Outing Two

Yesterday, it was up and at'em once, again. Kristi & I were up at 6:30am. Grabbed some coffee & toast (I know, no protein...the "zone" is on hold right now!) and we were off to the fitness center. We had a good workout, but not overdoing if for our first day. Straight from there to lay out at the pool. Not for sun so much, just to soak up the tropical feel over here. We accomplished all that well before 10:00am & decided we had a lot of day left. We called a taxi service to see if by chance there was availability. Pickup at Riviera Gardens (that's us) at 2:30. That was easy. Our taxi was waiting out front at promptly 2:30 & took us off to Landmark Mall. Remember, the Mall circuit that I told you we were doing? As his meter was ticking off I was wondering how much this was going to cost us. That will be 5 riyals, please. Are you kidding me??!! That equates to $1.37!! I felt like the big tipper & gave him 10 riyals. Okay, I think we've found our new mode of transportation. Who needs a car, especially under these crazy driving conditions...that would be a full blog in itself. So Kristi & I ventured though Landmark Mall, fully clothed this time. We mostly browsed & then of course decided we needed dessert. We went to a little cafe called Opera. The customs are interesting here, they always pull up a chair for your purse. The day before when that happened, we thought the waiter misunderstood & thought someone was joining us. After indulging in dessert, we headed over to the MegaMart in the mall & got us a shopping cart. We were taken aback at some of the prices. Packaged deli turkey was over $6.00 for 10oz. Most other foods were priced accordingly. Kristi & I decided eating out was not such a bad thing. We could hang with that! So, we left the store with a loaf of bread (nothing to put on it), hair conditioner, kleenex & a six pack of diet coke. Actually, the cokes were $1.50...not much difference from home. I was enlightened when we got home that this market caters to Americans, therefore their prices are much higher. That is somewhat of a relief. David picked us up & we went into, I guess what you would call the older, original part of Doha.
He took us to a local restaurant called "Turkey Central". That would be referring to the country, not the fowl. Anyway, it was quite an experience trying to order. Even though David had been there before, it wasn't as easy to order as he had remembered. After going through a few "you knows" with the waiter, we were sent another waiter to see if he could figure out what the heck David wanted to order. I finally told the waiter to just fix us up. David did remember what appetizer he wanted to order. I don't know if appetizer comes from the word appetizing. You decide when you look at that pic! Anyway, Kristi was a great sport & tried everything...me, I wasn't so great. Bring on the entree. It was delicious. We had grilled & barbequed chicken, as well as chicken kafta. It was sort of like a chicken sausage. Very tasty. Our first, somewhat local food passed the test. I can do this.