How To Spend A Weekend In Firenze, Italy (Mall-O-Mania Qatar Style)

I spent 4 full days in Qatar over the weekend (13-18 May). K was there on a longer business trip and the plan was for me to fly in and spend the weekend with him sightseeing in the capital Doha and perhaps outside of Doha as well.

Picture source: http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/qa.htm

That plan fell through as he had to work over the weekend as well and so I ended up spending quite some time in one of the malls. You shouldn't really go sightseeing in the Gulf region without having a look at their malls - not only are most of them quite extraordinary, they have also become an integral part of the culture as hordes of locals (and expatriates alike) flock to the malls on Thursday and Friday evenings for dinner, shopping and entertainment (this is true for Kuwait as it is for Dubai and Qatar - and I am sure the rest of the Gulf as well). I wrote about some of the malls in Dubai in my previous post Mall-O-Mania.

The Villaggio Mall on the outskirts of Doha has really made an effort to stand out from the rest of the malls: according to their website the aim has been "to transport every visitor to an Italian village by the sea". Throughout one end of the mall runs a canal with gondolas resembling Florence, Italy. Although the canal isn't too long, I saw a lot of families taking a ride - the gondolier had an easy time as the gondolas actually have motors and sail smoothly through the water - no need for rowing (and no singing either).

They have painted the ceiling a sky-blue with clouds to give the imagination of being outdoors in a real Venetian canal...


(Villaggio Mall, Doha, Qatar - the lagoon at one end of the canal and the tip of a gondola waiting for passengers to be sailed under the blue sky with clouds to the other end of the canal)


(Lagoon at one end of the canal - the decor built resembling houses along the canals)

Adding to the experience, they have constructed the mall in a way that it is possible to experience all the different times of day - from broad day light to sunset and night time with lit streetlamps. I personally found it a bit annoying as the bluish light used to make the 'night time experience' is hard on the eyes and because I find the lack of light/day light quite depressing but it also made me think that maybe it's just a cultural thing: when I feel the light change from day to night an instinct tells me it's time to go home because it's getting dark and the day is over. If you expose me to late afternoon/evening light in a mall I am less likely to start shopping and more likely to think about going home.

However, in this part of the world where the days can get unbearably hot, it is quite normal to wait until darkness to go out - actually the busiest times of week are Thursday and Friday evenings from around when the sun sets to about midnight or 1 am. Families (including their young children) as well as young people will go out for dinner, coffee & cake, walks along the beach, meet up with friends or have fun in the malls. In that sense I suppose that the lighting might actually attract people to come into the mall during the day - although for me it had the opposite effect. Quite interesting how the place we grow up affects the way we react to different lighting.


(Section of Villaggio Mall - with the street lamps on and some bluish light resembling night time - although the 'sky' is still blue)


(Another section of Villaggio Mall - with international luxury brands and a Porche on display)

Of course the mall has an Olympic sized ice skating rink as well and lots of restaurants, cafés, cinema and an amusement park. I didn't actually go there myself but K says that they had a proper roller-coaster in there!

As I said before, because the malls have become such a big part of life in the Gulf, it is also a great place for people watching and for an insight into the lifestyle of that particular country.

What quite surprised me was that in many ways Qatar seems to be more conservative or more traditional than Kuwait (which is already considered conservative compared to Dubai for example). In Kuwait the shops are not required to close during the 5 daily prayer times - or for the big Friday prayer. They just have to turn off the music so that the calls for prayer can be heard without interruption. In Qatar, however, the shops in this mall (and I would assume in the rest of Doha as well) are required to close for an hour on Friday - from 11.30 to 12.30 in honor of the Friday prayer (the most important prayer of the week for the Muslims).

I was also quite surprised to see that more Qataris seem to dress traditionally (this is of course just my observations) - even the very young boys mostly wear the dishdasha (also known as thobe - the long, white shirt-like robe I have mentioned before - see the picture below) and many of them the ghutrah (head scarf) and aqal (black rings holding the scarf in place) as well - this is not to say that they don't in Kuwait but it is more common to see the younger boys wear western clothes until they reach early puberty (and many continue to wear western clothes even when they are grown up).

While women in both countries generally wear the black abbaya (the long black long-sleeved 'coat') and the hijab (headscarf - typically black and matching any pattern on the abbaya) there were quite a lot of the Qataris that covered not just the hair but the whole face - not by wearing the usual niqab (piece of black cloth that covers the mouth and nose) but by pulling one end of their black headscarf down over their face to completely cover it - a method I had not seen elsewhere.


(The white long shirt is dishdasha, the head scarf is ghutrah and the black rings holding the head scarf in place is agal. The dishdasha comes in many different shades of white (and occasionally darker colors in winter) and the head scarf is typically white or red and white (there is a guy in the background wearing it but he can almost not be seen). The dishdasha is worn over white cotton trousers as the man in the foreground kindly shows...)
Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_Arab_States_of_the_Persian_Gulf#Dress


(To the left an abbaya which can be plain black or with more or less elaborate decorations. In the middle the hijab - the black veil usually used to cover the hair and neck. To the right a type of niqab used to cover the nose and mouth. There is another type as well that only leaves a small crack for the eyes but this one is the one I most often see here)
Picture source: Wikipedia and http://www.hijabnow.com/webshop/images/Golden-border-abaya.jpg

Before this turns into a post about clothing in the Gulf region let me return to the topic of how I was surprised to see the closing of stores for Friday prayer and the more conservative clothing. The reason why I was surprised about these things is that I had heard the rumors that Qatar wants to be the next Dubai, because they have hosted big international events like the Asian Games 2006 and are bidding for the soccer World Cup 2022, because they are home to the controversial Al Jazeera television station and because alcohol is served (in a limited number of locations). I thought these things meant that it was a less conservative society - but it seems I was wrong. It is always nice to get one's perceptions challenged.

Speaking of alcohol, it is actually a quite strange set-up. You will not find regular stand-alone bars/pubs or nightclubs in the city of Doha, rather it is some of the hotel bars that have got a liquor license (I believe resident expats are allowed to buy and consume alcohol at home as well) and alcohol is also sold at the airport. I don't know if pork is available as well - as it is in Dubai. In Dubai the alcohol is surely intended for the non-Muslim expatriate population and of course all the tourists but I have seen local Emirati enter those bars with no problems - I guess it is left up to them and their own conscience whether they choose to drink or not. In Qatar it is different, though, as you need to show your passport if you want to enter one of the places that serve alcohol (regardless of whether you actually order any or just sit there for a cup of tea or to get some food). Not only do you show your ID they also take a photocopy of it at the door of the hotel bar - in order afterward to be able to prove that they have not let any Qatari nationals into the place (I know for sure that Qatari women are not allowed to enter but am not sure if they let Qatari men in).

I went with K to a nice hotel bar at La Cigale hotel - it is a really nice outdoor lounge area located on the 15th floor with beautiful views of the Doha skyline. I felt like a criminal when I had to show my passport and have a copy of it taken but it is more strange to imagine what it must be like for the Qataris. I am not saying they would like to enter the bars in order to drink alcohol but just think about it for a second - how weird is it that there are places in your own country, in your own city that you are not allowed to enter because you are a national of that country? I can't imagine that there would be a place in my home country where I was not welcome because I was not a foreigner. Apart from the psychological feeling of being unwelcome in your own country I imagine the awkwardness for Qataris who have expat friends but cannot go with them to the bars - or who have business visitors from abroad and can't meet them at the hotel bar (as I said - not even if they just have a non-alcoholic drink). 'Mr./Mrs. Western businessman/woman welcome to my country, I look forward to doing business with you and to see you tonight for dinner. Just for your information we will have to eat at a local restaurant with no liquor license and no, I cannot meet you at the hotel bar for a quick chat and to pick you up as I am not allowed in!'


(View of the Doha city skyline from the 15th floor of La Cigale)

I will be uploading more pictures from my sightseeing in Doha soon.

Birthday In The Desert

I think I mentioned in my last post about the desert (Tell Me There Is Nothing In The Desert Again) that I would probably not be going there again any time soon because of the rising temperature making it unbearable to spend time in the desert. It turns out that there are ways to work around the issue of heat: get up really early!

It was a friend of mine's birthday on 9 May and to celebrate we went for a very early desert trip along with her husband and two other friends. We left from my place at 3:45 am (yawn!) and made it into the desert for the 5 am sunrise. As the desert gets cool at night it was still a bit chilly to wear a t-shirt. The sunrise and the fresh air was so worth the early rise:


(5 am and the first signs of sunlight on the sky over the Kuwaiti desert)


(Shortly after 5 am and the sun rising quickly)


(Shortly after 5 am and the sun rising quickly)

With the sun comes the temperature as well but we still had time to have a look around the desert (right after sunrise it was probably high 20s Celsius/80+ F).

A definite highlight of this particular trip was the lizards! I have no idea where these creatures have been hiding the last times we were there or if they somehow migrate into Kuwait in the summer but now they are here!

Although the lizards themselves are quite big (I'd say about 0.5 meter long/2 feet) they can be hard to spot. From a distance they look like a stick in the sand - like this one:


(A lizard sticking its head out of its hole - middle of the picture - look for the small black 'stick' pointing upwards (not the black thing lying on the ground to the right))

It can be quite difficult to get close to them - when they feel movement on the ground they immediately escape into their holes. They are said to be a delicacy so no wonder they are quick to escape to avoid being eaten by campers.

At one point we were really lucky to drive up on one who for some reason did not get scared from the movement of our car. We stopped and took some pictures through the window - it was so close that I could see it swallow (that was the only movement visible):


(Lizard in its hole - Kuwaiti desert)

There was a Kuwaiti with us on this trip and he told us that this type of lizard uses its tail (which looks like a club with spikes) to hit/to fight with. I can imagine that must hurt!

On our way back (in time for breakfast) we almost hit a lizard that was sitting in the middle of the road - I imagine the tarmac was nice and warm. It gave us the "I-was-here-first-look" (good point) and we tried to "push" it off the road (without hitting it of course). It finally ran off the road and into a drain by the road side:


(Lizard running off the highway)


(Lizard by the highway)

This time of year the desert should be dry and with minimal vegetation. The recent rain (Adding 'Sarayat' to My Arabic Vocabulary), however, meant that a lot of things were growing and that flowers had again started blossoming. I even saw some new ones that I had never seen before:


(Small white flowers blossoming)


(A plant with star-shaped green flowers/leaves I had never seen before)


(A purple root-like plant I had also never seen before)


(White flowers blossoming - again)


(An unusual sight - a light green plant in the summer desert)

We went down by the water near Bubiyan Island where we have been before (it's where the mudskippers live Day Out In The Desert) and found that this area was also surprisingly green:

(Grass-like vegetation in the desert casting long morning shadows)


(Grass-like vegetation in the desert casting long morning shadows - and the sand cracking in flakes because it's dry)


(A green plant with yellow banana-shaped 'fruits')

I like being by the water - there is a big difference between high and low tide which means that it can be a completely dry area (as it was on this trip) with ripples in the sand and at other times it's mudflats with mud-skippers like the first time I was there (Day Out In The Desert).


(By the water with Bubiyan bridge in the background - the tide coming in quickly)

The water is salty (it's the mouth of the Arabic Gulf - or Persian Gulf as it is called elsewhere) and leaves white marks on the ripples of sand when the water retracts:


(Salty patterns in the sand at low tide)


(Patterns in the sand)


(A fish out of water - literally)


(A sand colored bug)


(A beautifully white crab shell)


(Dry sand cracking up - with traces of salt from the high tide)

It was also a really good morning for some bird spotting although most of them were impossible to photograph (we saw a sandpiper as well). I have no idea what most of them are - but I see species that I have never seen before:


(Bird in the sand)


(Brown, black and white bird sitting on a bush)

I was told this is a green bee-eater although they are not supposed to live in Kuwait. Actually the Kuwaiti gentleman told me that during the Iraqi invasion a lot of the Kuwaitis who fled their homes set their (pet) birds free because they could not bring them with them. That's apparently why species that shouldn't really be here are now living in the area as wild birds:


(Green bee-eater (?) now in Kuwait)

And last but not least - another thing I had never seen in the desert - a type of desert mushroom:


(Desert mushroom)

We left the desert around 7:15 am when it was getting really warm and we went for breakfast back in Kuwait City. Definitely not a bad way to spend a birthday morning - and a great justification for taking a midday nap :)

Our New Home Sweet Home (With A Month's Delay)

More than a month after we moved in, we're now ready with some pictures of our now not-so-new home. Thanks to all of you who offered your support and encouraging words when we were fighting the bed bugs - your support was much appreciated.

In the mean time we have new beds and sofas and have not seen any live bed bugs for several weeks. We did find what might have been a dead one the day before yesterday but we aren't sure. K also had something resembling two bites but they looked different and we are hoping that it's just insect bites. So I am not completely ready to declare victory over the bed bugs but we have come a long way.

So, welcome to our home in Kuwait:

Two apartments on each floor - ours is the one to the right:


(Our apartment seen from the elevator)

...And looking towards the elevators from our front door:


(View of the elevators from our front door - fire escapes/stairs to the left and right)

Our living room as it looks when you enter the front door (it's with the old sofa set that was rotten but it was the best picture I had):


(Our living room - dining table to the left and sofa area to the right)

From the windows there is a nice view - this one is the window close to the dining table:


(View of the sea from a living room window)

Here is the full view from that window (sorry, I have no photo software with me to make a decent panorama picture):


(View from living room window 1: the sea, parking lot in front of a mall)


(View from living room window 2: the mall and views of Salmiya area, at the front are some restaurants)


(View from living room window 3: the mall, views of Salmiya and more restaurants in front)

So what a few weeks ago looked like this...:


(Our living room in April)

...now looks like this:


(Our living room in May - new leather sofa set and traces of white powder poison...)


(Our living room May - new sofa set. On the right hand side the hall.)

From the right hand side of the living room (next to the sofas), a hall leads to the rest of the apartment. On the left hand side is our guest bedroom, on the right hand side is our guest bathroom. Further down on the left hand side is our bedroom and on the right hand side our kitchen:



Our guest bedroom with a brand new bed - we are still using it to store our things, most of which are still in plastic bags just in case...:


(Guest bedroom)


(Guest bedroom)

Our guest bathroom:


(Guest bathroom)


(Guest bathroom)

This is our master bedroom - and what a few weeks ago looked like this...:


(Our master bedroom a few weeks ago as the poison spraying was still ongoing)

...now looks more like a real bedroom again (with a new bed):


(Our master bedroom in May - with powder poison to keep any potential survivor bed bugs out of our bed)


(Our master bedroom in May - the built in cabinet wasn't torn down as we had demanded but I completely sealed off all cracks and joints with silicone and we had poison sprayed into two holes at the back twice)


(Our master bedroom May)

One of my absolute favorite things about this apartment is that when I wake up in the morning, this is exactly what I see from my side of the bed:


(View from my bed - before I even get out of it)

Right before exiting the master bed room is our bathroom:


(Master bathroom)


(Master bathroom)


(Master bathroom)

Across from our bed room is the kitchen:


(Our kitchen and access to the small balcony)


(Our kitchen)


(Our kitchen and the maid's room)


(Our kitchen - washer and dryer behind the door)

Although our apartment is not a luxury apartment by any means, it is still intended for people who are fairly well off and therefore has a maid's room. In this part of the world it is common to have a live-in maid to take care of children, household, cooking etc. I think most of the people who live in our building just have a cleaning lady who lives somewhere else and comes in once or twice a week - and then they use the maid's room for storage (as we do).

As seen on a previous picture, the maid's room is behind the kitchen - away from the family and close to her main workplace (kitchen). It has a very small bathroom:


(Maid's bathroom)

And the room itself is so small that it was difficult for me to take the picture (when I stretch out my arms I can almost touch both walls!):


(Maid's room)

This is taken from the bathroom - as you can see it's only as wide as maybe twice the door and about the same length. K and I spent some time pondering how you can put a bed in there - if you put it on the left hand side, the door will not open. If you put it on the right hand side, you'd have to climb over it to go into the bathroom...


(Maid's room)

From the kitchen there is access to a small balcony:


(Balcony)

I was quite surprised when I first saw that the gas is kept on the balcony in the direct sun - with a hose leading through the wall into the kitchen (the stove is right on the other side of the wall). However people say there has never been any problems with this...


(Gas on the balcony - with the hose leading to the stove on the other side through a hole in the wall)

The view from our balcony (from left to right):


(View from our balcony - on a clear day the sea can be seen. Salmiya is almost like a peninsula which is why we can see water from both sides of our apartment)


(View from our balcony, restaurants)


(View from our balcony)

Despite all the problems we had in/with this apartment (problems that by the way could have happened in any country and in any apartment) we are very happy with our choice of location. We are within walking distance of the nearby mall as well as an area with restaurants and cafés by the water and the restaurants right below our building. It takes 15 minutes to walk to the nearest supermarket (which is doable outside of the midday heat) and it takes K about 25-30 minutes to get to work in the morning.

If any of you would like to come see for yourself, you are more than welcome!