Traveling

I will be traveling for the next 24+ hours so there will be no new posts. I will update as soon as I reach Savannah. Well the next morning. Well whenever I wake up the next day after I arrive in Savannah. There will be a lot of new postings. Check back on Saturday.

Sushi night.

Tuesday night was one of my best nights in Doha. We went with some friend from VCUQ to a sushi restaurant called Neo. Tuesday nights is all you can eat sushi where they just bring sushi to your table as it's made. At first I thought it was good and well paced but somewhere a long the line the sushi came out faster than you could eat. But it was so delicious. I have no idea how many pieces I had but it was a lot. I was sitting across from Rehab and she was trying to get me to eat one more piece with her. We both had about 4 left on our plates and ate just 1 last piece before we almost died from fullness. The owner came out and told us that the record was 46 pieces of sushi and that if anyone had 50 pieces they dine for free. Good thing he told us that after we were all filled to capacity because we all would have been counting and trying to get to 50. 

After the sushi we ordered all the desserts on the menu and split them between the six of us. They were absolutely divine. The restaurant makes them on the spot so it takes a while to get your dessert, which is perfectly fine because while they make the desserts you digest all the sushi you just gorged yourself on. One particular dessert required a chisel, then there was a green tea tiramisu, apple tart with cinnamon ice cream and an absolutely incredible heavenly molten chocolate cake. 

Everything was incredible. There was great conversation and company, amazing food, and I loved the restaurant (well designed that I didn't have much to critique on as I have a tendency to do thanks to SCAD).

After dinner we went next door to Layali which is owned by the same man as Neo. There most of us had white coffee which is an herbal tea that acts as a sedative and calms the nerves while stimulating digestion after a rich or heavy meal (I think two dozen pieces of sushi and rich desserts counts as a rich and heavy meal). This was by far the best night here.

Me and Rehab (who stated that she wanted to kidnap me so that I couldn't leave Wednesday night) She's so sweet and funny, I liked her and her husband the first night I met them.

This is Halim, he's basically a connection to any restaurant in the area. If you are with him you'll get treated well.

The lighter side of Bill McGee.

"Happy Face"

Impression of Rehab giving us attitude.

Rehab and Dad giving me attitude.

Education City.

Education City is basically a large campus for several universities developed by the Qatar Foundation. 

The interior of the Virginia Commonwealth University building:

Ceremonial Courtyard:

Weill Cornell Medical College:

Liberal Arts & Sciences Building:

(this geometrical design is based off one of the Islamic stars)

Dhow Rides.

It was suggested to us by a woman Dad works with that we take a dhow ride in the bay along the Corniche. It was a nice boat ride along the bay. We saw nice views of the city. It was a good relaxing activity after several days of going going going.

So Serious.

I went to work with my Dad today and I heard a couple of times that he looks serious all the time. It's funny because when I try to take a picture of him he looks so serious (like the one below). But I make fun of him for that and get him to smile and take a second picture.

So Serious:

Not so serious:

Me? sometimes serious... but I get it from him.

Best Overall Restaurant!

Congratulations to Shebestan on being the best overall restaurant I've been to in Doha. The service was incredible. We went there around 7pm where their peak hour is around 10pm so there was not that many people there. The atmosphere was nice with luxurious furnishings and traditional music. We were given freshly baked bread along with some cool almost yogurt-like dip for vegetables. 

We then ordered a small mixed salad of homos and tabouleh. It was a perfect portion of everything so that we didn't fill up. I also ordered a drink which consisted of lemon juice and mint. It was similar to lemonade without so much sugar and add a lot of mint. So delicious and refreshing. It was a perfect complement for the appetizers. Dad ordered a soup along with everything. I tried some and the taste was incredible. It had cinnamon and other spices that made it smell and taste good. Dad told me after I had tried it that the soup was lentil soup. Who knew? Sorry Mom, before this I hated lentil soup but now I love it. Only Persian lentil soup though.

The main dishes were absolutely amazing. Dad order a curry dish. Normally I do not like curry at all, the spices are too much for me, but this was delicious. A little sweet and not at all spicy like other curry dishes I've tried. I ordered a lamb dish with rice. It was the best thing I've ever had in my entire life. The lamb was so soft they must have been cooking it for hours. The sauce on the lamb I believe was a tomato sauce of some sort. The rice was probably the best thing on my plate. It was incredible! I have no idea what was in it but it was sweet yet tasted of herbs, and was soft not dry or mushy. This rice was perfect. I was getting full but I couldn't stop eating the rice. The lemon and mint drink again was the perfect complement. DELICIOUS!

After dinner we ordered dessert. We hadn't tried dessert at the restaurants except the Lebanese one (which wasn't impressive). Dad ordered a custard type of dessert and I ordered saffron ice cream. We also had Turkish coffee. Al Bandar had good Turkish coffee and the Lebanese restaurant had terrible coffee. First we received the desserts. Oh they were to die for. Especially the saffron ice cream. I'm in love with this restaurant and want Ben & Jerry's to start making saffron ice cream. And now for the real test of a restaurant, the Turkish coffee... perfect! This restaurant was perfect all around. If I lived here I would be coming to Shebestan twice a week or more.

Another grand adventure.

We wanted to go to one of the several museums in the area. Number one on our list was the new Museum for Islamic Art in a building designed by I.M.Pei, however it was not opened yet. It was completed last year and ready for the hand over and was supposed to be open in 2007. I guess they are waiting for the last month in 2007 to open it.

Turns out the Qatar National museum wasn't open either because of restorations. So we decided to go to the Al Wakra museum in Al Wakra, south of Doha. And to get there we past another roundabout, this time with giant perfume bottles in the center.
We get there and read that it was on Buoy roundabout next to the coast guard station. We found the roundabout and the coast guard stations but no museum. We drove around for about a half hour look for this building. Qatar is horrible about signage. Use your signs. One that said museum and had an arrow would have been nice. But in driving around looking for this thing we got to see a true Middle East town that hadn't been monopolized by commercialism like Doha. The old architecture was still there and the mosques were beautiful as always. No museum but in a way the town itself was one.

Roll out the welcome mat.

Welcome to Grand Hamad St. where driving toward the Corniche you pass under two giant swords arching over the road. Because that screams welcome to Qatar for me.

Aladdin's Kingdom

Yes, even countries in the Middle East have to have amusement parks. They have them along side ice skating rinks and bowling alleys in the mall and also ones outdoors complete with roller coasters and other rides. Although I never expected them to use a corny name like "Aladdin's Kingdom". Too bad it wasn't open.

The Pearl

Welcome to The Pearl.

It's a completely man made island that will house hundreds of buildings. It will basically consist of a massive amount of high rise residential buildings, villas, shopping centers, private beaches, and land for private new home construction. It's completely insane but once again, Qatar has no financial limitations.

We went on this island to the sales center (which looks like a giant oyster) and walked inside. Let me just say that what was inside would make any architecture student, who's had to construct a model, sick. This entire complex was in model form (maybe 1/16 or 3/32 scale). Every high rise, shopping enter, villa, everything was built up. I was not allowed to take pictures of the model but just imagine the sickest most detailed grand model ever and you wont' come close to this. 

http://www.thepearlqatar.com/

Zig-Zag Towers

Continuing on the theme of architecture, here's another set of buildings that is being constructed. The "zig-zag" towers are being erected just outside of the city on the way to The Pearl (a man made island and soon to be massive housing development). Doha is the land of experimental architecture and while I'm sure it all can be done, it's interesting to see what kind of architecture a country with no financial limitations chooses to build.

Architecture.

Doha has some of the greatest pieces of modern architecture I've seen. Granted most buildings are being constructed right now but the renderings are posted like billboards on the lot and they look incredible. This is one of the buildings that has caught my eye. I don't know if that sphere is functional but then again I don't want to find out personally until I know what is holding it up. The other issue is that they use mostly glass. Normally with the harsh sun the glare off these buildings would be painful, especially with this building, but it causes no problems. There is so much dust in the air and no rain that these buildings are covered in a thin film of dust and sand.

No Rules, Crazy Stunts.

On the way home we drove past Sealine again and saw these people trying to parasail. Only the guy was attached to the back of a car and not to a boat. And he didn't have enough rope to allow him to take advantage of the parachute. They took off in the car and he went up in the air. They didn't drive toward the dunes (which would provide him a soft landing if the car stopped) but proceeded to drive down next to the highway. We have no idea what happened to him but if that car slowed down or stopped he would, at best, break both his legs. That's the Middle East for you. No rules. Crazy stunts.

Climbing Dunes

We stopped at one of the dunes and decided to climb it. Such a work out to walk up a mountain of sand (especially in bare feet). We were so high up but it was cool to see all of the desert, over every dune as far as the eye can see. The wind also created amazing patterns in the sand.

Get out your GPS coordinates

Some might wonder how we got around in the desert without roads and didn't manage to get lost. Well thanks to technology and VCUQ, we had a satellite phone. Just put in the GPS coordinates and it tells you where you are and where your destination is.

Note: Notice where my dad is sitting. That's right, he's in the passenger seat. I got to drive the 37 kilometers back to Sealine Beach.

Sand Dunes & Saudi Arabia

After Sealine Beach we drove to the inland sea. The eastern shore is full of huge sand dunes. The drive is somewhat quiet (more quiet than driving over rocks on the western shore). Most of the time we were driving on flat rock either covered by a little bit of sand or exposed. Occasionally we drove over small dunes which was an adrenaline boost. We saw several other vehicles that were driving over the huge dunes and speeding past us at about 100 or 120 kilometers an hour.

We finally reached the inland sea and that was the best beach I've ever been to. The sand was perfect, so fine and cool on your feet. The shells were preserved perfectly, some were still attached to each other. There are no waves here, so the water just washed the shells up gently and pushes the sand back creating amazing patterns in the sand. All along the shore there were bedouin tents that people live in during the winter months. Across the sea there's another shoreline that can be seen. It's actually Saudi Arabia. That is as close to Saudi Arabia as I ever want to be.

Camel Rides at Sealine Beach

Dad and I rode camels on the beach. It was more of a guide because we don't know the first thing about directing camels but it was still exhilarating. At first the camels were a little scary, grunting and showing their teeth. Camels are strange creatures, they fold their legs under themselves when down and then to get up they first straighten their back legs putting you at almost a 45degree angle making you feel as though you are going to fall off. Then you're up and it's like a riding a horse. At the end of the ride the men directing the camels told them to get down so we could get off. Mine was being stubborn and didn't want to get down. Now I can say that I rode a camel (an authentic camel ride, not the one from the zoo).

The sunset in the desert is beautiful. And so is the moon rising. The temperature dropped significantly enough to roll down the windows and drive. We had to pass through a small town, Zikreet, to get back to Doha and I had mentioned that since it was sunset, it would be amazing if we could hear the call to prayer. Sure enough, just as we approached the small mosque, the call to prayer began. It was an incredible day of being in the right place at the right time: the delays that timed out perfectly to finding the movie set when the animals came out to driving through Zikreet at prayer time. Right time, right place.

Note: I didn't want to take video because I didn't know how the locals would react but the audio is there.

Desert Wildlife

After an entire day in the western desert of Qatar we finally saw some wildlife. First we saw four ostriches and followed them south toward the movie set that we were trying to find.

We then saw an antelope off in the distance along with the ostriches. We didn't see animals all day and now we see a lot in a couple minutes.