Le Mirage Suite Doha

... children and adults. This is taken from his brochure. And it is all free plus you can have tea and coffee and cakes with the staff. We were there at 12 noon on Thursday.<br> After a lucky morning start at the Qatar Falcon Center, I thought our luck had run out. I was also pretty sure we were at the wrong place, but a man showed up and spoke to my driver and he said we can look around. We started down the path ...

... the kilometer or more of Corniche left to walk, I decided I had better get started. <br> I turn to go back to the sidewalk next to the water and a car pulls up beside me and the driver asks if I am looking for a taxi. He didn't look like a taxi, no sign or anything, but he said he was. He did have official looking stamps on his windshield so I asked if he could take me to Centerpoint mall and he quoted a ...

... cheques, and was offered a credit card. However, the credit card requires another letter from my employer stating that they would deposit my pay directly to my Qatari account which is impossible for me. I don't particularly need a credit card but I was hoping to get one because interact is not common here and I find it a hassle to always pay by cash. The elite account also comes with additional benefits such as preferred ...

Today I received my Qatar Residence Permit (RP). An RP is required for all foreigners coming to live and work in Qatar and, while fairly easy to obtian, requires applicants to jump through a few hoops. Namely, a chest x-ray, blood sample, blood typing, and fingerprinting. UCQ staff are guided through the process by an Arabic speaking "fixer" named Mr. Mohammed. Mohammed is his first name but it is common here to address men in ...

... pass a mannaquin adorned with low cut jeans perfectly placed on the mannaquin to reveal a squined purple thong in the store Xanada. Yes, a manaquin with whale tail could be viewed at the same time as Muslim women showing not even their eyes. There was also a "Hip Hop Store" and the map advertised "Ralph Laurent." After Starbucks we hopped in a cab for the City Centre Mall, bigger than the Villagio and located in downtown Doha. As I said, we were told ...

... given the stick I dished out on them. Anyway, the last couple of days have been filled with a visit to the amazing Souk Waqif, where you can experience the true local market consisting of a labyrinth of alleyways lined with the most intriguing shops and enchanting aromas. Tried to buy some local food and ended up very happily surprised by my shot in the dark at local culinary delights (sweet mi with ...

... and the long-awaited shower. And, with only a 15 minute drive, we should be there in no time, right? Wrong! One hour and a half later, after countless wrong turns, undecipherable (or missing altogether) road signs, closed roads due to construction and hectic traffic we were ready to give up and hire a taxi to lead us to the hotel. The only problem was that there were no taxis in sight in spite of the bustling night life (by the way, there is only one taxi ...

... Brief wander through the gold souq, then go to bus station to catch taxi to where the falcon souq has relocated to. Turns out it's simply Souq Wafq, which I didn't recognise the name of, and I get stung 20QR for a trip around the corner. Find falconry store but no birds as falcon season doesn't begin until September. Chat with the owner for a while - he's Bangladeshi. He makes me some tea and we watch some Bollywood film. Go souvenir ...

... of the darkness to try to relieve me of my valuables. After a cold shower (which wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be), I did a bit of reading about Zanzibar to further prepare for my time here, and finished the evening by cracking out my expandable keyboard for the first time ever on a trip. It took me a good fifteen minutes to get it working (there are lots of stupid little steps necessary to get it fired up), but then after that it was smooth sailing; a real pleasure to use.

Finally my bag arrived. In the morning of October 02, 2007, I received the desired call from the airport that the bag is now at Doha and ready for collection. I returned from the airport at 4:00 AM with the bag. Our sponsors has arranged a short city trip on October 02. We had our Brown Marcedes 350 Ready at the hotel gate by 10:00 AM. Our Philipinno Chaufer told us that thr trip will take about 2 hours. We started from the ...