Basboy’s Weblog

So, here I am, sitting down in the house in Doha on my second Friday here. I am thinking about the time that has passed, and wondering if I had perhaps done too little here. I mean, the main objective was to spend some time with my father and perhaps keep him company for a couple of weeks until he comes back home, but I also had planned to go sightseeing and exploring.
Alas, I have done little of that. Mostly, this is due to the fact that I have little by way of transportation here, as taxis are scarce and costly, and my father, being busy, can hardly chauffeur me during his work schedule and is often too tired in the evenings to go out for more than a short while. I have not considered renting a car, as many obstacles come up with that, not the least of which my father’s general dissatisfaction with that kind of fruitless spending, as well as my utter cluelessness as to the roads and hot spots here.
I have, of course, seen a few landmarks here. In fact, in my first day here, I went by myself to a nice khaleeji-style shopping center called Landmark (that bit of pun-age just crept up on me, I swear!) Aside from that, I visited with my father to Soug Wagef, or the old city market. I have not taken any pictures of it, as this was early on in my stay and I was always forgetting my camera, but here is a photos I found browsing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zitona/2097686933/in/photostream/
This market was a little funny to me. Apparently, this location was the original “downtown” commercial area of Doha, but had since been renovated and redesigned as a faux-antique touristic walkway, complete with the necessary Starbucks and Hagen Daaz locations in its ‘historic’ face. Also, this place could be maybe a little older than half a century- not that old… ah, but it was fun.
I also visited my share of malls here, which are the site of the extravagance of the gulf countries’ lifestyle at its most extreme. I must admit to liking that kind of ambiance perhaps more than I should. The most extravagant was, of course, the Villaggio center, which although unfinished, holds a very unique shopping experience in its colorful design. Basically, it is structure to look as though it an outdoors European market, complete with the appropriate architecture of simulated housing above the stores, the painted “sky” ceiling, and its indoors river of water with Venetian gondolas traveling its length. And, oh yeah, there were shops, too!
Today, though, had to be the best day. We finally went to the Islamic Arts Museum here, and it was amazing. The construction and immaculate upkeep of the exterior of the building as we drove up to it was breathtaking. I won’t say too much, as I have taken pictures (although, I had forgotten my camera again and had to rely on my father’s cell phone to do the honors). The interior was not so bad, too. There were two open floors thus far with artifacts from the Muslim world ranging from the eighth to the early 20th century, and covering locales from India, to Persia, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Egypt. It was truly extensive, and much of what we saw was very well preserved. I almost felt bad taking photos of them, as I almost want to keep it a mystery what we saw there to encourage others to go for themselves. Also, supposedly, it was not permitted to even have a camera in there, but seeing every person and his son with an ultra-expensive SLR camera snapping away not-two-meters away from a guard emboldened me to take my photos and accept my luck in doing so.
As for the photos, I just have to retrieve them from my camera and my father’s Nokia 950- and the latter will take some time. Once that is accomplished, I will post some in my flickr account and comment to them here. Well, that is all for now. I hope all is well with you, my loyal readers!