Day 7/8--Doha Qatar

our guide is egyptian so we are getting current personal updates on
this situation as we tour around the arab gulf states. ramy (guide)
was supposed to meet us in bahrain for touring, but could not leave
egypt because the airport was closed. it is complicated.....more
later.........we are lucky all worked out as well as it has.
yesterday was filled w/info regarding qatar and their wealth. it is
unbelievable. the average citizen makes$143,000 a year from the
government + free (beautiful, new) housing + a new car every other
year + a free education of wherever they want to go in the world
(harvard if they are excepted!). if they work for the government, they
usually retire in 5 or 6 years! wow........
this is a very strict country, only serving alcohol at 3 places in the
entire country - grand hyatt (our hotel), ritz-carlton and the
diplomatic club. 90%  of the people are islamic and less than half who
live here are native qataris. they are encouraged to have large
families (6-10) to correct this in the future. opposite to china, they
are encouraged to have children and they get lots of $$$ per every
child!
the gulf people were mainly tribal and poor until before the oil and
gas boom in the 80's at which time they came extremely wealthy "over
night." when 9/11 happened, the arab people wanted the world to see
them for who they were, not terrorists so they opened their arms and
invited the world "in." still, there are few tourists due to
misconceptions. we are the only tour bus in the country touring as we
speak. there is a cruise ship of folks touring too, but that is it!
tourism is not big here like in egypt (15%).
yesterday we went to the islamic art museum, the al fanar islamic
museum  and the waquf souk. we viewed the beautiful skyline of very
interestingly shaped buildings from several viewpoints. qatar is more
interested in have unique buildings that tall buildings like dubai.
they name their buildings w/names such as the tornado, the rocket,
etc. they are currently competing w/dubai to see who is first at
building an office structure that revolves (not just the top floor,
but the entire building).
gotta go, last day to tour qatar. hope all is well, thinking of you,
having fun and learning even more.....angela