Doha Panorama

Hi Folks - here are some recent photos taken on a clear day from the top of Golden Tower - about 35 storeys up. Golden is on the edge of the West Bay Building Area where most of the tallest buildings are being built.
From the start of the pictures you can see towards the old part of Doha where many of the Governmental buildings are and all the Bank head offices and also all of the " Souks " ( markets ). The photos then progress through West Bay then over the water to the Pearl ( see earlier blog ) and the two zig-zag wiggly towers. Lastly you then get to see the residential areas - inland from the built up coast - starting from the north through the west and on to the south.
It would certainly be very interesting to see this place in ten years time when it will be mostly finished as at present we are in the fairly early stages - most of these buildings weren't here five years ago.
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There are plans for all sorts of tourist attractions where the old port is now. Also planned is to be the tallest building in the world at just over a kilometer high ...just to out do the Burj Dubai...someone has to I guess. Dubai has come to a bit of a standstill with the economic sitaution hitting pretty hard. Many buildings have stopped mid construction and many are barely occupied and many totally empty. Qatar however with it's huge reserves of gas continues at pace. Large scale road systems are still underway - hence the current congestion problems, and there are plans for an impressive above ground ( I think ) mono-rail system linking the whole city and most of the outer industrial, power and gas towns.

Qatar is establishing itself as a major destination point for tourism, conferences and a major world Airport stopover to rival or probably overtake that of Dubai. For such a small country they are stamping out their place as a major player in the Middle East. They certainly have an impressive record for initiating and hosting peace initiatives in this part of the world.
So all in all it is an interesting time to be here - Hey you could always come and visit!!!!

Dip Club

The Dip Club is a place we go to to swim. It also has a gym which I try to get to a couple of times a week, my only exercise apart from walking up flights of stairs in the apartment block!

Check out this link and zoom out using the side bar, you will see that the Dip Club is opposite The Pearl which is a huge off-shore development with large scale building going on. The Dip Club has its own private beach overlooking The Pearl. It's a great place to spend the weekend relaxing away from the eyes of muslim men as it's not really the done thing for women to swim at the local beaches. If we drive out of Doha we are able to find deserted beaches to swim in but when you are living and working in the city and the weather is starting to heat up the Dip Club is truly wonderful.

Rain in Qatar

It was a real downpour.
Last weekend a group of us decided we would head 'up north' to spend the day picnicing, swimming and fishing. We woke up to dark clouds and light rain but thought we would go anyway - it doesn't usually rain in Qatar for long - wrong! We drove in convoy up to Zekreet, which will be the main highway to Bahrain in the future. They will be building a massive bridge to join the two

countries (at present it is under construction - in parts it has 4 lanes). It rained on and off for most of the day - but we did mange to set up our picnic and eat, it did get quite cold though. We were all in raincoats and had pasminas or towels wrapped around us for warmth - hard to believe. Ever optimistic and always keen to throw a rod in the water Brian went fishing for a short time.

The drainage system here is not used to rain hence the puddle - the round abouts were fun! - Brian used them as an excuse to clean the car of wet sandy mud after our off road excursion into the desert. This photo is outside our apartment - usually a dry dusty road.