This post aims at giving guidance to Indians shifting to Bahrain, having said that I should also admit that I am writing this just on 3rd month of my stay in Bahrain, so it’s up to the readers to take the post with a pinch of salt.
Flight
There are quite a few options to fly to Bahrain. Gulf air, Air India express and Indian airlines operate direct flights to this place from various parts of India. My experience with Gulf air so far is not encouraging, so I personally prefer to avoid this. Other options include Srilankan airlines, Emirates, Air Arabia etc... The cheapest of the lot is Air Arabia and Srilankan airlines, nevertheless you should be ready to wait for long hours in between transits.
Climate
Climate in the kingdom gets to extremes. The summers here get very hot and frequently the thermometer crosses mid 40s during that time. Though I am yet to spend a winter here, from my discussion with others I could understand that winters are also worse here. Though it does not get to –ve as in western countries, quite often one could see temperature of single digit it seems.
Food
One thing that Indians won’t miss here is Indian food let it be S.Indian or N.Indian. There are quite a lot of options at brand levels like Sangeetha, Mysore, and Takatak apart from the many small resturants. Cost wise also Indian foods are cheap when compared to western food. Apart from Indian restaurants there are also restaurants focused on each of the region. So variety won’t be an issue.
Indian vegetarian food would cost 500 fills to 1.5 Dinars depending upon the restaurant you choose. Most of the restaurants here will deliver the food on order over phone which makes it quite comfortable for bachelors. One can also buy monthly food passes in some of these restaurants which will reduce the monthly bill by somewhere around 10% to 20%
Housing
Thanks to initiatives by government there are adequate houses in the country, this has prevented the place from soaring rentals, unlike neighbouring emirates nations. However houses will be rented out quite fast here, one need to be vigilant and fast in renting home.
There are quite a few options when it comes to homes with houses options of furnished, un-furnished, single to five bed rooms and villas. Manama, Hoora, gudabiya are places where houses are comparatively cheap. A furnished suit will cost around 180 Dinars, a single bedroom un-furnished house would cost some where around 180 Dinars to 220 Dinars and for less than 250 Dinars one can find an un-furnished double bedroom houses. For furnished version it would cost some where around 60-80dinars extra per month. Juffair, Adliya, um-al Hassam are bit Porsche and house would cots 50-100 dinars extra in these locations.
After signing the rental contract you should register with ministry of water and electricity to get electricity connection to your house. The ministry charges 10% of the rental towards water and electricity will be on actual basis, which on an average would be around 6-7 dinars per month for a two bedroom flat.
Groceries and provisions
Buying groceries is not an issue in the country. Cold stores (provision stores) are available almost in every 200 mts distance. The options with super markets are also quite wide; there are lot of super markets in the city. All Indian cooking items, vegetables and curry powders are available in the super markets and what else the cold store guys will deliver at your door steps on order. Like in Chennai one need to buy drinking water, drinking water costs 600 fills for a 20 lts an.
Commutation
Commutation is kind of head ache in the country. There is no established public transport system in the country. The bus transport that is available is in-frequent and in-sufficient. One need to heavily depend on taxis for local commutation and taxis are not very cheap. For a travel of anywhere inside Manama the minimum charge will be 1 Dinar and to places such as Adliya, Seef etc…from Manama would cost around 2-3 Dinars depending upon the timing of your travel and your bargaining skills. Though taxis are fit with meters seldom drivers will use it. The alternative for taxis is the illegal taxis driven by expats. You can establish contacts with these people and they will pick you up and drop you for nearly half of the normal fares.
Health and hospitality
The labour laws necessitate employers to provide health insurance to their employees, so in all probability you will have medical insurance which will cover the family. However one should admit that the quality of treatment here is slightly below par, so if you are planning to shift with your parents, think twice.
The water that is supplied here for day to day use is very hard and hence better be prepared for a heavy hair loss during your stay here. I have also come across few cases of skin allergies to the kind of water available here.
Communication and internet
There are two mobile operators in the country viz. Batelco and Zain, with both of them offering comparable quality of service. Calls to India costs around 170 fills per minute and local calls will cost around 25 to 45 fills depending on schemes. Zain at present is offering a scheme which allows 26 mins of talk time to India for each dinar. Apart from that there are numerous calling cards with which you can call India for somewhere in the range of 25 fills per minute. The other option is internet centre which allows international calling over VOIP for around 25 fills/minute.
If you rent a furnished house in all probability you will get internet for free, otherwise also some of the house owners provide internet for a charge of 7-10 dinars per month. One can also opt for broadband from the telephone operators, which would cost around 10 -15dinars/ month for a 128KBPS line with a limited download.
Satellite channels
The options in this arena are also quite wide. The free to air channels and FM can be brought to home with a receiver which would need a one time investment of 20-40 dinars. There are also quite a few cable TV providers like pehla, orbit etc... focussing on specific regions of the world. For example Pehla provides most of the Indian channels and sports channels for around 15 dinars/ month. The services of illegalities are available in this space also, one can opt for these providers who provide almost all Indian channels for 5 dinars/month.
Other Entertainment
This is a big question in the country. There are few shopping malls which the people in the country consider as primary entertainment centre, but if you don’t like roaming in shopping malls your options are limited. There are couple of theatres in Manama which screens Hindi and Malayalam movies, a ticket in these theatres would cost around 1.2 dinars. Seef, the biggest shopping mall in the country has some 28 theatres, screening multi lingual movies, but these theatres are comparatively costly with around 2.4 dinars per show.
Pubs are definitely a place for hangout in the kingdom. There are lot of pubs, mainly to attract Saudi tourist during the week ends. One could see flooding of Saudi and Kuwaiti cars in the week end, but beware prostitution is at anybody’s disposal in most of these pubs.
There is also an Indian club in Manama, where cultural activities happen. Also health freaks can find it easier here, as there are quite a few gyms in the country for a fee of 10-18 dinars per month. Apart from these things I could not find many hang out places in the country. It’s difficult for Indian women to find an executive job here, so my guess is women will find it difficult to live here, especially given that week ends also need to be spent in home. So my suggestion is if you are a party freak then say big NO to Bahrain.
Forgot to mention, folks who are book worms are pitiable in the country. There are few government libraries in the country but they are predominantly flooded with Arabic books. Though I have not personally visited, my friends here say British council library for a fee of 15 dinars for three months offers quite a good range of collection.
What else guys you need to compromise a lot on your social life, and my guess is finding a executive job again in India might also be a problem (this is only first impression, so need not be true) but decent saving is available in the country. It’s your call…all the best.
Flight
There are quite a few options to fly to Bahrain. Gulf air, Air India express and Indian airlines operate direct flights to this place from various parts of India. My experience with Gulf air so far is not encouraging, so I personally prefer to avoid this. Other options include Srilankan airlines, Emirates, Air Arabia etc... The cheapest of the lot is Air Arabia and Srilankan airlines, nevertheless you should be ready to wait for long hours in between transits.
Climate
Climate in the kingdom gets to extremes. The summers here get very hot and frequently the thermometer crosses mid 40s during that time. Though I am yet to spend a winter here, from my discussion with others I could understand that winters are also worse here. Though it does not get to –ve as in western countries, quite often one could see temperature of single digit it seems.
Food
One thing that Indians won’t miss here is Indian food let it be S.Indian or N.Indian. There are quite a lot of options at brand levels like Sangeetha, Mysore, and Takatak apart from the many small resturants. Cost wise also Indian foods are cheap when compared to western food. Apart from Indian restaurants there are also restaurants focused on each of the region. So variety won’t be an issue.
Indian vegetarian food would cost 500 fills to 1.5 Dinars depending upon the restaurant you choose. Most of the restaurants here will deliver the food on order over phone which makes it quite comfortable for bachelors. One can also buy monthly food passes in some of these restaurants which will reduce the monthly bill by somewhere around 10% to 20%
Housing
Thanks to initiatives by government there are adequate houses in the country, this has prevented the place from soaring rentals, unlike neighbouring emirates nations. However houses will be rented out quite fast here, one need to be vigilant and fast in renting home.
There are quite a few options when it comes to homes with houses options of furnished, un-furnished, single to five bed rooms and villas. Manama, Hoora, gudabiya are places where houses are comparatively cheap. A furnished suit will cost around 180 Dinars, a single bedroom un-furnished house would cost some where around 180 Dinars to 220 Dinars and for less than 250 Dinars one can find an un-furnished double bedroom houses. For furnished version it would cost some where around 60-80dinars extra per month. Juffair, Adliya, um-al Hassam are bit Porsche and house would cots 50-100 dinars extra in these locations.
After signing the rental contract you should register with ministry of water and electricity to get electricity connection to your house. The ministry charges 10% of the rental towards water and electricity will be on actual basis, which on an average would be around 6-7 dinars per month for a two bedroom flat.
Groceries and provisions
Buying groceries is not an issue in the country. Cold stores (provision stores) are available almost in every 200 mts distance. The options with super markets are also quite wide; there are lot of super markets in the city. All Indian cooking items, vegetables and curry powders are available in the super markets and what else the cold store guys will deliver at your door steps on order. Like in Chennai one need to buy drinking water, drinking water costs 600 fills for a 20 lts an.
Commutation
Commutation is kind of head ache in the country. There is no established public transport system in the country. The bus transport that is available is in-frequent and in-sufficient. One need to heavily depend on taxis for local commutation and taxis are not very cheap. For a travel of anywhere inside Manama the minimum charge will be 1 Dinar and to places such as Adliya, Seef etc…from Manama would cost around 2-3 Dinars depending upon the timing of your travel and your bargaining skills. Though taxis are fit with meters seldom drivers will use it. The alternative for taxis is the illegal taxis driven by expats. You can establish contacts with these people and they will pick you up and drop you for nearly half of the normal fares.
Health and hospitality
The labour laws necessitate employers to provide health insurance to their employees, so in all probability you will have medical insurance which will cover the family. However one should admit that the quality of treatment here is slightly below par, so if you are planning to shift with your parents, think twice.
The water that is supplied here for day to day use is very hard and hence better be prepared for a heavy hair loss during your stay here. I have also come across few cases of skin allergies to the kind of water available here.
Communication and internet
There are two mobile operators in the country viz. Batelco and Zain, with both of them offering comparable quality of service. Calls to India costs around 170 fills per minute and local calls will cost around 25 to 45 fills depending on schemes. Zain at present is offering a scheme which allows 26 mins of talk time to India for each dinar. Apart from that there are numerous calling cards with which you can call India for somewhere in the range of 25 fills per minute. The other option is internet centre which allows international calling over VOIP for around 25 fills/minute.
If you rent a furnished house in all probability you will get internet for free, otherwise also some of the house owners provide internet for a charge of 7-10 dinars per month. One can also opt for broadband from the telephone operators, which would cost around 10 -15dinars/ month for a 128KBPS line with a limited download.
Satellite channels
The options in this arena are also quite wide. The free to air channels and FM can be brought to home with a receiver which would need a one time investment of 20-40 dinars. There are also quite a few cable TV providers like pehla, orbit etc... focussing on specific regions of the world. For example Pehla provides most of the Indian channels and sports channels for around 15 dinars/ month. The services of illegalities are available in this space also, one can opt for these providers who provide almost all Indian channels for 5 dinars/month.
Other Entertainment
This is a big question in the country. There are few shopping malls which the people in the country consider as primary entertainment centre, but if you don’t like roaming in shopping malls your options are limited. There are couple of theatres in Manama which screens Hindi and Malayalam movies, a ticket in these theatres would cost around 1.2 dinars. Seef, the biggest shopping mall in the country has some 28 theatres, screening multi lingual movies, but these theatres are comparatively costly with around 2.4 dinars per show.
Pubs are definitely a place for hangout in the kingdom. There are lot of pubs, mainly to attract Saudi tourist during the week ends. One could see flooding of Saudi and Kuwaiti cars in the week end, but beware prostitution is at anybody’s disposal in most of these pubs.
There is also an Indian club in Manama, where cultural activities happen. Also health freaks can find it easier here, as there are quite a few gyms in the country for a fee of 10-18 dinars per month. Apart from these things I could not find many hang out places in the country. It’s difficult for Indian women to find an executive job here, so my guess is women will find it difficult to live here, especially given that week ends also need to be spent in home. So my suggestion is if you are a party freak then say big NO to Bahrain.
Forgot to mention, folks who are book worms are pitiable in the country. There are few government libraries in the country but they are predominantly flooded with Arabic books. Though I have not personally visited, my friends here say British council library for a fee of 15 dinars for three months offers quite a good range of collection.
What else guys you need to compromise a lot on your social life, and my guess is finding a executive job again in India might also be a problem (this is only first impression, so need not be true) but decent saving is available in the country. It’s your call…all the best.
1 comment:
Very candid and quite useful account!!
keep it coming ;)
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