Day 2 in Doha

our day began at 5am when we were awaken by the 'call to prayer' bellowing from the speakers of a nearby mosque. qatar is an islam country and muslims are expected to pray five times a day - at dawn, midday, middle of the afternoon, just after sunset and at nightfall. as a result, loud speakers are erected on the top of all the mosques summoning muslims in arabic to pray to their god allah. to me right now it's an eerie sound but to joanne who has lived here for almost two years finds the call five times a day quite comforting. until then I think I will be sleeping with ear plugs ;)

we are happy to say that the sand has stopped its blowing and the sun is once again shining here in doha...now this is the doha we remember! the sun is HOT although there is a nice breeze that makes the temperature very comfortable. having said that joanne, mike and I decided to hit the pool/beach/spa at the four seasons hotel. the hotel is located in the 'west bay' or 'diplomat' area of doha, about a 12-15 minute ride from the villa - 'diplomat' due to the high number of embassies located in the area and 'west bay' being the gulf. the hotel is a little piece of paradise, see for yourself - pictures below. mike and I stayed there when we visited doha back in august and scott and joanne are members - clearly something mike and I are seriously going to consider once we get settled in our condo. however, the vast savings in cost from an individual annual membership to a couple membership is another reason why we should tie the knot, hehe.

after a nice lunch at the poolside bar we popped over to view our potential new home again which just happens to be conveniently located across the street from the four seasons! it was nice to take another look, as it is a bit different from what I remembered when we saw it back in august. on a side note, I have been told by my brother that I can no longer call our place a 'flat' since we are no longer living in london....so I am making a conscience effort to call it a 'condo' which by north american standard it is. more details and pictures to follow once we receive confirmation that the contract went through hopefully in a week or so. but for now I have posted a picture of scott & joanne's villa that we are currently staying in as well as the communal pool area that the villas within the compound share.














on the way back to the villa, mike and I decided to get dropped off at one of the eight malls here in doha - the city centre mall. this particular mall has an ice rink (see picture posted below), bowling alley, a 14-screen cinema and a playstation, dance dance revolution game in the arcade (something I took a real liking to over the holidays)!! the stores are a combination of international and local traditional stores which allows you to pick up anything from an abaya (the traditional women's dress here) to a bathing suit or even hockey equipment - I picked up a pair of shoes of course!! some familiar stores include - nine west, hallmark, debenhams (uk department store), puma, mango, just to name a few. mike also happened to find apple jacks cereal in the carrefour there which made moving out here all the more worth it for him!! hmmm, I think we are going to be just fine here...