Holidays

We slept in until 6:00 this morning....and we're going out to the Sheraton for breakfast around 8:30...days start early here but usually end early too. (I just got my first phone call of the day to arrange drives for breakfast and it's only 7:15 am)!!! Last night we got a driver and 5 of us went down to the "New Old Souq" (Souq Waqif) ... a new market filled with shops along tunnels and alleyways which has been completely rebuilt just like the old souq. The original souq had been on this same site for centuries and was the place where the Bedu (plural of Bedouin) came to trade. Using thousands of old photos the government has recreated the market in an amazingly successful way. It looks very old, has many great restaurants (we ate at a delicious Iraqi one) of all kinds, Haagen-Dazs, Second Cup, French, Turkish, ..... The shops are full of material from around the world, clothing (Arabic), dishes, paintings, toys (like Dollarama and Walmart), touristy (more expensive) stuff, carpets, and on and on. We didn't buy anything last night. The place only really comes alive after 6 pm and goes late. We had our driver pick us up at 9 pm and were very ready to get home.We found a mall the other night (Villagio) that is bigger and nicer than any mall I've ever seen. It has stores like the Gap and H & M etc but it also has stores that are so out of my price range that I'm nervous walking past them! There is a canal inside the mall and you can have a gondola ride and there is a skating rink also...and at least two food courts with Pizza Express...etc places. There is one bakery/cafe that has wonderful bread so we'll make trips there for the bread. There is also a book store (Virgin) with English books, music, movies, computers ...huge. The ceilings are domes painted almost as ornately as the Sistine Chapel. Some of the aisles have clouds painted above that seem to move as you walk. There's a roller coaster outside too. Roger and I are going to the SEALINE resort tomorrow for 2 days. It's down near the border with Saudi Arabia. There we will finally see real sand dunes and have trips out to see them. They use dune buggys and 4x4 cars. My students say that on Friday nights a lot of the young people have races on the dunes in which people are actually killed. They play 'chicken and rooster' by driving at top speed into each other and knocking each other off the dune. Cars roll over, people are thrown out of the cars and sometimes crushed by the car rolling down over them. They suggested we not go to the Sealine Friday nights! It is illegal but.....

Last Saturday we went for a road trip with Betty C. & headed west to Dukhan ... basically a vast oilfield in the desert, ending at the coast. Much of the area is owned & controlled by Qatar Petroleum, with no photos or videos allowed. There was one great roadside sign which read: "If not safe don't do it".

Here's a little of what we saw on the way: