Doha Souq Market Square

Well, I finally got around to getting off-base and seeing the sights in Doha, Qatar. It's a pretty crowded and bustling city struggling between its growing modernity and ancient history. I'm talking glass skyscrapers and trendy restaurants hobknobbing with sandy unpaved roads and tiny run-down merchant stalls.

This is a snapshot of one of the main crossways in the Souqs (or market squares) where merchant stalls and storefronts do business, selling anything from spices and jewelry to Persian rugs and Middle Eastern antiquities. Of course, you get your usual tourist traps hawking souvenirs and knockoff merchandise.

The spiral tower in the background is where announcements for Islamic prayers are made five times a day, I believe.