Rain

 

Rain!  Something so rare....!

Thanksgiving Cupcakes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving themed cupcakes

all packaged up to take to N's for Thanksgiving dinner

Ibn Abdul Wahhab Mosque

Qatar's newly-opened State Mosque has been renamed after Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, the influential 18th century Sunni scholar credited with founding Wahhabism.

this guy was wandering around the mosque

Dhow Exhibition

The Dhow Exhibition at Katara was very cool with traditional music surrounding the majestic dhows.

Some locals were singing traditional pearling songs.

We were able to take tours of the dhows and the insides were beautifully crafted and included modern facilities.

On the Corniche

Went for a walk with F on the Corniche and there was an airshow going on.  The planes are hard to see in the photos but the red and blue trails are visible.

After we went to the new mall in West Bay and tried Farggi.  This ice cream hot cocoa was yummy.

Thailand: Bangkok

this raisin cream filled dorayaki was yummy

A few more last stops in Bangkok before heading back to Doha.

yakiniku lunch set

soft shell crab sushi

Uniqlo

There is so much Japanese stuff in Thailand!  We had lunch at Fuji, a Japanese restaurant, and then walked around the mall including a stop in Uniqlo.  Unfortunately, like Singapore, there was only the winter collection which isn't so useful for the desert!  Bangkok is a lovely city and really reminds me of Tokyo.

Thailand: Chiang Mai

Before the flight back to Bangkok, we did a quick morning tour of Chiang Mai.

Wat Phra Singh temple houses an important Buddha statue: the Phra Buddha Sihing which gives the temple its name. The origins of this statue are unknown but, according to legend, it was based on the lion of Shakya, a statue since lost which used to be housed in the Mahabodhi Temple of Bodh Gaya (India). The Phra Buddha Sihing statue is supposed to have been brought, via Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), to Ligor (present day Nakhon Si Thammarat and from there, via Ayutthaya, to Chiang Mai.

Wat Chiang Man is inside the old city (which is contained within the city walls and moat) of Chiang Mai. Wat Chiang Man was built in 1297 CE as the first temple of Chiang Mai on the spot which had been used by King Mangrai as a camp during the construction of his new capital city Chiang Mai.

this was cool with the elephants

This kind man drove us around and his quirky tuk-tuk.