Qatar Palace Hotel Doha

I've visited the U.A.E. (all emirates except Abu Dhabi), Oman, and now Doha in the Middle East. In each, it has been difficult to meet someone actually born in and from that particular country. These countries all possess what I call "foreign worker full contact". Oman was really more like "foreign worker ...

... exactly what you’re looking for. For a little fun, I’ve posted pictures of some of the international restaurants’ Arabic signs with their brands\logos (where possible). The person who emails me and correctly identifies the most names by Thursday 8 am (my time) will win a prize! To be eligible to win you have to also include your address because, unless you’re my parents, I won’t know where to send the ...

Okay, now I have my work visa, but still can not do much until I get my RP - Residancey Permit and associated Qatar ID. Without this you technically can not do much as far as housing, cars, utilities, cell phones, etc.. Luckily up to know who you know (what they will do for you) and how much your pay can get you by. My landlord currently has electric, water, and internet in his name until I get my ID ...

In Doha the Sheiks are chic. Where am I? Seriously, Doha is not a tourist town, per se, but it is far and away one of the more interesting and in so many ways seemingly contradictory places I have ever been in my life. At our hotel we were told that we could hire a limo driver at 60 riyals per hour to take us around the city and show us the sights, not that there are actually that many of them. The hotel taxis, which are limos, are more expensive than ...

... is the beautiful Museam of Islamic Arts, a terrific building designed by that wonderful Muslim architect...I.M. Pei....oh wait, he's not Muslim...and he designed one of the wings of the National Gallery of Art in DC...interesting. A couple drove by on the Corniche in a red Mercedes convertable. The man was dressed in the traditional white robes with white head scarf and snazzy black rayban like sunglasses with a blue tooth headset ...

... Sebouh) truck was at the end of the line to make sure no one gets lost (like someone did last year) due to his years of experience of driving in the dunes. As we began to leave one of the trucks fell behind and we had to wait for it to find his way. The rest of the group at this point went off. As we hurried to catch up with the group my cousin took a more difficult path. We went up a steep sand bank but the other vehicle couldn't make it. We ...

... war es ganz angenehm. Die Eislaufbahn im Untergeschoss wirkte sehr exklusiv. Besonders, wenn man bedenkt, dass draußen über 35° Celsius waren. Bei der Passkontrolle nach meiner Rückkehr am Flughafen wünschte ich mir ein wenig deutsche Korrektheit - die eine Dame unterbrach ihren Plausch erst, nachdem sie eine Aufsicht darauf hinwies, dass da noch Passagiere warten ... Übrigens war ich ganz froh, dass der kleine Ausflug ganz gut geklappt hatte. Ein wenig ...

07 June If I overlook yesterday's plunge in the stock market, this trip is off to a very auspicious start: Normally I walk up to the main road to catch a bus or taxi to the airport, but this time I took a motorcycle taxi. Just as I reached the end of the road, the airport express bus was rounding the bend! I had to hurridly run across the road to catch it but even that wasn't a problem as the traffic light was green for me. If I had walked as I usually do, I would have ...

We were booked to do onstage fire-dance highlights as part of the opening of the Doha Cultural Festival. It was a large-scale collaborative show that took over a section of the corniche, and besides world-class gymnasts, singers and aerial acrobats on and above the stage (not to mention fire-dancers!) there were ultra-light planes and boats shooting out pyrotechnics as well as artists that absailed ...

... bewildered. So there are people with a stranger sense of humour than the Germans... Is it hot? No, it's bloody freezing! They're damned proud of their airconditioning and rows of 3 meter high units at 5 meter intervals blow an icy typhoon through the terminal. Just for a cosmic laugh, a shivu kick in the nuts, our bags don't come out on the belt until all other bags have long been picked up and we've started compiling mental shopping lists to cover our losses. We're in India.