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Published: March 29th 2011
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Photo 2
A view of the coliseum theatre from the water. This morning we spent an hour or so on a boat touring the area by water. We were able to see the downtown skyline from the water. There are a lot of very different looking buildings. I'm sure architects love to design buildings here because there doesn't seem to be any conditions set for them. It's a free for all.
From there, we went to the Hyatt and hung out at the pool for the afternoon. A relaxing day.
Noah and I decided to go to a soccer game. An international friendly between Qatar (ranked 90th in the world) vs Russia (ranked 13). We didn't have tickets. We thought we would go and see if we could get in. We had a driver take us and drop us off within a block or two of the stadium...and made arrangements for him to meet us back there after the game. The street looked like some bad ass area, but I think that's typical. Some nicer buildings, but mostly pretty run down area, with rubble in parts of the street. There was a small grocery store he dropped us off at, so I wrote the name of the store on my
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The guy who designed the middle building must have a small wiener. hand so if I had trouble finding it, I could show someone my hand.
The people seem pretty friendly, but mostly don't interact with me. It's apparently one of the world's safest places. There is next to no crime, and I will touch on that in a minute.
The soccer game was pretty cool to experience. It was in a fairly new stadium, Al Sadd Stadium, which holds about 15,000 people. There were about 10,000 at the game. We found a ticket window, and I held my hand up for two tickets, having no idea how it worked here...or even if we could get tickets. He said some number....and I couldn't understand, so I gave him 100 riyal, and waited to see if he motioned for more. Instead he gave me 80 back. I was very surprised - 10 riyal per person, which is about $3 or 4 Cdn. Pretty cheap entertainment. I forgot to take the camera - I would have had some pretty cool shots from our night out.
The stadium was full of arab men and boys. No women, other than the odd expat. The arabs were all in their white garb. I stuck
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Noah having fun on the boat. out a bit in my blue shirt. I'm always amazed at how serious people from outside North America take their soccer/football. There were some people from Russia in the stands...not many, but they were loud. The 10,000 Qataris were insanely loud. When their national anthem was sung, it sounded like 60,000 or more. And that was the quiet part of the game.
My head is killing me. Actually every muscle in my body aches from tensing. There were 2 or 3 groups of guys with these big african looking drums...and the sound that came from these drums was loud. They were banging these things to some beat, and everyone was chanting. Then this guy with the biggest mega phone I've ever seen was singing and leading chants. His damn microphone kept squawking and it wouldn't stop him. Overall, it was a cool experience. In 11 years, this country hosts the World Cup - I just hope that mega phone man gets his squawking sorted out by then.
Maria and Nick went to the mall...and I consider it a successful trip when they came back with nothing.
I mentioned earlier about the little crime. The laws are very
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More of the downtown skyline. strict here. If you break a law, the punishments are severe. Here is one of the funny ones in the paper today:
Housemaid, driver jailed for illicit relations
A Bangladeshi driver and a Filipina housemaid have been sentenced to a year's imprisonment following their conviction of maintaining illicit relations.
The affair was revealed in late April 2010 when the sponsor of the maid knocked on her door to take her to his wife in the other house.
The court heard that the maid opened the door partially and the sponsor became suspicious when he saw a shoe that belonged to a man near the bed.
The sponsor caught the lover under the bed and the police was called.
The maid said she eased the access of her lover to her sponsor's house.
The couple should leave the country after serving the jail penalty, the judge ruled.
Some hanky panky got two people a year in jail and then have to leave the country.
Food for thought back home...
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Carol
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scenery
Beautiful buildings . Kids seem to be having a good time.