October 26, 2008 – Qatar

We docked in Doha, Qatar at 8:00 and waited 1½ hours for clearance. This port has been the most restrictive so far, expensive visas were required and it appeared that Qatar doesn’t really want tourists. This is Regent’s first stop here and may be its last. We had to carry passports and going through the immigration lines in the terminal took longer than it does in the US for foreigners. We weren’t interested in the few excursions offered so took the shuttle to the city. There is massive construction here just like the other cities we visited recently only Doha competes with Dubai in the amount of new buildings going up. In all of the cities we’ve visited the buildings take all shapes and forms; some twisting and some with sections jutting out is strange directions and seeming to defy gravity. There is a massive amount of green and blue widow glass throughout the Middle East.

We were dropped off at the city center mall and, with construction everywhere, we couldn’t walk away from there. Anyone taking a taxi somewhere had to return to the mall for the shuttle bus because taxis weren’t allowed in the port. Pat found a salon to get manicure, pedicure and haircut, all for $68.00 which is about the cost of a manicure only on the ship. I got to explore the mall and noticed that more women here wear the head covering with only eye slits or full veil that they can see through. It’s much like Saudi Arabia that way. As with our previous stops the mall was huge and modern with a lot of shops. There were mainly fast food restaurants and no alcohol available. We did have a tasty Lebanese lamb kabob before taking the bus back to the ship. There were a lot of complaints about the stop and the Captain is going to recommend to Regent that next year’s cruise bypass Qatar. Our team extended its winning streak at trivia (we’ve only lost 3 times since Athens.) The sun set at 5:00 so it was dark when we sailed for Abu Dhabi at 7:00. We had a nice dinner with a friend from previous cruises, skipped the show and donated some money to the casino’s coffers before retiring for the night.