Doha at Night

This is Doha from the Intercontinental Hotel at night. I like this picture. You can see how unfinished the buildings are. The cranes are visible and the modernity is very apparent. Doha bay is like a mirror and the beach looks very strange with this lighting.

Happy Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving my group had our "holiday" party at the Hotel Intercontinental beach here in Doha. I remember my first Thanksgiving away from home - I was 19, in the Navy, and stationed on the USS Fearless in Charleston, South Carolina. I rode my bicycle into town and ordered a turkey sandwich in a diner.

This time we had Lebanese food, but someone thought to ask them to put some turkey slices on a platter. I passed on the turkey. There was a jazz band and afterwards we sat on carpets and cushions while folks relaxed with a shisha pipe. I passed on the shisha too. According to my friend Nasser, seated to my right, shisha is a Turkish word meaning glass. That is because the water bowl is made from glass. The yankees here call it the "hubbly bubbly" and I think that some places it may be known as the "hookah" although that is normally associated with drugs I think. In the Middle East, shisha tobacco has dried fruit in it and has a nice aroma. I have been told variously that it is milder than regular tobacco and also that it is stronger. Anyway, if interested, I'll take you to a "shisha bar" if you come visit me.

Today it rained! In fact, we have had a couple of "rains" lately. Not a whole lot really, but it cools things off and is nice. The weather is in the 70s right now - very pleasant. Enjoy the holiday bustle. I'll have a cup of tea and watch the shisha smokers until I can get home.

Umm Bab Beach

Sometimes it is better to quote from those who have come before you. In this case, quoting from the Marhaba Guide, "on cresting a small hill, you will see the coast stretched out below and the distinctive group of trees. Most people turn left at the trees and stop a little further on. The sand is very deep so 2wd vehicles should proceed with caution." So we turned left at the trees - my 4wd didn't have problems. This beach is also known as "Palm Tree Beach". In some ways though, it reminded me of the infamous "Chicken Bone Beach" that stu monkey sometimes talks about. You pass a lot of oil field production on the way and unfortunately there is some litter. There were probably a dozen other people there. Despite lots of coastline and beaches, there are very few developed resort areas in Qatar.

Gecko!

When I first got back to Doha I was swamped with work. Then this last 4-5 days I have been sick. Those are my excuses for not writing. And good excuses they are.

But tonight I spotted this gecko in my car park - finally I feel better and something really worthy to write about as well! It is only the second wild native creature other than an insect, bird, or fish that I have seen. The other was a larger lizard about a foot long or so.

He is a tiny little fellow only about an inch long and was almost transparent on the wall until I turned the glare of the flash of my camera upon him. Poor little guy. I hope the cats don't catch him. There are cats all over the place here.

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