Today it is 49C; almost to hot for the pool. The floor is too hot to walk on it barefoot and even to touch the rail when coming out of the pool is almost impossible! But we do a city tour with a guide from Sri Lanka who shows us the town and gives us valuable information. Most amazing thing: the first modern building here was built in 1982. Before there was nothing!!! After seeing all the newly built buildings, we head for the „old Doha“ - the livestock market. Here there are all the animals waiting for buyers: chicken, sheep and most prominently: camels? Next stop is a new development: man made island with villas that can be bought. Price range USD 3 - 5 mio. Who buys them: rich Arabs, Americans, Russians, Europeans, etc. It is funny how our guide is drilled on the official government line: everything is best, biggest, most expensive, etc. Next stop is Villaggio: a shopping mall with an ice rink! It is modeled after the Villaggio in Las Vegas and looks very similar. Ice rink in the desert!!! Next stop is the Royal Stables. Also here one can see: money does not matter!! Each horse has a box with a/c - just unreal. The race track - like everything else - is in top condition!

Unfortunately the Museum of Islamic Art is closed on Tuesdays. So we head for the Souq Waqif. There has been a souq on this site for centuries, as this was the spot where the Bedu would bring their sheep, goats and wool to trade for essentials. The interesting thing is that inside the Souq it is quite cool, thanks to the roof construction that dates back many years. We wander through the bird, spice and herbs market to go to the real attraction here: the Falcon Souq. They not only sell falcons here but also all kind of paraphernalia involved in falconry. All kinds of equipment, such as burkha (hoods) and hubara (feathers) are on sale. It is said that Qataris have three loves: their horses, their falcons, their wives; in this order. So a falcon can easily cost USD 50’000!!
After four hours we are back in the hotel; happy to have a cool beer before a nice dinner.

The heat today was really a bit much. Funny to hear that people back home in Switzerland complain about the 30C+ heatwave they are having. We get used to take three showers a day minimum. And so far we have been real lucky with the weather. In Myanmar they have now heavy Monsoon rains and Pakistan gets rocked by terrorist attacks. Guess there is no better thing than good planning - and some luck...

Ruled by the Al Thani family since the mid-1800s, Qatar transformed itself from a poor British protectorate noted mainly for pearling into an independent state with significant oil and natural gas revenues.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Qatari economy was crippled by a continuous siphoning off of petroleum revenues by the amir who had ruled the country since 1972. He was overthrown by his son, the current Amir HAMAD bin Khalifa Al Thani, in a bloodless coup in 1995.
Oil and natural gas revenues enable Qatar to have the highest a per capita income above the leading industrial countries of Western Europe.