Christmas in Qatar - with a stop in Hofuf

Our sons, Chris and Cole, barely had 48 hours to recuperate from U.S. to K.S.A. jet lag, when we were off in the car to Doha to celebrate Christmas. This trip was every mother's dream - the boys (now young men) didn't fight or annoy each other in the car and we all enjoyed each other's company for the long, yet uneventful drive. We stopped first in Hofuf, a town notoriously circuitous and unmarked, and it took many wrong turns and re-tracing our steps to finally find our oh-so-very Saudi apartment hotel. To catch the fort in daylight, we left almost immediately, and finally found it - only to find it was closed! So we browsed the antique shops (all seemingly owned by two gentlemen who Barb remembered from her trip two years ago), but no sales. We found our way to the one big mall with a food court and adjoining obligatory amusement park - and half of us got our food before prayer call! For those not acquainted with Saudi, prayer times schedule everything you do - and if you don't get your order before the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer, you don't eat until after prayer is over. Afterwards, we went to bed early (the boys still feeling the effects of jetlag), to get up the next day to explore the Jebel Qara caves. The site was unattended when we got there (so no entrance fee), and empty but for a few local boys who seemed unsettled to find us there. It took us only about an hour to explore the insides and outsides of the sandstone turrets, crevices and caverns. The light inside was fascinating, sometimes producing a green shaft of light as it came down from above. The boys climbed and explored until it became too hot for more. And with that, we said masalama to Hofuf and powered on to the border, a straight 3-hour drive through the desert. Camels were sighted.

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