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Published: April 4th 2011
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Photo 2
Noah doing his impression of a wedding cake ornament. Getting ready to wrap up our trip in Qatar. We leave Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning).
A good chunk of Sunday was spent at Katara Beach. It's in the Cultural Village (which if you have read previous blog entries is where that coliseum amphitheatre and the Fish Market is). It costs to use this beach area - they give you wrist bands when you check in. I think it's the nicest beach area we've seen here. The sand is white and soft, and the water very blue. They have lots of activities, of which some are additional costs. We rented a 4 person paddle boat for half an hour, and distracted the kids from renting sea-dos.
They have this massive inflatable play area in the water...it reminds me of that TV show Wipe Out. Ropes to swing on, narrow things to cross, lots of things to climb. The kids played on this structure for a few hours. They had a great time. I attempted to play on it...and was out of breath in no time. To the lounge chair I went.
We all went out for dinner last night to a Chinese restaurant called Tse Yang. It's not
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Nick bouncing at Katara Beach your typical Chinese food. We all loved the food, including the Peking duck, which they carved up right in front of us. New Dynasty just won't be the same now.
Today, myself, Maria and the kids went on a 4 hour tour of the north part of Qatar. We used the same guy that took us to the sand dunes the other day. The kids were bored with this tour...and honestly, it wasn't anything exciting. We just wanted to see some more of the country, other than Doha itself. Remember, the country if VERY small. Probably the size of New Brunswick or Nova Scotia.
Our first stop was in Al Khor, which is the 2nd largest "city" in Qatar. Our driver figured there are about 65,000 people here, mostly expats. Most of the fish that are consumed in Qatar come from this place. We saw the dhows they use for fishing, and took a walk through the fish market, where the catches of the day are on display, and people can buy their product.
A little further up the east coast was Al Thakhira, a very small town that has one of the oldest ,if not the
Photo 4
Going for a swing over the snake infested water pit. oldest, mosque in the country. The older buildings in this country are only about 100 years old. Prior to that, people lived in heavy tents, and moved around...nothing was permanent. The mosque here is no longer used, and we were able to wander around it for a few minutes.
From there we stopped near a place called Jabal Al Jassaslya. We were driving along this somewhat paved road, and turned off into the desert. We drove a hundred yards and stopped. On some large flat rocks are carvings in the stones that are estimated to be from around the 15th century. There are carvings of animals, boats, and even patterns of holes used for games.
We kept on going, and our next stop was an abandoned fishing village located on the very north tip of the country. A 200 km or less to the north across the Persian Gulf is Iran. We waved. The village was lasted inhabited in the 60's I believe. All that's left now are some walls of the buildings. When we were there, there was a crew putting up a chain link fence around the site. Until now, it's been unprotected...but looks like they
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Noah posing...reminds me of the TV show Wipe Out. are going to try and preserve the site.
Our last stop was on the northwest coast of Qatar - Al Zubara Fort. It's in the middle of nowhere and was built next to what used to be a fairly large village. It was used by the army I believe up until the 80s. Now, it's empty and managed by a guy who lives beside it. He must be lonely....it looked so desolate. Noah decided he needed to go to the bathroom. Our driver asked if this guy had a toilet we could use. There is a government toilet at the site...but he said the government closed it down. The other washroom there had no water. So, Noah got to wait. I did take a peak in the one washroom. Sand all over the sinks. One stall with a hold in the ground and a bucket next to it. The other had a toilet...but looked...uh...dirty and dry.
We then cut back across the desert to the main highway running north/south, and headed back to Doha. Along the way, we often saw camels in groups. I guess it would be like cows back home. Farmers have them out here, and
Photo 6
Big Daddy giving Junior a launch to Iran. often they seem to just wander around...some fencing but not a lot. They stick together though.
We were done by 1 pm. Has some lunch at home, and then me and the boys hung out at the Hyatt pools for the afternoon while the Maria's went to a mall.
It's interesting to see how different the Qataris get treated here. It seems like they pretty much do what they want. They drive fast. Park where ever they want. They double/triple park at times. At the Hyatt today, an arab lady (all in black) was asked by the hotel staff (Indian I think), to not take up two parking spaces...to move her car a bit to the side so it fit into one spot. Seems like a logical request. She went off the deep end and tore a strip off the guy. She then sped off. Maria's mom figured she probably would call her husband, who would call the place and have the guy fired for questioning her.
A couple of times, we've noticed, they won't serve the kids. I gave the kids some riyals to go and each get a muffin from a coffee shop. It took
them about 10 minutes...only when no adults were waiting, would they serve the kids. Others came and went with their food....and the kids just waited. At the Hyatt, Noah was waiting to order ice cream...the staff pretty much ignored him until Maria went up and they stopped what they were doing and took her order. Now, it might have been a case of our kids being a little too polite and not speaking up to what other kids do around here....or maybe it was in fact because they were just kids.
I always thought that the major banks have relationships with other major banks in the world. (i.e. they have those symbols on the backs of the debit cards that say what ATMs you can use). The only place our bank cards work here is at HSBC. In the first day or so, we tried a couple of different places to take out money and it would not work. Finally, George remembered someone he works with that also came from Calgary, who used the same bank as us, having the same issue. Thats how we finally figured out HSBC was good. There are ATMs everywhere here....but we have to
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Taking a breather at the top...it was hard work. really plan around where the heck an HSBC is. I don't want to be left with a wallet full of Qatari Riyals back in Canada.
Tomorrow morning, I have a tee-time at Doha Golf Club...the only course in the country. Maria and the kids will likely hang out around here, as Maria's mom has a doctor's appointment in the morning.
As I write this at 8:30 pm, the internet says it's 25C and feels like 33C. Tomorrow is going to be 32C (feels like 35C), and our last day 37C (feels like 39C). It kills me to know that we had a foot of snow fall either last night or the night before. I just can't take winter any longer. I need palm trees....and a Maserati.
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