Egypt, part four.

I'm going to try to keep the rest of this brief. I realised that I could probably go on for about another six posts about this trip.

Luxor Museum: it is a small museum, taking around two hours to see everything, but the quality of items here makes it worth the trip. A lot of statuary from the 18th to 20th dynasties, artwork from the period and two mummies. It is the statues that are the highlight of the exhibits, with one guidebook noting that it is one of the finest collections of Egyptian sculpture in the world. Mum and I went one evening and enjoyed it a lot. It helped that we had already seen some of the temples beforehand so that we had some idea about the statues, who they represented, and some of the background behind them.

Karnak Temple: I mentioned it in a previous post when Mum and I did an evening sound & light tour, and we spent about three hours one morning with our guide touring the site during the day. Three hours was not enough given the size of the site and if you were really interested in Egyptology you could spend all day there.

The entrance of the Temple is a roadway flanked by sphinxes, part of a ancient roadway that extended about 3km through Thebes to the Luxor temple. Most of that roadway is destroyed or buried under the silt and excavations are underway to expose the ancient road. Maybe in a decade's time tourists will be able to walk the entire roadway from Karnak to Luxor Temples.

While the site does not have a pyramid it has everything else you would expect from an Egyptian site. Hieroglyph-carved walls, huge pillars with carvings of Pharaohs and ancient gods, large statues, small dark chambers, and huge obelisks. The site was the most active Temple in the Kingdom for about 500 years and subsequent Pharaohs kept adding onto it until the site was over 2 sq km. It even has a Sacred Lake where ceremonies were performed. The most impressive part is also the most well-known part of the Temple -- the Hall of Pillars. I took a lot of photos there.

To go into the history and individual areas of the Temple would take far too long, one of our guidebooks spends 46 pages just on this site, so you'll have to google Karnak to get all the details. Some parts of the Temple are little more than rubble and a couple of times Mum and I were sitting on or climbing over some random 3000+ year old inscibed blocks of stone, which I thought quite bizarre since those stones would rival almost anything in North America (and Europe) in terms of age. The Egyptians did not appear to like small bricks, almost every block of stone seemed to be at least 4x2x2 feet, though most were much larger and had to have required a lot of men to get those blocks to the roofs of temples and other buildings. Queen Hatshepsut was fortunate that such large stones were used -- attempts by her son Thutmosis III to erase her name from all monuments failed because her name was inscribed in a hard-to-reach places like the top of obelisks.

Luxor Temple: the other main site in the city of Luxor itself is Luxor Temple, just a few kilometres away from Karnak. The Temple was active until at least Roman times, Alexander the Great had soldiers do some work on the inner shrine to show himself as a Pharaoh, and there are some Roman-style paintings on a wall of one courtyard. The Temple then lay forgotten for centuries and was slowly buried by the sands or the silt from the flooding of the Nile. In the 18th-century a mosque was built above the site (apparantly back then no one paid much attention to the odd pillar or block of carved stone poking out of the sand). Eventually Egyptologists figured out that a significant site was buried here and excavated it -- but the mosque was left alone. So it is quite weird when you wander into the first main courtyard to see a mosque 25-feet above you on top of one of the walls! The mosque is still in use today, its entrance is to the east of the Temple. Luxor Temple is smaller than Karnak ("only" a bit bigger than 4 football fields) but still impressive in its own right.

The next day was spent touring more of the West Bank, visiting some sites that are off the main tours. Most tourists in Luxor arrive by cruise ship (over 400 cruise barges work the Nile) and stay in Luxor only one or two days, which gives them time to see the major sites like Karnak and Valley of the Kings but not enough time to see other sites. Suddenly instead of thousands of tourists a day we were visiting sites that probably only see a couple of hundred tourists a day. It was great.

Tombs of the Nobles: while the Pharaohs were burying themselves in the Valley of the Kings the aristocracy were building tombs nearby in what is now called the Tombs of the Nobles. There are hundreds of these tombs ('TT' is the archaeological designation and one guidebook mentions TT 359!) but they are much smaller then the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, usually no more than one room or two, and no long corridors. There may be more tombs to discover -- a village exists over the site and the Egyptian government is in the process of moving the villagers to new homes a few kilometres away and bulldozing the current village. Needless to say the villagers are not impressed but the Egyptian government is not impressed with them either -- for decades the villagers have been digging holes in their basements and looting whatever tombs they find, selling the antiquities to dealers.

In some ways I liked the Tombs of the Nobles better than the Valley of the Kings. While the Valley tombs were decorated primarily with paintings of gods and the Pharaohs themselves the Noble tombs were painted with scenes of everyday life. We saw scenes of fishing, harvesting grain, a funeral, even a party where the guests had those perfumed cones on top of their head. It was much easier for a non-Egyptologist such as myself to understand what you were seeing, the scenes were things you could relate to. And like the Valley in most of the tombs the paint was still colourful after all these centuries. Two of the tombs had lighting but one tomb didn't but that was okay because an Egyptian villager was waiting outside with mirrors and, for a tip of course, set up mirrors to reflect the sunlight into the tomb, following us with another mirror to reflect sunlight onto the walls we were looking at -- just like you sometimes see in those old movies about archaeologists entering Egyptian tombs. I thought that was neat.

Anyway we saw three tombs, Ramose (TT 55), Userhet (TT 56), and I think Khaemhet (TT 57).

Next up was the Ramesseum, a temple dedicated to the great Ramses II. It was another large Temple with huge inscriptions on the walls showing Ramses II leading troops into battle, and ruling over the land. At least one scene had him running over enemy soldiers in a chariot. While not as impressive as Karnak or Luxor is still worth a visit and the lack of tourists made it more relaxing and easier to take pictures without dozens of heads being in the frame.

Finally a temple dedicated to Ramses III, the Madinat Habu. This Temple is massive, the entire complex is about the same size as Luxor Temple. It is notable for its tall stone walls with huge carvings on them, as well as intricately carved pillars and courtyards. Ramses III obviously learnt a lesson about erasing other Pharaohs names, wherever his name appeared it was carved so deeply into the stone that birds could roost in it. The Temple also has a large imposing entranceway between the fortifications which I assumed was designed to inspire awe in visitors. Mum and I spent most of our time here taking photos of the various scenes on the walls, as well as one famous part where a lot of hieroglyphic numbers were carved, allowing Egyptologists to decipher the numbering system.


*Whew* I think that's everything. Oh, forgot about the sunset cruise Mum and I took in a sailboat, sailing up and down the Nile for an hour was a relaxing way to end the day.

So in summary: fabulous trip, definitely worth doing, wouldn't have a problem going to Luxor again.

Evolution

Let me just take a detour from the Egyptian vacation to discuss a topic that, sadly, is far more controversial than it should be in this day and age: evolution

I am currently rereading one of my favourite science books, The Ancestor's Tale by Prof. Richard Dawkins. Professor Dawkins is one of the most famous evolutionary biologists in the world but lately he is in the public eye more for his work critically analysing religion, such as his book The God Delusion and his documentary The Root of All Evil. Even if you are a deeply religious person in staunch disagreement with his views on religion (which I also take to mean that you have actually watched/read the aforementioned documentary/book so that you know what his arguments are), you should not dismiss his books on biology and evolutionary theory. They are great reading for the layman and allow evolution and current discoveries in biology to be understood by us non-biologists.

The more scientists reveal about biology, geology, physics, chemistry, astronomy (etc.), the more fascinating a place the universe becomes. Measuring the movement of continents, the finding of planets around other stars, the interactions of subatomic particles; the more science discovers the more we realize that there is yet more to discover. And in doing so our knowledge grows, and the amount of knowledge we now have about biology is staggering. When creationists say that evolution is "only a theory" they try to paint it as a mere possibility that scientists aren't entirely sure about. The creationists are wrong. They are trying to downplay the vast amount of evidence supporting evolution and trying to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of people not well-versed in science. Evolution is a fact. I will let Professor Dawkins do the talking about evidence in biology. From The Ancestor's Tale (emphasis in original):


"If every fossil were magicked away, the comparative study of modern organisms, of how their patterns of resemblances, especially of their genetic sequences, are distributed among species, and of how species are distributed among continents and islands, would still demonstrate, beyond all sane doubt, that our history is evolutionary, and that all living creatures are cousins. Fossils are a bonus. A welcome bonus, to be sure, but not an essential one. It is worth remembering this when creationists go on about 'gaps' in the fossil record. The fossil record could be one big gap, and the evidence for evolution would still be overwhelmingly strong. At the same time, if we had only fossils and no other evidence, the fact of evolution would again be overwhelmingly supported. As things stand, we are blessed with both."


Unfortunately many people with strong religious views oppose evolution (not just fundamentalist Christians, members of other religions as well), because they believe it disagrees with their interpretation of religious scripture. They are very vocal, especially in the United States, and have been trying all sorts of ways to push their religious views on the population as a whole. A current method in the US is the "intelligent design" movement, which posits that life may have been created by an "intelligent designer" and that this should also be taught in biology classes. They argue that it is not religion because the intelligent designer is not necessarily God. To no one's surprise though all of the proponents of this view are anti-evolution Christians. They attempted recently to get intelligent design taught in a US school district, the resulting court case was very revealing. Here is the summary:

-- "intelligent design" is nothing more than renamed creationism
-- the "intelligent designer" is clearly implied to be the God of the Bible
-- "intelligent design" makes no scientifically testable predictions
-- it is not science and cannot be taught in science class.

The judge's summation is quite damning of the creationists, and the judge (a Lutheran appointed to the post by then President Bush) was shocked at how many of the Christian defendants were obfuscating, contradicting, and in some cases outright lying in their testimony. I recommend everyone read his summation here.

"Intelligent design" is nothing more than creationism renamed to try to hide its religiousness.

It is unfortunate that rather than embracing knowledge there are still many out there who prefer to ignore or suppress any discoveries that do not fit with their own pre-determined view of the universe. We saw the consequences of this in Europe during the Middle Ages. The Islamic world has also seen the consequences of this. From about the 8th to the 15th centuries AD the Islamic world was one of the most advanced in terms of science and mathematics, its centres of learning in places like Damascus rivalling anything in Europe. But strife, invasions, and the rise of religious fundamentalism changed that, allowing Europeans, who by the 15th century had little more than Latin translations of Arabic works (of which many of those were Arabic translations of original Greek and Roman works), to build upon the discoveries of thinkers in the Islamic world* and quickly surpass them in terms of science and technology. And here we are in the 21st century yet there are is still a significant number of people in the West who attempt to suppress discoveries and knowledge purely for religious reasons. It is a shame.

Here are a few websites where you can find all sorts of information about biology and evolution. Please take some time to surf through them.

Talk Origins
Pharyngula, one of the best biology blogs
Panda's Thumb blog
and, once again, The Dover Trial
and there's a million other links to good biology and palentology resources here

*I keep using the term "Islamic world" instead of terms like "Muslim" because some prominent thinkers of the Islamic world, such as Maimonides, were Jewish.

Egypt, part three

The Valley of the Kings; one of the most famous historical sites in Egypt (probably after the Pyramids and the Sphinx). There are 64 tombs here, the most famous one being that of Tutankhamen. At any given time I think there are no more than about 15 tombs open to the public and your entry ticket ($16) allows you to see any three with two exceptions -- Ramses VI (extra $10) and Tutankhamen (extra $20!). Ramses VI costs extra because it is apparently the nicest of the tombs, and Tutankhamen's because it is so famous. Ironically Tutankhamen's is the smallest of the 64 tombs and one of the least decorated. If it wasn't for its fame from all the treasures it held the Egyptian government probably wouldn't even bother opening it to tourists. One colleague recommended seeing it, guidebooks were split on whether it was worth the bother and extra money. Mum and I were not too fussed about seeing his tomb so we gave it a pass.

Another irony regarding the two tombs is that the tomb of Ramses VI was the reason why Tutankhamen's tomb was undisturbed. Our guide pointed out that the entrance to Ramses's tomb was just a little above the hill from Tutankhamen's, so when workers were digging Ramses's tomb out of the hillside they dumped most of the rubble down the hill which buried the entrance to Tutankhamen's. Tutankhamen was a minor Pharaoh and did not rule for long (he died as a teenager) so his tomb was forgotten and tomb robbers never found it.

The Valley was pretty crowded even though it was late in the tourist season. Our guide said that around this time the Valley would get around 4000 tourists a day. At the peak of the tourist season it could be as high as 7000-8000 a day, maybe more. We had to wait in line to get into two of the three tombs, but just for a few minutes each time. Our guide was not allowed in so while we waited in line he stood with us and explained some of the things we would see in the tomb and specific painting/hieroglyphics to watch out for.

Mum and I saw:

KV2*: the tomb of Ramses IV
KV6: the tomb of Ramses IX
KV14: the tomb of Tausert and Setnakht

All three tombs had the wonderful artwork and hieroglyphics that we associate with ancient Egypt with depictions of various gods, animal-headed entities, and the steps one takes in the afterlife. The paint was original, the colours still vibrant after 3000 years. What surprised Mum and I the most was the size of the tombs, they had high ceilings of 10 to 15 feet, even in the corridors, and extended hundred metres or more into the hillside, which would have taken a lot of effort to carve out of the rock. They generally had 4-8 rooms connected by long corridors. Sometimes work was cut short because the intended recipient died, some parts of Ramses IX's had no decoration and in his burial chamber the walls were rough and crudely carved, yet were still painted with artwork and hieroglyphics. In KV14 some of the artwork was just outline sketches that had not been coloured.

We left the Valley content that we had seen good examples of the tombs there. Unless you are better versed in Egyptian history and hieroglyphics I am not sure it would be worthwhile to see every tomb possible.

From there we moved to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, a few kilometres away.

Hatshepsut was the daughter of Pharaoh Tutmosis I and married her half-brother (Tutmosis II). Tutmosis II died when their son and heir was very young so she became regent to the young Tutmosis III. she quickly abandoned the pretext of being regent and ruled in her own right for about 20 years, in the process building a number of monuments including the Temple. (Tutmosis III did not take kindly to his mother's actions. After she died he tried to have her name erased from all monuments and inscriptions.)

The terraced temple is built at the base of some cliffs, with a number of column-filled rooms and halls on three levels connected by a large central ramp. The walls and columns of the Temple are carved with incantations to the gods, boats taking goods up and down the river, and scenes of military victories. On some of the interior scenes much of the paint, though faded, still remains. We wandered around for a while taking dozens of photos. Having a guide or a guidebook is essential as there is no signage explaining what anything is. My favourite part was the small Temple of Hathor on the left side of the Middle level, where about 20 closely-packed columns carved with dedications to the goddess Hathor surround the entrance to a small dark room carved into the hillside.

More to come next blog post.


*all tombs in the Valley were given a designation "KV" followed by a number. The number has nothing to do with the age of the tomb or its location in the Valley but instead it's the order in which they were discovered/explored by archaeologists. KV6 is next to KV 55, KV46 is between KV3 and KV4. Tutankhamen's is KV62, and KV9 is Ramses VI (so KV9 is the VI while KV6 is the IX, got it?)

Egypt, continued

Because we arrived at the hotel in the afternoon we did not have time to book a tour for that day. However we knew that the nearby Karnak temple had a sound and light show in the evening so we called at the taxi driver who took us to the hotel and arranged to meet him out front around 6:15pm (about 20 minutes). He told us his brother would pick us up and made sure we knew his taxi number -- we soon learned why. When we stepped out of the hotel a taxi driver immediately tried to offer us a ride. We told him we were waiting for another taxi that we had called and he told us "yes, yes that's me, he sent me to pick you up". But I knew from the number on the side of his taxi that he wasn't our taxi, which meant of course that this guy was flat-out lying (so tip #2: remember your taxi number if you have arranged a pick up). We told him no and our taxi pulled up 30 seconds later.

This taxi driver, brother of our first taxi driver, was also a pleasant enough person but a more reckless driver than his brother. I swear we spent about half the journey on the opposite side of the road (on a 2-lane road) and we had no seat belts. I joked afterward that he must have thought we were from Britain so drove on the left-hand side of the road to make us more comfortable. He dropped us off and told us he would be waiting here when the show was over.

Karnak temple:

The temple is huge, the grounds are almost 2 square kilometres, and the first half of the sound and light show involved us moving at certain stages through the temple complex where we would stop for 5-10 minutes for some light effects and background narrative before moving onto the next part, eventually winding up at groups of seats by the Sacred Lake for another 20-30 minutes of show. The light and sound effects were not that impressive, in fact the narrative got hokey at times, but being in this Temple, with its 75-foot inscribed columns, hieroglyphic-inscribed walls, and 3000+ year-old statuary, was awe-inspiring. And since it was night-time the temple was quite dark (tip #3: bring a flashlight, the flooring is a little uneven and there is next to no lighting). Mom and I really liked being there and we looked forward to when we would be visiting it in the daytime a couple of days later.

Next day: we had arranged for a private guide to take us to the main attractions on the West Bank: the Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Our guide was Michael, whom by his name I could tell he was not Muslim (he's a Coptic Christian).

We had a private car and driver as well, doing it this way was recommended by a colleague of mine since it would apparently cut down on the hassle from touts. We quickly left the city to cross the bridge to the West Bank. The ride took about 15 to 20 minutes and on the way we could see:

Police at every major intersection
a lot of donkeys, giving people rides, pulling carts, or loaded with harvested crops on their back
a lot of farms with small farmhouses made of mud brick and sometimes thatched roofing

The police were there to reassure tourists of the overall safety. In 1997 there was a major terrorist attack at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut where 61 people were killed. Not surprisingly tourism to the area plummeted and a lot of local people suffered from lack of income. Since then there has been a significant police presence. Not that I was too concerned -- the terrorist group that committed the attacks is no more. Everyone in Egypt was so horrified by what the group had done that the group lost whatever public support they may have had. People who would have normally supported whatever cause the group was fighting for were instead informing the police of their whereabouts, and the group was swiftly crushed by the authorities.

First stop: the Colossi of Memnon

What you see here are two large (65-foot) statues of Pharaoh Amenhetep III (1390-1353 BC) in what seems like an empty field. The area is actually the remnants of the Pharaoh's Memorial Temple but unfortunately most of the Temple was made of mud brick and lay and the Nile floodplain so over the centuries the flooding of the Nile destroyed the Temple except for the two stone statues. Now that the Nile does not flood due to the Aswan Dam there are archaeological excavations under way at the site of the Temple. The two statues were still impressive though. Mom and I were there for about 10 minutes, taking pictures of the statues and looking at the graffiti written on the base of them (some of it looked like Greek or Latin so perhaps some of the graffiti is centuries old)


Okay, got to go again. I promise to post more in the next few days.

Egypt

The trip to Egypt, or more specifically, Luxor.

Luxor was the capital of ancient Egypt from the 18th through the 20th dynasties, from around 1550 BC to 1050 BC, so the ruins are "only" 3000+ years old. Unlike Cairo and other areas in the north of the country Luxor does not have any pyramids, instead it has a number of huge temples as well as hundreds of tombs dug into the mountains (easier to do than build massive pyramids I guess). It is here that Tutankhamen was buried, in the Valley of the Kings, as was Ramses II, another well-known pharoh. Nowadays Luxor is a city of ~400,000 people with farming and tourism as the main industries.

Mum and I stayed in a nice hotel recommended by a colleague, the Steigenberger. Decent size, had a pool of course, and most importantly I think six or seven different restaurants. This was nice since we were there for five days so it offered variety. Going outside the hotel and walking around was not all that fun as you would get bothered by taxi drivers, store owners etc. It was not as much hassle as other places (I have heard Cairo and other places in North Africa are much worse, the Bazaar in Istanbul was definately worse) but it was still kind of annoying and you did not get to enjoy walking around. So once we finished our tours of temples and monuments during the day we would just stay in the hotel and have dinner there. Mum would wander out of the hotel more often than I would but she stopped doing that after two taxi drivers started arguing with each other over who she should go with -- and she was just out for a walk so wasn't going with either of them!

Anyway, here is part one of the itinerary:

The Flight: Qatar Airways flies direct from Doha to Luxor, three-hour flight. The airport in Luxor is actually very new and comfortable. We had to change money at one of the moneychangers before going through immigration and the guy made a mistake and originally gave me about half of what I should have received (at least, I will assume it was a mistake). When I pointed out what he should have given me based on the exchange rates he apologised and gave me the correct amount. So here's a tip -- make sure you know the exchange rates before you arrive so that you have a rough idea of how much money you should get when exchanging. If I hadn't have known or paid attention to the posted exchange rates I would have been about US$80 in the hole.

Taxi from the airport to the hotel was in a beat up old car driven by a very pleasant Egyptian man with good English. There was no meter but I don't think I ever saw a taxi that did have one. He made sure that we had his phone number and if we ever needed rides anywhere or tours to let him know. During the course of our vacation we figured that every taxi driver probably does the same. I decided to pay him 50 Egyptian Pounds (~$9) for a 20 minute ride, which I'm sure was far more than locals would pay but he was a nice man and drove carefully. Life is not easy in Egypt so every dollar counts.


Oh, gotta go. I'll post more later.

Birthday wishes

I just want to wish my wonderful sister Karen a Happy Birthday! She turns 41 today (keep it secret though, she tells people she is younger than that). I hope you have a wonderful time today Karen, but don't party too hard this evening okay? Think of your poor liver!

Parents

Today I went to visit some friends to see their new baby daughter. The baby is a little over two weeks old and while she is a happy baby her parents are exhausted (no surprise there I'm sure). It can take hours to get her to sleep and even then she will usually sleep only two to three hours before she is up again for milk etc. Mom and Dad are tired and try to catch naps when they can.

It got me thinking about what my parents must have gone through when my siblings and I were born. My parents were probably a bit fortunate when my older brother was born because at the time my parents lived in the same city as an aunt and my paternal grandparents so at least there was family support available to help them out. But by the time I was born my family had moved to Canada and I believe the nearest relatives were a 6+ hour drive away. So unless some friends were helping out they were on their own. Mom and Dad had to endure some sleepless nights while at the same time keeping a house in order, raising my four-year-old brother, and working (Dad during the weekdays, Mom on the weekends). Given how exhausted my friends are I wonder how my Mom and Dad coped with it all. Heck, I wonder how any parents manage.

So for all of you reading this, especially if you have young children, maybe take the time out to give your parents something that they have probably always wanted: a "Thank You".

And I don't mean the usual stuff that we do for Mother/Father's Day, where we get our parents a card and small gift and maybe take them out for dinner. If you feel that your parents did a decent job raising you when you were a young child get in touch with them and give them your heartfelt thanks for all the sleepless nights, diaper changes, and other hassles they must have gone through. It's the least you can do.



(Thanks Mom! You did great. Really.)

Okay I'm back

Hi everyone! It has definitely been a little while since I blogged, sorry about that. My Mum flew down on March 17 and just left today so every evening we had been busy either seeing the sights, being sick at home (me with the flu, her with a cold), or travelling. For travelling we went to Egypt where we stayed five days in Luxor touring Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings and so forth. I'll blog about the trip later.

To the surprise of everyone here it is raining! And I do not mean a little sprinkle, a good solid rain. Having rain this late in the year is really odd, it does not rain much in Qatar and when it does it is almost always from December to early February. To have rain in April is really odd.

Anyway a few streets are now of course flooded. Like I said Qatar does not get much rain so drainage here is not very good. Streets can turn to small rivers, roundabouts can hold huge puddles, and you have to be careful if you are driving on a road you are not familiar with as the water can hide any potholes. A vacant lot near me is now a small lake. And as far as I can tell the wet weather does not cause anyone to reduce their driving speed (but I did not see any accidents today).

I will post tomorrow about Egypt.

flu

Man, last week really sucked. I came down with some kind of flu/cold that had me in bed for days. By Tuesday I was feeling a little better but by the next day it'd come back again so I had to take Thursday off as well to recover. Mom came down from Canada on Tuesday evening and she got off the plane sick with a nasty cold, which meant that for the next few days we just sat at home being miserable and going through dozens of tissues. I am sure by the end of this week I will have mom's cold and she will have come down with mine. Joy.

Stupid internet connections

I'm trying to change my profile picture but the connection is so bad it can't upload - stupid compound internet connections.

Upcoming Critical Thinking conferences

Now it has been a while since I have done a "critical thinking" post, which is funny because originally that was the whole point of the blog! So now would be a good time to mention some upcoming conventions on critical thinking:

The Amazing Meeting 7 in Las Vegas, July 9-12, otherwise known as TAM7. They used to hold this convention in January which suited me fine because it was when I would go to Canada to visit the family so I would pop down to Las Vegas for the convention, which was how I got to TAM 3, 4 & 5 (I believe a detailed summary my TAM5 experience is available on this blog). Unfortunately the timing of the convention was bad for teachers and educators so they shifted it to the summer which means I can no longer go. Maybe that won't stop you though -- check out the list of speakers and sign up.

The location in Las Vegas, while convenient for North Americans, was a little more difficult for Europeans to get to so someone is organising the first TAM UK this October 3rd-4th in London. That is a bit closer to home for me so I'm seriously considering going to it. I'll know my schedule better in a few months time. Meanwhile if you live in the UK or Europe you should consider attending. TAMs are great fun and you meet a lot of people. Details are still being worked out so check JREF for updates.

There is another convention organised by UK Skeptics this September 18-20. So there is another possibility for those of you who can't make TAM UK.

And finally the JREF forum has a section where people post upcoming skeptic events. Many cities have skeptic groups that do periodic events or even once a month pub meetings. I know that people regularly post about upcoming events in places like Vancouver, Houston, Calgary, Seattle and Toronto so if you're interested in meeting other skeptics check out the forum and see if there is an event near you.

Qatar Natural History Group

So the other day I went to a dinner to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Qatar Natural History Group (QNHG), of which I've been a member pretty much since I've been here. I appreciate the QNHG because thanks to the organisation I've done all sorts of things I would never have even known about. They organise once a month lectures, small half-day "rambles" around the city or the countryside, and longer field trips to interesting sites in Qatar. It was through them that I went digging for desert roses, scratching for fossilised shark teeth, swimming in the Inland Sea, exploring rock carvings, archaeological digs, and abandoned villages.

Anyway the entertainment for the dinner was a group of young Qatari men performing traditional sword dancing. Apparently they were part of a club at the University they attended where they learn, and thus preserve, Qatari traditions and culture. They performed a couple of dances for us, which consisted of them forming two lines facing each other and chanting in rhythm to the music while one person from each side would go into the middle. The two men in the middle would circle one another and twirl their swords at each other in rhythm to the music. As far as I could tell the swords were real but their movements were slow so there was no worry that they were going to hurt one another. It was a great and appropriate entertainment to the dinner, and it was something I'd only seen live once before.

Men standing in lines and dancing to a rhythm, usually with swords or canes, is a common traditional dance in the Middle East and I occasionally see them on TV as I'm flipping past Arabic channels. Kuwaitis, Qataris, Saudis, Omanis, all cultures in the Arabian Peninsula appear to have a version of this type of dance. As far as I can tell it is for men only, women in the region may have their own dances but I doubt they are displayed in general public. Maybe in women-only gatherings such as weddings are the traditional dances performed?

Anyway if you're interested in seeing traditional Arabic dancing try searching YouTube, I am sure someone has posted some video clips of this type of dancing.

Soccer

Doha is a very unusual place, a city of less than a million people in the Middle East yet I sometimes cannot get over the high-quality sporting events that occur here. I have already mentioned tennis and how I've seen both the top men's and women's players here. There was also the Asian Games where the top athletes from all over Asia competed. There was also the Motor GP event last year I went to.

So this Wednesday there was an event at the local soccer stadium, a 15-minute walk away. The captain of the local soccer club, Al-Sadd, was retiring so in his honour they arranged for a friendly match with...


... AC Milan !!

Yep, AC Milan was playing 15 minute walk away from my apartment. No, not their junior team, the star team. Caca, Ronalhino, Beckham, they were all there. Bizarre, huh? Who would have thought you could see one of the top soccer teams in the world in Doha.

Now due to injury Caca and Ronalhino did not play but they were still there and gave a small award to the retiring captain at half time. Beckham and the others did play. Because it was a friendly I can't say that the game was very exciting, for the most part AC Milan took it easy and did not make many exciting plays. I guess they did not want to embarrass the Qatari team too much which was unfortunate because the crowd would have loved to have seen a lot of world-class play. They did score two great goals but generally just passed the ball around taking care not to wear themselves out too much. Al-Sadd of course were playing their hearts out and they did score a goal (and I think it was legit, I don't think AC Milan were being nice and letting them have a goal) but the score ended 2-1 for AC Milan.

Anyway it was neat to have been able to see AC Milan, it's unlikely that I will ever get the chance to see them play again.


p.s.: anyone who watched the game find it odd that Al-Sadd only did short corner-kicks? You would think if ever there was a chance of scoring against a much better team it would be on firing a corner straight into the crowd in front of the goal. At first I thought that Al-Sadd were deliberately doing it, to prevent heads knocking together going for the corner kick and potentially injuring an AC Milan player, but AC Milan had no issue with firing their corner kicks into the group. Weird.

Medical & Tennis

Well I went to the clinic today to get my stitches taken out and get the results of the biopsy. Turns out everything is okay, it was a non-malignant nevus. Hooray! I now have a small scar above my left eyebrow but that's okay, better safe than sorry. Overall that was a quick and painless experience. It is good to get the stitches out though. Because the stiches were just above my eyebrow everyone whose saw it thought at first I had been in a fight. One Arab guy even asked if I was married because he wondered if my wife had hit me! (Maybe things like that happen all the time in this part of the world??)


I've now started playing tennis again after almost 3 years. I used to play all the time in Bermuda, sometimes up to three times a week, but I arrived in Doha in May so it was too hot to play tennis here. I played squash instead, messed my elbow up, didn't play any racket sports for months, then it got hot again, then I got repetitive strain injury, then my knees, etc etc. So now a small group of us are playing every Saturday afternoon and my knees don't seem to mind.

But wow -- does my technique ever suck now.

That first time playing I literally could not sustain a rally, or even get most of my returns in the court. Didn't get a single first serve in, and probably missed about half of my second serves. If all the people I used to play tennis with in Bermuda could have seen me play they would have been horrified. Thankfully when I played again this past weekend I started getting my groove and things greatly improved from the previous week. Still nowhere near the level I was at back in Bermuda but I was just grateful for just the quick improvement. At least now I won't be embarrassed to play tennis. Which is good because I always enjoyed playing, it is my favourite sport and probably the only one I am reasonable at.

National Day

Today is Kuwait's National Day, which happens to tie in well with tomorrow -- Kuwait's Liberation Day. The Liberation Day celebrates the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq after the first Gulf War in the 90s. I remember being in Kuwait a couple of years ago and many of the buildings we visited had pictures of what they looked like after the Iraqis left. For the most part the Iraqis really laid waste to the city, many of Kuwait City's large buildings were ruined or burnt, and the iconic Kuwait Towers was apparently used as target practice. There is probably still a bit of resentment in Kuwait over what happened.

When I was there all of the ruins had been cleaned up and there was no sign of the war damage except for one building. In a suburban neighbourhood was a house that was used as a base by resistance forces but the Iraqis had discovered it, which led to a 24+ hour siege/battle between the resistance forces and the Iraqi military. I think by the end of it the Iraqis even used a tank to shell the house. The resistance fighters inside were eventually killed or captured, with any captured ones being executed within two days.

Four days after the battle the liberation forces entered Kuwait. Shame they were not just a bit earlier.

In memory of the resistance fighters who died in the battle the Kuwaiti government kept the house preserved, bullet holes and all, as a memorial/museum. It is a must-see if you are ever in Kuwait. There are massive gaping holes in the walls from who-knows-what, bullet holes everywhere, and half the roof blown off. They even kept a few wrecked cars from the battle and there is an old Iraqi tank across the street.

We also visited the museum in the suburbs of Kuwait City that had been left untouched by the Iraqi forces so still had all its exhibits. The museum consists of a number of large rooms that you reach through the basement of a non-descript house. The story I've heard is that when the Iraqis invaded the owners of the museum immediately took down any signs identifying the house as a museum, removed road signs pointing to it, then spread rubble around the front of the house to make it look derelict. The ruse worked and the Iraqis never discovered the museum. I could see why as it took my friends and I a long time to find it, to the point where we were knocking on doors in the neighbourhood to ask people where it was. But it was worth it as the collection of Arabic weapons and artefacts was huge and it took us a couple of hours to go through it all.


So why am I talking about Kuwait? Well I have a Kuwaiti friend who invited me and a couple of other guys from work to a function hosted by the Kuwaiti government for National/Liberation day. It was at the Ritz Carlton and since the invitation said it was two hours long I expected a room with maybe a hundred people, some speeches, and waiters wandering around with a few nibbles. What I wasn't expecting was a red carpet with Kuwaiti dignitaries wearing bishts or military uniforms greeting all the guests, followed by a full sit-down buffet dinner! Many of the guests were ambassadors, US military leaders, elite Qataris, and a few hundred others. The Kuwaitis had really splashed out for the function, and when dinner was over more Kuwaiti dignitaries lined up to thank the guests as they left.

After a function like that I felt that the least I could do is tell the wider internet world that today is Kuwait National Day.

Happy National Day to all you Kuwaitis out there!

Arabic

I'm back taking Arabic lessons again, been about a year since I last took lessons. This will make the third time I have taken an Arabic course.

The first time was sponsored by work and was from the Qatar Centre for the Presentation of Islam. The teacher was a very nice Iraqi gentleman by the name of Mr Kamal. The courses were free and, not surprisingly, consisted of 50% learning Arabic and 50% learning about Islam. In the end most of us found that talks about Islam more interesting than the Arabic but there was the occasional heated debate since there were a few devout Christians in the class and at least one Hindu. Once the class ended I had a reasonable knowledge of the script, numbers, how do tell time and a few basic sentences but unfortunately there was no intermediate class so I couldn't really progress.

The next year I took classes at CHN Institute, taught by a Jordanian lady. Learned a bit more on the speaking side but we did not focus on reading/writing Arabic. After the classes ended there were plans to offer an intermediate class but for some reason I couldn't make it, and that was that.

Thankfully due to demand at the office we now have lessons twice a week during lunch, this time from Qatar University. They offered both a beginners and intermediate class so after taking a placement test I was allowed to take the intermediate class. It is taught by a Lebanese gentleman and has so far been the hardest of the three courses that I have taken. It is immersion, the teacher speaks no English during class, and we are expected to write our homework in Arabic script, which I did not have to do in the previous courses. We also received DVDs so that we could practice lessons at home. So far so good, as long as I keep working at it I should get through the class without being completely lost. Luckily a few people in the class are excellent at understanding Arabic (just not good at reading and writing it), so if you're not understanding what the teacher is saying at least there is someone to ask. There are also people in the class who are near-fluent in writing Arabic but cannot really speak the language so there are people you can check your writing with.

I know what you are probably thinking, why are there some people who can read/write it but can't speak it and others who can speak it but weak at writing? Well it generally depends on where you are from. There are countries where the majority of the population is Muslim but the spoken language is not Arabic (Pakistan for example, Turkey is another). As most Islamic schools emphasise being able to read the Qur'an in Arabic Muslims in these countries are taught Arabic script in school so that they can read the Qur'an but since they do not speak the language in everyday life they do not really learn to converse in it. Plus the Qur'an is written in what is called Classical Arabic, which is not the verbal Arabic used in day-to-day life. I will assume an analogy is Middle (Shakespearean) English, English speakers can understand his works but nobody speaks in Shakespearean English anymore.

[Update: I was off the mark about Pakistanis learning Arabic from Qur'an study, Urdu uses Arabic script -- see the comments section]

On the flipside I have just learned from a Kenyan colleague that Swahili is very similar to Arabic and share about 70% of the words. A speaker of Swahili can generally understand spoken Arabic though Swahili is not written anymore using Arabic characters -- about a hundred years ago Swahili switched from being written in Arabic script to Latin script. So if a Swahili speaker has no training in Arabic script they would roughly understand the language but not know how to read/write it. Turkish went through a similar change, switching from Arabic to Latin script in the 1920s, although Turkish only shares about 25% of words with Arabic.

Time to finish my homework. Ma'assalam.

Connections

I had coffee with Karen C the other evening and it was nice to meet her and her daughter before she left to go back to Canada.
Next time Karen be sure to visit the Museum of Islamic Art, okay?

It is kind of odd how many people I have met through Internet connections, I guess it really is the 21st century way of socialising. Aside from three work colleagues who found my blog independently I have also run into two other people in Qatar who knew my blog. But speaking of internet connections it was especially strange when I went to my first Amazing Meeting (skeptics convention sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation) and I "knew" so many people from my interactions with them on the JREF forum despite having never met them in person until then. I used to do a lot of postings in various forums but with the repetitive strain injury I don't do it much anymore. And I absolutely do not want to get started on Facebook, Myspace, Classmates, Twitter and other assorted social websites, I just don't have the time and with the strain injury I don't wanna risk getting hooked on it like some people are. Nope, I'm content enough to just have my blog as my main connection to the Internet world so that family and friends know how I'm doing.

Nice meeting you Karen, have a safe journey home.

Surgery

This week I had a mole removed that was just above my left eyebrow. A few months ago it had grown and slightly changed colour, which is a warning sign for a potential cancer. So I went to a dermatologist at a local clinic and once he looked at it through a magnifying glass decided it would be better to have it surgically removed and biopsied.

Now while I have had some grumblings about medical care here ("assembly line" mentality by clinics, language issues) I can certainly never complain about the speed at which things get done. Here is what happened:

Saturday -- see dermatologist (no need to book an appointment, no referral from a GP, just walk in and take a number)
-- go to the surgeon in the same clinic for consultation and filling out the insurance pre-approval forms
Monday -- received a call that the insurance company approved the procedure, consultation with surgeon scheduled for Thursday
Thursday -- consultation with surgeon about the procedure, says I will receive a call later about when the surgery will be held
-- consultation with anaesthesiologist, as the surgeon wants this to be under general anaesthetic. (!!)
Sunday -- receive call about the surgery, scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Tuesday -- go to clinic for the surgery

So that was what, 10 days? I wonder how long it would have taken to get through all of that in Canada. Could have been months.

As to the surgery I was a bit concerned that the surgeon wanted to use general anaesthetic -- the mole wasn't that big I thought. So the anaesthesiologist agreed to ask the surgeon to see if it could be done under local. And I agreed that if the surgeon felt that general anaesthetic was necessary then general anaesthetic it is. I wasn't going to argue the point.

So on Tuesday morning at 8am I arrived at the clinic, and was shown to a private patient room where I could change. It was a pretty nice room with a cabinet to lock your stuff up in, a TV, private bathroom, a bed of course, and a couch for visitors. So I changed into the hospital gown and then a nurse gave me a sedative. 20 minutes later I was wheeled into surgery.

The decision was for general anaesthetic. Now I have never been under a general anaesthetic so I was more intrigued than nervous (or maybe that was the sedative). A mask was put over my mouth so that I could start inhaling some kind of gas and I was told to breathe deeply. I remember thinking, " I wonder how long the anaesthetic will . . ."


And then I woke up back in my room at the clinic!!


Man, that stuff works fast! Apparently I was out for about two hours and I do not remember any of it.

Was served a nice lunch of roasted herb chicken on rice with vegetables and salad. Watched TV for a bit, was given my prescription for antibiotics, and discharged at 3pm. All in all I can't complain.

The wound was sore for the first day but not really painful and I have not taken any painkillers for it. It is now day four and in a few more days and I should be able to take the bandage off and see how it looks. The surgeon already warned me that there will be a scar but that's a small price to pay for removing a potentially cancerous mole, a price I will pay any day. As for the mole I'll call in a couple weeks to see what the results were.

Financial issues in Canada, Dubai and Qatar

Well it would appear that the financial crisis has finally hit Canada. Reports are out that unemployment rose 129,000 in January. That is a heck of a lot of jobs! While the jobless figures in the US got more headlines because 598,000 jobs were lost people forget that Canada only has one-ninth the population of the US, so Canada's job losses would be the equivalent of the US losing more than a million jobs in one month.

Now a recession in Canada was expected. Despite the Canadian banking system weathering the sub-prime crisis better than almost any other Western country Canada exports more than 80 per cent of its goods to the United States. With that kind of trade dependency there is no way Canada can buffer itself against the US recession and it is highly unlikely that Canada will recover until the US does. And not surprisingly the Canadian job losses were mostly in the Manufacturing and Commodities sectors. Here's hoping Canada's stimulus package helps all the newly unemployed.



Qatar appears to be weathering the financial storm much better than most. With its huge capital reserves, small population, and a limited retail property sector, the local banks as well as the government have been cautiously optimistic. There has been a bit of belt-tightening here and there, and anecdotal reports of some job losses, but most of the construction projects are still going and the government remains committed to its current spending budget. I have noticed a slight improvement in the traffic on the morning commute but it is so small I can't really say that it is due to there being less people commuting to work. Sometimes the opening/closing of a road somewhere else in the city can affect traffic patterns, and a co-worker told me two new schools have opened in another part of town so that probably means less parents driving to my neighbourhood to drop off their kids at the nearby schools.

I have heard estimates that the Qatari government could meet its expenditures for the year if oil was $35-$40 a barrel so even if oil stays steady in the mid $40 range the country should be okay. With the current oil prices that does not leave a lot of wriggle room though. I feel more sorry for other oil exporting nations -- countries like Iran and Oman need oil at around $80+ to break even.



As for Dubai things seem are really heading downward. Local reports say that hotel occupancy is down 30 to 40%, and there were rumours that up to 1500 work and residence visas were being cancelled every day. Considering the population of Dubai is maybe 2 million that would be the equivalent of losing around 2% of your population every month! A government minister countered the rumours by making a statement that the net number of visas being issued and cancelled was a 1000 increase a day. Um, that would mean a population of Dubai is increasing by 30,000 a month? Any internet commentary that I have read says that can't be true and that maybe the minister was including tourist visas. But the proof is in the pudding, everyone I spoke to who has either been to Dubai recently or knows people who are in Dubai has said the same thing over and over -- the traffic there has gotten remarkably better. In some cases commute times in the morning have been reduced by 50%. Bars that were once standing-room-only-packed you can now get a table at. Taxi drivers are complaining that there is not enough business. Many hotels have dropped rates by half to try to get guests. And the real estate market continues to drop with no end in sight. Numbers like a 60% drop in real estate prices in 2009 have been bantered around but in reality I don't think anyone really knows where it will settle. A friend of mine is going there this weekend, let's see what he has to say.

Am I surprised? Yes and no. I had been predicting a crash in Dubai on this blog for a while now but I thought it would happen a bit sooner and I certainly didn't think it would be due to a global financial crisis, I just figured the local property bubble in Dubai would burst on its own.

I will keep monitoring what happens there over the next few months, hopefully cash-rich Abu Dhabi or other Gulf state will help bail it out (but that will definitely come at a price) otherwise Dubai is looking at a long, long financial crisis.

Books

As part of my Christmas holidays I also picked up a lot of books, one of my favourite gifts. Because I'm mostly a non-fiction reader my family just gives me a gift card to a nearby bookstore so that I can buy the books I want. So now I have a huge backlog of books to read, even a couple that I had picked up from the book exhibition in Doha a month or so ago. So what is on the reading list for the next couple of months?

The Cloudspotter's Guide -- Gavin Pretor-Pinney, because I have always wondered what the different cloud types were

The Crusades through Arab Eyes -- Amin Maalouf, history class always showed this from the western point of view

The Story of Islamic Spain -- Syed Azizur Rahman, maybe I will go there one day
The Ancestor's Tale -- Richard Dawkins, I owned this book once but left it behind in Bermuda because it is a big book but I missed it and look forward to reading it again

The Book of Contemplation, Islam and the Crusades -- Usama ibn Munqidh, an actual historical account of the Crusades which should tie in to the other Crusades book mentioned above

This Is Your Brain on Music - The Science of a Human Obsession -- Daniel J. Levitin, because I like music

The Brain That Changes Itself - Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science -- Norman Doidge, M.D., because I find tales of psychology and neurology interesting

Good Germs, Bad Germs -- Jessica Snyder Sachs, another area I do not know much about, maybe after reading this I'll know what to do next time I get a stomach bug when travelling

Secrets of Mental Math -- Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer, math & science, what else needs to be said?

And finally a re-read, A History of Ancient Egypt -- Nicholas Grimal. Read this book about a year ago but my mother is coming to visit in late March and we are going to Luxor for 4 days so I need to brush up on my ancient Egypt.

Spring cleaning

For Christmas I received a number of shirts, socks, underwear etc so I figured it was about time to do a spring cleaning of my closet and dresser to throw out old clothes. I knew there would be stuff to throw away because I am one of those guys who never throws old clothes away. If I opened my sock drawer and see an old pair of socks I'll just grab a newer pair to wear, I'll never actually throw out the old socks. The last time I did a "spring cleaning" was when I moved to Qatar almost 3 years ago so it was high time for one.

Man, did I have a lot of old clothes. The old socks and underwear alone filled a small shopping bag. The shirts, work shirts, old trousers, and even an old robe filled up an entire black garbage bag! The socks and undies I threw out, the garbage bag of shirts I'm holding onto until I find a charity or a group of needy labourers to give it to. A lady in the office thinks she knows of a group who could use the clothes so I will wait and see if she has found someone.

Cleaning out the closet also allowed me to take an inventory of the remaining clothing. Even after getting rid of the old stuff I still have 40 T-shirts and 13 casual collared-shirts, yet I only have one pair of shorts. 40 T-shirts!! Geez, where did all these T-shirts come from? Looking at them I can tell that at least a dozen of them are souvenir shirts from my various travels, the rest are just T-shirts I picked up while shopping or gifts from family and friends.

Y'know, I have always considered myself a bit of a anti-materialist, someone who doesn't go off the deep-end shopping for stuff or spending hundreds of dollars for high-end brands. Given the amount of clothes I had I guess I should reconsider my views about myself, and be a little more careful about shopping for unnecessary things. I have now made a promise to myself not to buy any more shirts. Who needs 40 t-shirts? I'm now set for t-shirts for the next 3-5 years.

I do need to go shopping for a pair of shorts though.

Canada

It was great to be in Canada again (or more specifically, Alberta) to visit the family, despite the economic gloom. Economically things seem to be getting pretty bad. Housing prices are going down, unemployment is going up, and people are generally nervous about the future. All in all Canada made it through the sub-prime mortgage fiasco quite well, federal banking regulators did not allow sub-prime mortgages in Canada and the banking system was better leveraged than in the US, but that in-and-of-itself is not enough to protect Canada from the spill over in the US economy. When you export over 80% of your goods to the United States any economic decline in the US will affect you greatly. Until the US can turn itself around Canada is in for bleak times. Apparently the government is budgeting for a deficit this year -- the first one in over a decade.

Despite previously mentioning that housing prices were going down the prices in Calgary and surrounding area were still absurdly high. I saw real estate ads in Canmore advertising condos for $800,000+, which for a town of maybe 15,000 people seemed really ridiculous to me. You could get a decent place in Vancouver for that price.

I spent the holiday going tobogganing, swimming, shopping, doing a day trip to Canmore, waffle breakfast at a family friend's, and enjoying a Chinese New Year dinner with my brother's in-laws. I also received as a Christmas gift a facial and massage from a men-only spa. It was a surprise, I was only told one morning to be ready to go somewhere at 9:30 and it was not until I was ready that my sister-in-law told me where I was going. My brother Mark had a facial and massage done at the same time as well. Liked the massage, the facial was so-so but my face did feel smoother so I guess it did work.

My niece Karis is now 4-years old and had developed a bit of attitude from when I saw her last year. It was so funny, whenever she would get upset (which sometimes was over the most minor things) she would give you this look of utter indignation then run to her room sobbing. It was so primadonna/drama queen you couldn't help but laugh. She would even open the door of her bedroom occasionally to make sure that you could hear she was crying. It was so cute. My nephew Aiden is on the verge of walking and was overall a happier baby than last year, which my sister-in-law credits mostly to him moving to solid foods. He was also able to shake his head "no" which was handy during meals as when he was finished eating he would just shake his head when you put the food to his mouth. Mostly though he liked to grab whatever item was handy and hand it to you, usually with a "Da!". He really liked to do this and I'm sure if you let him he would hand you every toy and loose piece of paper in the room. He also drools a lot so I liked referring to him as "drool monster". He could soak through a bib in under a half-hour.

That reminds me my first night in Calgary I was given another surprise gift -- babysitting duty! My brother and his wife had to visit a potential school for Karis that evening so they left me with the kids. Now I have been a lifelong bachelor but to perhaps your surprise I was well versed in how to take care of a four-year-old and a one-year-old.

Yeah right ... I'm a bachelor! I had no idea what I was doing! Thankfully the kids were good and we spent the evening playing. I was glad that Aiden's diaper didn't need changing because I had no idea how to do it and my brother didn't leave any instructions anyway. Well it turns out that Aiden's diaper actually did need changing, I just didn't realise it. That, and he didn't cry either. Whoops, sorry about that Aiden. Despite the red butt I still say you we're better off waiting for your parents to come home anyway.

One thing I should not have done during the holiday was eat as much as I did. My diet went out the window for the holidays (as usual) as I generously ate nice meals, wonderful deserts, and excellent Christmas baking. *sigh* I seem to really lack of self-control when it comes to food, especially sweets. Anyway I am back in Doha and getting back on track. Today's dinner was steamed vegetables with a bit of pasta. I just have to make sure I do not dip into the treats at work. I do miss Tim Horton's coffee though, we were having it every day.

As for my knees my right knee is doing okay. Not great, but okay. I was inconsistant with exercising during the holidays so I am getting that back on track as well. Left knee has not had problems for well over a month which makes me a happy camper. Just gotta lose some weight.

Christmas in January

Looking back through my blog I realise that it just briefly touched on why I go to Canada in January (and that blog post was 2 years ago). Well about five years ago when I was working in Bermuda I was unable to get time off for the Christmas holidays -- it was my turn to be at the office while everyone else went away for the holidays. When I informed my mother that I was not going to be able to make it for Christmas she said "Well then we will just have Christmas when you can make it." And so arrangements were made for the family to meet in mid-January for Christmas. And you know what -- we liked it so much we've done it every year since!

Why was Christmas in January such a big hit?

• Airfares were cheaper
• airports aren't the crowded zoo they are during the holidays
• it was easy for everyone in the family to get time off work
• the malls are not crowded and have tons of sales
• my brother and his wife no longer had to worry about whose family they would spend Christmas day with. (hers on Dec 25th, his in mid-January)

And when I mean we have Christmas in January I mean we do the whole holiday tradition: tree, presents, turkey dinner, the whole 9 yards. It's nice, I really enjoy it. That we do not have Christmas on December 25 doesn't really phaze me at all. I think this year it was on January 22.

Merry belated Christmas everyone!

London

I always love visiting London but most times I am there in January so it is usually gray, miserable and cold. This time I was a bit better, the occasional bit of sunshine and temperatures around 7 or 8. I was also in better spirits because prices in London were a bit cheaper thanks to the pound plummeting against the US dollar in recent months, something like 30%. So things went from being stupidly expensive to "kind of expensive".

One surprise came the first morning I was there and I went to the nearby post office to mail a package. At 11:00am there was a long queue and after I waited in line for a while there was a bit of commotion behind me. It appeared that one lady jumped the queue a bit and went in front of another lady. Here's an approximation of how the conversation went:

"Hey, I was in the queue you know!"
"F*** you".
"WHAT! F*** you, you #^$&%@ !!"
" $^%$^# !!"
" *%#^& !!"

etc, etc. a few other people got involved as well shouting insults and stuff. Needless to say I was quite taken aback by the whole thing and couldn't wait to get out of there. I have never experienced such instantaneous swearing for queue-jumping in Canada.

Usually when us North Americans think of the English we tend to view them as polite and mannerly. Most of them are, but the English seem to have it at both ends of the spectrum. For every polite one there are downright crude ones. Cruder than I would usually see in North America. Who knows why that is, I'll leave it to the English to figure out.

Otherwise things went great during my brief stay. My friends and I went to the pub one evening and had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant the next. I did find some decent deals on Oxford Street so I picked up a few things. I also looked around a few stories in Kensington but the huge sales there were not enough to put things in my price range. And my friend Mary came up from Bournesmuth (sp?) so that we could tour the National Gallery and have lunch at a nice restaurant at the top floor of the Portrait Gallery with a view of Nelson's Column and the skyline of London.

The Return

Okay, I'm back! Actually I got back a couple of days ago but it takes a while to recover from 25 hours of travel over 10 time zones. I also had to go to the office straight from the airport so needless to say that work day was not particularly fun. I have recovered now.

Amusingly enough the weather was colder in London than most days I was in Calgary. The weather in Calgary was mostly sunny with temperatures around -3 to +6 although one day it reached +10. Since it was the dry cold, as opposed to the wet cold in London, it was a lot more pleasant. The family and I went for a walk in a town near the Rockies, went tobogganing, shopping for presents, and generally had a relaxing time. There were a few days when it got a lot colder, around -13 to -20, but on days like that you just stayed inside.

I was only in London for a couple of days but that was long enough to visit friends, do a bit of shopping, and see the National Gallery. I like London a lot, great city.

What I do not like is dealing with overcrowded airports (i.e Heathrow). And for the second year in a row I have had to surrender something at Heathrow. Last year it was the maple butter that I bought at duty-free in Canada (paste over 100ml in carry-on, no it does not matter that it was purchased at the duty-free in North America), this year it was two small jars of honey. I didn't realise that you are not allowed to import honey into the UK from the Middle East so Customs seized it. *sigh*, my fault are not looking it up beforehand I guess. I am still a little miffed about it because it was expensive Yememi honey that I was bringing for a gift.

Anyway I'll blog a bit more about my vacation over the next few days, I've still got to unpack.

Vacation

Vacation time again, this time for my annual trip back home to Canada. I fly to London where I am staying with my friend David and his fiancee for a couple of days before flying on to my brother's place in Calgary for 2 weeks. Blog posts will be sporadic I'm afraid but I will see if I can make one or two during my trip.

Back in Doha on the 28th.

More tennis!

Once again there is more a great tennis in Doha! The Qatar Open has as its big draws Federer, Nadal, Murray and Roddick, and I was fortunate to go to three of the days.

Much of the downsides of tennis in Doha were still there: school groups, people bringing in babies etc, and the first two days I attended it was dang cold. I was prepared this year -- I had four layers on and gloves. Last year I went straight from work wearing just a suit and froze my butt off. This year I was cozy.

Two of the days I went with Kamahl and his in-laws. Now his in-laws are Scottish so you know we had to go watch Andy Murray. We had purchased tickets over a week ago, gambling that Murray was going to be playing on the first day since he was champion last year. We were half-right, he was playing but it was doubles not singles. The only 'big' player playing singles that evening was Andy Roddick. So we watched the Roddick game before moving to Court 2 to watch Murray. Turns out seating at Court 2 was small (~150 seats in a total of 5 rows) so we were really close to the game. Kamahl's in-laws enjoyed the fact that they got to watch Andy Murray from about 30 feet away. We were sitting in seats by the baseline and during one game a long ball was called in by the umpire and Murray disputed it while we were all shouting "out" from our seats. The call stood, then Murray turned to us and said "How far was it out, this much?" while holding his hands about a foot apart. I don't think it was out by that much but we all laughed.

The best night was the quarter finals. While Roddick had an easy time with his game, the next game featuring Nadal and Gael Monfils was a different story. I had heard of Monfils (ATP rank #13) but had never seen him play. Turns out he has a very aggressive style and a bit of entertaining cockiness, like doing little moves after he scores a big point. By the middle of the first set the crowd was supporting him, and after he won the first set 6-4 with some excellent tennis the crowd was fully behind him to beat Nadal. The second set saw more excellent play by him and the wound up beating Nadal 6-4 6-4, probably the biggest win of his career.

I was hoping that he would win the semifinals against Roddick but alas he lost in three sets.

As for the other quarters Murray and Federer won their matches in straight sets. Federer's match was interesting as he was playing against Kohlschriber (ATP rank #28) so everyone was expecting a cakewalk. After winning the first set 6-2 Federer was up 4-1 when suddenly his game really started getting mediocre and he was missing a lot of shots. Kohlschriber came back from a 4-1 deficit to take it to a tie-breaker game! And in the tie-breaker game Kohlschriber went up 6-3, thus had triple-set point, but blew it and Federer managed to take the second set and the match 6-2, 7-6 (8). People were a little surprised that Federer had to scramble for that set and questioned whether he was fully in form.

Federer played Murray in the semis and lost in three sets so that appeared to answer that.

Murray and Roddick are playing in the finals right now. Sadly I did not have tickets but c'est la vie. I'm rooting for Murray.

Blog Spring Cleaning

As part of the new year I have decided to do a bit of spring cleaning on the blog. I'm going to start going back through the old postings and start adding some keyword references to them to make it easier for people to find certain categories of posts. It will not be like some blogs that wind up with 35 different categories of stuff, I figure four or five categories will do, even if one of them has to be "miscellaneous", "other" or something like that. As you can see I've started already.

I have also updated the links section to add some other interesting sites that I like:

Quackwatch.org: an extensive website that investigates and discusses medical scams, dubious "alt-med" cures, and other forms of quackery. I always go here first whenever I hear about some unusual medical procedure or practice. As part of its work the website will also list of things that you should be looking for when seeking treatment for various conditions.

Another web site that I occasionally browse is SkyscraperCity, a set of forums where people post pictures and discuss various skyscrapers that are going up around the world. I have found it to be a gold mine of information on the skyscrapers that are being built in Doha as enthusiasts post all sorts of information: name, planned height, completion dates, what the tower will be used for etc.

Why pay money for some classic novels when you can download for free any books whose copyright has expired at The Gutenburg Project. This website has thousands and thousands of books and other materials with expired copyrights. Here is where you can get works by Charles Dickens, Voltaire, Mark Twain, Shakespeare and so forth -- absolutely free. I think the main website has materials up to 1923, but there are offshoot websites based in other countries where you can get more recent stuff due to the differences in copyright laws. For example, Gutenburg Australia has the complete works of H.P Lovecraft (d. 1932) because the copyright on his works has expired in Australia. You could spend hours just browsing the titles available!

And finally the forums used by expats in Qatar to discuss what is going on locally (and maybe vent some frustrations) Qatarliving.com. Great source for up-to-date info and rumours about Qatar.

Books and History

Happy New Year everyone!

Well after telling people in Qatar I was going to have a mellow New Year's Eve I got an invitation that day from my friend Serdar to attend a party at his compound. So New Year's Eve was spent with about 40 to 50 people, with a catered buffet dinner and everything. The host provided plastic bags with party favours (hats, blowers etc ) but a number of the bags also had spray cans of Silly String -- you can imagine what a party with 25 cans of Silly String looked like! Here's hoping the compound Club House staff can get all the silly string off the walls and carpeting.

Also in the last week I attended a book fair taking place at the Exhibition Centre with one of my Qatari colleagues. Now Doha does not have a lot in the way of English-language bookstores, in fact I can only think of three, and of those three the best one is the book section of a Virgin Store (not even a Megastore) so that should give you an idea of the level of book selection available. I would kill for a decent bookstore but so far nothing. Rumours surface every now and then that a bookstore chain called MacGrudy's is going to open a store in Qatar but it never seems to happen. Sigh. Anyway I was just going to the fair on a lark to see if there was anything of interest but I was not expecting much. Turns out the book fair had over 200 stalls with publishers from all over the Middle East selling books. Now out of those 200-plus stalls only about 20 had English-language books but it was still enough for me to find some interesting items and I walked out of there with seven books: a two-volume set of Islamic jurisprudence, a small book about astronomy during Islam's "Golden Age", a book that compiled the Arab's views of the Crusades, a book on Moorish Spain, and two books on the GCC that were given to me free from a Qatari gentlemen at a Government bookstall.

As for the rest of the exhibition it was crowded with people so I guess the Arabic-language bookstores do not have a great selection either. My colleague wound up with 4 bags of books, we had to make two separate trips to his truck to drop them all off. Two of the bags were a 12 (maybe 14) volume set of hadiths that he said his family did not have in their library. That is the lot of hadiths.

After the book fair it was off to the bar at the Ramada for Quiz Night. There is a core group of us from work who like to attend this once-a-month event, probably because we never win. (Sidenote: my Qatari colleague just dropped me off and did not join us, so those of you at work reading this don't be spreading rumours he was hanging out at the Shahrazad Bar). We have come in second twice, and third at least twice, but never won. Drives me nuts. First place gets a dinner voucher for 12 people at one of the Ramada's restaurants worth about $600 (!), second place gets a round of drinks, third place gets squat. Considering there is no entry fee for the quiz it is a pretty good deal and an entertaining way to spend an evening. Well the first round was Sports and we got crushed, scoring only 8/20. We pretty much wrote off our chances of winning, but after a decent second round, winning third round, and decent fourth round we suddenly found ourselves in fourth place going into the last round! The category was Entertainment and while I maybe knew about 25% of it one of my colleagues and her brother-in-law were total champs. We wound up scoring 27/29 to take . . .


. . . second place. Aaaaaaargh!!


Now, why am I bothering to mention a Quiz Night at a bar? Well one of the categories that evening was Qatar which I thought was amusing because at the time there were about a dozen drunk Qataris around (this is one of the few bars that serve Qataris) so we joked that maybe we should get one of them on our team so we could totally ace it. Later that night another work colleague who was on another team mentioned that the table next to his were all Qataris and they were terrible at the category! That struck me as a little odd so the next day we asked some of the questions from the quiz to two of our Qatari colleagues:

1) what does the white in the Qatari flag represent? (Peace, one of them knew it)
2) what year was Qatar's independence? (1971, one of them knew it was 71 or 72, the other did not know)
3) average rainfall? (70mm, neither of them knew and their guesses weren't close)

So in our discussion we found out that Qatari history was not taught at school in Qatar, which was why most Qataris would not know the answers to many questions about Qatar. The work colleague who did know some of the answers had actually taken an elective on Qatari history at University, which is how they knew. They agreed that it was kind of odd that local schools did not teach Qatari history but it was their understanding that it has changed now and is now taught in schools. So the younger generation will likely be a better bet for quiz night.

But it turns out that Qatari history is not an easy thing to find a lot of books or materials on. Which brings us right back to the book fair. My colleague was also looking for a book on the history of the Al-Thani family (the ruling family) which apparently was sold out almost everywhere. He eventually did find it and told me there are not many such books on the various tribes and families in the region because a book that showed a powerful family in an unflattering light would never be published and writers have to be careful about what they say. But the history of Qatar, Saudi, Bahrain etc, is chock-full of numerous tribal wars and conflicts and the tribes and families involved still exist today. It therefore becomes difficult to chronicle the battles/wars without there being a "good" side and a "bad" side, and even in a neutral chronicle powerful families do not want to be reminded of past defeats, embarrassments, or unbecoming behaviour (pillaging etc) that may have occurred in those times. So few people are willing to try to publish books describing this history. That is not to say that the history has been forgotten, many Qataris learn about the wars and battles orally through older family members, it just is not written down anywhere. And this was not all that long ago so it likely affects Qatari society today, only more clandestinly. I'm sure it has an impact on the arranged marriages as Qataris from one tribe/family would probably never marry someone from a family where there was a long history of rivalry and conflict.

Maybe I will learn more about this someday. If so I'll let you know.

Aoud

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I went to friend's place for a Christmas Eve dinner and then I had a late lunch/early dinner Christmas Day hosted by some other friends of mine. Turkey and all the trimmings for Christmas. Like my eggnog woes someone else lamented that you can't find pumpkin pie here. C'est la vie I guess, sometimes you just have to roll with the punches of not being in North America. It is a shame though as pumpkin pie is my favourite. For the Christmas Eve function I made some eggnog (sans alcohol) and while I would not say it was the world's greatest eggnog it turned out reasonable enough.

The other day I was on my lunch break at the mall with some Qatari colleagues when one of them remembered that he needed to shop for something we do not really know much about in the West -- aoud. So off we went to an Arab perfume shop in the mall where raw aoud is available for sale.

Aoud (or sometimes spelt 'oud' but that is also the same spelling for an Arabic guitar) is a wood that Qataris like to place in incense burners. The wood is from a Southeast Asian tree called an Agar tree. When a certain type of fungus attacks the tree it fights back by exuding a resin, which also happens to be a powerful fragrance. When the resin-infused wood is burnt it gives off a fragrant smoke which Qataris use to add a scent to rooms or clothing.

When we got to the shop the owner started pulling out small chests where he keeps pieces of aoud and my colleagues took the time to point out to me how to identify various qualities of aoud. Bands of colour is important (the word is normally light in colour, darker bands indicate the resin) and a tiny piece was placed in incense burner so that we could see the resin boil and create the smoke (another way to tell how much resin is in the wood). While the tiny piece was in the burner they showed me how to brush the smoke towards your face to get the scent of the wood, also mentioning that smoke from good quality aoud will not cause your eyes to water. Then they demonstrated how you hold the burner a few feet under your face and let your gurtra hang down over the smoke so that the scent of the smoke infuses the clothing. Much like tobacco smoke if you get enough in the clothing the scent will stay for a couple of days.

All in all it was a great lesson in Arab culture.

Now you might be wondering, isn't this 'quality checking' a bit much for a bit of wood you burn? You would think so until you realise how expensive the stuff is. The first box we were shown contained low-quality aoud that was selling for about QR 300/kg (US$80/kg or ~US$35/pound). That was the low-quality stuff. One of the boxes contained aoud selling for QR 1000/kg (US$270/kg), and the best-quality aoud that the store had went for . . . . brace yourself . . . . US$9500 a kilo!! I nearly fell over, almost $10,000 for a kilo of wood! Aoud is serious business in the Gulf.

I now want to grow an Agar tree in my home!

Christmas

Christmas in Qatar does not have quite the excitement that it would in most parts of the world, not least in part because Muslims do not celebrate Christmas. Things have been changing a little bit over the time I've been here though. The Christmas displays in the malls seem to be more and more noticeable every year, from very subdued beginnings when I first arrived to nice displays in the middle of malls. Most, if not all, malls in Qatar do not do the Santa thing though. Some hotels do but by and large Santa does not make the widespread appearances that he does in Western countries leading up to the Christmas season. Combine that with the fact that it is still over 20° and it just does not feel like Christmas. I keep forgetting that it is only a few days away.

Two days ago I want to the grocery store to get some eggnog and guess what -- there wasn't any. Not because it had sold out, there just wasn't any. I don't know why I thought stores would have it, just going on autopilot I guess. I lamented the lack of a eggnog at work and a coworker recalled that two years ago a different grocery store did carry it. So last night it was out to the other grocery store (I even had a request from an American friend to pick up some for him as well if I could find it). No luck. I might just have to make some from scratch, however you do that. I'm sure there are good recipes on the internet. I wanted some so that my Qatari friends could try it as they had never even heard of eggnog before. Even many of my British co-workers had never tried it, I guess it is a very North American thing.

Another thing about Christmas in Qatar that takes a bit of getting used to is that it is not a public holiday. Thankfully my office does give us Christmas off work but for most it is just another day as usual. Case in point I was at the physiotherapist today and after I was done I went to the counter for booking my next appointment to be told that it would be on the 25th at 8am. I said "great, thanks", walked out the door, then went "wait a minute..." .

So I get to start my Christmas morning with a physiotherapy appointment! ( I guess it's a gift that keeps on giving.)

My Qatari colleagues were not that excited about having Christmas off work since of course they weren't really going to be doing anything with the day off. I joked with them noting that wouldn't it be nice to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Isa (Isa = Jesus in Arabic, according to the Qur'an Jesus was a Prophet of God as well) since most Muslims celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed? They knew I was joking of course, while most Muslim countries have a day set aside to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammed, Wahhabist-Islam nations like Qatar and Saudi Arabia do not. My understanding is that under the form of Islam practised in Qatar and Saudi Arabia while they revere the Prophet they are careful not to revere him to such an extent that it could be seen as almost worshipping him, so having a holiday just for him would somehow detract from the proper focus on Allah. At least I think that is why they do not have birthday celebrations for him.

Oh well so it looks like the 25th will be an unusual Christmas Day for me. I am attending a late Christmas lunch/dinner at a friend's house so the day will not be a total wash. And I get to eat turkey. And maybe eggnog.


If I do not post before then have a Merry Christmas everyone!

National Day

I forgot to mention that December 18 was also Qatar's National Day so I got the day off work. Celebrating this day as the National Day is a relatively new phenomenon only a couple of years old. Before then the national day was September 3, the day Qatar gained independence from Britain, but the Emir decided to move it to December 18, the day the Al-Thani family took power something over a century ago.

I remember the first September 3 holiday that I had here and there was nothing going on in the way of festivities. Made sense I suppose, early September is still bloody hot. Moving it to December means that the temperatures are nice enough for the country to celebrate National Day. This year they had a military parade in the morning, horse races in the afternoon, and a fireworks show on the Corniche in the evening. I only went to the fireworks which were good but started way too late (10:00pm) and there was not much else in the way of activities on the Corniche so if you got down there early there was not much to do. And don't get me started on the traffic since thousands of people went down to the Corniche. Long story short -- nice fireworks, not sure if it was worth the effort to get there though.



Now back to Singapore. While wandering around I happened to come across something that I have heard of and always wanted to try -- a fish spa. This is where you put your feet and legs into a tank of water and tiny fish called doctorfish swarm over your feet and legs cleaning off the dead skin. It tickled so much I couldn't stop laughing! Imagine having fish go in-between your toes and nibble at the soles of your feet. So I was cracking up, and the staff were laughing because I was laughing. 20 minutes later I had nice and smooth feet. They also had a tank with bigger doctorfish but I did not like that as much as the bigger fish pinch a little and I was getting a little worried that they might actually take off some flesh. I will stick to the little fish.

If you ever see a fish spa give it a try.

Singapore eating

Okay so how was Singapore? In a word -- delicious.

Singapore is what you would call a 3-or-4-day city, not one of those places that could keep the tourist busy for a week or so like London or Paris, but it does have some things to do and things to see for a while. What were the touristy things I did? Raffles Hotel, Night Safari at the zoo, cruise down Singapore River, and went to see the Singapore Flyer (Singapore's equivalent of the London Eye). But mostly what I did was search out the various local cuisines available at hawker stalls and street markets throughout the city. A Singaporean colleague had given me a list of interesting night markets to try and dishes to eat. Sometimes finding those markets was a search in and of itself, and allowed me to see parts of the city that I think were a little off the beaten path of tourists. Not always of course, a few of these markets like Lau Pa Sat are well known but occasionally I was finding myself in places where were no other Westerners to be seen.

So rather than go into all the details here is a list of some of the things I ate during the trip:

Roasted duck noodle
Matcha lattes (from a place called OChaCha)
Toast with Kaya jam (from Ya Kun Kaya Toast outlet)
Hainanese chicken rice
Iced lychees
Spicy popiahs
Eel with green peppers
Sweet rice cakes with black bean and sesame paste
Laksa (sort of a curry fish soup)
Ice Kachang
Mixed-meat satay
Steamed BBQ pork buns
Chili tofu
Smoked eggs

The one thing I missed trying out on was deep fried carrot cake, a local specialty. Every time I went somewhere where I had heard they served a good version of this dish the place was either closed or too crowded. Maybe next time.

I know what you're thinking, going all these out of the way places to eat in night markets and stalls didn't I get sick? Well -- yes. Luckily though it was right at the end of the trip, literally as I got to the airport to catch the flight home. In the taxi to the airport I suddenly thought "I don't feel so good all of a sudden" and by the time I got to the airport my stomach had announced that it was time to sit back & relax as it was going to be emptying itself out about once an hour. So that wound up being the most hellish plane ride I have ever had. I was sick 4 times waiting for the flight and 7 more times during the 8-hour flight, I could not even keep down some water. Thankfully no one was sitting next to me as I would have felt really embarrassed being so ill. I was also grateful that it was just vomiting and not diarreha, but at the time that was a small consolation. When I got home I went straight to bed and was ill for another day.

Man, I had never experienced "traveller bug" before and don't want to again.

I have no idea what food caused it. I actually suspect it was a dish from a cafe at a mall that some cheese in it, not from some street stall, but I have no way to be sure.


And by the way the Raffles Hotel is the biggest rip-off ever! A Singapore Sling there was S$31 (US$21)! 21 bucks for one drink!! And a pint of beer was US$18, the same beer I could get for $4 down the street. Something about that hotel just seems to appeal to older Westerners who absolutely have to pay completely ridiculous prices just to say that they had a drink there. And no I did not have a Sling, for 21 US dollars I don't care that it was invented there. I went across the street to the Fairmont and had one for half the price.

Eid

So what has been up this week?

Well for starters the Museum of Islamic Art finally opened its doors to the public, after about three years of construction. I went there on Friday to meet with a friend and his wife and wander around. I must say it is a spectacular building. Well-designed, spacious, and the exhibits were nicely placed with a reasonable amount of space between them. While the museum is a decent size it is not so large as to cause "museum fatigue" which can happen at places like the British Museum or the Louvre, where there is just so much (albeit awesome) stuff it takes forever to see it all and you get tired. Your average tourist would probably go through the Islamic Museum in about three hours, more of course if they take the time to examine every item on display. We only went through about half of it since we knew we could come back some other time to see the rest. From what we saw there was a lot of pottery, carpets, jewellery, and calligraphy/books from various eras and places such as Spain, North Africa, Middle East, India, and Central Asia. Not a lot of paintings and sculpture but this is to be expected -- in many parts of the Islamic world art that depicted individuals was frowned upon for religious reasons. There were some exceptions such as paintings from Mughul India or the late Ottoman Empire, but by and large most Islamic artwork did not depict people. I will go back to the museum to finish seeing the rest of the exhibits in a few weeks when things have quieted down a bit.

It is nice that Doha is actually starting to shape up and have nice things/areas for people to go to. When I first arrived there was not much to do aside from going to a mall. Now there is Souq Waqif (a rebuilt Souq in the old classic style with a lot of restaurants and traditional shops), the Museum, and in the next couple of months the first phase of the Pearl will open (reclaimed land that will have a beautiful boardwalk with restaurants and shops). The W hotel will be opening soon and the Grand Hyatt resort is scheduled to open the first quarter of 2009. Not that I'm too fussed about hotels as they are always really expensive, but the Hyatt will have a Thai restaurant which I'm looking forward to as I have not been that impressed with the Thai food one can find here.

In other news earlier this week the Istisqaa Prayer (prayer for rain) was held. It is an annual ritual that dates back from the time of the Prophet and apparently a Sunnah mentions it. It was the first time I had heard about the Istisqaa Prayer but Qataris take this prayer seriously -- it was led by the Emir himself. Two days later we had a big thunderstorm and a whole heap of rain. You have to be careful what you wish for though, enough rain fell that many of the streets were flooded and there were a lot of car accidents.

I joked with a couple of my Qatari colleagues about the Prayer, asking whether they did any kind of dance akin to Western stereotypes about Native "rain dances", and they laughed and noted that it was simply a set of specific prayers. I learned later that the Prayer is not just about rain, it is a more of a ritual based on repentance as part of the Prayer involves asking Allah for forgiveness for prior sins. Maybe the rain that you pray for represents washing away one's sins? I think that this Prayer may be unique to Arabia as I am not sure how widespread it is throughout the rest of the Islamic world, especially in places where they get lots of rain like Malaysia.

It was also reported that Qatar has now reached a population of 1.5 million. Considering two and half years ago when I arrived the population was just under a million it goes to show just how quickly this country is growing. The paper also reported that in the last month alone 28,000 people arrived, mostly labourers of course. Also of note was that they estimated that out of the 1.5 million people 1.18 million were men, which means that the gender ratio of men to women is close to 4:1, the highest such imbalance in the world. It can be a little unsettling to women at times, especially if you are in neighbourhoods popular with labourers such as the area just outside the Souq Waqif area, as there could literally be hundreds of men on the street and not a single woman to be seen. It also means that women can be subject to a lot of stares and leering. Couple that with strict enforcement against prostitution and "illicit relations" and you have thousands of frustrated men roaming around. I can see why women might be nervous walking around on their own.

As for my knees they are definitely improving now that I am doing proper exercises to strengthen the muscles, which has made me a happier person. One downside though is that I've had to stop swimming in the compound pool because it is just too bloody cold! The pool is unheated so the water is freezing, and the temperatures are starting to drop now so in a week or two it will be too uncomfortable to walk around without a jacket, let alone just wearing a swimsuit. I will have to find some other exercise to keep me busy for the next couple of months.


And finally the second Eid holiday has begun. I'm not sticking around in Qatar for this holiday. I have three days off work and couple that with the weekend and you got the makings of a nice getaway holiday. So I found myself a great deal to . . .




. . . ready . . .




Singapore! I leave tomorrow. Plans are to mostly relax and enjoy the food. A work colleague is from Singapore so he gave me a list of all sorts of great places to eat, as well as a couple of things to do. The Night Safari at the Zoo to see the nocturnal animals is a definite must as everyone who has been to Singapore has told me it is great. A bumboat tour of the river (apparantly there are boats called bumboats there), and a Singapore Sling at the Raffles hotel should be enough activity for a low-key relaxing trip. I'll blog about it when I get back.


Eid Mubarak to all those Muslims reading the blog, enjoy the holiday.

So where are the pictures of the glyphs?

Once again the Compound computers were crashing out, and work computers block picture sites so hopefully this works . . .