I was so tired and sleepy but my daughter wanted to go out to see the biggest mall in Doha, the Villagio.
We passed by a row of palaces and ginormous mansions belonging to rich Qataris who do not actually live in those bigger than the White House palaces. They are based in Paris, or London, or the US, and have houses in other first world cities. Only their household helpers live in those huge palaces.
It was a 25 minute taxi ride to the mall. (35Riyal).
Villagio Mall, Torch Hotel
The Villagio was patterned after the mall inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with gondola ride. It was nice but we found the Villagio smaller. Filipinos have higher standards when it comes to malls.
Photo taken by Nadine Chua
I asked my children to ride with me pero ayaw.
This garden setting looked nice in actual, but it didn’t look nice in this photo. Baka yung angle ko pangit.
It was a busy mall, local people casually walking around.
I liked the blue jar but it would be difficult to hand carry.
The sales lady is from the Philippines.
We were given Riyal 175 each for our dinner that’s why we didn’t want to eat here at the mall.
My kids couldn’t resist the freshly baked bread at Paul’s. Kunat.
No one wanted to ride the gondola with me.
I saw a nice dress on the mannequin. The dress is from Spain. I wanted to buy it but even with the 30% discount, it would come up to P12,000 medyo mahal. And Doha is not yet our final destination. We’re only staying here for several hours, baka maubos na pocket money ko agad. hehehe.
We decided to go back to the hotel.
While standing outside to take a cab, there was a Filipino guy who approached us, tila nagsa-sideline. Na gets ko na agad, I asked how much to our hotel, 35 Riyal daw. Sige, Syempre we wanted to patronize him.
I asked who owned this vehicle, he didn’t say anything.
Nadine sat in front while the 3 of us were at the back. I forgot the driver’s name. He works as s school bus driver and has been working in Doha for 5 years. He sends money to his family in Marikina. He and 4 other Filipinos rent a room for Riyal 1,500 a month. He shares 300.
It was traffic at the intersection, I fell asleep and woke up just before we reached our hotel. My son said it was a 45 minutes ride. Naku nalugi yung driver. Dapat pala we gave him extra tip.
