Al Bustan Hotel Doha

ein Lebenszeichen aus Dohahahaaa......<br>Um es kurz zu sagen, wir haben ziemlich aufregende,aufwuehlende und abendeteuerliche Tage hinter uns. Der Abschied, die lange Busfahrt, Wunderscheoene 24 Stunden in Cape Town und dann gings auf zum Flughafen. Die liebe Saskia und Richard brachten uns und wir waren sehr motiviert. Nur hiess es dann wir brraeuchten ein Visum,was wir natuerlich nicht besitzen ...

... is anyone left back at home. My taxi driver today said the living here was good though so I am happy that he has landed somewhere he likes and can make a good wage. That isn't always the case in some of the Middle Eastern countries that hire foreign workers and since I don't have facts and figures in ...

Today I picked up my car. After much deliberation (though not nearly as much as I was going/would have gone through in Winnipeg) between buy or rent, new or used, car or truck, I ended up purchasing a new Honda Accord. The buy or rent choice was an easy one for me. The University gives expat employees a certain amount as a transportation allowance that doesn't even cover the cost of a very basic long term rental car. Several of the dealers offer ...

... you out trying to communicate with people who have English at a second language or know very little English. <br><br>In our compound of 48 units only 4 are currently occuppied. Of the 4, 2 left for summer back to their homeland to beat the heat. Of the two families that left, one is from Belgium and have three little kids and the other is a Lebanease family with ...

... and the men display shiny cufflinks. It is as if the Western Business shirt were just extended to the floor. I have seen at least five outfits where the head scarf was replaced by a baseball cap. The uniformity of it all, however, for most men wear the plain white head scarf (not Arafat style) in addition to the white robe makes it look almost as if people are playing dress up; do people really wear the same thing every day? The women of Doha are ...

... it was a good position, but did so anyway because it didn't make much difference to me and he got to sit by his friends. After swapping seats, I found myself sitting next to two czech girls. I asked them if they were english and they replied yes and went quiet. I don't think they understood the question or heard it properly, but I didn't think much of it and put in my earphones to watch a film. When the drinks trolley came round, the girls ordered two white wines ...

... out for dinner with my cousin or we have kebab at home, or just catch up on the financial crisis. Always something new to learn each day. Haven't really experienced much of the night life in Doha as of yet. We went to a bar one of the nights but it was an Aussie expats drinking hub. Just a bunch of random drunks. Nothing crazy. That's it for now but more to come of Doha and the Middle East. Ja

... around public holidays is a bit of a difficulty to say the least I think in this area, so I ended up going overseas to Doha in Qatar. This place was stunning. Its a fairly small city with fairly good infrastructure, mass amounts of wealth, and a never ending supply of sunshine I think. When I arrived in at 6.30am on the Friday morning it was already 32C and moved up to 42C during the day. As you would appreciate didnt do ...

... could. So I gave up on that for now and instead explored my options for passing the night until my connecting flight at around 8 in the morning. The first thing I did was to eat a couple of the sandwiches that I had prepared in Bangkok before my departure (both in order to have something to eat while traveling as well as to empty my refrigerator of perishable food). Having done extensive research on the internet from home already, I first went to the Oryx Lounge to see ...

... was my turn I had already missed two other possible connections and was so happy to be done with that horrible line that I was actually thanking Lufthansa instead of being angry... I finally got a flight and finally had the pleasure of flying on Qatar Airways - and it really was a pleasure! I met two lovely Omanis who were clearly a good omen of a trip there later on...