Dhows and Dunes in Doha

Isaiah, Will and Ben

Doha skyline

A few weeks ago we went on a dhow dinner cruise with friends. A dhow is a traditional merchant sailing boat that delivered goods between East Africa and the Persian Gulf. Dhow cruising has become a popular tourist attraction in Doha and other cities in the Middle East. They have been renovated so that tourists can enjoy a meal on board or go for a day trip to go swimming.  

Andy dancing with the Lebanese family

The boys had a great time on the dhow cruise: the food was good, the views of the city were incredible and the air was warm. We met some very friendly people on board. A Lebanese man taught the boys how to write their names in Arabic. And then Andy ended the evening dancing with him and his family to Lebanese pop music. They knew all the words and all the steps - it was hilarious watching Andy trying to keep up!

This weekend, our friend Natalie is visiting from Dubai. We took her to the souq because the boys wanted to show her the little chicks that are dyed pink, purple and turquoise. Poor little chicks!  

We squished her into the back seat between the two boys and went to see some of Doha’s sights. Our first off-road adventure took us to the Singing Sand Dunes about 30 mins outside of Doha. When you sit on the sand and scooch down the dune, the sand makes a humming or singing sound. They are just off the highway but to get to them, there is a rocky stretch of about 500m. Trying to follow someone else’s tracks in our little car didn’t work very well and since we didn’t know if we had a spare tire, we decided to park and walk the rest of the way. 

The boys were great - they just climbed right up the the top despite the heat and the flies. When we got to the top, we realized that the other side of the dune was the side to slide down as it was much steeper. Only problem was the sand was too hot to touch. Burning hot. I gave it a quick try, got the sand to “sing” but I lost a flip flop and had to dig for it while my feet were burning in the sand. Ouch! We’ve decided to give it another go when the weather cools off a bit. 

Disappointingly, the local people who frequent the sand dunes for dune bashing, do not take their garbage with them. Even though there is a huge garbage bin on the road side. There were hundreds of empty water bottles and wrappers from take out food. Will thought it might help if we put up some signs like he did he Ocean Park last year. Sadly, I don't think it would help. There is no culture of recycling or responsible waste management here, nor does there seem to be much a desire for it. Hard to explain to two environmentally conscious kids from BC. 

No Longer Taking Taxis!

We are happy to announce that we finally have a car! We are leasing Suzuki SX4, but are considering buying a bigger car as they are very cheap. We filled up the tank for $11 the other day. Yes, $11. Why bother even charging for it?!

The Corniche

It feels good to be able to get around easily and not rely on the taxis (although they are really cheap), and the mother in me is much happier that the kids are back in their booster seats. We have a lot more freedom with our new wheels. There is no public transport system in Doha and our compound isn’t really walking distance to anything. Besides, it’s still too hot! On Friday morning (first day of the weekend), we drove down to The Corniche, which is a bit like the sea wall in Vancouver. It was quiet and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. 

The Corniche

The driving is crazy here. I am not sure how many white Toyota Landcruisers (with gold stripes down the side) are here in Doha, but I think every Qatari must have at least one! It’s like a uniform. Our little Suzuki seems tiny next to them. There are massive three lane round abouts and it's not uncommon for a shiny white and gold Landcruiser to leave the inside lane seconds for his exit and just barely miss crashing into several cars. Another scary part about driving here is the tailgating; it's not just one car every now and then, it's most cars everyday. Each day Andy travels with students from our school to the college for their PE class (no gym on our campus and outside is still too hot). He sees several accidents a week on his short five minute drive. Apparently there are seatbelt laws and mobile phone laws, but you wouldn't know it!

I found this video on youtube (circa 2008). While it's probably not the worst intersection in Doha as the title claims, it gives you a glimpse of the driving situation. 

For the time being, Andy is the one who drives. I haven't been for my license yet, but will venture out for it in the next week or so. Wish me luck!

Don’t Take Photos in the Supermarket - Management will Ask You to Leave

Shopping for groceries in Doha can be challenging. I’ve shopped at two of the several large supermarkets: Carrefour, the French hypermart and LuLu, another hypermart from UAE. What’s quite good about both of these huge stores is that you can buy just about everything you could possibly need.....IF you can find it! There is some kind of order where like-items are grouped together, but it seems that every time I go back, things have moved. When navigating a busy shop where shopping cart etiquette does not exist, I often find that I don’t have the space or patience to stop and look for the item that was on that shelf last week. With some items, there is very little selection, but with others there is a whole aisle of choice. Like vegetable oil - an entire aisle!

The produce section is most interesting to me. Since nothing 

is really grown here in Qatar, everything is imported. There is

a huge aisle of grapes - just select your country: Tunisia, 

Greece, Turkey, USA, Lebanon, Egypt. Same with apples: 

New Zealand, South Africa, USA, Canada, Jordan, Turkey. 

They have dragon fruit,  jackfruit and rambutan from Thailand, 

arbi (sweet potato) from Pakistan, coconuts from Sri Lanka, 

drumsticks from India, durian from Singapore.....the list goes 

on. There is a section of fruits and vegetables from India. I

saw a vegetable I hadn’t seen before and I didn’t know the 

name of it. When I looked up at the sign, it seems that 

Carrefour management didn’t know the name of it either; 

the sign said “vegetable from India”. 

 Lessons Learned at the Supermarket:

1. Line ups don’t matter here.
2. Never forget to have your produce weighed in the produce section. If you get to the check out without all the little stickers on your food, you’ll have to go back. 
3. Only buy meat from NZ or Australia.
4. Brown bread is really just white bread that’s been dyed brown. 
5. There is never a good time to go grocery shopping - it’s always busy.
6. Nobody uses reusable shopping bags here (even though they are available and cheap). The stores don’t really promote them either. 
7. Don’t take photos in a supermarket. Management will ask you to leave.

Nevertheless, our fridge is full each week and our grocery bill is much lower than it was in Canada. We are trying lots of different foods, but the boys are just happy that we always have ice cream and popsicles in the freezer. 

You look nice in your papaya, Mummy.

Last weekend, we joined quite a few of our colleagues on a tour of the Grand Mosque in Doha. The women were given an abaya to wear for the afternoon’s tour. When I came out with my abaya, Benjy said “You like nice in your papaya, Mummy”. It was too cute to correct. Traditional dress for Qatari women is a black abaya; for men it’s a white thobe (or thawb). The men on our tour just wore their own clothes, but I think they should’ve been given traditional dress as well. 

We were driven from FANAR, the Islamic Cultural Centre, to the Grand Mosque where we had a guide show us around. The building was enormous and very impressive. Including the spaces inside and outside, it holds over 30,000 people for prayer! Ben liked the huge chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and Will liked the lines on the red carpet where people line up for prayer. We can often hear the call to prayer from our house. When we hear it, Ben says it’s a “Muslim microphone” (because many of the mosques have are huge speakers on top of the minarets).  

The boys did well considering it was a long tour, and not really designed for children. I gave them my camera to keep them entertained. I’ll spare everyone the 100 photos of the lights and the red carpet.  But this self-portrait photo of Will is my favourite of the day!

Or maybe it's this one of a sign at the Islamic Cultural Centre. I tried to send Andy to this meeting :)

Will vs. Coffee Table

The social committee at school arranged a lovely pot-luck Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night. The turkey smelled great, the stuffing looked amazing and there was plenty of cranberry sauce. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to have any of it. Just as I had filled my plate and was about to sit down and enjoy my meal, Will tripped over the carpet and lost a fight with the glass coffee table. There’s a lot of blood in a six year old’s head! The two nurses at the party suggested that a stitch or two would probably be needed, so off we went to the medical clinic. For those of you who know Will well, you will know that he is very dramatic when he gets hurt. He’s been known to cry for hours about a sliver or a stubbed toe. Last year in Kindergarten, he regularly visited the office for ice so he could soothe his non-existent bumps and bruises. Amazingly, after the initial shock of the fall, there were no more tears. Not even for the needle or the stitches. He is very proud of his stitches and he says the girls will like his scar.