Yesterday we drove to a new area just under construction called The Pearl. These were some buildings we saw on the way there.

This was one of the signs we saw on the highway going out of town today.

The Pearl is a completely new development full of high end shops, a marina and appartment buildings. There are cranes everywhere at the moment, at one point we counted about 60 of them. Everywhere in Doha is like that, the whole place is under construction. No expense seems to have been spared as you can see with the metal railing - even it is beautiful.

Today we went to the camel races which are held out of town. At first we attempted to find a seat in the covered vieewing area, but fortunately it was full and we met a woman from Chicago who had been to the races before and she led us to an area really close to the starting and finish line. We would have missed all this action if we had been seated. We then saw one of the pursuit cars that had room and we hopped in and went around the track beside the races. Each camel in the race has a robot as a jockey and the men in cars have controls to work the whip of the mechanical jockey. It is surprising that this convoy of cars with occupants shouting at their camels dont collide in the melee. In days gone by they used to use small children as jockeys, fortunately Qatar is one of the countries that have outlawed this practice. There were also a couple of very decorated camels that you were able to have a ride on. They had beautifully embroidered bridles and many tassels. I also saw one of the camels with a crocheted "snood" over its mouth. I have more pictures on our other camera and will post those tomorrow.

This evening, we were invited to a party beside the pool in one of the other buildings that people from work live in. A little bit of Canada in Doha. That is what I call a full day -more adventures tomorrow.