Blogs from Doha, Qatar, Middle East - page 12

Here is an excerpt from my journal after I visited my friend Dina's house for dinner one Friday night, enjoy! This may be the most interesting one (genuine), so pay attention. Friday 15/06/2012 Got a phone call from someone called Dina who asked if I wanted to go for dinner so I agreed. I thought it would be a lot of students going out for a meal which would have been fun but actually it was so much better than I thought it would be! So Dina is lovely and she picked me up and took me on a wee drive around the city before heading back to her house. I had too much food but it was beautiful Arabic sweets and tea (Arabic tea is delish) and Arabic coffee (not so much) to get rid ... read more

I'd already been to the Gulf a handful of times - but only for a few hours each time on a stopover to Australia or Southeast Asia, never leaving the airport. Since I'm a naturally curious guy, I couldn't let that slide. Hence I booked a three-day stopover in Doha before my onwards flight to Shanghai. I really needed to know what these small, rich countries are all about. Qatar has become somewhat of a regional global player, or at least, that's how it sees itself. In 2006, it hosted the Asian Games, in 2011 the Arab Games. Last year the FIFA shocked the world when they announced that Qatar will host the football World Cup in 2022. On the political side, Qatar has become synonymous with the TV-channel Al-Jazeera, "the world's best known - and ... read more

Well, 2011 hasn’t been my best year. In January, G and I left our idyllic life in Cyprus to do something more useful in Africa. We had secured work as volunteers for an American non government organization in Uganda. The work was interesting and rewarding in terms of the results and the differences that we could see in the community. This meant helping individuals build their own businesses from scratch and training them in finance, negotiation and business skills. However, unexpectedly, G died suddenly and I was on my own. I decided to return to Uganda after the funeral and carry on the work we had started together and to ensure the locals achieved their dreams . The north of Uganda is not the most comfortable of places to work, but the people are lovely, hospitable ... read more

Well after much ado, I am in Doha, Qatar. Almost in Africa. I wrote last blog that I was worried about getting out of Melbourne. By the time I left home on Wednesday morning I was no longer worried about getting out of Melbourne but out of Perth at the other end. The Ash cloud was moving over Perth and looked like it was going to settle there and raise children. By the time we had driven the 3 hours down to Melbourne (after trying for over 30mins to talk to Jetstar in their queue) we found out as we arrived that my flight from Melbourne to Perth had been cancelled. I ended up calling the Travel Agent (many times), the airlines, my insurance company and used up ALL the full battery I had on my ... read more

One of my rules is to be critical in accordance with the claims that someone makes; if you are a humble 2-Star then I don't think I'm entitled to criticise you on the basis of 5-Star standards. But by the same token if you claim, as Qatar Airways very stylishly does in its TV adverts, to be "The World's 5-Star Airline" then watch out for the 5-Star criticism. Only fair. I just made a somewhat arduous journey from Bangkok to London and back via Doha on Qatar Airways. Not really THE World's 5-Star, maybe soon, but not quite yet. Now the aeroplane and the cabin crew are indeed pretty good. Compared with many airlines QA runs new 'planes (a Boeing 777 on the BKK-DOH leg and an A330-200 on the DOH-LHR leg - I prefer the ... read more