WanderingSusan: JANUARY 31, HEADED OUT TO THE CAMEL TRACK!

We hired a driver for 4 hours to take us to 4 places. We got in only 2 as it was quite far out of town. The regular tours cover the Islamic Museum (which we did yesterday on our own), the Corniche (we walked a lot of it yesterday). We ate the buffet breakfast at the hotel (won't do that again! Not great! ) MK our driver picked us up at 10 and we headed out of town. He had never been to EITHER of these places - the Camel Racing Track and the Sheik Faisal museum! That was disappointing as once there, he didn't know anything to share with us about how it's done, what the museum was about! Oh, well!

We arrived at this new looking racetrack after an hour driving past SO MUCH new construction. MK said citizens of Qatar don't have to work, pay no taxes, receive $5000/month "salary" from the government because of oil and gas deposits!! So they all build gigantic homes, most with a swimming pool. Don't know what they do all day; I guess shop, travel, live a life of leisure!

These tracks will be active next month, the guys working there said. They were training the camels. One guy would ride, with the other camel having some kind of a two way radio telling it what to do - like a robot riding it! There was no office or place to go for information. This country is not really set up too well for tourists, we think! in 2022 they are hosting the FIFA games so they are building like crazy, a metro system, many hotels, etc. But there are no tourist info places, minimal map at the desk for us to use, and no guidebooks. But we've gotten a taste of it.

The green pile is the "robot" transmitter.

We then headed to the Sheik Faisal museum. This guy, who's maybe 60 or so, had started collection artifacts like his father. Then he built this gigantic museum, way out in the desert to display them. It was quite amazing! Rod would LOVE all the cars they had! The bus was used to take a group of guys out hunting and camping in the desert. Then some artist painted the outside of it as a work of art, to display here.

We were supposed to pay an extra 50 QR (Qatari Rial) to take photos so I didn't take very many, and very surreptitiously!

Back in town, not having time for MK to take us to the Pearl Qatar, a man-made residential/commercial island oddly shaped out in the Gulf with VERY expensive homes on it. or Katara which has some kind of a cultural village. We are going to try to take a bus out there and then maybe rent a bike to see this area tomorrow. We'll see if that works out! We have a whole day before our flight!

Betty needed a pharmacy so we headed down from our hotel; it was closed! I was hungry so we settled for drink and fries at KFC and then a tuna sandwich at Subway! After resting a bit in our room, we headed back over to the Festival going on in the Souk Waqif from yesterday. There was still the festival going on for a few more days but it was much more crowded in the evening! Mobs of people!