Big Mistake – Early Morning Eid in Doha

After all these years living here, I still have so much to learn.

Jet-lagging, wide awake and the sun is just up – it’s Eid, and I am betting that with everything closed, the roads will be mine.

Almost immediately after leaving the compound, I get the idea that I am very very wrong. Cars are racing past our entrance as if it were night-time, when I rarely drive if I can help it. There is a feeling of unrestrained energy in the driving, a release. As I circle the nearest roundabout, I watch two cars crash. One, a woman, is exiting the roundabout, the other, a man whose car was parked just outside the roundabout which is also outside the mosque, just drove right into one another. Neither would yield.

All this, and it is not even six in the morning. It’s kind of like everyone is up for sunrise service on Eid in Qatar.

But I really want to capture some of the early morning light. Not taking the hint, I head downtown, and traffic is heavy. I get to the old spit Where-Bandar-restaurants-used-to-be, and as soon as I exit the car, my camera lens fogs up and I have to wait for the camera to heat a little before I can shoot anything. Oh yeh – me and all the other camera-toting people with the same idea. I shoot The Pearl, and then I shoot a young man just coming from prayers with his very nice camera – a Nikon digital.

The spit is crowded – everyone is there. Some guys in cars are just sitting there smoking in public, just because they can. Entire families are all out enjoying the breezy morning temperatures (LOL, in the 90’s Fahrenheit)

This is my absolute favorite shot:

Actually, I love the water in this one, but I can’t take any credit for that.

This one I call Scrambled Eggs, because there is so much going on, but it is definitely a Doha kind of chaos:

This is taken where Al Rayyan Road begins, at the mouth of the entrance to Souq al Waqif, sheer chaos:

And this is my own palm tree shooting out some new shoots – maybe it is a sign that winter is on its way?