Museums, Races and Culture

Sheikh Faisal's Museum, Doha Races and other Culture

Last week we headed out to see Sheikh Faisal bin Qasim al Thani's private museum.
The intrepid Mazda Mafia go exploring
The museum is reputed to be the best private museum in the country. The Sheikh has built a huge fort style complex to house his collection.

Each hall is dedicated to the varying passions the Sheikh has devoted himself to collecting and displaying. The complex is in a continuing state of development as the website indicates.

Standing at the exhibits - Putting Asterix & Obelix to shame.

The courtyards had examples of boats, agricultural equipment and life in the Middle East over the past few centuries. The entrance was dominated by a lake with a full sized old dhow moored in the middle.

A dhow in the front yard. The entry to the museum.

There were several other in various stages of restoration scattered over the site as well.

No OSH permit needed for this set of discs.

We were admitted to the Islamic Art Hall with its displays of glass & ceramics, jewellry, weaponry, and furniture from the 11th century to the mid 20th. Here we saw examples of art from all around the Islamic world - from India, Malaysia, The Arab states, Egypt and North Africa... a fascinating insight to the creativity of a culture we don't always see at home. The displays added more to the exhibits we'd seen earlier in our time here at the Museum of Islamic Art.

The other halls had exhibits of clothing and embroidery from the Ottoman period, carpets, currencies from the past, rare books and manuscripts from the Koran to early Bibles and Torah from different parts of the Middle East and, in the largest under construction hall, some of the Sheikh's collection of vintage cars which ranged from an 1880 steamer, a 1904 petrol engined car, numerous Model Ts and As through to classic 50's models and vehicles left behind after World Wars 1 & 2 and rescued from the sand.
Koran from 14th Century
Coptic Bible from 16th Century
We spent the morning there then headed into town and the Souq Waqif looking for scenes Joy could paint as a break from the camel series she has done since our arrival here.

On Monday night we went seeking culture at the Ramada Hotel as entrants in their monthly quiz night. The last time we entered we had two teams but with several people away or preparing to travel we were reduced to one - The Mazda Mafia.

The quiz session, in the smoke filled upstairs bar, was quite specialised this time around - Football trivia, World Heritage sites from the more obscure parts of the list, World News as reported on BBC News since January 2009, 1970's music (name the song & the artist from a 10 sec clip ) and, as a sop to the readers of the gossip mags, Celebrity couples who are still married. We managed to acquit ourselves reasonably well with a score of 28.5 but no match for the winners who clocked up 38 points to win a QR1000 worth of dining at the Ramada. Just another incentive to work harder at the next quiz night.

Thursday night we headed off to the 25th Race Meeting of the Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club at the local race track.
Here, the locals were entertained with a 7 race card with local thoroughbreds and imported jockeys competing for prize money from $500,000 US to QR100,000 per race. Entry was free with a gate prize of a new car for the race-goer whose ticket got drawn from the barrel, a run of instant prizes drawn from another barrel and other prizes for those who picked the winning horse in the 6th race.
Like the camel racing there was no betting allowed on the horses so we enjoyed ourselves picking horses and doing "what if bets" amongst ourselves while watching the crowd of race goers enjoy picking form and urging their favourites on in each fast paced race.



Picking form at the Doha Races the Mazda Mafia
check out the talent for the first race of the evening.

The highlights of the evening were the 6th & 7th races - Qatar International Trophy and the Qatar International Cup for Thoroughbreds both of which carried purses of $US500,000 and carried the pride of the Sheikh in that he was both a patron of the club and an owner with an impressive stable of thoroughbreds racing at the meet. The winner of the International Trophy race received not only the stake money but also their names inscribed on some really impressive Gold plates and cups.

We had a great evening even though we didn't walk away with any of the prizes on offer and picking the winning horse in the sixth race. The mechanisms for winning weren't all that clear although we suppose that the person winning the grand prize for this event probably got it when one ticket was drawn from the winning horse's ticket barrel.

Sandstorms & Camel Racing

Of Sandstorms and Camel Racing.

This week has been one of coming back to earth after our travels in Egypt and heading back to work and implementing the various professional development plans to address the issues I identified in the first hectic six weeks of the project.

I spent the first few days writing up the proposals and the monthly report that summed up our activities over January and the first few weeks of this month before plunging into the classrooms to observe and make recommendations that may, if pursued, encourage the students to enjoy and learn English more enthusiastically than they have been doing.

The euphoria of reaching third place among the Independent schools remains but now comes the hard part - raising the academic progress of the students!!

The week was marked by our first experience of a sand-storm. Whereas three hours of rain grabbed front page headlines in the Tribune the two day sand-storm merely warranted a brief mention under weather conditions assuring us it would all be over by Friday afternoon.

The view from our apartment window was one of grey gritty air for the three days the winds swirled through from KSA. The photos show the view over the street and the neighbouring buildings. In normal conditions we would easily see the tower blocks in the middle distance (The shadows in the haze ).

Walking anywhere in the haze was like walking down Foxton or South Beach on a windy day but without the bite of driving sand one experiences there. Afterward we needed to drink copious amounts of water to wash the grit from our throats.

The storm and the sand haze had lifted by Saturday which meant that we could finally witness the Camel racing we'd been told so much about when we arrived here.

All of the Mazda Apartment dwellers drove out to the Camel Race Track and, through the good offices of the Chairman of the Qatar Camel Racing Association, were able to ride in the spectator bus, with th e owners around the track and cheer the camels along.
The camels were, unlike horses, calmly waiting their turn on the track in a large screened off enclosure while their trainers fussed about them and discussed tactics with the owners.

When the race was about to start they had their robot jockeys attached and were walked into the birdcage ready to be lead into the starting gate.

Here the trainers held them in the ready position with a rope until the starter signalled the start - at which point the trainers slipped the ropes free of the camels and began to run in a desperate scramble to escape the camels towards the fence.

As the camels careered down the track the owners and us in the bus headed off after them on the 6 km journey to the finish line.

Each camel has a little robotic jockey mounted on their back and controlled by the owner from the comfort of his 4x4 as he races at a steady 40kph alongside.
As the race nears its end the little jockeys begin flailing away like demented helicopters in an effort to urge greater speed from the camels while the drivers parp and blow their hours and we in the bus yell at our favoured animals to get a move on and cross the finish line in pride of place. Incidentally, sound track aside, apart from the horn blowing and yelling in the last km of the race there is no sound from the camels as they pound along the sand track for the entire 6 km.

A lot of enthusiastic fun for all of us.

The finish line was a familiar form for the camels while the sight of a line of 4x4s six abreast heading for the finish line on the track beside the camel track was a little more daunting for us!

EGYPT EXPERIENCES Part 2

EGYPT
Part 2

The trip to Luxor was an experience of Egyptian rail that was interesting but hardly relaxing. The train was described as a "seater train" which meant that we were seated for the 9 hour trip. The seats were billed as recliners but only reclined about 5cm so there was little chance to stretch out to sleep.

The evening was enlivened by the sounds of two little girls playing cats up and down the corridor for several hours and the procession of smokers needing a cigarette break between cars throughout the night. Apart from the distractions we dozed fitfully until 6.00am when, with the dawn, we neared Luxor an event marked by a celebratory breaking out of the breakfast boxes provided by the Cairo Hotel.

Joy & Marilyn enjoying breakfast - Cairo to Luxor overnight.
After booking in at our hotel we set out to explore the Temple of Karnak - one of the biggest temple sites in the Nile valley. The 30 hectare site is still largely unexplored but what is apparent is impressive in its monumental splendour. Apparently the temple could cover at least half of Manhattan and contain the whole of Notre Dame Cathedral with ease.

At its hieght the temple employed over 81000 people - priests, guardians, peasants, workmen and other craftsmen- engaged in expanding and developing the complex. The impressive, 102 metre x 53 metre, hypostyle hall with its 134 23 metre high columns dominates the entry to the site making the rest of the buildings look, if that is possible, insignificant in their own grandeur.

The statues of the Pharoahs and their consorts that are scattered through the temple are as imposing now as they would have been 3000 years ago when the temples were built in their names to celebrate the gods whose presence gave power to Egypt.

From here we drove back to Luxor and a chance to view the smaller subsiduary Temple of Luxor before collapsing beside the Nile for a few idle hourswatching the feluccas drift by in the mid afternoon winds.
That evening we headed into Luxor, via horse & gig, to explore the souq and the atmosphere of the downtown. We discovered that Luxor has become a retirement centre for British gentlefolk whose influence can be seen in the number of English & Irish themed bars and restuarants along with the constant offering of a diet of British football league on big screen TV. Despite this we found the souq and its constant activity still retaining the flavour of an Egyptian market place with the local bakery busy distributing bread to a constant queue of locals who, on buying their supplies, stacked it on a tray and, placing it on their heads or shoulders, walked off through the crowds either to consume them-selves or sell further on in the market.
Charles, trying to buy an Egyptian themed chess set, ended up being chased through the souq by a stall keeper eager for a sale. Despite all his attempts the stall holder couldn't satisfy Charles' request for a particular size and metal set which left them both somewhat disappointed. However it added entertainment to the evening.

The next day saw us heading off to visit the Valleys of the Kings and Queens and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The sites here are signalled by the balloons that fly over the valleys in the early morning offering dawn views of the tombs and temples of the area. The tombs in the two valleys are highly decorated and evocative of both the power the Pharoahs had and the relationships between them and their queens. We took the opportunity to explore several of the tombs, climbing down tunnels and along corridors to the burial chambers as we marvelled at the highly coloured wall paintings and inscriptions that lead us to the sacrophagus.
From the Valleys we travelled to the Temple of Hatshepsut where the 3rd Queen to rule Egypt had built her funerary monument. She was so powerful that she declared herself to be a Pharoah and wore full male dress to ensure there was no misunderstanding about her power.

We had several hours to kill on return before our next overnight experience on the "Seater train" so booked a two hour sail on the Nile on a felucca.

This was a pleasant relaxing experience complete with two little girls rowing like crazy at every felucca in range and begging for money. Their antics and industry (they'd give the Evers-Swindells a run for a medal) appeared to give them a good income... if our boat was any indication.

The trip back to Cairo was more comfortable... this time we had recliner seats!!!

Next morning we booked into our hotel and set out to explore the Khan el-Khalili markets where Joy set out to hone her bargaining skills to bring home an alabaster cat and a head of Nefereti. She was particularly pleased with herself in getting the Nefereti head for EGP40 from an initial asking price of EGP120 and the cat for EGP120 from a EGP250.

The next day Charles and I explored the area around our hotel - a warren of lanes, small shops, street stalls, dust covered parked cars, lines of dead taxis, all circa 1970 Fiats, undergoing restoration in the hands of 10 year old mechanics who were cannibalising and reassembling with great industry and families sitting, folded together, in any single island of greenery that was available. We ended up having to ask a local bill deliverer how to get back to our hotel as each new street or lane we turned up seemed to end in a wall for another dusty housing block or sheesh cafe.
The walk certainly gave us a different tourist view of the city other than the pyramids.

Tuesday evening we were homeward bound.

EGYPT EXPERIENCES Part 1

EGYPT EXPERIENCES
Part 1

Alan on the pyramids

The two week break between semesters allowed us to do some travelling outside of Qatar as we now have entry & exit visas which means we can come and go as we please. So, with Charles & Marilyn Cron, we set out for an eight day Egypt experience.

Egypt has been one of the countries we've always been on our list of countries we must visit and being so close now was the time to go. We booked a tour with a U.K. group - On the Go Tours- which gave us a loose group of like minded travellers who had selected different experiences and a guided tour through Cairo and the Nile valley to Luxor and the Valleys of the Kings and Queens and flights on Qatar Air and off we set.

Arrival in Cairo was as chaotic as arriving in Delhi with tour company guides waving cards for their clients well before passport control, a lack of direction signs and a reliance on total accident to discover where one could buy the entry visas that would allow us through Customs. Customs declarations over we walked straight onto the street and a guantlet of taxi hucksters and hotel touts where we waited for our group pick-up and our trip through Cairo to our hotel - The Oasis - out on the Alexandria Highway.

Our first experience of Cairo was one of chaos, five lanes of traffic, horses, donkeys, cars, buses, trucks and pedestrians, on three lane streets -an experience which wasn't changed the next day when we set out on a day tour of the Roman & medieval city and the Egyptian Museum.
Getting through the haze of traffic, dust and people all struggling to gain dominance in the sprawling mass of grey, sand blasted high rises and 28 million people trying to survive reminded us of our travels around New Delhi although I think finding ourway around Delhi was probably a lot less confusing!!

The cars of Cairo look as though they've escaped from the wreckers' yards or been transported from "Smash Palace" while private cars parked along the streets looked as though they, too, were fighting battles with the panel beater and the inevitable carpet of sand that falls over Cairo. We passed many that had four flat tires and a veritable rubbish tip underneath while the windscreen wipers were out requesting a car wash from the itinerant car-washers that patrol the streets.
We drove past open air butcher shops, placed beside a rubbish tip, with the carcasses hanging in the street and willing butchers ready to slice off any cut requested by the passing customers while bread sellers hawked bread from trays balanced on their heads or displayed across the bars of their bicycles to anyone who needed it.

We visited the Hanging Church and the Crypt in the Coptic museum area where legend has it that Mary, Joseph and Jesus hid as they remained in exile during the persecution in Palestine.

From there we headed to the Salah El Din Citadel and Mohamed Ali Mosque built high on the hill above Cairo. The Mosque is modeled on that of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul but comes complete with a wrought iron clock, presented by the French to the Egyptian Government in return for an obelisk, that is perpetually stopped at 2.45pm 1845.

The afternoon was spent at the Egyptian Museum where we gazed at the sculptures, statues, mummies, sarcophagie and funerary possessions from the Pharohic period of Egypt's history. The museum is a dusty 19th century archive of exhibits complete with faded typewritten explanations that sprawls over two floors and is a caconophy of sound as tour guides lecture milling throngs in every possible language.

On Wednesday we headed off to Sakkarah and Giza to see the pyramids and tombs of the Pharohs.
The trip to the pyramids through the Cairo countryside gave us a view of rural life that mirrored sights Joy & I saw in India - donkeys and horses hauling loads that seemed out of proportion to the size of the animals. Camels and oxen meandering along the roadsides and people labouring in the fields with no obvious mechanical help in sight.

Donkey & cart - Giza Road - Street trader - GizaRoad

At Sakkarah,amid great laughter, before she knew what had happened, Joy got captured by the Donkey ride entrepeneurs, thrown onto a donkey, draped in a head scarf and, along with Charles and me, conned into a photo opportunity.

Joy & me held captive by Donkey ride entrepeneurs at Giza.

The pyramids at both sites gave us an insight into the customs and beliefs of the Pharonic Egyptians and the monuments they raised in their quest for immortality in the after life. To imagine harnessing entire communities to labour on building such huge works of art and engineering in quest of such a dream makes history even more fascinating and compeling.

Joy at Giza- Sphinx and Pyramids
The evening saw us on board the "Seater Train" to Luxor. A nine hour over night trip to the valleys of the Kings & Queens.