Renaissance Doha Hotel, City Centre

... he came up behind me and was gone before I could whip up my camera. My driver saw another coming and warned me and I got a shot. Hopefully I'll get out to the falcon center tomorrow and see some more birds. <br> Another rather short day for touring but it was fun although I have to say that the souq is rather sanitized. It's just not the same as Turkey or Egypt or Syria or countries which haven't pulled down much of the old to put up the new.

Ramadan begins at the sight of the cresent moon in the month of Ramadan in the Islamic calendar. That was last night. During Ramadan, Muslims fast (no food or drink) and abstain from smoking, sex and anything indulgent between dawn and sunset. Businesses change their hours with shops open around 8am to 1pm, closing in the afternoon and re-opening around 8pm to 1am. Some grocery stores are open all day but restaurants are all closed until the evening and ...

... My office is very large with many windows but oddly enough I still have to turn the lights on with all the blinds open. There are separate male and female gymnasiums but no showers. There are some trees out front but no grass. It was originally built as a high school and CNA-Q used it as their campus before we arrived and before they built their campus which I was at last week. Their new campus is beautiful with grass, trees, plants and fountains all over the ...

One of the best things to help cool off in the dessert heat is.......a pool. One of our resasons for selecting unit A1 was due to the wonderful views of both the Aspire tower/stadium and the pool that is just 75 feet away. We enjoy the pool day and night.

... how close you can get with a group and how it can all end so abruptly. After the group meeting Siobhan, Fleur, Lloyd and I went to Durber Square (Kristen didn't feel like it). It's in the center of Kathmandu and is supposed to be a cool spot with a bunch of Buddhist and Hindu temples. It's pretty awful. There is trash EVERYWHERE. The temples are more or less unmaintained and totally run down. It was a big dissapointment. We had ...

... my hijab out here since the few women I see are wearing hijabs, abayah and most men in their thobe (a floor-length white garment) with a ghutra and egal (headdress). It's quite cultural and a pretty sight to see. This morning we talked to an old friend of mine, Sean who happens to be stationed out here in the Navy. We're planning to meet for lunch so John and I make our way around the Bay hoping to get closer to our meeting spot and catch a ...

First flight over! The flight was quiet good but we have to wait about 5 hours. Here in DOHA the weather is incredible hot even it is late at night. Unbelievable I ve never seen such a hot country. I'm sorry, the photos I'm going to upload a little bit later. C YA later in BALI mike

... I began the journey home. Everything went more smoothly that I ever could have hoped. Air Uganda was actually nice (new leather seats masking a clearly aging DC-9), and we arrived in Dar Es Salaam 40 minutes before the scheduled arrival time! This gave me more than enough time to get checked into Qatar Airways (and even gave me enough time for the security guard to escort me out of the departure area so that I could change my 70,000 TZ ...

This is it! No turning back now - We're on our way! But before we check in there's one more matter to take care of. Besides useful information, Eduardo the doorman also handed us our mail yesterday. BBVA, the Spanish bank I had an account with until a few weeks ago, is claiming I owe them 110e - certainly some mistake, I settled my accounts with them 2 weeks ago - and is threatening to add another 30e to the amount every day if it isn't paid before the 19th. Which ...

Doha, Qatar, on the Arabian Peninsula. TE Lawrence was so accurate in his descriptions of the desert, of this bleak and interesting landscape. The sun hits like a hammer hits an anvil and every ray of heat batters into your very being, truly the intensity of the heat here is overpowering. I have been travelling now for almost twenty hours and am still only two thirds of the way to my destination by the roof of the world. Our flight had been delayed by four hours in this tiny little ...