Travelling to Doha, any special advice?

[CLICLASP]

Hello PG Members,
Not sure it is the right section, may be this thread wil have to be put elsewhere...

My man is travelling to Doha from oct 24th, since he red "my" book on pearls.
I warned him not to buy natural pearls since there is so much fraud :

https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/natural-pearls/4750-qatar-natural-pearl-fraud-buyer-beware.html

Besides this point, any special advice on what do, what to see, about pearls overthere?
Thank you so much

 

[Orient]

You should check out the museums like this one:

http://www.mia.org.qa/english/#home

The Baroda Carpet and other Islamic treasures have all found their way to Doha recently.

 

[jshepherd]

Yes! Hubert Bari put that exhibit together. He is also the author of Pearls.

 

[CLICLASP]

Thank you "Orient", I went to the website, very rich info.

Thank you Jeremy, I have H.Bari's book, this book is wonderful, we are constantly referring to.
I was wondering about someone who went there to get some "live" information ?

 

[jshepherd]

I wish I could comment to that, but haven't been. I considered it for the exhibition, but didn't go.

 

[Cees]

I was in Doha on August 22 and went every where into the Souck's to look for natural pearls, reliable gemtraders informed me that natural pearls are extremely rare and not available anymore

 

[Orient]

Maybe this is the case in Doha, can't really comment accurately as not familiar with the place, but a short trip to Bahrain would take care of that problem. Sure you have to be careful like everywhere these days but there are a few natural pearl dealers there like Al-Mahmood Pearls, Ebrahim Matter, Hassan Al-Mannai to mention some of the older families. Al-Fardan are another Bahraini family with relatives in the pearl business in Doha though, so you can always search for that name in association with pearls in Doha. I am sure they would have a few tucked away ;-)

 

[Roy]

CliClasp - You can PM me. I am familiar with some of the pearl traders in Doha.