Arabian Days : Day 8

Today was another red-letter day in our holiday. Today was Friday and M and C were at home for the weekend. After a lazy morning with a light-and-early brunch of kandepohe courtesy M (there's a reason for brunch being light) we rested a bit and then set off for…………………our desert safari!! Better known as dune bashing, it involves crazy driving up, – and more terrifyingly, down towering sand dunes in the desert in a 4 wheel drive. No wonder M insisted we eat light and at least 3 hours before the safari began. All that lurching about would NOT be pleasant on a full tummy!We (A, VK M and I – C had office) drove to the pickup point by 1:45 PM. There we met M's and C’s khaas friends M (lets call him M2!) and V (a lovely friendly couple originally from Bombay) who were going to be with us for the safari. There were other tourists waiting for the safari too. At about 2:30 we set off in a Land Cruiser (disappointingly common in Doha!) WITH OUR SEATBELTS WELL AND TRULY FASTENED. After about 30-45 mins drive through the starkly beautiful desert, we reached the dunes.

There, the air pressure from the car’s tires was reduced so that we didn’t bounce right off the sand. There were camel rides available while we waited but we chose to do our own TP instead. (i.e. posing for wacky photos)THEN the adventure began. Unlike dune bashing in Dubai, where the drivers plough up the steep slopes and then simply skirt the edge and come down again, here in Doha the drivers well and truly take you up the dune and down the other side. (But then Dubai has a sensuously beautiful belly-dancing performance as part of the safari which is banned in Qatar) At one point, our driver actually cut the engine while we were perched at the top of a dune, teetering at a steep angle so that we had a spine-chilling view of the cliff-like slope waiting for us. And then DOWN we went, screaming with both fear and excitement!

After every spectacular bit of driving, we would cheer our driver on (in Hindi, English and with non verbal signs like claps and whistles and thumbs-ups). Our driver understood Hindi and could speak in broken/ Hindi himself. Everytime we congrtaukated him after a scream fest, he would smile and say (exactly with the same accent like that Arabic guy on Zabaan Sambhalke!) “Yeh toh kucch bhi nahi. Aage dekho aur bhi hai!” Here a word about our driver is necessary. We’d thought about tipping our driver at the end of the day for giving us such a memorable day, but then we realized that he was a local, a Qatari gentleman who owned the car we were in. Qataris are almost always very rich and big spenders. He was doing this taking-people-on-day-trips-with-a-tour-agency not as a source of income, but for kicks! We concluded that in the end, he only might tip us (with his diamond-studded wristwatch) for being such good sports! ;)

The 'drivers'

During the safari we saw the inland sea (a narrow creek of water which has cut into the desert) and the hills of Saudi Arabia across the sea.



This is one of the rare places in the whole world where the open desert and the sea are next to each other. The white-gold desert dunes gently slope down to the sea, forming a beach. It’s a beautiful spot with blue and gold being the only colours in sight, as far as the eye can see!

After an exhausting afternoon of non-stop thrills-and-chills and being almost drunk on excitement and laughter, we came back to normalcy and civilization by 6:00 PM. Not wanting the good times to end, we stopped for falafel and shwarma at Petra, a chain of Middle Eastern fast food joints. Unlike our past encounter with falafel and shwarma at Al Meera (where the falafel and shwarma were rolled up inside a roti with raw cabbage and capsicum and hummous), Petra served a flatbread (a crisper and chewier version of a burger bun)split open and stuffed with the same falafel and shwarma and veggies and hummous. I liked the Petra version way more – the falafel and shwarma were tastier and in more generous quantities. We also split a plate of falafel (not in a sandwich) – garma-garam moong bhajis which are soft and bright green on the inside and brown and crisp on the outside. These were nice and moist too, unlike the dry mealy ones I'd had at Dubai. We washed these treats down with masala chai from Bombay Chowpatti, a chaat-and-other Indian fast food joint located in the same supermarket as Petra.We (us and M2-V ) decided to meet up for dinner and then headed our separate ways home, to a hot shower and a blissful hour relaxing on the oversized couches in M and C’s living room. For dinner, we went to Sukh Sagar (yes!!), a branch of the famous restaurant (or is it restaurants?) in Bombay. But instead of the Udipi-gone-mod décor we see in Bombay, this outlet had dim lighting, gorgeous coloured paper lanterns and china on the table. Thankfully, the cuisine was reassuringly same – Indian Chinese, Chaat and South Indian snacks. This time around, we chose Indian-Chinese and had a nice time getting reacquainted with Veg Manchurian Dry and its siblings after a week of exotic food!

Arabian Days: Day 6

Day 6 was Shopping Day. C had called for a taxi to pick A and me at about 11:30. The cab was punctual to the dot and A and I set off for Doha City Center (the mall we’d visited on Day 2) We rambled through the mall only stopping for a doughnut break at Dunkin Donuts (not as nice as Krispy Kreme!). I LOVED some of the shops for the expensive-but-exquisite goods they stocked (baby wear, for one! ) and some for their amazing-stuff-at-reasonable-prices, like the Home Center. I think I can happily furnish my entire home from the stuff at Home Center – the furniture / furnishings / knick-knacks are gorgeous AND affordable!

Lunch was at about 2:15 at Nando’s (in the mall on the foodcourt floor – so many restaurants, such les time!)- an international chain of restaurants famous for its spicy Chicken Peri-Peri. We feasted on the CPP as well as chicken wings and then set off for a 2-hour jaunt through Carrefour. Had another satisfying shopping spree – the 2 hours just flew by!

We refreshed our happily tired selves with juices from Al Mandarin, a juice store in the mall famous for its juices and shakes. I sampled the Avocado shake – a rich, thick concoction which was supposed to be avocados, milk and sugar but which tasted very much like a thick vanilla shake. I slurped away at it for AGES, but the glass refused to empty!! It stayed put at 9/10ths full!

C picked us up at about 5 and we headed home. I was introduced to a new drink today courtesy C (he’s been very keen on initiating me into alcohol!) We sipped on our drinks while watching Nakshatranche Dene on their home theatre system (with Bose speakers!) After relaxing over the drinks (how sophisticated does that sound!!) we left for the Souks – a complex of winding lanes and shops built just 1.5 years ago to resemble the old markets of the Middle East. It must be said, that it’s a job well done! The souks appear very real - the feel of the hanging lamps suspended from beamed ceilings; the lanes and alleys squeezed between shops selling souvenirs, hookahs, carpets, spices, birds, animals etc. is true-blue Arabia.













After loitering about the souk (rather like Diagon Alley with an Arabic twist!), we reached Tajine, a Moroccan restaurant that was our dinner destination (after gawking at the multi-coloured mirrored splendour of an Iranian restaurant and an ATM disguised as a hut)



Tajine is HIGH on ambience –like Khyber in Bombay. The atmosphere is overwhelmingly Arabian Nights – nobbly, rough-textured clay walls only partly illuminated by the golden light filtered through intricate latticed lamps, brass artefacts, antique mirrors, arched,stained-glass windows and rhythmic Arabic music in the background.
We had Tajine (Moroccan lentils), Briouat (Moroccan samosas/pastry triangles stuffed with either cheese or veggies), a lentil soup, Moroccan flatbreads, salted olives, a chilly-olive dip – and get a load of this – Tanjia with baby camel!! (A bland stew with baby camel meat – the only flavour coming through was of asafoetida) The camel meat was very similar to mutton, but a bit more stringy. The dish wasn't all that tasty, but the sheer novelty made the experience exhilarating!





The evening was rounded up by moving to Tajine’s open terrace and smoking an apple-flavoured sheesha (hookah), sipping mint-flavoured tea (yum!) and nibbling on Moroccan biscuits – all under a cloudy night sky and with the pulsing strains of Moroccan music in the background!

Arabian Days : Day 4

Today was THE day. Not only was it my birthday, but also it had the perfect balance of ALL the must-see and must-do of any holiday – local culture, exotic local food, shopping, and time with loved ones!

M had taken leave today, and after a lazy breakfast and talking to Ma-Baba back home (I was missing them!) and checking my birthday emails and cards (thanks guys!!!) we set off for LuLu, a hypermarket on the lines of Carrefour (Huge assortment of goods – food, toys, dresses, shoes, electronic stuff, cosmetics – you name it and its there – with several brands in each category!) LuLu is a chain of hypermarkets with presence largely in the Middle East. And what’s really remarkable is that it’s owned by an Indian – a Mallu! After nearly 3 hours of shopping (yes – I lost my shop-like-there’s-no-tomorrow virginity today!) across 2 floors, we headed home to a Thai green curry-and-rice lunch – the Thai curry was courtesy M and a readymade spice paste. Simple and yummy. :)

In the afternoon, we set off to the newly-opened Museum of Islamic Art. This spectacular building is located at one end of the Corniche and has some amazing sweeping views of the skyline as well of the sea.



Inside, the architecture gets even more superb – the lobby leads to a HUGE atrium over which 4 floors of the museum look down. There is a pair of curving staircases which form a complete circle that echoes the circular ornamental fixture suspended above the atrium.



The opposite wall has wide, floor-to-ceiling (yes, 4 floors high!) glass windows which give spectacular views of the towers-and-turrets of downtown Doha across the sea. And the artefacts! Wow. The layout of the museum, the arrangement of the pieces, and most especially the lighting of the display rooms - all are excellent. The rooms have subdued lighting and dark walls and floors with soft focussed lights on the artefacts themselves, so that each objet d’art basks in is own lustre. Beautiful! AND they allow photography – so you can imagine my excitement! (I personally think allowing visitors to share pictures of old artefacts increases awareness about them and increases their life in people’s memory. Which is the point of museums. But whatever) My only grouse is that there is not too much information about the relics. Agreed it is an art museum, not a history museum, but had there been a just a bit of the history of each piece or the salient features of the place/time it was from (rather than just the place and era), the visit would be greatly enriched. Apparently there is a multimedia guide you can hire (an audio file which details each piece – you choose which artefact you want to know more about as you look at it), but I still think the cards should have carried more info. But apart from this small complaint, the museum was wonderful! Glorious pottery, jewellery, metal craftsmanship, paintings, copies of the Quran – painstakingly collected and maintained in prime condition.



After much oohing-and-aahing, we spent a pleasant half hour sipping masala chai at the Al Bidda Park, a landscaped garden facing the sea. There are play areas for kids, manicured lawns, an amphitheatre – all with gorgeous views of the sea and the glittering skyline.



Pleasantly tired, we headed home and kicked off my birthday celebrations! There was cake-cutting, toasting me with red wine and a lovely hour of listening to a Shiv-Hari jugalbandi (complete with muted lighting and ‘mahaul’) while sipping on our drinks.Dinner was as different from this idyllic refined setting as chalk from cheese – we went to Turkey Central, a Turkish restaurant. The décor was kind of like an Irani restaurant back home – only with pleasanter pastel yellow walls. All the tables were taken and groaning under the weight of kebabs, fluffly Turkish bread, salads, juices and dips.We pigged out on:

1. Zahthar and Labneh pies – little scrolls of bread stuffed with zahthar (a fragrant herb mix) and labneh (a Lebanese/Turkish cream cheese) and grilled till crisp.

2. Humous and Mutabbal - chickpea dip and creamy dip with a hint of roasted brinjal respectively. (This was the first time I liked hummous!)

3. Sheesh taouk - amazingly succulent and remarkably low-on-spice grilled chicken kebabs

4. A yummy spicy tomato and onion salad (like salsa in consistency but not taste)

5. Soft fluffy Turkish bread with sesame seeds (on the house!)

6. Fresh muskmelon and pomegranate juices

Groan!! But this did not stop us from stopping at TCBY for frozen yoghurt. I had my first taste of candy floss flavoured icecream (ok, frozen yoghurt – but it tastes just like ice cream!) Buddhi ke Baal ice cream was too surreal. :)

This trip is rapidly proving to be a foodie holiday!

Arabian Days : Day 3

And so Scheherazade continues.... :P

Day 3 i.e. was spent lolling about at home. Here (perhaps because Doha is located on the east coast) it is bright and sunny at 6:30 AM. People leave home for work everyday at aout 7:00 AM. By 7:30 it is as sunny as 9:30-10:00 AM back home in Bombay. (Because of this and my obedient body clock, today I was up, bathed and ready by 7:30 AM. Miracle! ) But yes, by 5:30 in the evening its twilight and by 6:0 its dark. So it all works out I guess. Here office timings are from 7 to 3, perhaps because of this phenomenon and also to escape the harsh sunlight and heat, especially in the summer months (May-July)

For lunch, A and I walked to Al Meera Co-Operative, a LARGE supermarket situated at a 5 min walk from M and C's apartment. After browsing through the grocery and toiletries aisles and gaping at the HUGE sides of lamb and beef at the butcher counter, we sampled fried chicken at the KFC there.(In the evening C mentioned that there was a nice shwarma place in the same market, but we missed it - chalo, next time!) M and C returned by 5:00 and by 5:30 we'd all left for Doha City Center, one of Doha's largest and best malls. We walked across roughly half the 4-storeyed, almost 1km in length mall, shopping and window shopping at sports stores, clothes-and-accessries stores, kiddie wear stores, electronics stores...whew! The mall is plush and well-maintained, with automatic walkways, opulent fixtures like palm trees and cascading waterfalls, generous light arrangements and a spetacular ice rink in the central enclosed courtyard (The mall consits of a large circle of stores on every floor (looking down onto the rink) and corridors leading away from these circles) We rounded up our visit by shopping at Carrefour. Huge as always and very similar to the Carrefour at Dubai City Center. Standardisation is at once both comforting and boring!

Our traipsing around took us 4 hours (yes!) and we (at least VK and I) were beginning to wilt. So a refreshment (aka dinner) stop was taken at The Garden, a pure vegetarian South Indian restaurant, one of M and C's favourites. We sampled the pongal, the appams with stew, the bisibele bhath among other delicacies. And the best part was that the yummy sambhar and chutneys (the tomato-chilly-coconut one was to die for!) were on the house and replenished generously throughout the meal. And the food - oh my! Ambrosia. I never thought one could feast on such authentic vegetarian southie fare in the barren wilds of Qatar!

Arabian Days - Day 2

The first part of day 2 was spent in lazing around at home. After all the trudging around done yesterday, we were all content to rest.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Sara, a small place serving authentic Pakistani food. Its home-cooking, with surprisingly few spices used, whih means the true flavours of the vegetables come through. We sampled kadhi-pakoda, aloo-palak, a refreshing mint-flavoured buttermilk (DELICIOUS and on the house!) and HUGE rotis. These rotis are slightly larger than the average dinner plate - and soft, HOT and tasty! There was also a 'daal'- made of whole moong dal, rather like a subzi! Dessert was gajrela (gajar halwa wih LOTS of thickened milk) and smooth custard-like firni.



A word has to be said about Sara's decor. There are 2 entrances (many restaurants here have that) - one for 'bachelors'and the other for families. These two entrances lead to two different dining spaces - our 'family' hall was TINY, so I'm assuming the bachelors'must be minuscule too. Before you conclude that this is because of Islamic laws, the resaon is more commercial than religious. A very large part of the population here is labour class (Mallus, for example) who arent always the model of decorum. Too many such patrons means the higher-spending families dont visit your establishment. Hence the duality. Several upscale malls also do not allow visitors on Fridays (here the weekend is Fri-Sat) unless they are acompanied by a female.

After lunch, we dove along Doha's Corniche, which is the equivalent of our Marine Drive. But the sea is crysal-clear green, and the road is lined with lawns and flowerbeds overflwing with white, purple, red and pink petunias.





Doha's downtown is at one end of the Corniche - and I take my words back, Doha has some SPECTACULAR architecture, too! Downtown Doha is a mass of sleek modern skyscrapers, with a distinct futuristic theme.



After this, we drove to the The Pearl Qatar, a new township coming up (its half-complete) on reclaimed land off Doha's coast.

You can see the model here:



It is the height of class and opulence, with an entire range of homes - apartments, penthouses, villas built around a central circular marina (with piers for the owners'yachts!) The stores include Hermes, Armani and the like. The entire look-and-feel of the place is Moorish and Arabic. The promenade along the marina has coffe houses and potted plants (from which pulsing Arabic music pipes out- thanks to the Bose speakers installed in the earth surrounding the plants!)





After exploring Pearl Qatar, we started the long-ish drive (through the desert) to Al Khor. Al-Khor is a community established for the employees (majorly expat) of Qatar's 2 gas copanies - Ras Gas and Qatar Gas, about 60 km north of Doha (Doha is the capital of Qatar) It is an entirely self-sufficient township, rather like Jamshedpur, with 2 schools (Indian and British), a hospital, its own bus service, and 3 clubs with amenities like a library, squash and tennis courts, games rooms, swimming pools, restaurants - you name it, and its there. And the entire campus is beautifully maintained, with tight security. It reminded me a lot of Infy Mysore! One cannot enter unless one is a visitor at one of the residents. We were calling on Rajendra and Medha Khadilkar, friends of Madhura and Chirag from the Maharashtra Mandal at Doha. We had a FUN evening with Rau, Medha and their son Shantanu. I tried out foozball and TT for the first time! After a yummy Indian dinner at one of the club's restaurants, we set off for home. Truly a fun day!

Arabian Days - Day 1

Yesterday was the first day of my Middle Eeastern sojourn. We (Vinay Kaka, Amey and I ) boarded the Qatar Airways flight at 5:30 AM and were pleasantly surprised to see that economy class did not mean cattle class. The seating, though 3 by 3 by 3, was comfortable and the aircraft was new and spruce, with amazing in-fight entertainment options - movies, music, TV sitcoms etc. Amey and I had a nice time chuckling away at Alexis's misadventures in Madagacar 2. The in-flight breakfast was decent too, with surprisingly good fresh fruit.

After an uneventful-but-comfortable flight, we landed at Doha at 6:30 local time. The weather was pleasant (26 Deg C) and Madhura had come to pick us up. Their apartment is a brief drive from the airport. The city is pretty typical of cities in the Middle East (from my memories of Dubai and shows on Travel & Living) with sand lining the roads, beige coloured apartments with Arabic-style curlicues and minarets, wide streets with gloriously colourful flowerbeds by the side, awesome cars on the road, etc. But unlike Dubai's glittering modern skyline, Doha is simple, with few (or no) skyscrapers. Also, there are few examples of the eye-popping futuristic architecture that defines Dubai.

We reached home and after a quick breakfast and shower and a leisurely gappa session with Madhura (Chirag was away, playing a cricket match in an inter-company tournament - they won BTW), we three crashed out and slept till 1:00PM. Poor Madhura...she cooked up a delicious wholesome Maharashtrian lunch for 5 while we snoozed!

After lunch we had another gappashtak and set off for the Asian Games Village called the ASPIRE zone at about 3 PM. It was around 20-30 minutes drive from home, but then the average speed of the car was 80 KMPH, so thats that. The drive was remarkably smooth -the combination of amazing roads and amazing cars makes for a velvet-smooth ride!

The Asian Games Village is an awe-inspiring sght as it emerges on the horizon - the iconic Aspire Tower (which was used as the Asian Games torch) remind one of the architecture described in The Fountainhead or Wyatts Torch in Atlas shrugged. The Khalifa Stadium is also a modern sleek structure with hyperbolic curves.






After a good 40-minute walk around the campus (lovely pactice fields, walking and bicycling tracks etc) we headed to Villagio one of Doha's amazing malls. Villagio is modeled along the lines of the Venetian at Las Vegas. It consists of a series of piazzas from which curving streets spread out - all under a false sky (painted and lit to resemble the early evening sky with pink-and-blue clouds and golden distilled sunshine). Shops line the streets housed in palazzio-styled 'building's complete with white mouldings and fake terraces. There is even a small canal running across the mall complete with gondolas for giving chidren joyrides!



And the shops! Cartier, Harry Winston, GAP, MANGO, MAC, Givenchy.....and the best part is, peope actually SHOP here, unlike Atria back in Amchi Mumbai.(Contracts for natural gas for the next 25 years and a 15 lakh population(of which 70% are expats) means the highest per capita income in the world.) Exquisitely dressed (albeit in burqas - Versace burquas - yes!) and made-up women, CUTE pink-cheeked children, noble-looking men in those white robes...Plus there are speciality shops - stocking lingerie, sports goods (everything ANY sportsperson would EVER need), makeup, purses....



And the food! OMG! Aprt from chains like Krispy Kreme, McDs, KFCs, Cold Stone Creamery, Le Pain Quotidien, TGIF, etc there is Asha Bhosales restaurant 'Asha' and numerous cafes. We pigged out on Krispy Kreme doughnuts ( a HOT original glazed is the best!!), Cookie Dough-chocolate chip-caramel icecream (served with a cheerful rendition of 'Munnabhai motor chale pum-pum-pum' by the Philpino servers at ColdStone), McD fries, a Mongolian stifry (you choose from a spread of marinated meat, fresh veggies, noodles and sauce all of which is grilled on a giant tava), pasta from a make-your-own-pasta joint, garlic bread and pastries. Groan!



Thankfully we'd walked enough to make me feel less guilty about all that feeding.....enough to give me throbbing heels and aching calves!