A few of us have dubbed Doha's new motto "Doha: It's almost pretty." There are drives along the corniche when the sun is rising and it is gorgeous. Sometimes you turn the bend and the lights of West Bay look amazing. But, then you turn your head and have a view of the huge National Museum construction or a huge lot of cranes and you're like "ohhh, nevermind." Doha is still building itself up so it seems to be trying very hard but it's not quite there yet. So, as I said- almost pretty. Read More...
A few weeks back a couple of us decided to get out of the city for the night and go camping. Some of my friends have gone camping in Qatar before and they showed us the way. I was assured that my Kia Soul would be absolutely fine on the roads to the beach where we would camp.
There were no roads.
My car should not have gone.
Oh well.
Our first stop was Mystery Village. After driving in the sand and literally being able to feel the value of my car decreasing with every scrape on the bottom, we came upon a very strange sight.
I am still not actually sure what Mystery Village is but there are rumors that it was a filming location for Transformers. No one actually knows and there are no signs so we pretty much just marveled at how bizarre but kinda cool it was.
Cheryl also fell in love with a bug. Who followed her around everywhere she went. It was kinda weird.
We finally headed out to Zekreet Beach. We drove for what felt like forever but finally found a semi secluded spot to park our cars.
Did I mention that we all own Kia Souls?
We (the boys) set up the barbecue and then played a few card games.
There was even real wildlife!
After a dinner of vegan burgers (thanks, Larisa), everyone headed to their tent.
Oh wait, I don't have a tent.
I slept in my car.
I felt pretty silly camping while sleeping in my car, but lo and behold, in rolled a huge storm. While the car was shaking with the wind and I thought rocks were hitting my car (just huge rain drops), I was at least safe and warm. Everyone else had to move their tents to a shielded spot at 3 in the morning.
After packing up after the storm, we headed back out. It was still very windy so the views were not as nice going back out. But it was almost pretty.
The caravan of Souls prevailed (I brought up the caboose).
We drove by Film City which I assume is a part of the same place as Mystery Village, but truely, no one knows. It's just an incredibly strange place that I guess you can take a tour of. It was so windy we pretty much just waved as we drove past.
But there was some more wildlife! This poor gazelle was trying to hide from the dusty wind.
We were still driving along in the dust when out of nowhere something appeared. I had heard that there was some bizarre art installation out in the desert somewhere and we had stumbled right upon it.
And it was huge.
It stretches for a really long time. Once again, I honestly don't know what it is or why it's there, but that kind of sums up my experience in Qatar in general. A lot of random things and a lot of things that really are trying hard, but are not quite at what I would call pretty just yet. Even though we had a nice view of the water while camping, a dust storm had to ruin everything. And yet, even in a strange drive through a huge desert, there is art.
Doha: Almost Pretty.
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