Cyprus

When Qatar Airways recently announced that it was starting direct flights to Larnaca in Cyprus I decided to take advantage of the specials being offered to go see the city for a few days. I'd realized that when I first arrived in Qatar I used to do 3 or 4 day jaunts to places all over the region (Oman, UAE, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, etc) but I haven't really done that for a few years now and I miss doing those quick trips. I'd also never been to Cyprus before so I figured, why not.

I checked the weather reports beforehand and found that the first day I would be there would be around 22° and raining. Sounded good to me, I like moderate temperatures and living in Qatar you kind of miss rain. What I wasn't prepared for was this:

It was bucketing! Locals told me later it was probably the heaviest rain they'd seen all year. At times the rain was so heavy that even if you went out with an umbrella your feet were getting soaked. Things were fine by late morning the next day and thereafter it was nice and sunny.

I stayed in a nice hotel overlooking one of the key tourist attractions in Larnaca, the Church of St. Lazarus.

Larnaca is not a big city, maybe 75,000 people, but the downtown core maintained its labyrinth of narrow streets where there were some interesting shops and restaurants. Most of the “big chain” restaurants were at the beach so I found myself eating away from the beach the whole time.

The city does have a reasonably big beach/corniche area. I didn't go swimming (and from the looks of how few people were in the water it was probably pretty cold) but there were a reasonable number of tourists sunning themselves in the loungers.

Language was easy, everyone seemed to speak English to some degree. Signs were almost always in both Greek and English (or just English for some touristy things), along with plenty of signs warning you to drive on the left side of the road.

Larnaca is in southern Cyprus, the Greek side (as opposed to Northern Cyprus which is Turkish). Despite its historical problems with Turkey some of the streets in Larnaca kept their Turkish names.

And the town center still has an Ottoman-era mosque that is still in use. I popped my head in on a Friday and only saw maybe 20 men in the mosque, and many of them appeared to be from Africa, so I'm assuming there are not many Turkish Cypriots in Larnaca.

Of course the majority of the Cypriots who live in Larnaca are Orthodox Christians.

One day I took a walk along the nearby salt lake. During the winter numerous flamingos can be found at the lake but the flocks had left by May. On the way from the airport I saw about six flamingos in the lake but during my walk I saw none.

However at the far end of the lake was another famous attraction, a mosque known as the Hala Sultan Tekke.

Apparently the mosque is thought of highly in the Islamic world and the grave of a lady who was close to the Prophet Mohammed lies here (I think she was either the Prophet's stepmother or wet-nurse, it wasn't entirely clear to me). The tomb was inside the mosque.

As for other activities I also went to the small medieval fort on the seaside,

And of course whenever I could ate Greek/Cypriot food at nearby restaurants.

As I mentioned before Larnaca is not a big city so 2 days is enough to see everything unless you plan to lounge on the beach. If you plan on staying in Cyprus longer you should consider renting a car and driving around the countryside. Cyprus is not a large country and the main cities of Nicosia and Limmasol are maybe 50-60km away.

Qatari Wedding

So I received a call the other day from a friend of mine letting me know that he was getting married (in 3 days) and he invited me to his wedding. That you receive short notice is standard for a Qatari man's wedding, typically you find out a week or less in advance. If you want more information on how Qatari men's weddings work, click on the "Qatari Wedding" tag on the bottom of this post.

So off I went, here's some pictures that a colleague and I took. I didn't ask the groom if I could post his picture on the blog so there are no pictures of him:

The groom is sword dancing in the following picture, he's in the crowd, wearing a black bisht.

And here's dinner . . .

Doha News Community Meeting

Tonight I went to the Grand Hyatt Hotel to go to the fifth anniversary community meeting for Doha News.

It was really nice, they had a big ballroom and staff from the Grand Hyatt were serving appetizers before the talk, Omar from Doha News told me that this was all provided by the hotel as part of the Grand Hyatt’s sponsorship of the event. There were probably around 200 people there.

Most of the talk was a Q&A with the Doha News staff. What I found most intriguing was when they said they had never been contacted by any official or government representative and told not to report a story, something that I think a lot of people assumed would be happening here. They noted that press freedom in Qatar is probably better than it is in the rest of the GCC where there are a lot more restrictions and problems such as people being imprisoned for a tweet or a blog post.

Afterward they announced that they would be starting an annual membership as a means to raise funds to keep Doha News independent. They do get money from ads from their website but it's not really enough to cover their current expenses. You can go to their website, dohanews.co, to get a membership or even just to contribute some money to support independent journalism.

I even won a door prize, a dinner for two at the W. Today was a lucky day.

Auction at Souq Waqif

Last Friday night there was an auction in the square by the Hotel Arumaila. This is the second time I’ve passed by and seen an auction so maybe it’s a regular event. It was mostly Gulf Arabs buying various antiques, vintage items or (what appeared to me anyway) assorted bric-a-brac.

If you’re interested in buying the auction is held in Arabic so if you don’t speak Arabic you’d better bring a translator, otherwise you might pay a lot of money for a coffee pot or something :)

[June 2014 update, I was there around 4:30pm and despite the summer heat they were still holding an auction, I've added a daytime photo]

Tim Hortons at Hyatt Plaza

Just a quick update for all my Canadian readers, I was at the Tims at Ezdan and saw this sign:

Works for me! I'm in that area a lot. Here I figured the next Tims would be in the new Villagio Food Court that they're building.

[April 30th update: a friend of mine invited me to go so we went, here's a pic of the new Tim Hortons]

Fort Zubara

Took the opportunity to go up to Fort Zubara with a friend of mine, he had never seen it before. It'd been I think four years since I had last been up to the Fort.


Thanks to the recent rains the northern part of Qatar had areas where it was almost prairie-like with lots of grasses. The first picture is from September 2006, the next one during my recent trip.

So how much has the Fort changed?

Before (7 years ago)

After

Not too much of a difference on the outside, though there is a nice parking lot and small rope fence. There was a new monument just the left of the Fort.

It notes that the Fort and the surrounding archaeological dig are now a UNESCO site (I didn’t know it had been awarded that, I wonder when that happened?)


So we went inside.


Before

After

Looks like they've done some renovation as some of the inside buildings look new, and they put some displays out. There was even a gift shop, which definitely wasn't there before. It made for a handy place to get drinks if it was too hot, before you would have to go about 10-15km to the town of Al-Shammal to get supplies.

There is a lot of change when you went inside the rooms.


Before (random things haphazardly displayed with no text explaining what it was)

After

What a difference! Informative displays, even a small room with short films describing the Fort restoration and the Zubara archaeological dig. I remember before many of the rooms didn't even have anything in them.


The displays have improved a lot. No, really:


Before (help yourself to a vase)

After (under glass with accompanying descriptions)

So the Fort really has improved over the last few years. A lot of the displays even discuss the archaeological dig, which was never (and still isn't) accessible by tourists. The city of Zubara is a lot bigger than I imagined, probably holding a few thousand people at its peak. The Fort had a pictures and displays of the site and the history of the city.


So if you saw the Fort years ago so figured you didn't need to bother seeing it again give it a try on some lazy weekend day.

Arabic Bagpipes

I was at Souq Waqif again watching the entertainment during the Souq Waqif Festival and there was something interesting about an Arabic band that was on stage.

Yep, they had a bagpiper!

Most Westerners equate bagpipes with Scotland and most people (including myself up until recently) don't realize that the instrument is actually much more widespread. While its origins are subject to debate there is evidence that bagpipe-like instruments originated in Roman times, which means they would have been used throughout the Roman Empire, including the Levant and the Holy Land. I found one tourist website about Syria that claimed bagpipes originated there during Roman times. From Roman times bagpipes spread throughout the area and instruments similar to a Scottish bagpipe can be found today in places like Turkey, Bulgaria, Syria, and Arabia. It’s a bit ironic that the instrument is best known with Scotland given that the Romans never conquered that area.

I’ve seen Arabs using bagpipes before but for traditional music it is not as common as it would be in Scotland. Drums and percussion instruments are the most common instruments, with bagpipes being something you only see occasionally.

But take a look at the picture again, do you see the second set of bagpipes resting on the ground? The fabric pattern certainly looks similar to a Scottish tartan. This band is from Oman so I did a search on traditional musical instruments in Oman. Websites such as this one had some interesting information. Despite the fact that bagpipes are used in many parts of Arabia they were not traditionally used in Oman (who call bagpipes ‘habban’) until recently. So where did they get them from?

The British, during the colonial period! So Arabia has bagpipes -- but Omanis didn't use bagpipes -- until they were introduced to Oman by the British. So these particular bagpipes are based on the Scottish bagpipes as opposed to traditional Arabian bagpipes. Yep, fooled you with the title, these aren't Arabic bagpipes. :p

The world is a funny place sometimes.

Down to the Beach

Weather in Qatar is now sunny and 30+ degrees, perfect for going to the beach. A buddy of mine and I headed down to Sealine Beach for the day.


Normally Sealine wouldn't be my first choice but ever since the construction at Salwa Road has been completed getting to Sealine is really quick -- maybe 45 minutes from Ramada signal. My buddy and I never go into Sealine Resort itself, we always park a few hundred meters down the road where the dunes just start to meet the water. It's a pleasant enough beach and unlike many other places in Qatar the water gets deep relatively quickly so you can go swimming.

We got there around one in the afternoon and there were many people there, but by three o'clock a lot more people appeared to enjoy the day.

The Sun is pretty strong so you need to be prepared with sunscreen. My friend didn't use any and check out the difference -- the tan line is because he wore a shirt except when he went swimming.

I figure we maybe have a month or so before it starts getting too hot to go to the beach. I plan to go at least two or three times more before the summer.

Souq Waqif Festival

It's festival week here in Doha and last night I was at Souq Waqif to enjoy the entertainment there. They actually had a lot set up:


A tent showing traditional Arab ladies singing and dancing

A stage for more modern performances, in this instance a contemporary dance troupe

Another stage for traditional music and dance, I'll take an educated guess and say these gentlemen are Omani

There was also a large kid zone with games

Pony rides

And camels

I believe the Souq Waqif Festival is on for the rest of the week. Unfortunately some of the parking has been taken up with the stages and games so consider using a taxi to get there. I think there might be a park-and-ride shuttle service but I couldn't find any details.

Turkish Festival at Katara

Last night I went to Katara with the Turkish friend of mine to see the Turkish Festival being held there. Traffic at Katara was pretty heavy (as usual for Thursday night) but thankfully, unlike a lot of places in Qatar, they have that underground carpark with plenty of room.

I figured they would be holding it at the Amphitheater but they had set up the stage at the far end of the Corniche area. Next to it was a couple of food stalls serving things like kebabs and ayran but the lineup was for the isekender. We lined up too. It was pretty good but not as good as some of the places I've eaten it in Turkey.

And at the stage was a variety of music, and dancing.

The last group reminded me a lot of the Fires of Anatolia show that I went to last year. They did a number of dances from various regions of Turkey, my friend recognizing dances from Izmir, the Black Sea region, and a place I think called Sev (sp?).