Bahrain Souk

Bab Al Bahrain Souk

Those with “eagle eyes” will have noted the similar name of our first ill fated hotel and the name of the souk! That is because, as we found out to our surprise, the original hotel was at the gate of the souk. In our defence, at 7 am with no sleep for 24 hours and a desperate, Midnight Express like need to escape, we did not take note of the gateway. Just the taxi rank.

Anyway, enough of that. We went to the souk and it was very interesting. A curious choice of words, I know, but accurate. The Bab Al Bahrain Souk is an area of lots of side streets and narrow lanes. The outlook is very colourful with lots of flags and bunting. I personally loved the smells of the spices and the aroma of incense that is burned everywhere, inside Malls and outside in the souks. We went at about 6 pm and there were lots of families and tourists and a general hum as people went about their business. The call to prayers did not seem to impact the souk much, although plenty went to prayers and we saw the shop keepers saying their prayers in their shops.

If there is a criticism of the souk , it is that the same shops and merchandise seems to repeat itself over and over – the same phone/electronic shops , clothes shops and few spice shops and little in the way of local artisan material. However, this is a place where locals went shopping and bought their phones and clothes, so this is probably a sign of the times.