Before I moved to Dubai I read the blogs of several strangers and
acquaintances. I always skimmed or skipped over the bits when they wrote
about their holidays in Istanbul or Washington DC, their visits to
Petra and the Taj Mahal. I didn't want travelogues, I wanted
day-to-day-life-logues. I've got to admit, however, that travel really
IS day to day life here for many, including me. I've already blogged
about my travels to Muscat and Socotra Island, so far I've let the Doha
and Beirut trips pass without writing but I'll partway remedy that with
this post, but first, a word on my first trip back to the US.
I won't
detail my itinerary, many of you readers got to enjoy part of it with
me. Suffice to say I was lucky enough to do a full western US ramble
with camping, friends and family, exquisite slot canyons and
neighborhood BBQ, geysers and kayaks, ferris wheels, neon and mountain
picnics, oh my! And I got to laze away another chunk of time in the
Midwest: beaches and berries, more family, all manner of farm critters
and sweet corn and pork! There was shopping more familiar sizes and less
rhinestone covered shoes, stocking up on Trader Joe's treats and random
OTC meds. There was, most of all, a sense of comfort that is still
lacking in the UAE. I'll get there, I think, but now, doing the business
of living- things like grocery shopping and finding an address- is
still not entirely normal. But I'm figuring it all out, little by
little. I've got the art of the weekend trip in hand and have been
checking out regional cities, north and south, east and west of here.
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| empty airport |
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| performing arts venue |
Back in May, I went to Doha, Qatar to
visit my friend Carol who is library director for VCU's campus
there. We flew into Doha's shiny new, slightly unfinished airport. We
were the only plane on the many runways, the only passengers in the very
high
tech, top of the line passport control lines. This experience set the
tone for the rest of the weekend for me. My overall impression of Doha
is that it is
still becoming... We visited a gorgeous cultural village
with a Coloseum-like performing arts venue and well laid out art
galleries. It was a ghost town. We went to an intimate jazz club for a
show by
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| Carol's view with dirt island |
world class musicians and the very small room didn't fill. Carol
has an apartment on an island complex with a fantastic balcony view of a
man made harbor full of yachts and a funny dirt island that is rumored
to be the site of a future low rise, high cost hotel but for now is
nothing, unused, gated off. Walking around the shopping arcades on the
ground level of Carol's building we saw dueling luxury car dealers (was
it Maserati and Porsche?), some haute couture, and a lot of empty
spaces, available for lease.
There seems to be an interest from Qatar's ruling family to make Doha a center for arts in the region and some of the investment toward this
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| Museum of Islamic Art |
goal is remarkable. The Museum of Islamic Art had cool collections, a great gift shop, and was housed in a striking building designed by I.M. Pei. We took a ride out into the desert to see an installation piece by Richard Serra that is massive in scale is is only one of several of his pieces in Qatar. The artworks, the jazz, the cultural village and more... there's this investment of money, but they seem to be still teetering on the brink of the whole "if you build it, they will come" phenomena. Will "they" come? And who is the target anyhow? Qataris? Ex-pats? I couldn't get a handle on it. I liked Doha, other than some crappy traffic problems, it seemed very live-able. I found it lovely to look at, well done from a design stand point, but maybe lacking in a little liveliness or spark. Maybe still poised for full launch, with just one
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| Serra's piece in the desert |
airline on the runway for now....
