Showing posts with label Qatar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qatar. Show all posts

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Qatar's new skyline and old souqs


Doha in Qatar is a strange Arab enclave with modern forests of glass and steel casting long shadows on its much older quarters.  It is a city in transition, where the old will stay old and the new will rise from the ground with each heartbeat of the encroaching future.  The ancient souqs of Arabia are home to narrow lanes and markets where everything has a price.  From fluorescent colored chicks to rusty old desert swords, the labyrinthine souqs of Qatar had us turning our heads around every corner.  We unintentionally bartered for things we did not want, were shouted at by parrots a little far from home, and passed droves of cloaked old men, perhaps jedis.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Doha - Where Blade Runner meets Arabia

 Doha in Qatar is such a cool place.  Check out this picture of old fishing boats in the harbor contrasting with the modernist skyline.  More later.