As it approached half past one, Land Cruisers gathered on either side of the start, and we could see camels being herded to the starting pens, and as usual, with no prior notice, the gates were opened and the camels began to race.

We watched a few starts, and even followed the Land Cruisers with our Nissan Sunny, behind the scenes in the holding pen were plenty of camels waiting their turn to race.

Entry price was five Qatari Riyal and as usual for Qatar, it was family-day, where single males were unwelcome (unless you were Caucasian of course).

First up was the a single white-tiger, which didn’t help with the zoo’s negative image, a tiny domed cage with the tiger strutting back-and-forth along the edge. You couldn’t help feel sorry for it.

Onto the birds, a much more pleasant encounter, many varieties including Grey Crowned Cranes, ducks, geese and flamingos, which we had never seen before.

Next was a lonesome elephant, the small enclosure brought the elephant only a few metres away, so close that a man was able to extend his arm with popcorn and the elephant was able to extend its trunk to grab it, and would have, if the man hadn’t been stopped by the zoo keeper. Feeding the animals was a common occurrence in this zoo.

Similarly to the elephants, the monkeys were in arms reach, however nobody seemed to mind that they were being fed, and young Qatari boys and girls were happily feeding them popcorn and biscuits, even though there was a “Don’t feed the animals” sign right above them.

The open savannah enclosures housed zebras, giraffes, deer, antelopes, and of course Oryx, one of the main reasons for the zoo visit. Surprisingly, Oryx weren’t very lively animals, preferring to laze around on the ground.

Finally, we visited the nocturnal and small animal enclosures, similarly to the other animals the animals were easily visible and accessible, however there was minimum security, and many children were banging on the glass trying to get the animals attention.

Overall the zoo was enjoyable, animals were visible and accessible, maybe too accessible in some cases, the small enclosures and children feeding them being a result of this. Unfortunately, like the rest of Qatar, Qataris are ‘above the law’, and this isn’t a good thing for the animals.

We started 2011 off in Beirut, Lebanon, enjoying the life and culture of this beautiful city. In February we travelled to Turkey with my sister where we fell in love with Istanbul, paid our respects in Gallipoli and marvelled at the ruins of Ephesus. In May, and after we had watched the revolution in Egypt take place, we decided to visit this ancient land of the pyramids – from Cairo to Aswan it was one of the most unique experiences. During the hot Arabian desert summer of June to August, we braved the heat in Qatar and then experienced our first Ramadan. A trip back to Perth in September was a special one spent with family and friends. Towards the last few months we visited a few other gulf countries – A trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and of course – the highlight – the beautiful, wild, Oman.

It has been an amazing year, and we’re looking forward to the new experiences that await us in 2012!

Guo-Qiang’s work ‘homecoming’ is visible as you walk through the Mathaf entrance, sixty-two large granite rocks all the way from Guo-Qiang’s hometown Quanzhou, China. Carved on the rocks are Arabic calligraphy, a tribute to the deaths of the Muslims minorities in Quanzhou.

Once inside Mathaf (the gallery itself was designed well, with white , minimalistic spaces, though easy to get lost), the first indoors work was  ‘ninety-nine horses’, a large eighteen metre gunpowder  drawn mural with additional small gold leafed horses hanging in front. One of Guo-Qiang’s signatures are the use of gunpowder in creation of his work, from simple explosions with templates creating works on canvas all the way to extravagant outdoor ‘daytime fireworks’ exhibitions.

The next work was one of Sonya’s favourites, titled ‘fragile’, it consisted of 480 porcelain square panels assembled into an eighteen metre canvas, each square had intricate ‘Blanc de Chine’ or Dehua (an area in the Fujian province in China close to Guo-Qiang’s hometown) porcelain flowers. On the large canvas the Arabic word ‘fragile’ was drawn with gunpowder and ignited, this contrasted with the delicate porcelain.

One interesting work, titled ‘flying together’ was a suspended lifelike camel with falcons surrounding, the falcons seemed to either be attacking or helping the camel to fly.  Like the camel, falcons are a symbol of Qatar, where falconry (essentially, keeping falcons as pets) has existed for thousands of years.

Towards the end of the exhibit were documentaries showing Guo-Qiang’s fireworks choreography, which even included the ‘daytime fireworks’ in Doha that we unfortunately missed. Daytime fireworks use coloured powder to paint the sky, because there are no smoke trails, the powder looks to appear from nowhere (except for the big bang prior).

The Imam Abdul Wahhab Mosque or Qatar State Grand Mosque is no different, opened only two weeks ago for Friday prayers, the extravagant mosque has a very modern feel with crisp lines and large open outdoor spaces. However, the mosque preserves some of the traditional aspects of the gulf region’s past, the sandstone facades, the modest building height and ninety smaller domes mimic the building constraints present when Qatar was in its early years.

Looking past the construction directly outside our apartment window, we have a clear view of the Imam Abdul Wahhab Mosque, and five times a day we hear the mosque’s ‘call to prayer’.

Every year around the time of National Day, Qataris will dress up their four-wheel-drives with white and maroon themes of Qatar flags, photos of the Emir and royal family, the Qatar emblem, slogans and even love hearts.

Starting the night before National Day and ending the night after, Qataris will parade their cars along the Doha corniche, making as much noise as possible, including loud music, honking, and high revving of their engines sometimes causing explosive bangs. When with friends, all wearing traditional dress of thawbs and gutra or keffiyeh, the friends would sit or stand on the top of their four-wheel-drives, while usually supporting a large Qatari flag, sometimes women and children are there, and sometimes even teenagers are the drivers.

Spectators in tradition dress and all supporting Qatari flags and colours use load horns, shaving cream or silly string, sometimes spraying at the cars.

After you get past the cringe worthy and dangerous nature of what you are seeing, it is quite an enjoyable experience, and something that we will never forgot.

It is a special day for Qatar and during the lead up to the day, the whole country is decorated with flags and Doha’s corniche trees are covered with lights. Cars, of both Qataris and expats, are also decorated with displays of patriotism, pictures of HH (His Highness) The Emir, the Qatari Flag, white and maroon colours, hearts…etc. This is our second Qatar National Day, however this year we made a conscious effort to make sure we didn’t miss the main events (i.e. the early morning military parade). Last year, we arrived on the corniche as the crowd was dispersing… and unfortunately, after the parade had finished. Anyway this year we woke up nice and early and walked across to the corniche. By the time we arrived and found a spot on the road it was about 7:30am, and the place was packed! We actually found it difficult to find a space, but managed to squeeze behind some young Qatari women.

The parade started with the Qatar National Anthem. After a recitation from the Holy Qura’an, the Parade was led by a group of Qatari children wearing national costume, accompanied by horsemen and camel riders in traditional dress. After this there was a car convoy, followed by Infantry Forces, Police, Internal Security Force, and Emiri Guards, and all their associated equipment and vehicles, like tanks, boats and so on. In between that, there was a particularly magical moment where we, the spectators, turned around away from the parade to see hundreds of traditional Dhows sailing across the Arabian gulf towards the city skyline (my favourite moment of the parade). It was such a nice surprise and so beautifully done. The parade finished with an air show by the Qatar Emiri Air Force.

In the evening we headed back to the corniche to watch the crazily dressed up cars and their equally crazy drivers (an experience which warrants a separate post and photos in itself, so stay tuned) parade down the main corniche strip. There was also a Dhow Laser Light show and of course the night ended with the magnificent display of fireworks.

On arrival we realised we were a little too early, there was nobody else in sight (well, except for the copious numbers of volunteers), and all stadiums and sports halls were empty. We walked around for a little before deciding to have a quick bite, bypassing time before the wrestling commenced.

Greco-Roman wrestling

Greco-Roman wrestling is a hand-to-hand combat between two men with emphasis on throws. I had briefly seen this style of wrestling on tele back when the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games were on, but seeing it live was much more entertaining.  There is an interesting phase of the match when one man will be on hands and knees and the other man tries to perform an Olympic Lift from behind.

The wrestling was also made somewhat more entertaining by a loud, elderly, Iraqi supporter wearing the full Iraqi green and white tracksuit, red and white Keffiyeh (traditional Arabic Turban) and playing a darbukah (traditional Arabic drum).

Chess

Not the first sport that comes to mind, but is a recognised sport of the International Olympic Committee, even more appropriately, chess has origins from Persia where it was known as Shatranj. I convinced Sonya to check out the chess games, and as imagined it wasn’t very exciting, we stayed for no more than five minutes.

Boxing

Back to real sports, the boxing started with the Light Fly Division, a weight class for men under 49kg, the rounds were fast paced and enjoyable. Again, the loud Iraqi supporter was there, and caused quite a commotion when Iraq was announced the winner during a very close match.

Athletics

After boxing we made the short walk from Aspire Dome to Khalifa Stadium. Having attended football games there previously, it was nice being able to simply walk into the entrance and sit at the closest seats as there weren’t many other people, on the field was discus, high-jump, long-jump, pole-vault and 200m running.

I arrived late on Thursday night (hours were wasted trying to get a VISA in the Kuwait airport) which gave us a full day on Friday and a half day on Saturday to explore Kuwait.

Kuwait Towers

The iconic Kuwait Towers stands 187 metre tall, the three spheres are decorated with sequins of multiple blue shades. We made our way up to the 123 metre viewing sphere which through the dirty glass, gave us panoramic views of Kuwait City

Friday Market (Souq al-Jum’a)

One of the more interesting open-air markets, with everything from Bedouin décor to Afghan coats. The shear scale of the market was unlike anything I had seen before, and the majority of the goods were second hand, it didn’t matter if the cooking pot was rusting or the computer ten years old, it was there on sale. We even purchased an ornamental traditional Arabic coffee pot (Dallah) for five Kuwaiti Dinars.

Souq al-Mubarakiya

Between around 11am to 4pm most places are closed, so we decided to visit Souq al-Mubarakiya, Kuwait’s Old Souq.  The under-cover souq supported much fresh produce, including fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. There where the usual perfume, watches and gold stores as well as souvenirs. Outside the souq we decided to have lunch, for roughly ten dollars we had fresh Arabic bread, with grilled skewers of chicken and meat kofta.

Kuwait National Museum

One of the more official of the many Kuwait museums, Kuwait National Museum consisted of three separate buildings.

Al-Bader House

A collection of archaeological findings from Kuwait’s early history, pieces included early stone tools, ceramics and metal works.  Many pieces are from Failaka Island, which was inhabited from 3000BC.

Heritage Museum

In interesting museum that presented a diy tour through Kuwaiti Heritage, it starts with a showcase of various traditional items including coins, clothing, weapons and hand tools.  The ending finishes with a number of very impressive full sized dioramas with life-like statues portraying the early Kuwaiti way-of-life. Scenes included blacksmithing, basket weaving, praying and stores selling.

Planetarium

A museum unrelated to Kuwaiti culture but more on international space travel and our solar system, we didn’t spend much time there.

Naz Iranian Restaurant

One of the highlights (though it wasn’t even Kuwaiti), for dinner we ventured into Naz restaurant for some Persian cuisine. Our first taste of Iranian food, we ordered the Khoresh-e Ghormeh Sabzi (a stew of lamb, red kidney beans and copious amounts of parsley) , Kashk-e Bademjan (an eggplant spread) and tradition drink Doogh (a yogurt drink with mint). For desert we couldn’t resist the Persian rose flavoured ice-cream Faloodeh.

Kuwait House of National Memorial Museum

The following morning we visited the Kuwait House of National Memorial Museum, a museum detailing  the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990, all that led up to the war and details of the post war destruction and rebuilding. The start of the museum is an automated sound and light tour with many miniature sized dioramas depicting the war, it ends with photos, some quite gruesome, in one of the rooms is a head from a statue of Saddam Hussein captured in Iraq.

Tareq Rajab Museum

One of the few museums that survived untouched during the war, we unfortunately arrived too late and it was about to close for the midday prayer.

Red Fort (Al-Jahra Fort)

Thirty kilometres west of Kuwait, when we arrived at 1pm the gates were already closed.

Barzan Towers is short thirty minutes drive from Doha city, and an easy attraction to get to.