La Cigale Hotel Doha

There is an Oryx Farm and Equestrian Center somewhere on the outskirts of Doha. My driver had never heard of it and all his friends had never heard of it. My only directions from the internet were Shahaniya, about 15 kilometers outside Doha and supposedly it has many oryx and is working hard to save the animal. We never found it. We found instead the private zoo of Mohammed Al-Dosari, a Qatari with enough money ...

... quickly to the next oasis. There are a couple of tourists but they have a car so they are driving from spot to spot, take some photos and hop back into their car. There are a few workers but they are all lying on the grass under palm trees. There is just me, walking in the sun. I have movie pictures running through my head of people staggering about in the desert. Will that be me?<br> After walking along the ...

... she asks if I have the letter from my employer. I answer yes and dutifully produce the NOC. She quickly scans it and says;<br><br>"So your salary is XX,XXX riyals?" misreading the letter and quoting a number one tenth of my actual salary. <br>Thinking that maybe she is used to seeing a monthly salary shown on the NOC I reply; "No, it's XXX,XXX riyals. That is my annual salary though... monthly it is about XX,XXX"<br><br>Twice ...

... other side of the building. The guys that told me to go to the trailer either didn&#8217;t understand or didn&#8217;t know where I needed to be but they wanted to be helpful so they took a guess. Oh well, no harm, no foul. Once in the right place the process is fairly quick and efficient with a short detour to the second floor office of the Captain who invites me into his office while dealing with someone else (much like my experience at the bank). I&#8217;m ...

... ex-pat families, and there were probably as many Westerners in the mall as Arabs. does the boy resent the American or British kids who can see their mothers' eyes? And, what's it like to grow up a Westerner in Qatar, where one's mother showing her face and hair in public is NOT the norm? A little girl in a pink dress with bows and spaghetti straps walked by holding her father's hand. He dressed traditionally in the long white robe with a headscarf ...

... shops (Topshop included for Victoria's excitement) though with the UK price still on the tag they were asking for double the price!! We have had Curry for Breakfast Lunch and dinner for 2 days now, not sure we can take much more (hang on we're on our way to India!) See you all in Delhi.

... and drink no liquids from sunrise till sunset). At any rate, at midnight everything is incredibly busy, including the airport. Now back to our travel impressions from Qatar. We've arrived at around 10 pm on Tuesday and, as we've mentioned above, have been quite surprised by the dynamism of everything at the airport. The immigration procedures went OK but it's hard to remember a more blasé immigration officer in our recent traveling history. "Welcome to ...

25th Dive has been put off til tomorrow so decide to go out of town for the day instead. Taxi in to central bus station and then 102 bus to Umm Salal Mohammad. Spot the towers of the fort and walk to them. Jump wall and go exploring. All reno'd up, looks like it's set to become an official attraction. From the top of fort I spot the other towers about a km away. Walk there. Can't go in as they're houses now. Filming them when approached ...

... the concept of giving charity to Africans - a topic about which my opinion is already well known to those of you who have read my previous Africa trip blogs. Aside from the damage that free money does to the motivation of Africans to work for a living, the presence of western aid workers drives up the price of food and accommodation, thereby damaging tourism as well. But, as we know by now, aid giving is as much for the benefit of the givers (who stay in fancy hotels ...

... moving on the roads, but the frequency was very low for an industrial area. Like all other places in Qatar, the roads of Umm-said are also newly rebuilt. I walked for almost one hour and finally reached the gate of industrial area #1. There I met the guards. The security is tight here. The guards told me that the Qasco is at Industrial area #2, which is another five KM from the place. By the time the sun is going ...