The Philippines -- City Life

Atrium of Shangri-La hotel at the end of Day 1

Last week Lisa took a trip to the Philippines with two of her colleagues. Isabelle grew up in the Philippines but immigrated to Canada more than 30 years ago to begin her career as a nurse.

Isabelle now teaches at the University of Calgary -- Qatar with Lisa and takes advantage of the (relative) nearness of Doha to Manilla by traveling home several times a year. This makes her a great local tour guide.

The adventure started in Manilla (an 8 hour flight from Doha). The city is noisy, crowded, hot and humid, even in the cooler month of February. There are lots of people, lots of colour, lots of traffic.

Manila is also the place to find knock-offs! Shoes, purses, sneakers, jewelry, watches. Because of the inexpensive cost of labour, companies (like Adidas) have shoes made in Manilla for the market in USA. Sometimes the factories produce "extra" sneakers and then make them available locally at a much reduced price.

The other type of "knock-off" is when one original Rolex watch (for example) is given to a factory to make a replica. The original watch is taken apart and reproduced in exact detail and then sold in the market at much-reduced prices.

There are also markets with local items --baroque pearl necklaces, ornaments made from caprice shell, lamps made of abalone shell, outdoor lighting made from coconut shells, salad tongs made from kamagong wood and mother-of-pearl. There are also many markets of local clothing items -- cotton, pineapple fabric, lots of polyester!

extra suitcase for all the purchases

Around the compound

This morning I noticed the cleaners using the aloe vera plants for a new purpose.

Christmas belated

Not only was life interrupted when Max broke his arm, so was our blog. Here are some pictures of our amazing time in Nova Scotia for Christmas. We found the weather very cold but the beauty of the snow made up for the cold -- almost!

Christmas Eve

The hostess with the mostest!

Above all, it was a time to hang out with family. We laughed, told stories, played cards, and ate lots of good food. We celebrated Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Simon's 14th Birthday, New Years Eve, New Years Day.

Lisa, Todd, Shelley

Chinese food for New Years Eve!

Dairy Queen Cake for Simon!

making mincemeat pie together

Sights beyond the city

Sam and Lianna have been busy visiting some interesting sights beyond the city limits. There are a variety of activities that take place in the desert that don't involve dune bashing.... Sheik Faisal's Museum is a large collection of buildings with an odd collection of items. You can spend hours wandering amid old cars, tapestries, pottery, paintings, swords.

On weekends the Losail Race Track is very busy. It is loud and fast! The boys went on Friday night to watch a Porsche GT3 race. The cars raced at speeds over 200 km/hour.

The Pearl is another area on the edge of town that warrants a few hours of wandering. It is a man-made collection of islands that has condos, marinas, shops, restaurants and lots of view.

And then, of course, there is the beach. Qatar is a peninsula surrounded by the beautiful green water of the Gulf. A stroll on the beach in the northern part of the country is actually pleasant at this time of year.