Qatar - Part 3

This is my last post about Qatar. Y'all are probably tired of hearing about it by now. These pictures are from Souk Wakif. Souk Wakif literally means "standing market". I felt like we couldn't leave Doha without stopping here. We left Adam at the hotel and went to the souk (because, have you ever tried to deal with a very active 5 year old in 100+ degree weather and probably 100% humidity??). 

This is a hundreds year old souk that is now a tourist destination. It has been restored/updatedshisha lounges, and art galleries have been added. They also play local concerts here. You can also still buy all of the traditional things you'd buy at a souk.

and restaurants,

Everything was so nice and clean. If it wasn't too hot it would have been nice to sit outside and people watch!

Close, but no cigar!!

Family shopping in the souk

It was so nice and cool in the maze of tunnels

We're closed, come back later

Everyone is selling pretty much the same thing, and they all want you to come to THEIR store. If you put your hand on one thing, they bring out 50 more of them for you to see. 

Guardian of the souk!

Camels on the way home!!

Qatar - Part 2

Not far from our hotel was a place called Katara. Katara is a cultural village in Doha. There are restaurants, an amphitheater, art exhibits, a beachfront area, community activities and surely some other things I'm forgetting. Katara hosts the Doha Tribeca Film Festival every year. Certain organizations have their main offices here, like the Qatari Society for Engineers, Qatar Fine Arts Society, Visual Art Center, Qatar Photographic Society, Childhood Cultural Center, Theater Society and Qatar Music Academy. While we were there, there were a few art exhibits, including an Arabic calligraphy exhibit and a Quran exhibit. Of course, it was steamy hot, no matter what time we went, but it was still nice. We drove over from our hotel a couple of times, at night, and it was packed. It's pretty big, so they had golf carts to get people from their cars to wherever they were headed, then back to their cars again.

This is the Aspire Tower (located in Aspire Park). I didn't realize it when we were there, but it's a hotel, also known as Torch Hotel. It's a 300-meter (984 feet) tall skyscraper hotel and the tallest structure in Doha. The lights on the bottom half of the skyscraper spell out "Qatar" in Arabic.

Praying

There was no explanation next to the pieces on display, so I came up with my own on this one. It looks like pilgrims making tawaf. Here's a short wiki explanation on tawaf.

Arabic Calligraphy

 

Chocolate cigars in the chocolate shop 

Superman shirt at a shop with the "s" in Arabic

1st copy of a printed Quran

If you ever visit a country in the Gulf region, and someone says "lets go to the mall!", just go. Malls here are not anything like malls back home. Just imagine a Mall of America (on a smaller scale) in every city. Malls here have shopping and restaurants, of course, but they may also have an amusement park (including roller coasters), a water park, an ice skating rink, a grocery store, pharmacies, a car dealership, a gondola (yes, see below), a mosque, a daycare, a gym, apartments, and tons of other things. This is the Villagio Mall in Doha. Looks kind of Vegas-y, huh?

Eid Mubarak, from Gucci

Here goes my rant about these people on stilts. We heard LOUD music as we were walking. Drum beats, people clapping, etc. We walk up on this group dancing and playing music. Of course we stopped to watch, and Adam loved it. As soon as they would walk, EVERYONE would follow. We were some following dummies. We actually followed them for awhile. They led us RIGHT to the amusement park, dropped us off at the entrance, and LEFT us!! Left us with crazy kids who were screaming to go in and play. And we all fell for it!!

See where they brought us to?

Gondola ride through the mall

Trying to figure out what she wants to order

Mmmmmm. Macarons (not to be confused with macarOOns)

Not your momma's chicken on a stick!

I was taking Adam to a different area of the amusement park when this magic show started. He wasn't really interested so we were leaving. I tried to get my husband's attention so we could go, and he handed me the swipe card that's used to pay for rides and games and told me he'd catch up. Yes, he was very interested in the magic show. In case you can't pick him out of the crowd, he's not wearing black, or white.