Land of the Cars & Home of the F1 Circuit

As a backpacker, you will not be too happy in Manama (the capital city of Bahrain) by the total absence of public transport. And the city roads are designed without pedestrian in mind because nobody walks here. Cab fares are expensice because they have no competition (in other form of public transport). We caught a taxi from Geant Hypermarket to get back to Mercure Grand Hotel, and it cost us about 2.5 BD (It's 1.5BH + 1 BD for after hours, we think). It turned out later than the walkng time between these two locations is about 15 minutes. As far as we can tell, the cab driver is taking the only possible route (with our hindsights).

There is good reasons why this situation develops. Petrol is cheap in this oil-rich Kingdom, and car ownership is encouraged by the little or no tariff on imported cars. You can buy cars cheaper here than the countries that make them. With the high currency value (see my previous post), no tariff, petrol cheaper than peanuts, what more incentive do you need to own a car? I don't have the stats, Bahrain probably has one of the highest car ownership per capita in the world. I suspect. For people who can't afford a car, like the young lady who works in the hotel, she rents a car to travel to work. The rental charge is 150 BD a month, or 5 BD a day!!! It's still cheaper than taxi, which costs her about 3.5 BD in a single trip between home and hotel. And she gets to use the car to drive home for lunch and shopping after work.

Quite often when I walked on the street (just to get to a nearby restaurant or shop), a taxi would either honk or stopped and asked me if I wanted a ride, because very few people walk on a street, especially in Summer with temperature 40+ degrees Celcius.

The above reason along together with the low population make public transportation and pedestrian convenience not so high on the agenda of city planning. That's my opinions.

Go to any major shopping malls, and you would likely to find a raffle for a car on display. No prizes if you can't find it.

One can easily see how this intimate relationship, love affair - in fact, dependency - on cars would naturally lead Bahraini to have a love for F1 Racing, and eventually to build a high-tech F1 Grand Prix Circuit with purpose-built desert track. The FIA awarding Bahrain the F1 Grand Prix Racing is not only a political statement that says things like that Bahrain is politically secure and economically prosperous enough to get this franchise, it also puts Bahrain on the map. At least, to the F1 fans (I imagine there are many). Also, this is the only Grand Prix circuit in the Middle East.

The race in Bahrain occurs in April and we just missed it by a few weeks. No matter, Singapore also is one of the city that holds Grand Prix Racing, and the first one that started the night racing (too hot to do it there in the day time, I assume).

This situation of absent public transports and pedestrian conveniences in Manama couldn't be more poles apart from cities like Hong Kong and Singapore that I just visited in this trip. The car ownership in these two cities are heavily discouraged with high tariff, fuel isn't cheap there, and all kinds of running costs are imposed by the government in an effort to reduce car ownership. At the same time, public transportation system is very well catered for its citizens. This is especially true for HK, it's hard for me to see any cities in the world can compete with HK in terms of its many forms of public transport from bus to minibus, ferry, MTR, light rail, train, taxi, and last, but absolutly not least, double decker tram. Who doesn't enjoy the double decker tram in HK Island? I understand that HK is the only city in the world where double decker trams are operate continuously.

Riding a double decker tram is an experience you can't miss when you are in HK. Especially in summer and cooler months of autumn and spring, you should choose a window seat on the upper deck, which gives you a elevated views of the street level (actually you can see the streets on all seats, but window seats are better). Pick night time when you don't get the rush hour crowd (unless this is the experience you are looking for). Wind down your window and let the cool air comes in as the tram chugs gently along the busy, neon-light lit and other more quiet thoroughfares as they pass you by. You can take the tram to traverse the whole island from the east (Kennedy Town, if I remember it correctly) to the west end (Shau Kei Wan if memory serves) all for a grand sum of $2 HKD (that's 40 cents AUD/SGD). I garrantee this is the best bang for you buck (not even a whole buck) you ever have, or your money back.

Of course, the only other transport that can beat this romantic double decker tram is yet another equally romantic and cute-as-a-button Star Ferry that cruise between HK Island and Kowloon, you can view the the world renown cityscape of HK island with a different perspective, and it costs, drum roll please, a grand total of $2.40 HKD (or thereabout from my 4 months old memory).

If you are more adventurous, try to take a minibus to the destinations locate away from the city centres like Repulse Bay (as supposed to the normal bus) because you will experience a bit of a F1 driver action as these minibus drivers hugging those many HK winding roads in a, like say, not in a gentlemanly manner. Time is money. No time to waste. Also, they do brake suddenly and swerve sharply into the curbs regularly to pick up passengers. Taxi would do this too, except there is no passengers in a taxi when the cab driver is doing this thrilling manouvre. There is no designated minibus stops, which is one of its attraction because passengers don't have to walk to its designated stops to wait for (or wave at) a ride. And because it's considerably smaller than a bus, it has fewer passengers, meaning fewer stops - its other attractions. Of course, if your cardiologist adviced you against a roller-coaster ride, you should gve minibus a miss; the upper deck of a double decker bus give you a aerial view of the country side in a less weath hazzard way.

If, a big if, any city can beat HK in terms of its variety and accessibility of its public transport system, I doubt any city can match its low fares at the same time.

The two months I spent in HK in this trip, I had tried all of the above forms of public transport plus the Peak Tram to the Victoria Peak and cable car to Ngong Ping. I haven't delibrately sought them out just for the experience, not that it's a bad idea. The only thing I haven't tried (and it isn't falling under the public transport category anyway) is the Chinese junk with red sails operated by Aqua Luna.

Also, very few cities in the world can match HK's solution to its pedestrian movement. One reason why they earn the Guinness World Record for having the longest outdoor escalator (on the Mid-Level). And their pedestrian overpasses crisscross the cities like spider webs. I can, and have regularly done so in my last trip, walk from Wanchai MTR Station to the Star Ferry Terminal on the overhead pedestrian walkway. It took me just over 12 or so minutes (depending on your energy level) to cover the distance, and I doubt any car could get there in much less time. The whole sky walkway system whisking in and out of offices, but without having to stop for any traffic lights. Of course, pedestrian traffic is a different story. But HK people in general walk fast! So there is little hold ups. These sky walkways are also good way to explore and give you a bird's eyed view of HK streets, and interesting angles for photos. And you will find all kinds of unexpected things on it, too.

All this is not surprising, Manama's stuation is opposite to HK. Manama has low population and low fuel costs, while HK has very high population density and high fuel costs. It's not that the HongKongers and Singaporeans can't afford cars, in fact, in terms of wealth density (percentage of millionaires in the population. I guess it has something to do with their being city states), Hongkong and Singapore happens to rank number one and number two in the world (followed by Switzeland. This goes to show that citizens of small countries tend to have much higher average income level. In terms of GDP/capita, SIngapore ranks 9 and HK 13 this year according to CIA). If HK locals have the same car ownership as Brahraini, HK traffic will stand still in an instance and people would be choked to their eyeballs with car exhaust fume. HK government have done a fantastic job in solving this problem because the air quality in HK is not bad considering its population density. My extra - unfortunately - sensitive nose is capable to give a good reading reading of air quality around me, and the almost three months while I was there, my nose gives it a moderate thumbs up.

Sorry, I digress somewhat. I must admit HK is my most favourite destination in this trip so far...that includes Gangzhou, Macau, Singapore, Pattaya, and Bahrain. Yes, no kidding! I really miss the dazzling choices of food, the cityscape, the 24 hours convenience, the harbour, the pleasant climate, the many different modes of transport to explore the city, the very accessible public transport system, the zing, and the affordability of everything. I even miss the crowd. Oh, did i mention shopping? But HK isn't just for city slickers. HK has a many beauty spots for nature lovers in the New Territories and outlaying islands. And yes, HK people are quite friendly these days! Friendlier, anyway.

Another thing that Baharini (and most Arabs) are passionate about is sport, something I didn't realise. There are 9 sport channels on the TV in Mercure Grand Hotel (and only 1 business channel). Australian is sport mad, but they aren't even in the same league. Out of the all sport, soccer gets the most attention (I also watched some camel racing, totally an unique TV viewing). I guess it's no surprise as soccer is the most popular sport in the world, except for ALL major English speaking countries. Ironically, soccer is hugemungous in UK.

I saw bunch of kids played soccer on hot sandy ground in the late afternoon in the heat of 35 degree Celcius, such is the power of attraction of soccer in this nick of the wood (which there aren't any to shade them).

Hafez, my Barhaini journalist friend commented that FIFA is the world biggest sport, followed by Olympics and Formula One Grandpix. This sums up their world view of sports nicely.

P.S. It is not entirely true that Bahrain does not have a public bus service, it's just very limited. They cover long distances such as the Dahran to Manama, and the info and schedules is very limited. You just don't get a single city bus.

Besides, Manama is so small, if you are energetic, you can get anywhere on foot. But because I am just here in summer season (not of my choosing), you would have to be batty to walk around in 40+ degrees Celcius heat or you are training for the Survivor realityy show (same diff). Interestingly, the hottest place on earth isn't on the Equator, but here in the Middle East. Singapore is on the equator (practically - it's 1 degree latitude), the greenery (and the ocean) moderates its heat. And I always always look forward to rain, cloudy and overcast sky (not something you would often hear from an Aussie). While in Bahrain, mos t the palms that we associate with ME so much are being planted, and watered regularly to keep them alive. They are still quite brown, covered in layer of dust. Not too many green thing can survive here, which makes The Tree of Life a tourist attraction. People find this oddity amazing that a singular tree can survive in the middle of the desert. As I understand, it's over 500 years old. All kinds of equally odd ideas have been put forward to explain its survival. If you watch Jurassic Park the movie, you would familiar with the catch phrase, "Nature will find a way".