Qatar - One More Day :)

Following my post on Qatar, as promised, I am writing more facts about this city state. 

With a population of more than 1.7 million (as of September 2011) and rich of oil and gas resources, Qatar's GDP in Q2 2011 is estimated at 153.73 billion Qatary Riyal, an increase of 41.8% YoY from Q2 2010. This resulted in the highest GDP per capita in the region.

Well, I saw it with my own eyes. Constructions were everywhere in Qatar. In fact, my friend told me when we drove passed the Dolphin Energy building that it was the only highrise building in that area in four years back. Look at it now, it is the shortest building in the middle of high rise jungle!

Gasoline is cheap at US$0.27 per liter. The government does not charge much for basic needs such as water, electricity and home phone lines. It is just really understandable why so many foreigners work there.  


It was almost winter and the afternoon weather was just nice. We have free time, and decided to see the Museum of Islamic Art. The museum was located just opposite of Souq Waqif and opens from 10am to 5pm everyday. Souq Waqif market was closed during lunch time and opened from 4pm. So, I took my time at the museum, waiting for this market to open.


The museum does not charge anything, it's free. We can even take pictures of its collection - something that unusual in any other part of the world - which was collected from countries including  Afghanistan, Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, India and Turkey.


The interior of the museum was beautiful. It has a circle stairs at the center of the atrium.

One of my favorite collection of this museum was calligraphic Arabic inlaid on an emerald! I definitely would not mind to receive it as a gift from anyone! :) 

I spent pretty much three hours, walking through all those three storey of collections. 


At last, we went for an early dinner or a very very very late lunch - whatever you name it - at Souq Waqif. The market is also located near the palace. So, that very evening we saw horse patrol at the market went back and forth near our chosen restaurant. We opted for Lebanese food. It was really yummy, or rather we were really hungry! But anyway, the meals were delicious with a very reasonable price.  Well - the meals were done in a couple of gulps and off I flew back to Singapore that night.

I'll see you again in another post!


-Lucky