Al Maroona Beach & Girls’ Night at Souq Waqif

Al Maroona Beach

The day started with a drive to the NNE coastline of Qatar to spend the morning at Al Maroona beach. Once off the main highway, the off-road drive to the beach includes passing by a white building that I’m not sure if I call it a palace or a mansion? Whatever it is, it appears to be abandoned. Yet the exterior is a gleaming clean, white. It’s a bit of a fixer upper, but I could live there!! I enjoyed driving across the well worn terrain as we made our way to the beach. When we arrived it was still early, 10:00am, so the beach was not yet busy. When we packed up at 1:00pm to head back to the city, there were rows of cars along the beach!

Souq Waqif & Damasca One Restaurant

Later, it was time for Girls’ Night at the souq. This Girls’ Night had 3 purposes:

1. Shopping for gold, precious and semi-precious gems, fresh or salt water pearls, turkish lamps, arabic art and exotic fabrics. And bartering. I’ve heard if you don’t barter, it is considered an insult. Bartering can be exhausting (I’m still getting used to it) and so very different from shopping in Halifax, my hometown. One does not walk into a jewelry store in Halifax and start haggling over prices! Maybe I’d ask for a bit of a discount. But here, you don’t barter for a ‘bit’ of a discount. They tell you a price. You counteroffer with half the price, sometimes even less. And so the bartering begins……

2. Food. Last night it was Syrian food at Damascus One. Lentil soup, cheese fattier, chicken shawarma, spinach kebbeh, fried kebbeh, um ali in a clay pot, turkish coffee, tea with mint (fresh mint leaves in steeped tea), fresh carrot juice……..and…..

3. Shisha! Last night was grape with mint! As we ate and chatted away we shared a pipe and enjoyed the relaxing effects of the pipe!