6 month anniversary

To celebrate my 6 month anniversary in the dullest "city" in the world, I am leaving Qatar and visiting Oman for an extended weekend. I will post pictures of Oman upon my return to Qatar.

Cannon Fodder

Is that a cannon in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

Al Zubara Fort

Fort in the northern area of Al Zubara

From Marhaba Magazine, "At the very tip of the Qatari peninsula, the now rather desolate area of Al Zubara was the site of successive communities and was once a thriving and prosperous settlement - the focus of the region's trade. Between 1775 and 1780, an attack by the Persians on Basra, coupled with an outbreak of the Plague, forced many merchant families to flee the southern Iraqi city, with many settling at the walled city of Al Zubara. At its prime, it is estimated that some 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants lived there, earning their living by fishing, pearl harvesting and merchant trading. The fortess city was destroyed in a siege in September 1878."

Biggest water fountain that I have ever seen

Road trip to the northern part of Qatar...came to the northern most village...biggest water fountain/dispenser that I have ever seen.

Crystal, Crystal !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Samples of Desert Roses found in Qatar.

From Wikipedia.org, "Desert rose is the colloquial name given to rosette formations of the minerals gypsum and barite with sand inclusions."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_rose_(crystal)

Digging for Desert Roses

Camel in the Road

Driving along a dirt road in Qatar, I came upon a camel sitting in the middle of the road.

Language Can Be Fun

This headline in the Gulf Times WORKS on so many levels...This is what it refers to: "China's first NBA star, expelled from the national team for skipping the 2002 Asian Games, made an apologetic return on yesterday as China seeks to reconcile with 'problem stars' ahead of the Beijing Olympics."

BUT REALLY, do we care about the article when the headline says so much?

KSA

There is a sign down the street from my villa for KSA. KSA stands for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Qatar has signs that point to KSA on Salwa Road in Qatar. Salwa Road runs from Doha on one side of the country to the town of Abu Samra on the border of Saudi Arabia diagonally on the other side of the country. Salwa Road is two streets over from my villa, so basically, driving, it is less than an hour from my front door to Saudi Arabi.

Wouldn't be interesting to have a sign in Maine pointing to Mexico, or a sign in Texas pointing to Canada? Or a sign on Washington DC pointing to either Canada or Mexico.

Shisha

Enjoying a shisha pipe...Tokin' a mixture of tobacco, apple, and strawberry.

A shisha/sheesha is a traditional Middle Eastern or Asian device for smoking. It is also known as a water pipe, nargeela/arghileh/nargile, hookah, okka, kalyan, ghelyoon or Ghalyan, or hubble-bubble., from WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Today, shisha tobacco is often mixed with dried fruit, natural extracts and artificial flavorings to produce a varying assortment of tobacco flavors, such as apple, strawberry, orange, mango, cappuccino, vanilla, coconut, cherry, grape, plum, banana, pineapple, mixed fruit, cola, lemon, apricot, coffee, and mint, which has a cooling effect on the throat., also from WIKEPEDIA.ORG

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah for more info.

Happy Belated Saint Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day Party was on March 31st because too many people were away during the real St Patrick's Day for Spring Break.

Mmmmmmmmm...donuts

Homer: Oh, I'd sell my soul for a donut.