Doha: The Best Time of the Year
We have the windows open and the A/C off, well, most of the time. Some times it gets humid, and we have to turn the AC on to keep our carpets and textiles from molding. Aarrgh!
Yesterday dawned a crisp 60+°F, clear, sunny, the birds are singing and I have errands to do but . . . it’s also a great day for taking photos. I decide maybe I can do both, but I give the photos a priority and get myself down to the Corniche.
There is also a part of me that wanted to see if I COULD drive on the Corniche; it has been on-again-off-again as people prepare for the grand parade at – oh yes, 0800 Friday morning.
0800 Friday morning? No one in Qatar is up at 0800 on Friday morning. You are going to START a parade at 0800 on Friday morning? Like soldiers will have to be up early? Pilots flying those cool fast little planes – up before dawn? This is Qatar – no one is up at 0800 on a Friday morning!
The weather is gorgeous and the photos take themselves. There has been so much building on the Corniche and over in the West Bay Business district:
Off in the distance, glimmering like Shangri-La, are the buildings going up on The Pearl:
And look at the minaret on the new National Mosque! It’s as tall as many of the taller buildings! Do you think they will have an elevator? Will the muezzins be able to call out the call to prayer after climbing 37 stories?
Doha Gets a Drenching
A wonderful day, a day that started with a downpour, and never cleared up the whole day, with intermittent showers continuing to give the soil the moisture it so desperately needs. I love the thought of Doha getting a good wash with Qatar National Day being celebrated this entire week. 🙂
Some Rainy Day photos from Doha:
For my Kuwait friends – you are WELCOME, see! There is even an Al Kout coffee shop!
Snug and warm having breakfast at Tagine:
Al Shamal and Zubara – A Day Trip
A great day, temperatures down, a breeze blowing, a sky with clouds (Qatar sky is almost always flat blue), a perfect day for a trip to the north, Al Shamel and Fort Zubara:
I had no idea the highway was torn up all the way from Landmark Mall to Al Shamel.
Aarrgh.
The old camel crossing sign we used to stop and take photos of our guests at was down.
And a great day altogether, anyway.
The Little Sailor in Najma
This is a story of good advertising and good luck. In a recent Peninsula magazine was a full page ad for a new restaurant, the Little Sailor. It looked clean, and interesting, so we decided to seek it out for a seafood dinner.
We are so glad we did. The Little Sailor is located on a not-that-easy to reach street – either you are coming from Airport Road on C-Ring and you turn right, I think at the third right turn from the light, or you go down Najma, from C-ring, turning right at the small roundabout just past the Commercial Bank on your right, go to the end of the road, turn right, go a short distance to the end of that road, turn left and then turn left again on the next street and you will see the Little Sailor on your left.
It’s small, but they are doing a steady and continuous business. At one point, every table was taken, people coming in and placing to-go orders. They don’t have a printed menu yet, which always makes me nervous, but we plunged in, hoping we had enough to cover the bill. 🙂
We started with the seafood soup, which was delicious – it tasted like good health as soon as we started eating, and was full of fish chunks. It is hearty and filling. They have two versions, a cream version and a clear version. We went with the clear version; we loved it.
I chose Fish and Chips for my entree, and AdventureMan chose grilled shrimp. We had more than enough, the portions were generous:
The batter on the fish was light and airy, like tempura batter. It allowed the flavor of the fish to shine!
As he was talking with the manager, AM learned that The Little Sailor is associated with the same company as Al Maharah, in the Suq al Waqif hotel. No wonder everything tastes so fresh and so delicious!
When our bill came, we got a happy surprise:
QR 104 comes to around $29. for this feast of fresh seafood. 🙂
Glorious View in Qatar
Yesterday I was invited to an all-gals party, and normally, I don’t accept any outside invitations on Friday, which is AdventureMan’s only day off the entire week, but this date was special, and I went, and I had a wonderful afternoon, full of laughs and good friendships.
When I walked in, I had a moment’s nostalgia for Kuwait, and my endless view from my mustard colored tower – this woman had the Qatar equivalent – the view that goes forever.
The windows were open, the breezes were blowing, the laughter was infectious and the food was delicious – what is not to love?
Only six years ago, when I first came to Qatar (almost seven years now) the building from which I took these photos didn’t exist. Looking north, only a few low buildings, the Intercon and the Ritz Carleton existed – and now, it’s almost like another Corniche in the making out at The Pearl. The speed with which this has happened is breathtaking.
The Heart of Doha – Disney Does Doha?
“No, it’s not DOHALAND!” I snapped at my friend. ‘It’s called the ‘Heart of Doha’ project.”
We were exploring the project in it’s first phase, the destruction phase, which is turning old haunts into several circles of hell – shopping hell, driving hell, parking hell, disorientation hell. And just as we were inching our way into a new diversion, I saw the big sign describing the future this funky area of Doha and telling us to go to ‘Dohaland.com.’
Oops. I apologized profusely and she very humbly pretended not to be gleeful that she was right and I was wrong. Well, actually, we are both right. It is both ‘Dohaland’ and ‘The Heart of Doha,’ but I shouldn’t have snapped at her over something so inconsequential. Blame it on the rain . . . umm . . . .err . . . the traffic.
Dohaland. I’m sorry, it sort of cracks me up. It’s just like Disney – JungleLand, FutureLand, etc.
I remember when the Suq al Waqif project first started, how outraged I felt, and how delighted I am to go down there now, where the shop-keepers have electricity that is reliable, even air-conditioning wafting out into the corridors, the appearance of ancient woven mats shading the twisting cobblestone street which no longer reaches out and grabs your heels, or changes levels unexpectedly. How can you be a successful curmudgeon when it turns out so positively? Even if it is a little bit Disney-does-Doha, it is so attractive!
What I love about what has been accomplished so far is how it has enhanced the experience for everyone. If you go down into the souks, you see more people. You used to see only a few westerners, now you see all kinds, even tourists, even your neighbors; you see every nationality down in the souks now, and people are actually buying things, not just killing time. There is a great variety of shops and restaurants, and even if the parking spots are tiny, there is parking.
Have you visited the website yet? Dohaland.com? I love the vision, although in one shot with people in suits crossing the streets, I want to shout “Hurry! Hurry! Or you’ll get run over!”
Here is what it is going to look like – and you can go to the Dohaland website and get a great big full screen map:
And here is what it looks like now:
These machines are like huge dentist’s drills, with points that pound down into the hard-packed Qatar soil to break it up so that foundations can be built:
It’s not unlike house-cleaning. When you pull everything out of the closets, out from under the beds, the drawers, those piles of things in the corner, for a while everything looks worse than it did before you started. Slowly, slowly, you create areas of organization and calm amidst the chaos, and slowly, slowly those areas expand, join, until the chaos is eliminated, you know where things are, and your living area is a calm and peaceful and organized oasis. I hope I get to see that day in Doha.
Update: Dohaland AKA Heart of Doha is now known as Musherib
The Majliss in Doha
When we lived in Doha the last time, we often brought people to The Majliss. Most Americans had never been there, never knew it was there. It is off Al Sadd – if you are going from C Ring to D Ring, you turn right at the Kentucky Fried Chicken and stay on the slip road that goes in front of the stores. At the second possible right, you turn right, and you will see the Royal Tandoor on your left, and The Majliss on your right.
There two really great things about The Majliss. First, the food is really, really good. Second, they have a bunch of individual rooms where you can sit on the floor, majliss style, with cushions and a big, low table. Some rooms are small, some are large enough for maybe 12 – 14 people.
They also have booths, some that have curtains you can pull if you need privacy, like if you are a woman wearing niqab and you want to eat without people seeing your face. They also have booths without curtains, and a more open area where mostly just men eat.
There was a time when soldiers would come here from Iraq, and you could sort of check them out like library books to take out for dinner, or to the malls, or to your house. We often took them to the Majliss, and it always blew them away, it was such a great experience. The Majliss is also where we took our son and his wife when they first came to visit us in Doha. We have so many happy memories at The Majliss.
This time, it was our visiting Kuwait friends, and since we all know what it is like to sit in a Majliss, and we all have older knees and hips, we chose to sit in a booth. Here is what is cool – our Kuwait friends loved it as much as our American friends do.
This was our first time back at the Majliss since our return to Doha. We worried that it had changed, deteriorated, that the food would not be so good as we remembered. We had a happy surprise – it is the same, but even better. 🙂
I have to admit, one reason I love the Majliss is because they have Mohammara, made of walnuts and chilis and other good stuff. This one was really good, a little spicy!
And oh, the fresh, hot bread . . .
Now, I am embarrassed to tell you, when our main dinners came, I forgot to take photos until late . . . so this is where the delicious Majliss hammour used to be – my very particular and discerning Kuwaiti friend ate every bite!
And here is what is left of my Shrimp machboos, before we gobbled the rest of it all up:
And the kabob, just before it disappeared entirely!
We were all so full, we didn’t even have room to order the creme caramel, which always comes swimming in caramel, yummmm. We had Turkish coffee and rolled ourselves out the door – stuffed!
Prices are reasonable, it is a great place for good local food at reasonable prices – the Michelin red “R” in Doha.
Suq al Waqif Bird Market
As we were heading into the Suq al Waqif for breakfast Saturday morning (Yes! Several of the restaurants are open for breakfast!) we saw a man and his son, both carrying falcons.
AdventureMan joked that they are hired by the administrators to walk around adding local color. We scoffed. Maybe someday, but for right now, these are still real people, with their own falcons. We know because our Kuwaiti visitor stopped them and asked about the falcons. They were so sweet and so delighted to tell us about their birds, and to allow us to photograph them:
There was also a lively bird auction going on:
What we love about the renovated market is that it is still a true market, where real people by daily items for use.
Karabaa in Transition
This post is for my friends not here, friends who often accompanied me on trips to Karabaa and all the funky magical shops we would find there. I dropped off the towels at the Mumtaz Tailor to be embroidered, English on one end, Arabic on the other, and while the devastation is no longer so gut-wrenchingly stunning as it was – I guess I am becoming desensitized – I can also see changes.
A lot of the rubble has been carted away. So it makes me wonder, is this what The Pearl is being built on? Is rubble from the old Suq al Waqif and these old buildings along Musherib and Karabaa going to the sea to become reclaimed land? If so, isn’t this going to boggle the minds of archaeologists a couple thousand years from now who are going to find all this stuff jumbled together and try to figure it out?
Yes, yes, it’s true, my mind does wander into trivial areas . . .
From the old parking lot, looking towards Karabaa where the honey man used to be:
To help you know what you are looking at – remember the sign that shows people how to park? It’s still standing – so far 🙂
I wanted you to be able to see just how high the pile of rubble is:
All the rubble that was The Garden is now gone, as if it never was:
OK, now, in the midst of all this noise and demolition, the rubble and the trucks and bulldozers, there is this oasis of serenity. I often see old men sitting outside on those old fashioned built-in-plaster seating areas, or on the bench. Inside, it looks like it might even be a home for old indigents, but sort of palatial, very green, and well kept up. Is there anyone who can tell me what this is?
Doha Gallery 5 October
There are still pockets of serenity; one of the older fishing boats moored in Doha:
This isn’t a great shot, shooting through the windshield while at a stop-light, but this is the Barzan Towers. It used to be one of my very favorite buildings in town; I loved the way it incorporated some of the old Gulf themes into it’s modern day structure. Now, it is dwarfed by taller buildings, some of which also incorporate traditional details, most of which don’t. You really have to look for it to see it now.
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