Thanksgiving in Qatar

Hello everyone,

I am back home again in Delhi and it feels so weird to think that Delhi is now my home. I came home with a cold so it took me a little longer to get my photos posted and labeled, plus, I took over 250 photos and weeded it down to 197 for the album. I could have done a lot more weeding but you guys always say that you enjoy the photos so I decided to just leave most of them up and let you see the world through my camera.

I did have an excellent flight in both directions, traveling coach late at night because I am frugal. It saved several hundred dollars. Instead of flying on Qatar Airways directly to and from Delhi, which was possible, I took a flight that went through Abu Dhabi airport in both directions. I booked the flight on Etihad Airways but ended up flying the leg to and from Delhi on Jet Airways, which is what I had flown on all the way from New York. They did a nice job and I can't complain, even though I left Qatar at 6:45 in the evening and didn't get to Delhi until 5:40 the next morning. Most of that time was eaten up in a 4 hour layover in Abu Dhabi and another 2:30 was eaten up in time changes along the way since India has this silly half hour time difference idea that the British started. I can't even program that into my FMS on the airplane so I end up just using Greenwich Mean Time for all my time calls.

Alan very kindly picked me up at the Doha airport at 3 a.m. We had no problem connecting and off we went to his house and to bed. The next day was Thanksgiving and we were going to be doing dinner that day at the Dean's house for Carnegie Mellon University Qatar. Very nice house. Met some very interesting people and had some great food. I think Jennifer's "Poor Man's Caviar" recipe was my favorite chip dip of all time. I even got the recipe from her, which I almost never do. She also loaded me up with some great canned food for my stay in Delhi. I haven't eaten like this since leaving Pittsburgh last June so I am afraid to get on the scale.

Alan took a lot of time to take me around to the shopping area called the Souq and to a fancy mall where they had an amazing choice of stores and food. The food court looked like America gone Middle East. Had some Lebanese food for lunch one day, with the best Tabouli Salad ever.

Since there is not much beef in India (cows are sacred, remember) we went out to eat and I wanted a good hamburger. Went to this great South African place and even teenage Adam said it was like the best burger he had ever had. Because of my deprivation I could only agree. The hot Krispy Kreme donut from the shop next door was a good appetizer, too.

Church was interesting, mostly made up of workers from the Phillipines and parts of Africa. Lots of people and enthusiasm. The pastor was a soft spoken man from Brazil. It was funny because I was picking out all the people at church from India and talking with them. Native dress from your home country is a giveaway now.

On Friday Alan and Jen had potluck dinner at the Greek Neighbor's house, with some other neighbors who are Irish and Iranian. Cool mix and loved the international flavor of the company. The kids loved the chocolate fondue fountain and blew the chocolate all over the wall, as well as their clothes and the floor. Chocolate seems to be a popular international commodity.

Sunday, Alan wanted to take me on a nice tour so we headed for the desert and a fort that he found on the map. On the way we passed a Camel Race Track so I insisted we had to stop and look around since they really don't have anything like this anywhere I have ever lived. It must be a huge track as we couldn't see the whole thing. We did see many camel jockeys practicing and leading their teams on practice runs. Each team has their own blanket color so it's cute to see the babies following their mothers on the run. We didn't get much information so I don't know how long the races are or anything but just the visuals were amazing and fun.

We got to the desert and the road quickly deteriorated in to nothing. We were following multiple sand tracks to nowhere. The fort wasn't to be found. I thought Alan and Adam were going to have a heart attack when I told them to stop at this Arab house so I could approach and ask about the fort. There were kids and sheep and goats running around in and out of the tents and buildings. The man of the house came out, put his hand out and we shook. He smiled and I tried my slow English on him. The word fort wasn't in his vocabulary so I tried Old building and he immediately lit up and pointed almost to his front yard. Alan was so glad for my safe return and we saw the fort and then proceeded to explore the kind of interesting terrain in the area. It was a nice day for doing a little hiking so we explored the interesting hills and you can see from the pictures that we were also near the sea. I love seeing places that I have never been. There were even some ex-pats who were camping on the shore with their tents and Alan said he had seen that a brochure said there was camping there.

Time was coming for me to get back and we went out to a very fancy mall. People watching is always interesting at malls and this was exceptional because of all the different dress styles that you see. I was amazed to find out that a lot of the women have fancy jeans and tops and very elaborate makeup on under those black, covered dresses. I just had a very different idea that things were very austere. I kept trying to see how they would eat at the mall with that total face cover on and I never did get to see that. Visual incongruity was everywhere with very simply exterior dressed people getting out of fancy SUV's and going in to very fancy stores and eating American style food. The fast food people have made huge inroads into Middle Eastern society. McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins were everywhere. Alan got a kick out of explaining that the kids in his college classrooms thought that Applebee's was one of the finest places you could eat. I guess when you compare it to McDonald's it does win.

I watched less football than I ever have for Thanksgiving. The only game we could find was the blowout of Green Bay over the Lions. Not much fun there. And, it was on early in the morning.

Seeing all the building going on in Qatar was simply amazing. I thought India was going great but I think Qatar has them beat. I counted 40 construction cranes at the Pearl alone, one small circle location. There are literally hundreds around the city. Dubai has proved that it isn't a bottomless pit of money out there so we'll see how it all works out.

I am now back in India and adjusting back to my simpler life style here. The streets are crowded again and the roads are rough but I am home. In another two weeks I should have a copilot and then I can go flying again. Yeah!

The picture is from Doha with Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins stores side by side in a little strip mall center.

Keep in touch,

Dan