Doha Day 1

What a day! Shopping galore...

The R&R program here runs a pretty robust tour schedule. Some are free, some are paid (but you're usually just paying for the included meal, so even those are very reasonable). I signed up for two shopping tours on my first day to get the "lay of the land" on the cheap (read: free!).

My day started with the gold souk. Now, I'm not really interested in buying "real" jewelry, so this didn't excite me much, but it was fun to look around. It's a fairly small area - a couple of blocks, but EVERY store is a jewelry shop! How do they all stay in business??? Here's what a typical alley looks like...

Anyway, the next stop was a lot more interesting for me - the old souk. You can buy just about anything here - from belly-dancing costumes to kitchen gadgets, pashmina scarves to toys. We had a couple of hours here to look around, and of course I managed to find beads. :) I had NO idea there would be so many available. :) There was even one section that seemed dedicated to handmade items, mostly sold by women:



My fun was cut short a little bit though when an unexpected sandstorm blew through quickly. It was bright and sunny one minute, and the next minute I could barely see across the street of the market! Apparently these storms are fairly common in summer, but not now - even the shopkeepers were caught off guard. Compare this picture with the one above, which was taken about ten minutes before...


Most of the stores closed up quickly after that, so I sought shelter in an Indian restaurant - the Royal Tandoor. Great service, great food, and I left stuffed! Headed back to base long enough to drop off stuff, check email, and head out again.

The evening's tour was to the Villagio mall. Fairly new I think... The entrance we were dropped off at was all the high-end stores - Tiffany's, Burberry, Harry Winston, etc. - you get the idea. I was starting to wonder if I could afford to even look in the mall when we spotted the comforting neon glare of TGI Friday's. :) The other wings were more affordable (and fun to look around). There is a canal right down the middle of the main thoroughfare, complete with gondolas and oarsmen. Not very many people took advantage of it though...


We did manage to grab dinner at "The Butcher Shop" which was recommended by my roommate. She has good taste. :)



So after a very full day of shopping, it was back to the base for me to get some sleep. I'm signed up for the Doha city tour tomorrow, so look for more pictures! I know I'm taking many more pictures than I want to put on here (else the page will take too long to load!) so if you want to see more pictures from today, click here.

It's SO nice to have a reasonably fast net connection!!! :)