Istanbul and Doha

Greetings!!

Joe and I are currently at the Doha airport in Qatar and have a moment to reflect on the most recent leg of our journey.

Joe and Carol in front of the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Mom Schweichler helped us book our Turkish Airlines flight from Cape Town, South Africa to Doha, Qatar and we got one with a 15 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey with the hopes of being able to see the city during that time.  We weren't sure how/if that was going to work out, what we'd do with our large backpacks and whether or not we would be able to even leave the airport.  Fortunately, though, we were able to check our bags all the way through to Doha and found out from the in-flight magazine that Turkish Airlines offers a FREE 9 hour tour of the city!

We were a bit sleepy from our overnight flight from Cape Town, but were super excited about this FREE tour that included 2 FREE meals, FREE transportation and FREE entry to some neat sights like the Blue Mosque (aka Sultan Ahmed Mosque), Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, Hippodrome and a really cool spice market where we got the best Turkish Delight we've ever tasted (one flavor had dried rose petals on the outside..yum!).

As promised, the FREE tour brought us back to the Istanbul Airport in plenty of time to catch our evening flight to Doha, Qatar to meet up with some of Joe's very good friends from his Cambridge days: Todd, Anna and their two sweet children.

Downtown Doha at night from the Museum of Islamic Art

We arrived into Doha at 1:45am (eek), made it through passport control without any glitches, and were warmly greeted by our friend Todd and homemade chocolate chip cookies that Anna had made. We did have our souvenir bottle of South African Amarula confiscated at customs with the promise that we could pick it up on our way out of Qatar, but at two in the morning that didn't phase us much.

Dinner on the Corniche with the Thompsons

Our four days in Doha were so fun, with Todd and Anna performing excellent jobs as tour guides! Todd gets especially high marks for not getting into any traffic accidents (driving in Qatar makes LA freeways look like Autopia at Disneyland). In just a few days we got to see many cool sights like the Museum of Islamic Art which a fascinating exhibit on the famous Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as the "Hajj" and had an amazing dinner near the museum on the Doha Corniche (a waterfront promenade extending along the Doha Bay) with tasty foods like tahini with pine nuts, Armenian sausages, tabouli, and lemonade with fresh mint.  We also got to to the Doha Souq Waqif, an outdoor marketplace with loads of souvenirs, spices, restaurants, Shisa lounges and exotic animals for sale (like baby chicks dyed psychedelic colors).

Psychedelic baby chicks for sale

One special outing we took was to the unique "singing dunes" just outside of the city.  These are massive sand dunes that make a deep humming sound when you slide down them on your bottom. The dunes are actually quite difficult to find using any of the guidebooks, and we were very thankful that we had the Thompsons as guides. If anyone is interested, the exact location is apparently at the following coordinates: N25° 02.446' E51° 24.540'. Joe is currently working on a scientific theory to describe the phenomenon and Carol still has sand in her hair.

Sunset atop the Singing Sand Dune

We also got to visit a place called The Katara which is another coastal promenade with an amphitheater, strange and wonderful statues and lots of space for William (Todd and Anna's 3 year old son) to run around in. We enjoyed crepes for dinner and Chapati and Karak coffee for dessert. Karak coffee is a special kind of coffee in Qatar made from unroasted coffee beans.  With lots of sugar, it's quite tasty.

We learned a lot of new things about Qatar as we both new very little before arriving.  For starters, it expanding and growing VERY fast. Todd and Anna told us that they can't even use road maps printed only 6 months ago because they are already outdated.  Qatar is also an interesting combination of East meets West with local men and women dressed in traditional Qatari attire.  The men wear a Thobe which is a long garment shaped a lot like a dress shirt women wear and Abeya which is a long black cloak with full head coverings as well.  At the same time, you'll see the men and women drinking Starbucks, driving SUV's and shopping at malls with stores like the Gap (which I actually got to pay a visit to, I was so glad to get a new pair of jeans as my previous jeans got pretty beat up in Africa with several holes!).

Qatar is extremely wealthy (per capita GDP one of the highest in the world) due to the oil and gas reserves and the price of gas is only about 90 cents per gallon.  Qatar is also very international with local Qatari people only making up about 20% of the population while remainder includes a large number of Indians and Filipinos as well as various other nationalities.

Scene from Souq Waqif in Doha

The highlight of our time in Qatar was most definitely just the chance to catch up with old friends and enjoy the time of fellowship and conversation. Todd is a professor at Qatar University and is an extremely knowledgeable historian and was able to give us so much background and history in to the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic life and culture. We also go to share with him about life and culture in So Cal (such as the best rides at Disneyland and where the closest Ikea is) since he and his family will be moving there this December following acceptance of a position at Biola University.

As always, thank you for following our blog and thank you for reading!!

love,

Carol and Joe

PS A very happy (belated) birthday to Wesley, Mom Schweichler, Dr. Jelbert and Cousin Jenn!