Day 6 Nearing the End :(

As we're winding down on our whirlwind week, we decided it was time to take in high tea at The Ritz Carlton. Dustin was a real trooper, except of course, when we started overdoing the photo ops in their garden and pool area. He doesn't understand how someone can photograph every breathing moment. The grounds were just so photogenic, I couldn't pass it up. That's Kristi's friend, Kat (from Canada) in the picture with the kids. After completely gorging ourselves, we sat back and relaxed soaking up the atmosphere. Afterall, we weren't paying "Happy Meal" prices! We then decided that it was a good evening for all of us to head for the souqs, even David, who never likes to leave the house after getting home from work. We went home, changed our clothes, and wouldn't take "no" for an answer from David and out the door we went. Before this, I had only been to the new "old souqs" twice....once when it was about 120 degrees outside and the one time I went to just take pictures in the early morning. The evening hours brought on a completely new ambiance that I hadn't seen before. It was incredibly inviting. Almost a carnival atmosphere without all the bright lights and chaos. People strolling, unintruding street vendors, the smell of shisha wafting through the air, live local music playing in the distance...the scene was surreal. After the kids made a few purchases and I took my donkey ride...yes, I can now scratch off "riding a donkey" on my list of things I must do while living in Doha. I'm getting really brave posting these AWFUL pictures of myself, but you really must understand what an accomplishment it is for me to do these types of things. My blog may have the word "adventures" in the title, but "chicken" is what I am. Anyway, the donkey herder must have loved the few bills I gave him, because he got the donkey up to a trot and we were going clippity clop bouncing on down the stone streets. I drew quite a bit of attention, as a laughing Qatari woman whipped out her cell phone and photographed me. We ditched the donkey and moved on to henna. Kayla decided that a henna tattoo down her leg would be just the thing that would validate to her friends that she did indeed visit the Middle East. A Qatari woman with unbelievable skills free handed a beautiful artsy scroll pattern down Kayla's leg. The leg must have been a quite unusual request because the local women were stopping, mesmerized with the art in action. After Kayla paid the lady a sum of 25qr ($7), she proceeded to get up and placed her hand smack dab on the wet henna leaving a huge smudge. The Qatari obligingly fixed it saying the expected words, "no problem". After I took her and Kayla's picture together, I teasingly asked her if she had smiled. She laughed and said yes, but I also reassured her that I knew she had because I had seen that her eyes were smiling. Now it was time to move on and decide where to eat. There were quite a few restaurants on the grounds of the souq area to choose from. We opted for Tanjine, since Dustin wanted to eat camel before he left the country. And so he did. I'm not so sure he will do that again because he felt just a little guilty afterwards thinking about what he had just devoured...baby camel. But it is done and now it's on his resume, as well. I even tasted it. I'd say our usual one liner, "tastes like chicken", but it actually tasted like roast. It was very tender and moist, but I think I'll pass on it in the future. I'm like Dustin, I don't relish the idea that I just ate the equivalent to Bambi in the camel world. The meal was a perfect end to a perfect day. David was even patient while driving home in the Doha traffic...I told you it was perfect!