Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2013 - (Page 90)

O COA STAL DRIF T A dhow boat before the Doha skyline, viewed from the corniche. 90 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m Of all the cities rising on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf, Doha is the capital I’ll visit for aesthetic pleasure. Along two oyster-shaped bays once dotted with seasonal pearl-diving settlements, Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family has been erecting museums, university campuses, sports stadiums and luxury hotels while staging a seemingly perpetual calendar of major art exhibitions and cultural performances. But more than the architectural jewels — the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art, or Jean Nouvel’s desert rose-inspired National Museum of Qatar, scheduled to open next year — what I notice most is baby carriages. Parents take even their youngest offspring to see public installations such as “7,” a 24-meter-tall sculpture by Richard Serra, or “Gandhi’s Three Monkeys” by Subodh Gupta. Sure, all the museum building and public-art spending is putting Doha on the cultural map. But the ultimate goal is to educate a new generation whose creativity and cultural tolerance will be as valuable a resource as oil or natural gas. Instead of taking a taxi, I prefer to walk or bike along the corniche from the Sharq Village & Spa at the southern tip of Doha Bay to the Museum of Islamic Art, home to masterworks of carpets, pottery, jewelry, glass and metalwork. Spanning 14 centuries, the collection includes crafts from Fatimid Cairo and such intimate possessions as the white jade pendant that the 17th-century Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan wore in memory of his wife, for whom he built the Taj Mahal. Lured out of retirement, Pei took as his inspiration the austere, almost Cubist geometry of Cairo’s ninthcentury Ibn Tulun Mosque, and it shows: The museum is monumental and ethereal, inside and out, its shadows changing with each sun’s transit. On the fifth floor is IDAM, a dinner restaurant with a menu devised by Alain Ducasse. In a concession to the local culture, Ducasse agreed not to serve alcohol or cook with wine, spirits, blood or pork. Having sipped fresh camel milk in Abu Dhabi, and tasted an artisanal camel pot au feu in Oman, I couldn’t pass up a chance to try IDAM’s refined signature dish: six-day braised Rossini of camel topped with a lobe of black truffle saucesmothered duck foie gras. Delicious! Doha Bay’s pedestrian circuit wraps 7 kilometers past palm trees and dhows at anchor toward an ever-thickening forest of skyscrapers. Cranes are completing stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and on my morning jogs I’ll see women in sneakers and abayas power-walking or working out at exercise stations overlooking the sea. All across town, billboards in Arabic and English exhort people to get active, “aspire” and “advance.” But forward thinking doesn’t mean leaving Bedouin heritage behind. One Friday morning at the Al Shahaniya Camel Race Track, a 30-minute drive from the city center into the desert, I watched with fascination as owners used remotecontrolled robot jockeys to steer and whip their champions. Falconry, another traditional skill set, survives as a popular weekend pastime — aided, these days, by 4x4s and GPS trackers. Wildcaught birds are prized above genetically engineered crossbreeds. That’s why my desert safari guide kept a caged pigeon in the back of his SUV — a lure to capture any migrating peregrines we might happen to encounter on the way to Khor Al Udeid, an inland sea surrounded by sand dunes. During the October to March falconry season, which coincides with lower desert temperatures, dealers sell tamed birds of prey in the Souq Waqif, the restored early 20th-century market — a leisurely five-minute walk from the Museum of Islamic Art. The maze of alleys also contains some of Doha’s most popular family eateries, and at sunset the souq becomes the city’s multicultural town square. Locals, expats and tourists sip coffee or fruit juice while dining at authentic and affordable Iranian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Syrian, Indian and Moroccan restaurants. The compelling fusion of old and new makes the souq one of my favorite places to wander here: There are trendy boutique hotels, a stable for pure-blood Arabian horses, and a stall where artisans weave the agal, the black rope coil that holds a man’s head scarf in place. Female merchants http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2013

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2013
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With … New Orleans
Design
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family
Local Knowledge
Sports
Cancun
Doha
Fashion
Culinary
Let Us Stay with You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Summer 2013