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!