Ah, tomorrow morning will be a sad day. We fly out tomorrow to go back to the real world. We were delayed by one day. That's actually pretty good. There were groups here that had been "stranded" for a week. That means their 4 day pass turned into close to two weeks off.
But, work doesn't stop and I had told one of the units I was supporting that I would be there 2 days ago, so I'm actually glad to be going. Plus, with Ramadan going on, and no trips going out other than the mall, I end up going a little stir crazy. The equivalent is if you went on vacation, but were under house arrest. At a big house with a bowling alley, club area, and movie theater, but a big house still...
I did have the good fortune of being sponsored to go off post. A chaplain's assistant saw me walking to the chow hall and offered me a lift and then asked if I wanted to go into town. The deputy garrison commander and I went -- just in the right place at the right time. We went to the Gold Souks (markets) and the tourist quarter -- beautiful at night and even though it was after sundown, there still were not many locals there. I found that Qataris get something like $8000/month for nothing other than being citizens. Men get more than women, so women go to university more than the men.
The old city markets didn't have much to offer that was really unique. The exception was a falconry training center that had a few falcons just chillin with little gimp-style hoods on. Their hearing was so sharp that they would cock their heads wherever we were moving in the store. I felt bad for the shop owners. They have to know that everytime an American enters the store that they'll ask the same stupid questions and won't buy anything.
Even the pearls here were from Dubai or Tahiti, though a long time ago, apparently there were actual pearl divers here.
We had dinner at a nice Qatari restaurant. The place was nearly empty, but good atmosphere and attentive service. I had the mixed grill and some banana yogurt -honey drink.
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