99% of all Land Rovers are still on the road, the other 1%ers have reached their destination.
I am Indiana Jones And So Can You
Choose a field of work that you love, and you will never work a day in your life because that field is probably not hiring...but do it anyway..at least as a tourist.
Today in The Middle East, A year ago this week, I was digging it in Cyprus, Greece:
At The World Heritage Site, The House of Theseus and The Tomb of Kings, on an archeological dig, because that is what one does when visiting Ancient Greece.
This gives "in the trenches" a whole new meaning, as I get in touch with my "Inner Tomb Raider-Indiana Jones".
A place to shop for the 1%ers who go to Paris and Milan to buy shoes. They are selling more than things. They are selling experiences. The Tuscany-inspired theme and all that marble really cooled things off for us.
There are VIP and VVIP areas that remind me of sailing onboard Crystal Cruises where everyone is known by name.
Malls may be dying across the U.S., but in the grandiose desert capital of tiny, petro-rich Qatar, they are sprouting up left and right. Consider the 5.4-million-square-foot Mall of Qatar, which will boast the country’s first Cheesecake Factory, or the open-air and yet air-conditioned Katara Plaza, to house a designated Children’s Mall shaped like a giant gift box. Dreamed up by the Qatari real estate mogul Mohamed Abdel Karim Al Emadi, the soon-to-open Alhazm is taking a more rarefied approach. “Mr. Al Emadi is passionate about classical architecture,” says Georges Bou Ibrahim, the mall’s creative director. Thus, he hired 15 architects to create a modern Middle Eastern version of Milan’s 19th-century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II — with a domed-glass roof, Tuscan marble walls and arches featuring hand-carved Arabian motifs — surrounded by temperature-controlled gardens with fountains, gazebos and 200-year-old olive trees imported from Spain. Inside, a range of retailers and restaurants from the Continent will make their Doha debuts alongside Italian and Qatari kitchens, a women’s spa-slash-social-club and a library with rare editions of Arabic and English classics. Bou Ibrahim says, “Alhazm is not only about shopping; we are a creating a new lifestyle destination” — presumably for the sort of locals who regularly go on shopping sprees in Europe. A glass pyramid serves as a V.I.P. entryway, offering access to an underground auction house, personal shoppers and butler service.
-CHRISTINE AJUDUA
What is it about Qatar's fascination with Italy!
Here in The Pearl we have Venice too:
The Pearl is an artifical island, creating over 32 kilometres of new coastline and extensive canal system. It's Venice again.
