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I had misplaced my footwear. Someplace on the island, there was a lone pair of silver, pointy-toed pumps with a glittery trim – a ridiculous alternative for the seashore, I’ll admit, and much more ineffective now. Had I left them below my solar lounger, their comfortable suede freckled with sand? Or within the shade of a frangipani tree, kicked off once I stopped for a Häagen-Dazs? With a sigh, I scooped up my bag and headed for the trail: time to retrace my steps, barefoot.
In Qatar, one by no means loses one’s footwear. And one actually doesn’t slip them off absent-mindedly, throughout a day of cabana lazing, pool dipping and coconut sipping. The Gulf is, in spite of everything, a area of nice sky-piercing structure, unfathomable wealth and bombastic superlatives: greatest, quickest, priciest, et al. Beachiest, it isn’t. And but right here I used to be, on a tiny isle that would have been plucked from the Maldives, residing the archipelago’s ‘no footwear, no information’ motto – however simply half-hour from Doha, Qatar’s unstoppable capital.
Maldives of the Center East
British holidaymakers love the Maldives: virtually a million of us go to yearly. However on a per capita foundation, few nations adore the archipelago greater than Gulf travellers, who nip over even on weekends, escaping from the cities of Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi to some far-flung dot on the map.
However when you have got the wealth of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, why fly for 4 or 5 hours – plus the inevitable seaplane or speedboat switch – when you may construct an island resort in your doorstep? And so Maldives-style retreats are popping up all through the area, their overwater villas lapped by Listerine-blue waters, alongside personal swimming pools, spa villages and ritzy seashore eating places.
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