Qatar - Part 1

We decided to go to Doha, Qatar for Eid. We wanted to go somewhere relaxing, and not too far away. I think we made a great choice. It was about a 4 hour drive from Dhahran, on some long, desolate, sandy roads. I won't even lie, I was a little nervous. I really wanted to pack 195 bottles of water to take with us, just in case, but common sense prevailed. We did a lot of relaxing at the pool/beach, went to Katara (a cultural center), Souk Wakif (a several hundred year old souk/bazaar area), The Pearl-Qatar (an artificial island with beautiful villas and machine gun toting guards, more on that later), and of course, shopping malls. These pictures are from the drive to Qatar, around the hotel, driving through Doha, and The Pearl.

I took a lot of pictures while driving to Qatar. A lot. There is nothing to see but sand, so at one point, my lovely husband was like "really? You don't think you got enough pictures of sand?". So I put the camera down and enjoyed the scenery sand.

Doha is HOT. Hot with a capital H-O-T. And so humid. That "makes you feel gross" humid. Never thought I'd be thankful for Saudi heat. It is much better compared to Qatar heat.

As we were pulling up to one of the booths at the border crossing/customs area, the man addressed Hisham by his name right when we pulled up to the window. I said "how did he know your name?", but right when I asked, I realized he looked at the tag on the front of our car. So then Hisham asks the man how he knew his name and he says "you're American and you don't know about technology?". Touché Mr Customs man, touché.

"Goodbye" as we were leaving Saudi. No "thanks for coming". No "Come back soon". Just "goodbye". They should have just written "don't let the doorknob hit ya............."

All of the truck stops have mosques attached to them. The one we stopped at to pray was surprisingly clean.

Palm tree farm

I'm sure you can guess what happens on this road? Young Saudis love to drive fast and "drift"

This poor guy, bless his heart, I don't know where he was hitchhiking to

Qatar border

Camels for the kids, maps for the adults at the border crossing

A corner of the hotel lobby. People were just sitting in the lobby throughout the day having tea and chatting with each other.

They had a fresh flower display in the hotel lobby that was changed every couple of days. I thought the flowers were fake, so of course I stuck my finger in one.

I'm in LOVE with all of the arches. In my mind, I have my forever home already built, and it includes lots of arches.

Hotel recreation room. Adam did not want to leave this room, especially when he was the only kid in there. He had his face painted every day, snacks, games and cartoons. He spent quite a bit of time in here.

Yeah, I let him get in the pool to wash his face painting off. Don't judge me.

"Mommy, this sign means you have to wave at your kid while he's swimming in the pool!!".  Umm, I think we need to review some pool safety with him.

It's his world, we just live in it

No babies were hurt, or dunked during the taking of this photo

Can you say "relaxation"?

Swimming in the Persian Gulf. He doesn't even understand where in the world he is right now.

Lamborghini police car. Only in the Gulf.

Grand Mosque

The pictures below are from The Pearl-Qatar. The Pearl-Qatar in Doha, Qatar, is an artificial island spanning nearly four million square meters. It is the first land in Qatar to be available for freehold ownership by foreign nationals. As of spring 2012, there are more than 5,000 residents, compared to more than 3,000 residents in spring of 2011.The name "The Pearl" was chosen because the island is being built on one of Qatar's previous major pearl diving sites. Qatar was one of the major pearl traders of Asia before the Japanese introduced cheaper more affordable pearls just before Qatar's oil boom. The Pearl Qatar will help represent Qatar's rich past in the pearl industry. Once completed The Pearl will resemble a string of pearls.

And now to my machine gun-toting guard story. We drove through the area of The pearl, looking at the villas and shops and buildings. We came to a bridge and decided to drive over it and see what was on the other side. The bridge had little "private islands" that branched off from it where homes will soon be built. All the way at the end of the bridge was a huge villa. I can't even describe how big it was. I was thinking "oh man, I need to get a picture of that!!!". As we get closer, we notice a tiny little pick-up truck on the side of the road. A young man in a uniform gets out of the truck and slings his machine gun over his shoulder, so naturally, we slow down to a stop. He asks Hisham (in Arabic) what we're doing there. He tells him we were just driving around. The guard tells him that we are not allowed to be there and we needed to leave immediately. Of course I was sweating bullets in my seat because I couldn't fully understand what they were saying. So we turn around and leave, quickly. Hisham wondered how anyone is supposed to take an armed guard serious when he weighs 100lbs and is wearing braces on his teeth. 

 

This is one of the private islands where a home (a mansion, basically) will be built. When you drive over the bridge, there are maybe 7 or 8 (can't remember exactly) of these private "islands" that branch off of the bridge. It looks small in this picture, but it was huge.