doha

Best Burger in Qatar & our 1st Shoot at Mia Bazaar!

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Been staying in Doha for the past 1.5 month already, and it's surprising there's so much more to explore about Qatar! Its swamp forests, beaches, sand forts, dunes and many more. This time, I googled the best burger places in Doha, and I found one really near us!!

ASPIRE PARK, QATAR


Burgeri
Located just adjacent to the back of Villagio Mall (near Laduree entrance), we realised that Burgeri is actually located in Aspire Park, which is sooo cool. We went there for lunch on a weekend afternoon, and the park was really gorgeous in the daytime. There are families and joggers around, but serene enough for you to enjoy moments with nature.

The industrial style interior of Burgeri is TOTALLY hashtag house goals. So many details into their decor and lots of details in each area too. 




Plenty of light, feels like a small little cafe in the huge park.

My favourite person in the whole wide world.... So much misses for this one. :'(

Featuring Wagyu Mushroom Melt and Wagyu Majestic Double, along with our sweet potato fries, onion rings and lemonade tea

The bread was soft, in a goo way because it was a great combination.



The moment I took a bite out of my Wagyu Mushroom Melt burger, I knew that this was the ONE. The meat was succulent and juicy, not like your typical kind of meat patty. The entire combination of mushrooms, cheese and beef go so well together that it'd be hard to not go for a second helping. 


Sugar and Spice
Next to Burgeri is Sugar and Spice, a dainty pretty fairytale-like decorated candy house cafe serving western food and desserts. D said we could go there for some desserts after our lunch. Highlight of the day! Heehee.


Ain't the cafe cute!

The interior is sooo pretty too!



Thankful for this man. He pampers me like a princess most of the time, feel so blessed to have him in my life. 


After much consideration, (SO MANY OPTIONS in the menu) we settled for this cake in a jar which turned out to be pure AWESOME, just a tad sweet. The malty aroma mixed with warm chocolate cake chunks and vanilla ice cream complement each other very well. Just thought they can cut down on the caramel!


Am a big fan of this blueberry cheesecake too! The cheesecake is so decadent and tasty, unlike the bland ones you'd find in established coffee joints. *Ahem* 


There's two other cafes in Aspire Park as well, which we didn't have the chance to check out due to time constraint. However, Burgeri is definitely a must-try, along with Sugar and Spice! :)



We did a traditional photo shoot with the Qatari local costumes just a night back, and it's super cute!
Don't think we can pass them off as well as the locals do, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

Dear went for the Saudi Arabian style, which I stuck to the stylist's recommendation.

By the way, we did our shoot for QR80 (around SGD 30) at Mia Bazaar, just located right outside The Museum of Islamic Art :) It's a fortnightly weekend market that happens every once in a while, with many vendors selling food and handmade stuffs!








So much fun doing the shoot because we've never done such a photoshoot wearing traditional costumes before! People started gathering around us and taking photos! We were sweat profusely - not sure whether because we were abit nervous or the warm night. Hahaha.


Loving Doha so far :)

makeup

Beauty Review: Huda Beauty Lip Contour Set

Wednesday, October 04, 2017



I'm so, so excited to be sharing this review right here on my blog today 'coz I've been recently following Huda Beauty on Instagram and I love this woman! A blogger turned entrepreneur, she s definitely super talented, and I love the looks she often shares on her Instagram!

Apparently, she has her own makeup line and uses them quite often in her makeup tutorial - and since I'm in the Middle East, why not grab some of her cosmetics from her makeup line?

Headed straight to Sephora at Villagio Mall and unfortunately, most of the items were not instock. Especially her eyeshadow palette - Rose Gold Edition, that seems to be out of stock EVERYWHERE here in Qatar.

I went to a few Sephora outlets in Qatar, but ALL of them do not have the eyeshadow palette in stock :'(

Instead, I was looking at her Lip Strobe series, and the colours were all so gorgeous! Reviews were pretty decent for this, but I was a little hesistant about the payoff of the colour, how it'd turn out on my lips, thus I  decided to grab one of her Lip Contour Set in Trendsetter & Bombshell to try out.





The Lip Contour Set consists of one Lip Liner and two Lip Strobes to create her signature, favourite look. Note that the lip strobes are miniature sizes, so it's great if you're looking to just give it a try!




I love the packaging of her lip strobes though. It feels very classy and is easy to open.
Her Lip Contour Pencil is easy pretty much any other lip pencils, but the colour is super beautiful.




As taught by Huda herself, it is best to line the lips by creating an X at your cupid's bow first, after which you line the entire lip and fill your lips with the Huda Beauty Lip Strobe. As for this Contour Set, I put on Trendsetter first, before dabbing Bombshell on the inner corner of my lips to create a pouty look. 







Verdict
The colours are super gorgeous to create an everyday, nude, chic yet not over the top kind of look. It stays true to its promise, there was no colour transfer when I drank from my cup (unlike Colourpop) and it stayed on for a good 3-4 hours. I wore it to TGIF for dinner, and by the end of dinner, 30% of the colour was still there!


If you've been thinking about it for the longest time, I'd say GO FOR IT!

I can't wait to check out her other makeup products as well. xx

doha

A Day out at the Sand Dunes Safari, Qatar

Monday, October 02, 2017

After 4-5 days not seeing the outside world (other than our compound, of course), I was absolutely thrilled to be out again, exploring the other parts of Doha!

One of the places that I’ve been talking about the entire time we touched down in Doha was the Sand Dunes Safari! Pictures of the Arabian Desert, cute little camels and land cruisers can be found on every touristy magazines and of course, it’s a must see and do when you’re in the Middle East. D was sooo sweet by accommodating to my request though he's already having lots of stuffs on his plate. :(


On Friday morning, our guide, MJ picked us up from our accommodation and we headed down South, about an hour’s drive to the Sand Dunes. Throughout the ride, MJ was really friendly and tried to get to know us better throughout the journey, keeping us entertained and laughing all the way.


Upon arrival, the first thing we saw were CAMELS. Lots of them, all sitting under the (very hot) sun, just chilling like everything’s cool. Hahaha. It was our first stop whereby our car's tires were about to get deflated (to reduce traction in the sand) so we were given 30 mins to hang around the area, go for the camel rides if we wanted to and enjoy some karak tea in the meantime.

The camel rides were not part of our packages, but it only costed us about QAR 20 (about SGD 7) for about a 10 mins ride?  D told me to go for it since he’s already tried it in Abu Dhabi.

Poor little camels had knitted "beanies" over their mouths. Not sure why but it could be to prevent them from attacking people. I didn't like the idea of the knitted stuffs over their mouths, because their skin was bruising and cut from the ropes too.


A local helping me to get up the camel.. So excited!

And finally, my dream of becoming a desert princess for 10 minutes came true... Hee hee.

And that's what went behind the scene. The local Qatari guided the camel and we went around a fair bit for just 10 minutes.

Look at how tamed and gentle they are! 

The Qatari told us to touch them, and we were pretty surprised because they didn't even budge when we try to pet their head! 

Heading back to our resting area for our karak tea. 



We were served hot Karak Tea despite the extremely warm weather, but that didn't stop us from enjoying their tea. Their local Karak Tea is a MUST TRY when you're in Qatar! It's so good I dream about it everyday and nag at my boyfriend to bring me out to drink it. Hahahaha.


And here's a shot with our guide - MJ

About 10 minutes later, we set off for our sand bashing adventure!


We actually drifted in the sand dunes, I kid you not. MJ was so good at handling his Toyota Land Cruiser that we drifted more than my fingers can count, and I was just screaming throughout the entire trip while bursting everyone's eardrums in the car. Sometimes, he'd stop the vehicle at the summit, hovering over the edge before going down fast like a roller coaster. At other times he would drive along the ridge before suddenly dropping sideways over the edge, guiding the car at a 45-degree angle over the shifting sands all the way to the bottom. 

We even did a REVERSE stunt down the 45-degree angled steep slope while another car followed us in front closely.

 "I just want you all to enjoy," he'd say.

Look how tight I'm gripping the car handle. LOL

Most of the sand dunes were enormous and were up to 60 metres in height. We scaled them all, and MJ slowly increased speed while I was just holding onto my dear life. D was really chilled about everything and occasionally laughed when I whimpered in fear.

Finally, we reached the Inland Sea aka Khor al Adaid, one of Qatar’s most impressive natural wonders. This site is a UNESCO recognized natural reserve and it is the only place in the world where the sea is surrounded by the desert! It's inaccessible by road, so the only way is by across the rolling sand dunes. Such a serene sight, surrounded by mountains of sand on all sides.




My handsome one with his GoPro




 And trust me, I made a poor choice of wearing slippers because the sand was BURNING my feet!
Think it was like 38-40 degrees over here in the desert. Thankful for the aircon in the car. 

MJ and us. And see how scenic the entire background is. Ahhh.

No clouds, just clear blue skies and the sun shining mercilessly at us. Thankful that our scalps were not burnt. Lol.


Upon reaching our last point - a small beach, we dipped our feet into the crystal clear lukewarm waters and in the distance, we could see the coast of Saudi Arabia clearly, just right across us. 


After wading in the water for some time, we headed back to a nearby station with the others to inflate the wheel tires again behind hitting the road back home.

Our ride, Toyota Land Cruiser. This beast is literally built for deserts, I swear!


A pity that we didn't get to swim in the sea and do sand boarding due to time constraint, but perhaps it's a good idea we didn't because we'd be soaking wet when we get back into the car!


Thank you to Qatar Inbound Adventures for this adventure of a lifetime, and making our experience such an enjoyable one! :)

In my opinion, the Sand Dunes is a MUST GO in Qatar and also, I'd recommend Souq Warif as well for a lovely cuppa Karak Tea and some yummy sweet Kunafa at Al Aker Sweets. I'd be doing a separate blog post on our trips to other parts of Doha, so stay tuned! xx

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