Pics From My Trip

Hello crafters!  I said that I would be posting pics of Japan, but I thought I would try to do this over two days and show a bit of all the places we went.  As you know, I flew to the UK last September and did a couple of shows on Hobby Maker.  The next day we attended my step son's wedding, then the next day we flew to Qatar on the way to Japan.  We had one full day there before heading onto South Korea.  So today's post will start with some pics from Qatar then onto South Korea and Japan will be on Sunday.  These first two pics were of the airport in Qatar, it was really nicely decorated inside the terminal.

 

This is the Natural Museum of Qatar.  It has been designed to look like the Desert Rose mineral.  While the tour that I was on didn't go into the actual museum, we were allowed to wander around the lobby which was full of antique and unusual cars from a private collection.

We went to the souk on the tour and we saw all the falcons which is their national bird.  This one cost about $40,000 but some of the falcons were well over a million dollars!

Below, a statue of a giant thumb, I haven't a clue why, but I thought it was interesting!  I'm sure there is a story behind it but our guide did not know about it.

This was interesting.  They built these towers for the pigeons and they roost there and then their waste is collected and they use it for fertilizer.  It keeps the streets and sidewalks clean as the pigeons flock to this structure.

The remaining pics of Qatar were taken from the guide's vehicle as we drove by.  The nest two pics were of mosques and the spinneret. 

There was a pic of a lovely residential area on a waterway.  It had apartments and some shops too.

The last pic of Qatar is of an interesting hotel called the Fairmont Doha.  It is shaped like a giant U.

South Korea

One of the best tours we did was visiting the DMZ area between North and South Korea.  We were not allowed to take any photos of North Korea at all, but you could see it and even look through the high powered binoculars and could even see people working in the fields along with several guard booths along the border area.  We met with a North Korean defector and heard her story.  It was heartbreaking to listen to what she had to go through to get her husband and two children out of North Korea!

The fence with all the ribbons was from the South Korean people who had lost family members during the conflict.  They are prayer ribbons, carrying messages of hope, peace and reunification.

The rest of the pics are from Jeju Island.  We picked up a cruise that started from Seoul and the first stop was Jeju Island.  I have wanted to see this place since I saw pics of it on Instagram years ago.  It did not disappoint.  Similar to Irelands' Giants Causeway, but you could not walk down to it.  There were viewing platforms all around it.

I hope you have enjoyed the pics of Qatar (Doha) and South Korea.  On to Japan tomorrow!  All for now, Sue x