled why this happened as we’ve found that most Japanese plants do pretty well in Kent, which has a climate not dissimilar to that of the northern parts of Japan.

 

    2006 – Sakura in Bloom

Losing the two Japanese cherry trees somehow prompted my wife to embark upon a second stage of development of the garden in 2009. The stepping-stone pathway was extended, more rockery was added, new Japanese planting was put in, along with two bamboo fence sections and a water feature. The planting was selected so that we would have different plants flowering at different times of the year.

 

    2009 - 2^nd Stage Completed

Six years after we started the project we feel that the Japanese Garden is complete now and we enjoy the way its appearance changes throughout the year.

For my wife it's her little corner of Japan in England. It's a nice spot to sit and do a bit of contemplation.

Here are some photos showing how the Japanese Garden looks in 2011 after two years of growth: