Breakfast in the room again. We were ready to go early before the ship was ready to disembark the passengers . We watched outside from the deck on the starboard side as the crew was getting the ship ready putting up the staircase leading off the ship. The locals laid out a long red carpet that they connected with the end of the ship's gangway. There were a number of people in traditional dress watching and waiting for us. When we were finally allowed to leave, we had to go through customs and immigration in the seaport terminal. They checked all bags through an x-ray machine, but there was no metal detector for the people. I find it interesting that different places use different combinations of screening devices for security. (So far, the highest security was in Jerusalem.)

Women wearing full traditional dress, black abaya and shayla, were the immigration officers. They checked the passports carefully and filed them away to keep while we are in Qatar. The ship had warned us that they would keep the passports. We will get them back from the ship after everyone is back on board. As we exited the terminal, men in traditional dress offered Arabian coffee and dates. We took the small cups and drank the sip of coffee in them only to realize afterwards that they must be reusing the cups over and over without washing them. It was a nice gesture, and we have read that it would be considered rude to refuse the offer as it is traditional to offer guests coffee and dates. Refusing means that you have a problem with his family.

For the last shore excursion on the last day of the cruise, we opted for a long trip of six hours which was almost the whole time we were in port. The first stop on the trip was to see the camel race track at Shahaniya. We saw lots of camels practicing for the races, but the races weren’t going on at that time. The bus we were in drove along beside the camels as they ran which turned out to be a great way to observe the action. The men who were working with the camels seemed to be just as curious about us as we were about them. They waved and seemed to show off a bit. The bus was going 40 kph at one point staying right with the camels.

There was a pickup truck driving alongside the camels on the opposite side from us. Our guide said that the person in that truck was the owner of the camel watching the training session. The trainers ride on experienced adult camels and bring two juvenile camels along the side of them for training. The camels are accustomed to vehicles driving along beside them, but get distracted if there are unknown people walking by them. We did not get out of the bus during the entire visit to the site.

The race tracks are six, eight, ten, and twelve kilometers long, and usually only female camels race. The guide said that the females would run for the entire race, but the males would slow down and stop before the race ended. Originally, they used small boys as jockeys, often boys brought up from Africa just for that purpose. Now, they have mechanical monkeys that are operated by remote control rather than live jockeys, and they forbid the human trafficking that was common in the past.

The second stop of the tour was to the Al Zubarah Fort and Archaeological Site, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We saw the fort and museum but did not walk through the archaeological site. We could only see it from a distance outside. It is closed now while work is done there.

Although the original information about this tour included a box lunch on the bus, the guide took us to a private home for lunch. The man there was used to welcoming groups for meals and could handle the 26 tourists. We first went into the majlis to relax for a few minutes. The majlis is where the men of the family gather to talk. In other homes, women do not enter the majlis; they have a separate room for the women. The dining table and a buffet of Qatari food were located in the adjacent room. After lunch, we reboarded the bus expecting to go to the last planned stop. As it turned out, the guide said that we did not have time to go to the Barzan Towers and still get back to the ship on time. He said that the tour was supposed to include the box lunch, but they could not provide a proper one.

This is the first time that Seabourn has stopped in Doha. I don’t know if there was a miscommunication about the food or the time for the trip, but something happened to mess up this one a bit. I would have preferred to have lunch on the bus and still get to see the last site. It was interesting to see the majlis and how they set up the lunch, but it was disappointing not to go to the Barzan Towers. I wondered if the culture in Qatar is not used to box lunches to save time and opted to give us a proper meal instead.

While we were driving through the city of Doha, the guide pointed out a number of buildings including the highway department offices and the headquarters of Al Jezeera. Siyam, our guide, said that the fine for running a red light is 6,000 rials, about $2,000.00. People drive well here even with all the traffic. The building for the Department of Transportation is huge. The 2022 FIFA World Cup will take place in Doha. They are already building stadiums for the tournament. After the contests are over, the government of Qatar plans to donate some of the stadiums to cities in Africa that cannot afford to build their own. The stadiums will be built so that they can be dismantled and rebuilt in another location later.

While we were in Qatar, the local people speaking English pronounced the name of the country kuh-tar, with a slight emphasis on the second syllable. The people are called Qataris, pronounced kuh-tar-eez, with a slight accent on the middle syllable. I have heard this country pronounced so many ways. It is nice to hear the Qataris say it the right way.

We made it back to the ship just in time for the all-aboard at 2:30. We spent the afternoon packing and getting ready to leave the cruise tomorrow. We had dinner one more time in the Restaurant. Bags had to be out for pickup by the ship’s crew by 11:00.