Qatar
I landed in Qatar this morning at 4:35am en route from Japan to Paris. We had a 26 hour layover in Qatar, and it was way too early to check into our hotel, so we rented a car and drove around. I took a ton of pictures while Gau drove.
Qatar is a really weird city. It's a city becoming, as opposed to a city being. EVERYTHING is under construction. The city just isn't here yet. The big museum near where I'm staying opened in December 2008. There's a fort that's supposed to be one of the few historic sites here, but it's closed for renovations. There are cranes everywhere, and scaffolding on all the buildings.
While we were driving around downtown, we couldn't find any shops or anything, just huge half finished towers. I commented that it looked like a city built by a small child playing with blocks--there were a lot of towers, but none of the other stuff that makes up a city. We went into a mall eventually to find food, and I was disappointed by the lack of local food, the lack of vegetarian food, and the fact that Qatar is pretty expensive (about like the US, so better than most of Europe, but not as good as I hoped it might be).
After lunch we checked into our hotel, showered, and then got back into the car to go to the edge of civilization. Seriously. Gau wanted to drive to a beach that was just after all the roads stopped. So we drove to the end of the road, passed a bunch of oil refineries, passed the end of the road, passed some camels, and got to some sand dunes that cars were driving up and down (presumably just for fun) and a beach. The weather at the beach was surprisingly nice, and Gau went and waded in the water. Then we came back to our hotel, Gau showered, and we headed out for dinner.
We arrived at 4:35 this morning. Before that we had a 12ish hour flight from Osaka. Before that I spent all day in an Airport after learning at 10am that my host had to leave his house a day earlier than he thought, and it was suddenly time for us to leave even though our flight was at 11:25pm. Before that, I went to sleep at 7:30am, thinking I wanted to get on European time.
This is to say I was very tired and pretty cranky. Gau was in more or less the same situation. There was a fancy restaurant that he wanted to go to, which isn't really what I was looking for, but I was willing to check it out. On our way back to our hotel from our most recent trip we passed a vegetarian Indian place that looked awesome, but Gau's least favorite food is Indian, and he wants meat at every meal. There's no way he was going there, particularly since our last meal in Japan was Indian.
So we went to the fancy place Gau wanted and looked at the menu. He thought it looked fine, I thought it looked overpriced and unexciting as far as its offerings for me, and I really didn't want to pay for its seaside candle-lit atmosphere when I just wanted to eat street food and experience Qatar at night. Gau said we could go somewhere else, but I had to lead the way.
So I told him to go away from down town, back where our hotel was, where there were actual shops visible from the street. Eventually we found some things, but every restaurant was Indian--apparently we were staying in the Indian district without even knowing it. How lucky. Or it would have been, if I was with anyone but Gau.
Without getting into details, because they don't really make any sense, we were both just cranky, we had a small disagrement, I got extremely frustrated, Gau wouldn't move without me telling him which direction to go, I didn't want to deal with it, and I just got out of the car in the middle of the road and walked away. No, I didn't know where I was.
I walked to a hotel, asked directions to my hotel, walked there, checked the parking lot to see that Gau was already back, and went up to the room. He had just come back without eating. I stayed in the room for a bit to cool off before heading out by myself to find some food while Gau went to sleep. I was looking for vegetarian Indian if it was still open, but I also wanted something fast so I could get to sleep soon, and I didn't know where the place was. I got out of our hotel and started wandering.
It wasn't promising. I think I guessed the wrong direction. There were little food stands all over on the way to the hotel, but I just wanted to get back to make sure I could find it. Now I was seeing nothing--a little fish stand, a place where the sign was in Arabic only and everyone inside was smoking long pipes or hookas or something (I should mention that we were happy to learn when we arrived that everyone we encountered spoke English and almost everything was written in both languages. It seemed to be a truly bilingual city). I walked a ways down in a couple directions without really seeing anything, and eventually I went into a little place called the Palastine Cafeteria (On Jabar Bin Hamad Road at Shanem Al-Kadeem if you're ever in Qatar).
Like other little places I'd stopped in, there was no menu, just a window with some people making food. Above the window there was a piece of paper with some 3s and some 8s next to some Arabic writing ($1=3.5-3.65rm, local money). I asked if they had an Enlish menu and the guy pointed to a man at a desk behind me with a calculator and some pads of paper. I turned and asked him if he had an English menu. He said, "No menu, what do you want?" and I just kind of paused. He said, "Do you know falafel?" DING! In the mall I had been able to find hummus, tabouleh, baba ganoush (however all that stuff is spelled), but no Falafel. I was starting to think maybe they didn't have that particular "middle eastern" item here. "Yes, I'd like one falafel sandwich and water--do you take USD?" "no" "I'm sorry, I don't have local money, card?" After some hesitation and saying some things I didn't really understand, he eventually asked for $1 and wrote a note in Arabic that I can only assume told the cook to make me a falafel sandwich and handed it to me.
$1? How did that happen. Seriously, in the mall a scoop of ice cream was over $3. An appetizer at the place Gau wanted to eat was $10--This country wasn't that cheap. Then again, while I was walking, I did notice pants at a clothing store that were 20rm--I can only conclude that everything costs dramatically more downtown. (When Gau and I stopped in an Indian restaurant while we were looking for a place before we realized that it was Indian and asked to see a menu, I noticed that the prices looked like what I'd expect things to cost in USD in America, so I was pretty sad not to be able to eat there at the time).
Anyway, I ate the sandwich, then realized that I had asked for water and it wasn't on my note and I had only paid $1, so I didn't really feel like trying to take it from them. Instead I took out $2 and a bottle of water from their frig of drinks, held up the water and the money and asked if I could have the water and another sandwich for the $2, adding that the sandwich was very good.
I should described the sandwich at this point--pita with a single falafal ball, which was crushed and spread across the bread, then a pair of tongs shove in a bunch of french fries and some roasted eggplant, then some cucumber slices are thrown in on top. There's oil, hot sauce, and tahini on the tables.
He said it would be $1, and I said no, really, it was very good, I insist, take both, and he fought me a bit, but eventually I managed to pay him $3 for 2 falafel sandwiches and a bottle of water. While I was eating it they brought me some homemade pickles, pickled carrot, and pickled pepper. I guess the felt bad about taking my extra dollar.
Before I left I thanked the man and told him if I wasn't leaving tomorrow morning I'd be back every day and asked for his address so I could recommend the place to other people. He didn't understood me, but he directed me to someone else there who did, and who gave me the information above.
Thanks for saving my night from food related frustration Palastine Cafeteria.
Tomorrow I wake up a little before 4am to eat breakfast, return our rented car at 5:30, and get on out 7:55 flight to Paris.
Qatar is a really weird city. It's a city becoming, as opposed to a city being. EVERYTHING is under construction. The city just isn't here yet. The big museum near where I'm staying opened in December 2008. There's a fort that's supposed to be one of the few historic sites here, but it's closed for renovations. There are cranes everywhere, and scaffolding on all the buildings.
While we were driving around downtown, we couldn't find any shops or anything, just huge half finished towers. I commented that it looked like a city built by a small child playing with blocks--there were a lot of towers, but none of the other stuff that makes up a city. We went into a mall eventually to find food, and I was disappointed by the lack of local food, the lack of vegetarian food, and the fact that Qatar is pretty expensive (about like the US, so better than most of Europe, but not as good as I hoped it might be).
After lunch we checked into our hotel, showered, and then got back into the car to go to the edge of civilization. Seriously. Gau wanted to drive to a beach that was just after all the roads stopped. So we drove to the end of the road, passed a bunch of oil refineries, passed the end of the road, passed some camels, and got to some sand dunes that cars were driving up and down (presumably just for fun) and a beach. The weather at the beach was surprisingly nice, and Gau went and waded in the water. Then we came back to our hotel, Gau showered, and we headed out for dinner.
We arrived at 4:35 this morning. Before that we had a 12ish hour flight from Osaka. Before that I spent all day in an Airport after learning at 10am that my host had to leave his house a day earlier than he thought, and it was suddenly time for us to leave even though our flight was at 11:25pm. Before that, I went to sleep at 7:30am, thinking I wanted to get on European time.
This is to say I was very tired and pretty cranky. Gau was in more or less the same situation. There was a fancy restaurant that he wanted to go to, which isn't really what I was looking for, but I was willing to check it out. On our way back to our hotel from our most recent trip we passed a vegetarian Indian place that looked awesome, but Gau's least favorite food is Indian, and he wants meat at every meal. There's no way he was going there, particularly since our last meal in Japan was Indian.
So we went to the fancy place Gau wanted and looked at the menu. He thought it looked fine, I thought it looked overpriced and unexciting as far as its offerings for me, and I really didn't want to pay for its seaside candle-lit atmosphere when I just wanted to eat street food and experience Qatar at night. Gau said we could go somewhere else, but I had to lead the way.
So I told him to go away from down town, back where our hotel was, where there were actual shops visible from the street. Eventually we found some things, but every restaurant was Indian--apparently we were staying in the Indian district without even knowing it. How lucky. Or it would have been, if I was with anyone but Gau.
Without getting into details, because they don't really make any sense, we were both just cranky, we had a small disagrement, I got extremely frustrated, Gau wouldn't move without me telling him which direction to go, I didn't want to deal with it, and I just got out of the car in the middle of the road and walked away. No, I didn't know where I was.
I walked to a hotel, asked directions to my hotel, walked there, checked the parking lot to see that Gau was already back, and went up to the room. He had just come back without eating. I stayed in the room for a bit to cool off before heading out by myself to find some food while Gau went to sleep. I was looking for vegetarian Indian if it was still open, but I also wanted something fast so I could get to sleep soon, and I didn't know where the place was. I got out of our hotel and started wandering.
It wasn't promising. I think I guessed the wrong direction. There were little food stands all over on the way to the hotel, but I just wanted to get back to make sure I could find it. Now I was seeing nothing--a little fish stand, a place where the sign was in Arabic only and everyone inside was smoking long pipes or hookas or something (I should mention that we were happy to learn when we arrived that everyone we encountered spoke English and almost everything was written in both languages. It seemed to be a truly bilingual city). I walked a ways down in a couple directions without really seeing anything, and eventually I went into a little place called the Palastine Cafeteria (On Jabar Bin Hamad Road at Shanem Al-Kadeem if you're ever in Qatar).
Like other little places I'd stopped in, there was no menu, just a window with some people making food. Above the window there was a piece of paper with some 3s and some 8s next to some Arabic writing ($1=3.5-3.65rm, local money). I asked if they had an Enlish menu and the guy pointed to a man at a desk behind me with a calculator and some pads of paper. I turned and asked him if he had an English menu. He said, "No menu, what do you want?" and I just kind of paused. He said, "Do you know falafel?" DING! In the mall I had been able to find hummus, tabouleh, baba ganoush (however all that stuff is spelled), but no Falafel. I was starting to think maybe they didn't have that particular "middle eastern" item here. "Yes, I'd like one falafel sandwich and water--do you take USD?" "no" "I'm sorry, I don't have local money, card?" After some hesitation and saying some things I didn't really understand, he eventually asked for $1 and wrote a note in Arabic that I can only assume told the cook to make me a falafel sandwich and handed it to me.
$1? How did that happen. Seriously, in the mall a scoop of ice cream was over $3. An appetizer at the place Gau wanted to eat was $10--This country wasn't that cheap. Then again, while I was walking, I did notice pants at a clothing store that were 20rm--I can only conclude that everything costs dramatically more downtown. (When Gau and I stopped in an Indian restaurant while we were looking for a place before we realized that it was Indian and asked to see a menu, I noticed that the prices looked like what I'd expect things to cost in USD in America, so I was pretty sad not to be able to eat there at the time).
Anyway, I ate the sandwich, then realized that I had asked for water and it wasn't on my note and I had only paid $1, so I didn't really feel like trying to take it from them. Instead I took out $2 and a bottle of water from their frig of drinks, held up the water and the money and asked if I could have the water and another sandwich for the $2, adding that the sandwich was very good.
I should described the sandwich at this point--pita with a single falafal ball, which was crushed and spread across the bread, then a pair of tongs shove in a bunch of french fries and some roasted eggplant, then some cucumber slices are thrown in on top. There's oil, hot sauce, and tahini on the tables.
He said it would be $1, and I said no, really, it was very good, I insist, take both, and he fought me a bit, but eventually I managed to pay him $3 for 2 falafel sandwiches and a bottle of water. While I was eating it they brought me some homemade pickles, pickled carrot, and pickled pepper. I guess the felt bad about taking my extra dollar.
Before I left I thanked the man and told him if I wasn't leaving tomorrow morning I'd be back every day and asked for his address so I could recommend the place to other people. He didn't understood me, but he directed me to someone else there who did, and who gave me the information above.
Thanks for saving my night from food related frustration Palastine Cafeteria.
Tomorrow I wake up a little before 4am to eat breakfast, return our rented car at 5:30, and get on out 7:55 flight to Paris.