Qatar 4 – Souq Waqaf

They don’t have cream here. At least, from what I can tell. I was at the breakfast buffet this morning and I asked for cream for my coffee. My server looked at me with that same confused expression others give me when I bring up AT-ATs in polite conversation. Are my hobbies and interests so eclectic that they should garner such looks? Ah well.

Speaking of drinks, I have been trying all sorts. Yesterday, on the way to “Industrial City” (Remember, you have to say it with the voice), we stopped off at a small restaurant. They had fresh fruit drinks, and I got myself a mango smoothie. But look at the crazy drinks they offer here! What are those things? I didn’t have time to order one, but next time.

One thing we have started drinking, however, is moroccan tea. Darryl and I both love it. It’s green tea, mixed with mint, and sugared. It’s very good and I need to drink this more at home and increase my risk of diabetes.

The life here seems to start after 6 o’clock. The camps we are training for, in fact, run from 4 to 8 in the evening. I don’t know when these kids eat or sleep.

We had lunch and had sandwiches again. This time I tried something different. It was a chicken liver garlic sandwich. It was quite … organy. The falafel one was more to my liking.

We had a meeting until 9:30 and then afterwards we went out to do some touring. Yes, we were tired, but I’m in the middle east and the only things I have been able to show you pictures of are toilets and food.

Driving through the city, you notice many things. There is constant construction. Constant. They are trying to get the bid for the 2022 World Cup. If they do get it, they plan on air conditioning the whole stadium. Wow. Everywhere is construction.

A lot of the cars are new and clean. When we we’re at the mall the other day (which I forgot to blog about) there were people in the parking lot who will wash your car! In fact, that night we went downtown and sat by the waterfront, Shadi told me there were guys there that you could ask for anything and they would deliver it for you. We wanted to get the guy to find us postcard, but that wasn’t part of the ‘anything’ he could get. Bummer.

There are a lot of wealthy people in this country. All the native Qataris are at least millionaires. Most of them are multi-millionaires. There are no taxes. None. No personal income tax, nothing. Everything is paid for by the oil. Health care, education everything. In fact, 1 liter of gas costs 0.7 riyals. That means 50 liters costs $10 US!

Of course, what do people do in Qatar? Well, they wait until evening and then they go out. Of course the main past-time is traveling. People complain there is not much to do. However, as a tourist, we found many things to do. The waterfront had a special name, but I forgot what it was. It was a cemented walkway that went all around this small bay. We went there and got some tea called Kark tea. Shadi pronounced it ‘kara-AK’ tea. I think I have the spelling right. It was very good, and sweet. We sat by the water and looked at the cool buildings. They were very futuristic looking, and reminded me a bit of Coruscant.

We went to the local wharf as well to see many wooden boats used for fishing. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to take a picture of these cool boats, but here’s one of a bug.

Afterwards, we went to the Souq Waqaf, which was a traditional marketplace. It was very nice, and there were a lot of coffee shops, tourist shops, restaurants and people. Many were smoking those pipe things hooked up to those tall metal lamp stand looking things. The mouth piece reminds me of a bagpipe. The caterpillar in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ smoked it. I think. A. Lot of the shops were closed but the restaurants were open! We went to a Moroccan restaurant for some Moroccan tea of course. We sat on the rooftop, relaxed and drank. The atmosphere was actually wonderful and I know Dove would have loved to sit and relax and drink tea. Here I am, in another country, doing some leisure past time she normally couldn’t get me to do back at home. Yes, I wish she was here.

I have a lot of pics from here, and I’ll show you a few. It was very cool. I hope to go tomorrow to buy souvenirs else my children will cry. Spoiled kids. I should buy something for my wife. Maybe an iPad. She must want one of those!

We got home at 12am. Tomorrow is our last day. Hopefully I can get more touristy stuff in before we set out on another 24 hour trip. Ugh, I’m not looking forward to that! I better get one last bidet time in. Speaking of bathrooms, this is the bathroom in the Moroccan restaurant. How pretty!