Blogs from Qatar, Middle East - page 14

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

We left the best of Qatar for our friend G..'s last weekend. We went dune bashing in the desert south west of Mesaieed, right near the Saudi Arabian border. It was amazing. Those drivers know their stuff, and it helps that they let most of the air out of the tires of the 4x4 before we set out. I think the pictures tell the whole story. Loads of fun, even if you're not an adrenaline junky.... read more

Visited all the corners of Qatar with our German friend G... Zubara fort is to the north, Dukhan beach is the west, the singing sand dunes are in the east and Sealine beach is in the south. In between it's desert and that's where the Sheikh Faisal museum is located. The singing sand dunes are near the large American military base. We got there in the heat of the day, and the sand dunes were super hot. We found it hard to try and run up the dunes, as the hot sand got inside our footwear (We were not wearing boots). G.. even lost his sandals a little bit up, and was hopping up and down in his bare feet at the bottom while N.. and W.. went back up the dune to recover them. The ... 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