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About 99% of the cars on Sana a's roads would be sitting in a wrecking yard at Wingfield, I can not believe the heap I was in made it to the airport, again it was a scary half hour. Flew to Dubai and sat in the Irish Village bar for three hours talking to an English bloke who told me about the local Chinese prostitutes, he was a nice enough bloke, who had just spent about 5 weeks in Oz and was on the way home, he shouted me a Guinness which was might pleasing considering they were going for $12 a pop.

My first impressions of Doha was the heat (40 degrees) quickly followed by all the buildings going up, it looks like a pretty nice town, but more on that later. I found the Youth Hostel which is mostly empty, and turned out to be one of the best I have ever stayed in (Ruthy would like it) and I have a tripple room to myself.

There is an aussie guy here he play's chess really well and competes internationally, is a mathmatician/ engineer and his name is Nur he aint a bad bloke even if he is a Victorian LOL. (If I can work out how to publish photo's without my software I will publish his)

Sunday I went to the desert, down on the border with Saudi Arabia to the Khor Al-Adaid (Inland Sea), they slugged me double because I was the only one going. Still the dune bashing was thrilling and at times frightening as some of the dunes have like a pointed top so I kept expecting to launch into space. I lost my guts a few times but it was a bit of a buzz. I was taken to a promontary to take shots of Saudi arabia across the sea, I read the other day that they will soon start issuing tourist visas so a visit maybe on the cards one of these days.

A few more dune bashes and I arrived at the camp its a roped off area, one dune a way from the beach, its pretty rustic and I met my companion and chef and teacher. The camp has had up to 500 guests at times but at the moment its just me. Surendra Singh my new Nepalese friend has been trying hard to teach me to ride a Quad Bike and to Sandboard.

I have an ingrained fear of bikes going back to a prang I had at high school on the first one I ever rode (and until today the last) so I naturally sucked at first, but by the time I left I was having a huge time (not very environmentally sound I know but fun).

Dinner was a BBQ for one and Surendra kept wanting to serve me, I told him to dig in and stop calling me sir, I then spent an hour or so showing him photo's and just learning aboat Nepal.

As usual I was in bed by 8.30pm I was a bit knackered after all the excitment.

I was woken by the arrival of another vehicle at about 2.30am found out they would be taking me back to Doha I have no idea why they arrived in the middle of the night its only a 1 hr drive, after breakfast and another burn along the beach and in the dunes, I headed back to Doha getting stung by a wasp on the way, first time I have been stung by anything in 30 years.

Hung out at the Hostel had a great chicken burger and watched Nur play chess I think I understand it a bit better, perhaps when I get home I will learn to play.

I leave for Dubai tomorrow and will be in Oman around late afternoon if all goes to plan.

The disk I brought with me that had my camera software on it broke in half so unless I get real lucky and find a PC with software already loaded on it there will be no more photo's till I get home.

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