Blogs from Qatar, Middle East - page 23

KRIS: Okay, we didn't actually tour Qatar, but given we changed planes in the capital and that we were bombarded with adverts for the country through the entire journey, I feel it deserves a mention. All I know about the country is that when I was younger I had a Comodore 64 footy game called striker in which Qatar were the crappest team and ran really slowly. Now I know so much more. Did you know there are more oryxes than anywhere in the world in Qatar?? Well there are. You can visit an oryx farm if you stay in Doha. For those of you who are a bit ignorant an oryx is a goat-thing. Kate loves them. She learned all about the successful captive breeding project in her degree and masters. Yawn. We landed in ... read more

Some things you may not have known about Qatar... •The Qataris leave all the plastic wrapping on the seats of their new cars. Maybe it’s to show people their car is a brand spanker and therefore they are perceived to be RICH! (Never mind the diamond cufflinks dripping from their thobes or the prada sunnies peeking out from their abbeyas!) •Qatari people will pay up to AUD$50,000 to purchase the use of a “cool” phone number, such as 555 5551 or 202 0202 etc. •Qataris drive up to the kerb of little juice or coffee shops, toot their horns and the little Indian men run out and serve them on the street. Same thing applies for the pharmacy and some small supermarkets! •If a foreigner gives the finger to an arrogant Qatari driver who cuts you ... read more

Qatar Airport Tired after an eight hour flight only to arrive in the epicenter of travelers hell. How many rings in Dantie's Inferno? I think I am in the one with the stinging bees. Fighting a sea of humanity to find a place to sit turned into a game of duck duck goose. It took 20 mins and eight laps just to find a space to sit on the floor next to the ladies room. I have a woman sleeping beside me and a man standing next to me. The line for the woman's bathroom looks to be about 40 mins long. I am exhasted, now I just have to stay awake until my flight boards, another hour and twenty mins. My knee is killing me but I can't move because to do so would ... read more

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 ... read more

I’m just about to leave for the airport to go to Hong Kong, but I thought I would write a quick blog before I head off for 16 hours of flying and 2 ½ days of partying. This past week, Doha played host to a Cultural Festival. Now, I thought this would be like Heritage Days where we use the opportunity to share information, food, etc. with other cultures. With 80% of the population being expats, I was sure this festival would be focused on showing us the Qatari culture. Obviously, I haven’t quite learned enough about this culture as I was naïve enough to think that the Qataris would actually do that. Despite the local English paper featuring a pull-out section highlighting the cultural events happening over the week, all signage and promotions were in ... read more