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Published: October 26th 2012
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Doha by day
All of my other photos have been at night Yesterday was amazing. Just amazing. I seriously never even left the room. I kept my shades drawn and the air cool. I took a nice long shower and ordered room service. Twice. The food was not good, and was expensive, but it did the trick. I watched movies, sent some emails to a few people I've talked to recently and slept and slept... Almost done with the Princess Bride as well!
This morning I woke up early and decided to try driving around this city. Dubai is dead before noon on Fridays, and I was pretty sure Doha would be the same. It is. I travelled up to The Pearl, which is this new development they are constructing; there are a bunch of man made islands, high end hotels, and huge "villas" on the water. I really liked being able to drive pretty freely with little traffic. I thought about going even further north, but maybe tomorrow.
Then I made my way to the Mall, City Centre, which I was sure would be dead, but I saw people driving into it, so I went as well. And it was dead. I walked around the extremely dated and somewhat smelly
mall. It could be so nice, but is in desperate need of a remodel. There are fire evacuation plans all over; this is a serious issue here as last year (I think) the other mall, much nicer, caught fire and lots of people were killed. Qatar seems to take this issue very seriously now - as I drove along the corniche, there are many "Assembly Points" or "Muster Points" for fire drills/evacuations. I could not find a movie theater, even though I knew I was in the right place. I asked a janitor and he pointed nearby but said it was not open yet. Bummer. 😞 I had tried to look online, but apparently the malls and cinemas here do not stay on top of this type of thing.
Then I decided to go get some food as I was starving; surely the food court would have something. It did - a bunch of smelly fast food places were open. And the food court is kind of at the end of the third floor of the mall and enclosed, so it really was smelly and loud, even though only a few places (BK, KFC, and Pizza Hut) were even
City Center Mall
ice rink, of course open so there was not many people. I made my way back to the center of the mall, across from the ice skating rink, and there was this french "cafe" open and it looked ok. It was empty and they were preparing for a noon buffet (no alcohol), but they seated me and I got myself a Mexican Omelette, toast, and an Eli France drink (see photo).
I went down to do some shopping at Carrefours, but I could not figure out how the heck to get in! I saw the people checking out but there was no entrance. I asked a bagger and he said "wait". Wait for what?? I strolled down a little further and saw a sign that says they are closed from 11:30 to 12:30. So, I just went back to my room.
So far, Qatar is (unfortunately) what everyone has warned me about... It looks like it is trying really hard to get up there, but it is unbelieveable how far they have to go. I really think that their vision for 2030 is a just one and I think they'll realize it, but I wonder if they'll be ready for the World
Eli France
A delicious drink of strawberry, mango and avocado juice - YUM Cup... We'll see. I guess it keeps me busy!
I may visit the downtown and City Center area again this evening if I can muster up the energy.
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