Hotel Lavilla Palace Hotel Doha

I know the 5 pilars of Islam and I know that 5 times to pray daily is one of the pilars. I heard the first call to prayer this morning, sometime between 4 and 5 a.m. I am in my hotel now, working on my computer with the very slow connection and I heard a call to prayer. About 1/2 hour later, at a little bit before 3 p ...

... I don’t know why these haven’t caught on in North America. With big hunks of processed, pressed chicken or beef rotating on a spit all day, they shave off some meat and serve it in a wrap (sandwich) or on a bed of rice or fries (plate). It would rival any hot dog stand or late night drive through for an after bar snack – though, not so much here what with the lack of bars. I think the shwarma may be Turkish and ...

... the knees and t-shirts or long sleeves when out in public. Despite that, one can see people not abiding by those courtesies on any given day so it’s not strictly enforced. I went to yoga today and one girl was wearing shorts so short that when she did a particular pose I saw way more than I should have and she surely would have been arrested or deported had I been a Muslim! Of course, this was behind closed doors and in a class full of ex-pats so the ...

... so before I even sat down, the man on the aisle seat assured me that it wasn't my perfume, but he was going to move once they'd closed the doors - brilliant - 2 seats to myself!<br><br>Food was great, though not for the weak stomached on a flight - spicy bean salad and curry! I also watched 'New in Town' with Renee Zellwegger and Harry Connick Junior and would recommend it. <br><br>I've never ...

... it took me 45. For security, our bags were put through an x ray machine, we walked through a metal detector, then we were patted down, then we had to empty every bag indivually. Once through security, we were pushed into a gate room where we waited. Then we went through the gate into a smaller room, where we waited cramped. Then people pushed to be padded down one by one...again. Ridiculous. I don't think you could have ...

... and video's of this but will post them at another time. Some cars we found out did not deflate their tires. In order for the tires to avoid conflicting with the sand you must deflate the tires significantly so that its easy and soft on the sand. After a few hurdles of cars getting stuck and having to be pulled out we finally got to our destination. There were a lot of new Armenians who hadn't ever driven in the dunes which delayed a 30 minute ...

... Blick auf meine Gepäckmarke beruhigte mich aber. Dann ging's raus nach Doha. Die im Flughafen genannten Preise für eine Fahrt ins Stadtzentrum unterschieden sich dramatisch von den draußen, von Taxifahrern, genannten Preisen. Egal, ich wollte ein wenig Doha sehen. Mein Taxifahrer, Radj, war Nepalese - mit Familie, die weiterhin in Nepal lebt. Wir hatten ein wenig Verständigungsprobleme, da sein Englisch eher aufgeschnappt war - aber wir kamen leidlich klar. In ...

... t be so bad after all. The next morning, I got on the plane for the long flight. A brand new 777 (they had only been running the DC-Doha route for a month) with 13" TVs on every seat with 150 different movies, and 500 other channels. There was nobody next to me either, and the 14 hours went by like a breeze. I watched 5 movies, looked out the window as we flew over the mountains of Iran and Afganistan, and ate like 4 meals. Had to ...

... re flying into the Arab peninsula. The adrenaline provoked by these thoughts in combination with an entertainment selection of 50+ films, TV-series and computergames has me on the edge of my seat until we reach Doha 7 hours later. Doha airport is spectacularly dull. There is nothing hinting at local culture beside the obvious willingness to consider the trade-off between cultural authenticity and american dollars and the absence of alcoholic drinks on the menus of the ...

... culture is really, not this stupid craze of democracy, not this money grabbing capitalism, its about being yourself and being what you want to be respectfully". Laughter erupted from the Israeli guys mouth and both the Arab and I looked at him perplexed. "You just proved me right and you wrong there my Irish friend. You claim Irish people cant move mountains with their words, you just moved my entire world to be a better person. What you said just opened up new ideas for me to be ...