Goodbye Doha!

As I write this last entry in our Qatarlogue, the packers are bundling up everything that we are shipping home. Although we never put up many pictures, the place looks pretty bare & all eleven carpets (tribal rugs) have vanished from the floors. There are many things we will miss about Qatar: an easy lifestyle (for us), warmth whenever we want it (& even when we don't), exciting & unusual architecture, some good friends (Qatari & ex-pats), the fascination of the desert, & much more. There are other things that we won't miss: an artificial way of living, the anarchy of driving here, & the absence of family & contact with friends in Canada. But the past two years have been good ones for us. We have grown to understand much about the Middle East & the Arab way of life, & we appreciate the kindness & generosity that so many Qatari have shown us. We will follow with curiosity the growth & evolution of this country as it faces new & daunting challenges in the coming years. We will wonder how Qatar will deal with the imbalance of a population made up of 80% ex-pats, most of whom are migrant workers, how the country will struggle towards a reasonably democratic political structure, & what role Qatar will play in a world where human rights, the environment, & regional conflict will create new & huge demands. Will Qatar be the herald of a brave new world, or will it survive only as an oasis of wealth & luxury in a desert of crisis in the midst of the developed & developing world? Qatar has so much to give & so much to lose. We hope that it will find its own right path, insha'allah إن شاء الله

Oman (19-22 May 2010)

A “long” weekend (just the Thursday extra but an early end of school on Wednesday too) gave us the chance for one last trip before we return to Canada on July 1^st. So we headed to Oman which is just over an hour’s flying time. If we had hoped to escape the heat of Doha, we were not successful. It was 47 C. in Muscat on Saturday.

We had found a “package” trip with Oman Air which included the flight, three nights’ hotel, & airport transfers, all for a very reasonable price (under $500 each). The Majan (old name for Oman) Hotel was a little disappointing at first (small, potentially noisy, musty room) but after a couple of changes & a slight upgrade charge, we ended up in a good room that turned out to be very comfortable once we had discovered a way to redirect the rushing wind of the air-conditioning.

Determined to make to most of our time, we took a taxi right away & headed down to the Souq Mutrah just off the Corniche. We explored a little & resisted the pressure of insistent vendors selling everything from frankincense to pashminas & toy mechanical camels to silver jewelry. We ate shwarmas at a small outdoor “Fast Food ‘n’ Juice” just outside the souq opposite the harbour. Our taxi driver was there to take us back to the Majan & we asked him whether he would be willing to take us out of Muscat for a day (& how much?). His price was good & so we booked him for next day.

Qais (the taxi driver) turned out to be a real treasure & became a good friend. We were to spend the next three days with him & got to know his friends & family. Our first full day (Thursday) was spent driving south out of Muscat for about 150 km to visit the towns of Nakhal & Rustaq. The Hajar mountain range of Oman is imposing & even desolate but quite beautiful in its own dramatic way. Small forts & watch towers dot the countryside, reflecting the not-so-ancient feuds between families & tribes. Nakhal has a much more substantial fort built on pre-Islamic foundations & reconstructed in 1834. We endured fierce heat to visit the interior, pondering the cauldrons of boiling honey used to repel attackers.

A little further along the same road, we escaped to see the hot springs at Ath-Thowra. Although it’s also a favourite place for families to picnic (especially on Thursdays which are the start of the weekend), there were few people there & just the odd goat wandering around. The waterways of Oman (“falaj”) are sophisticated networks of mountain streams diverted for irrigation & household use. Hot springs are always hot but on a day like this the water is unbearable. Sustaining ourselves with dates (brought by Qais) we continued in the air-conditioned comfort of the car (an old vehicle with almost 500,000 km on the clock & still going strong)

Next stop was Rustaq which was briefly the capital of Oman in the 17^th century (when the Portuguese controlled the coastline but not the interior). They were chased out around 1650 after almost 150 years of struggle. We looked briefly (from the outside) at another substantial fort & at more hot springs, used still as bathing rooms. A cursory look at the old souq & we headed back to Muscat, stopping only to buy some locally made “halwa”, not to be confused with the more familiar sesame based “halvah”. “Halwa” is made of sugar (or dates), saffron, cardamom, almonds, nutmeg, & rosewater, all heated in huge vats & served at any important social occasion. Dates are also part of normal hospitality in Oman & are generally accompanied by small cups of “qahwa” (Arabic coffee flavoured with cardamom), as we were to discover next day.

An Omani friend in Doha had suggested we eat at “the best Indian restaurant in Muscat”, so, after a brief rest & swim in the hotel pool, we called Qais & he took us to the Mumtaz Mahal, set on a hill overlooking the bay & the Qurm Nature Reserve. It was one of the finest dining experiences ever & the service was impeccable. This was no doubt partly a result of our dropping the name of our Omani friend in Qatar whose family is well respected in Muscat.

On Friday we set out again with Qais, heading this time for Nizwa & Jebel Shams, highest point in Oman (over 3,000 metres) & overlooking the Wadi Ghul, known as the “Grand Canyon of Arabia”. However, we stopped first in the small town of Izki where we met Ali who spent the rest of the day with us. Ali works with the same security company in Muscat as Qais (his “other” job) & we suspect that Qais asked him along partly because his English is quite a lot better but also because the two of them get on very well together. Next stop was Nizwa, site of yet another fort but known for its souq & a favourite tourist resort. It is sometimes called “the Pearl of Islam” & is also known as a very conservative area. We explored the souq looking for silver jewelry (too expensive & priced by the gram according to the current market value of silver), & also old “Maria Theresas”, silver coins widely used throughout the Arab world for well over two hundred years. We looked at quite a few but most were fairly recent, the only genuinely old ones found in a collection album & not for sale. The highlight of the visit was when we were invited to join a small group of tailors who were taking a break of dates & “qahwa”. They were as excited as we were & it was certainly thanks to Ali that we could take photos & share a few minutes with them.

Next stop was Jebel Shams (“Mountain of the Sun”) & stupendous views across the mountain range & into the deep gorge beneath us. It was quite a bit cooler (mid-thirties) at that altitude & we thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful place. We stopped on the roadside to buy “boot” fruit, which is a small bluish cherry found only in this region. On our way back down to Nizwa we passed through a small town where we met yet another friend, Mohamed who works in Muscat with Qais & Ali. We were invited into his house where we sat in the “majlis” (Arabic guest room) & waited while Qais & Ali went to the mosque for about thirty minutes (a must on Fridays). Then we were served more coffee with delicious date paste & local thin bread. Mohamed’s brother, Souleiman (& his son Daoud), along with their father & uncle, all joined us & we were impressed by the easy going hospitality & friendliness towards us.

Then we drove back through Nizwa to take Ali home, whereupon we were invited in for yet more food. We enjoyed spending some time with Ali’s six-year old daughter Latifa. She was very shy but eventually talked to Pat & tried out her English. Ali wanted us to stay for supper but we needed to get back to Muscat, still almost two hours away.

Saturday was our last day & we still had many things we wanted to do. Qais took us first to the Grand Mosque, opened in 2001 after six years work. It is a magnificent complex & was a gift to the nation by the ruler, Sultan Qaboos. Sultan Qaboos seized power in 1970 from his father (who ended his days in exile living in the Grosvenor Hotel in London) & is revered in Oman. He has done great things for the country & is internationally recognized for his work on the environment. The country’s first environmental legislation was issued in 1974 & 8 January is widely celebrated in Oman as Environment Day. In spite of the 47 C. heat we spent about an hour visiting the mosque marveling at the architecture & amazed by the Persian carpet covering the main prayer hall which can hold 6,500 worshippers. The carpet is the second largest hand-woven carpet in the world (the biggest being in Abu Dhabi & was completed in 2007). It measures 70 m. by 60 m. & took 600 women four years to weave.

Qais took us back to Mutrah Souq to visit the tailors there. Roger wanted to buy a traditional Omani “dishdasha” (man’s robe) & “kummah” (pill-box shaped hat), so needed to be measured for them. Qais insisted on buying them & looked after all the negotiating that needed to take place. The “dishdasha” will be ready later & Qais’s son who works in the military in Qatar will bring it with him when he next travels home. Incidentally, we discovered that Qais worked in Doha for fifteen years as a policeman before he returned to Oman.

We still had time for a quick air-conditioned drive through Old Muscat, past the Sultan’s palace, & then along the coast to the resort area called Bandar Jissah. Qais drove us to his home (small village just on the outskirts of Muscat) for lunch. We met his four daughters & two-year old grandson (Khalood) & feasted on chicken & biryani rice prepared by the Indian servant. We never did meet Qais’s wife. The daughters we very friendly & the second oldest talked freely about her life & feelings. Khalood kept us entertained with his rascally ways, clearly “spoilt” by his grandfather & suffered by his aunts & mother.

Qais drove us to the airport & we said goodbye to a new friend who had opened his heart & country to us in ways that we could not have imagined possible. Oman will remain one of the highlights of our time in the Middle East & one of our favourite places.

Tanzania

Time continues to fly by & we are very conscious that there are still things we would like to do before we leave Qatar at the end of June. All the same, we are also eager to be home & to spend the summer with family & friends. We did manage a one-night camping trip last weekend with friend Zeta. We were on the coast about 80 km north of Doha & very much enjoyed the mild (low 20s) weather & the sound of the waves just outside our tent.

Our most recent "big" trip was at the end of March when we flew to Tanzania for a three-day safari. Our friend from Ottawa, Betty, came with us & for her & Pat it was a first time in Africa. For me it was a return to a continent that I visited many times for Amnesty International, although rarely to anything like a tourist spot.

So we set out on 31 March with a flight from Doha to Nairobi. Luckily we had a four-hour stop-over in Jomo Kenyatta Airport because we ran into our first (& only) hassle of the trip. Although we had sent money by telex transfer to pay for our tickets to Arusha with Precision Air, it turned out that the tickets had never been issued! No amount of talking (& showing copies of e-mails) could change things & we were obliged to pay (again) for tickets. This entailed withdrawing the equivalent of $1,000 from in ATM (93,000 Kenyan shillings, a big pile of paper money) & a tedious amount of waiting. Only when new tickets had been issued were we able to arrange for our checked luggage (which we had not seen because it was the far side of passport control) to be transferred to the Arusha flight. We finally boarded for the 45-minute flight to Kilimanjaro International Airport. There is no end to this saga because Precision Air has consistently refused all communication with us ever since & we are glumly resigned to the likelihood that we will never see our $1,000 from the original transfer.

Stunning views of Kilimanjaro surrounded by huge storm clouds & flashes of lightning from every direction greeted us as we landed & found the car that took us the twenty minutes to Rivertrees Lodge, where we stayed for the first & last nights of our trip. We were too tired to eat the fine food available but opted for "pub food" instead. A Tusker beer was a welcome end to the day. Next morning we were able to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings, have breakfast on the patio, & (for me) start my bird list for Tanzania.

Our driver/guide, Peter (a member of the Chagga tribe living in the shadow of Kilimanjaro), arrived at 9h.00 & we were off to Lake Manyara National Park. I won't tire you out with the names of all the birds seen during the next three days, but suffice it to say that Peter nicknamed me "Mr. Ndege" (meaning "Mr. Bird" in Swahili). He was quite knowledgeable about the birds which made things a little easier for me in identifying new sightings. The list for the trip was 110 species, about half of which I had never seen before. Lake Manyara itself is a haven for Greater & Lesser Flamingos & a wonderful sight (even for non-birders). So we spent a good part of the day driving & stopping to take photos (& videos with our new camcorder) of the scenery & wildlife. Zebras, giraffes, wildebeests (otherwise known as gnus), warthogs, impalas & gazelles, baboons & monkeys, a pool full of hippos, & many elephants, made for an exciting day. We had a picnic lunch & then ended the drive at Tloma Lodge, just a short drive from the Ngorongoro Crater conservation area.

Although we were well into the rainy season, we had seen little rain but that night made up for it. Intense storms raged through the night & we wondered what sort of day would follow. Peter suggested that we head for Ngorongoro rather than take the road to Lake Eyasi which might be impassable. It turned out to be an inspired suggestion. We spent over six hours in the Crater & were amazed at the incredible beauty & majesty of the park. We drove along the rim, with only an occasional glimpse, through the heavy mist, of the crater floor several hundred metres below us. The collapsed volcano (caldera) is about 18 km. in diameter & is one of the most concentrated areas of wildlife in the world. It is truly a wonderful place to be & seems like a paradise on earth.

We made our way slowly down the rough track into the crater, stopping occasionally to look at animals (& birds) & marvel at the flat-top acacias that flourish there. The next few hours were memorable. Our first glimpse of lions was from a distance & it was only a couple of hours later that we saw lions quite close to our vehicle. There was even a distant view of a cheetah, slumbering in a deep patch of grass. More elephants, many zebras, Thompson's & Grant's gazelles, hyenas, jackals, & black rhinos, gave us an exciting day (to say nothing of the storks, cranes, bustards, & flamingos). We had a short encounter with two Masai (dominant tribe in the Ngorongoro area) during our lunch stop. Some bargaining ensued & we bought some jewelry, somewhat to the chagrin of Peter who said that they were not supposed to be selling stuff inside the park. We reluctantly made our way back up the side of the crater & back to the Tloma Lodge for the night.

Our last full day involved a long drive to the Lake Eyasi area. By now Peter was an avid birder & we stopped many times to look at new birds. Another stop involved helping tow a broken-down tractor up a hill much to the relief of the men (& the cattle being used to pull it) who were stuck waiting for help to arrive. Our goal, however, was a small group of Hadzabe (or Hadza), part of the approximately 250 "bushmen" left in this part of the world. They are true hunters & gatherers, with no fixed home, surviving on gazelles & baboons, & gathering honey which they trade for tools & clothes. We spent about an hour with them, trying to start fire with a twirling stick & shoot with one of their bows & arrows. It was a fascinating encounter & yet we felt that we were witness to something that is on the edge of extinction. There was some of the same feeling with many of the majestic wild animals which are steadily being reduced in number in a world that is increasingly hostile & insufficent for their survival.

The trip back was quicker (no birding) & we returned to Rivertrees Lodge for our last night in Africa. We met the owner/manager, a dynamic & somewhat eccentric German whose father had owned the lodge when it had been a coffee plantation. She has been running it for thirty years & is involved in many projects supporting the local community in various ways. Martina Trappe is an institution in her own right & an interesting encounter to end our holiday. We left early next morning (Easter Saturday) for the airport & returned uneventfully (thank goodness) to Qatar. A superb three days in the heart of the Rift Valley of East Africa.

Now the weather is turning decidedly warm, although there were some showers of rain last night. Daytime temperatures are regularly in the 30s & we will see that rising slowly over the next couple of weeks. We have one more "break" in May. It's only an extra day so we will have to try & make the most of a quick trip to Oman or Jordan. Meanwhile, in addition to the photos in the blog text, there is a link to see some of the other photos from Tanzania. Double click on the link to see the photos & captions. The movies will have to wait for some serious editing!

February 1^st already & we’re beginning to make plans for our return to Canada on July 1^st (air tickets booked, shipping of household goods investigated, car buyers for our little jeep prospected, etc.). This will have to be a “catch-up” entry because weeks have gone by since the last time we sent anything out (except for photos of Germany & England taken in December & featured on Pat’s Facebook page).

So treating the first of the month as a new beginning (“rabbits! rabbits! rabbits!” for the initiated), Roger took the car for an oil change this morning &, being on a roll, went & had his hair cut. If you look back at our entry for 9 February 2009, you’ll notice that we were lagging behind with the blog then as well … & Roger’s first experience at his Doha barber’s was described in detail. The only difference is that the smoothie, haircut, beard trim, & massage have now expanded to include a “facial”. Oh, the luxury!! And all for 50 Qatari Rihals (including tip). About $16. The oil change (car not hair) was equally efficient & pleasant. The forty minutes needed allowed for a leisurely caffe latte at the service station café-lounge & was an excellent start to the day.

So, December is now far away. We travelled to Germany for Christmas itself & spent several days with Alfred & Elisabeth (Pat’s cousin), along with Edith (their daughter) & her boyfriend, Andree. There was snow on the ground & we had a wonderfully mythical German Christmas, with singing, lots of food (goose, not turkey, is the traditional meat on Christmas Day), walking & tobogganing.

We left on the 27^th to fly from Munich to Heathrow (luckily the British Airways strike was cancelled) where Roger’s brother, Graham, & fiancée, Dawn) met us & drove us to their home in Wollaston, near Wellingborough where their wedding took place on 30^th December. We stayed just south of there in a pretty little town called Olney. Graham & Roger even managed a few hours of birding while Dawn & Pat went shopping in Milton Keynes. Roger’s sister (Jill) & step-brother (Stephen) & his wife Gill, all stayed at the same place as us, as did Roger’s step-mother (Mary). Jill’s daughters, Gail & Shaenna, were there for the wedding day with their children, Thea, Aidan & Erin. A veil will be drawn across the “stag” & “hen” parties. The wedding was a great & memorable occasion.

Jill drove us into London on New Year’s Eve & the three of us stayed at the Goodenough Hotel that night. We spent a somewhat chilly evening around Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, and the Thames Embankment. Because of the huge crowds, we had to sit/stand for almost four hours before a rather brief firework display over the London Eye marked the beginning of 2010. It was an exciting & unique way to see in the New Year. Jill drove us to Heathrow on the 1^st & we flew back to Doha.

Jill joined us a couple of weeks later when she spent ten days with us in Qatar. It was thoroughly relaxed & we enjoyed seeing this place through fresh eyes. We will have other visitors over the next couple of months: Edith & Andree will be here for ten days from 18^th February, & Mike & Francie’s friend, Bruce, will be here for two days late in March. He is based in Tunisia & has wanted to see the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha as well as pay us a visit. At the end of March we head for Tanzania for a five-day safari holiday. This will be our last “long” break before the year ends on 30^th June.

Meanwhile, there are always things to do. We saw the men’s tennis early in January, including a momentous final in which Davydenko defeated Federer. For a change of pace, we will be listening to Thomas Friedman talk this evening at the Four Seasons Hotel. It promises to be very interesting & timely. Meanwhile the Americans have announced that they have increased their missile capacity in the Gulf States (Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, & UAE) as some sort of signal to Iran. We have mixed feelings about being only twenty minutes’ drive from the biggest US Air Base in the Middle East.