Suzy wanted to go a different shopping mall this morning, the Mall of Qatar. After our experience yesterday with the taxi driver, she decided to use Uber instead. This worked well. The driver arrived within 15 minutes and got us there successfully without any hassle. It was probably cheaper too.
Previously the sky has been clear and blue. Today they was a haze over the city. We weren't too sure if it was a heat haze, sand, dust or something else.
The mall is about 30km away and the trip took about half an hour. I continue to be amazed with the amount of construction work that is going on in Doha.
Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine that you are travelling from Sydney to Parramatta on the M4. Here the motorway is three or four lanes in each direction all the way from the city and its tall shiny modern buildings. On both sides of the motorway, they are widening the road - probably doubling it.
Imagine that the "western suburbs" is mainly sand. There are a few buildings along the way including some shopping strips and the occasional grand building. For the entire length of the route, there are buildings being built as far as the eye can see. Its like there are currently building most of the "western suburbs".
Everywhere you look, you see barriers, construction vehicles, cranes and workmen in fluoro vests. But that's not all. Some of the hoardings are labelled "Rail". In other words, they are currently building the "western railway line".
It's just staggering to see so much construction happening at once and it doesn't stop at "Parramatta" - it probably goes all the way to "Penrith".
As we approached the mall, there was a viaduct on the left side of the motorway that went for many kilometres. As we pulled up at the mall, I saw a large structure and concluded that they were building a multi-storey railway station and the viaduct would be for a new railway line.
The Mall of Qatar is another large shopping centre but its architecture is quite different from the the Villagio Mall that we visited yesterday. It is a very modern style with lots of shiny marble, glass. fountains and tall palm trees.
Just inside the main entrance, there is a very tall display of huge artificial swans. In the centre of the mall where many of the wide corridors intersect, there is another large fountain surrounded by artificial trees.
Suzy hit the shops while I found a comfortable lounge chair and read the paper on my iPad. When we met at 12:30pm, we went to cafe called Godiva just inside the main entrance. Here we enjoyed Belgian chocolates, cafe mocha and an espresso coffee.
Next Suzy wanted to go back to buy a suitcase so we could take home all the things she's bought on our trip. We used Uber again for the return trip to our hotel. The traffic was fairly heavy this time as we got close to the hotel.
For lunch we went to the hotel's coffee shop on the ground floor. They present the food well. I had fish and chips and Suzy had a club sandwich but it looked more impressive than it sounds.
Suzy wanted to visit The Pearl this evening. This is very large man-made sand island off the coast. It is connected to the mainland by a man-made causeway. There are dozens of multi-storey buildings on the island.
Once again, we used Uber to get there. We left at about 6pm because we wanted to get there before it got dark. We asked the driver to drop us off at the marina because this area has great views and it is where many of the restaurants are located.
The sun was setting and so the lights were coming on along the marina and in the buildings across the water. This made the marina even more attractive.
One of the features of the marina is the number of large expensive boats that are moored there. Of course there are plenty of smaller boats too.
The architecture of the buildings along the walkway is very impressive. I expect that architects would have loved to have got the job to design the buildings. It was an opportunity to express their imagination and artistic ability.
There are water features in front of many of the buildings. There were also several canals crossed by footbridges. There were plenty of photo opportunities.
Almost every second business was a cafe or a restaurant. After walking for about half an hour, Suzy was getting tired and we went into a nearby restaurant to have dinner. It turned out to be a Lebanese restaurant and the food was delicious. We drank diet Pepsi because alcohol is banned on The Pearl.
We've heard that many of the ex-pats live in the apartments on the islands. There are also numerous hotels. However, there were very few customers in the restaurants. I don't know how they survive if they have only one or two couples to serve. Maybe people go somewhere else where you can get a drink.
After dinner, we walked further and then we used Uber at about 8pm to get back to the hotel.
Suzy wanted to go shopping at the souq again. It was very busy with shoppers - mainly locals in traditional dress. The streets outside were still busy with cars and pedestrians.
This is obviously a popular place and time to go shopping. It was a family event with many children including young children in strollers. Perhaps another explanation is that Ramadan starts tomorrow and so people are stocking up or just enjoying being able to enjoy themselves.
It had been another great day taking in the culture of Doha.
Previously the sky has been clear and blue. Today they was a haze over the city. We weren't too sure if it was a heat haze, sand, dust or something else.
Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine that you are travelling from Sydney to Parramatta on the M4. Here the motorway is three or four lanes in each direction all the way from the city and its tall shiny modern buildings. On both sides of the motorway, they are widening the road - probably doubling it.
Imagine that the "western suburbs" is mainly sand. There are a few buildings along the way including some shopping strips and the occasional grand building. For the entire length of the route, there are buildings being built as far as the eye can see. Its like there are currently building most of the "western suburbs".
Everywhere you look, you see barriers, construction vehicles, cranes and workmen in fluoro vests. But that's not all. Some of the hoardings are labelled "Rail". In other words, they are currently building the "western railway line".
As we approached the mall, there was a viaduct on the left side of the motorway that went for many kilometres. As we pulled up at the mall, I saw a large structure and concluded that they were building a multi-storey railway station and the viaduct would be for a new railway line.
The Mall of Qatar is another large shopping centre but its architecture is quite different from the the Villagio Mall that we visited yesterday. It is a very modern style with lots of shiny marble, glass. fountains and tall palm trees.
Suzy hit the shops while I found a comfortable lounge chair and read the paper on my iPad. When we met at 12:30pm, we went to cafe called Godiva just inside the main entrance. Here we enjoyed Belgian chocolates, cafe mocha and an espresso coffee.
Next Suzy wanted to go back to buy a suitcase so we could take home all the things she's bought on our trip. We used Uber again for the return trip to our hotel. The traffic was fairly heavy this time as we got close to the hotel.
For lunch we went to the hotel's coffee shop on the ground floor. They present the food well. I had fish and chips and Suzy had a club sandwich but it looked more impressive than it sounds.
Once again, we used Uber to get there. We left at about 6pm because we wanted to get there before it got dark. We asked the driver to drop us off at the marina because this area has great views and it is where many of the restaurants are located.
The sun was setting and so the lights were coming on along the marina and in the buildings across the water. This made the marina even more attractive.
One of the features of the marina is the number of large expensive boats that are moored there. Of course there are plenty of smaller boats too.
The architecture of the buildings along the walkway is very impressive. I expect that architects would have loved to have got the job to design the buildings. It was an opportunity to express their imagination and artistic ability.
Almost every second business was a cafe or a restaurant. After walking for about half an hour, Suzy was getting tired and we went into a nearby restaurant to have dinner. It turned out to be a Lebanese restaurant and the food was delicious. We drank diet Pepsi because alcohol is banned on The Pearl.
We've heard that many of the ex-pats live in the apartments on the islands. There are also numerous hotels. However, there were very few customers in the restaurants. I don't know how they survive if they have only one or two couples to serve. Maybe people go somewhere else where you can get a drink.
After dinner, we walked further and then we used Uber at about 8pm to get back to the hotel.
This is obviously a popular place and time to go shopping. It was a family event with many children including young children in strollers. Perhaps another explanation is that Ramadan starts tomorrow and so people are stocking up or just enjoying being able to enjoy themselves.
It had been another great day taking in the culture of Doha.
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