One month in

So I've been out of the US for a little over a month now, and I got to say I'm still having quite a good time. Earlier in the week I went swimming out in a little bay by the skyline of Doha. This was a really cool little beach because it is the only one still open to the general public and is almost completely hidden, being a piece of land that can't be more than 30 feet long. All of the rest of the beach front in Doha is either on property used by the royal family, embassies or are private beaches on hotel property.

Later in the week a good friend of mine named Mohsin invited me out boating with him and some of his friends. The owner of the boat is Muhammad who is around my age whose father owns around 30% of Harrods, which is a luxury department store like Nordstroms in England, at least to the best of my understanding. To the left of this shows the ramp we used to get into the ocean. It was an extremely narrow ramp with huge rocks to the left, which would have caused a lot of damage if they even slightly touched the boat. The boat yard hires foreign workers to help guide the boat down the ramp, which helps insure boats do not hit the rocky side.

After we got into the water we left the harbor and headed towards this area that boats, jet skis, and waver runners all congregate. In order to get there we had to drive through little inlets and bays like the one pictured to the left. Once we got there it was a large party on the water.

These different groups all congregate on the narrow strip of water, which you can see in the pictures listed under random photos. The boats drive up and down this narrow strip of water in order to make large wakes for the jet skis and wave runners to get maximum lift off of. It is an amazing experience and some of the jet skiers got massive air on some of the wakes caused by the boats. While the boats are driving up and down the strip of water they are all blasting arabic music, and having a good time on the boat.

What else is interesting is over on the side, on the land, runs a long walk way where people congregate and watch the jet skiers jump off of the wakes. There are a lot of young women in their traditional garments who are on the side laughing, taking pictures, and watching the young men as they play on the water. Everyone was having an amazing time, I even saw people throwing candy off of the boats to young kids who were on shore watching. No one was stressed, and everyone was living in the moment.

I'm also surprised that by how many boats and jet skiers there are in the water no one ever runs into each other. We hung out there for a good few hours making wakes before we headed off out into the ocean.

Once we got out into the ocean we were going pretty quick. I don't know exactly how fast but it was fast enough to guarantee that my cheeks were somewhat dragging behind my face in the wind.

Once out in the ocean we came up to a group of small islands, where there were a lot of old fashioned local boats. These boats are a lot like an American house boat, and are used for dinner parties. As we we were out there we were zooming by them along with the jet skiers. As we zoomed by the boats they would wave at us and we would wave back. After a while we pulled up with a lot of other speed boats along this small island, and everyone got out and started swimming. It was another large event, but this time it was out on a random island in the middle of the sea while swimming. We stayed there for a while, and then as it got dark we pulled the boat up closer to the small island. Once we got to the small island Mohsin along with the other guys got out of the boat cleaned their hands and feet in the ocean, and then began one of their prayers. It was really interesting because one moment we were out in the ocean swimming, the next moment they were praying. It is something they take very seriously, and it was quite amazing to see. After they finished we had a small bonfire before heading back to the harbor.
Once we got back Mohsin and I went to dinner at a local restaurant, which had exquisitely good food. It was also cool because it was a local place, I was the only westerner in the restaurant. At dinner Mohsin and I covered a lot of different subjects, both funny and serious. After dinner I went home, but only for a few hours as later that night (morning at this point) I went down to the Corniche to watch the sunrise, unfortunately the humidity was quite high so I didn't get any good photos. That is pretty much all I have to update at this point.

Also I'd like to wish my mom and Paul a safe flight back to the US as they leave tomorrow, and thanks for all of your help getting me ready for Thailand!

                                              

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