Blogs from Qatar, Middle East - page 25

I thought I would do a quick update after the weekend. Actually, I’m already on day 2 of the workweek, even though it’s only Monday. I think I’m going to like it. It’s kinda like the workweek ends early every week and it wasn’t that bad coming in on Sunday. Anyway, the update. After the photo extravaganza day on Friday, I made my way up one flight of stairs to the Doha Poker Tour Tournament. Although I’ve only played poker once or twice (and not for money), I thought it would be fun to play. I grudgingly handed over my 100 Riyal entry fee (About $33 Cnd) and made a big deal about "giving my money away". There were 10 of us playing—8 guys and me and Bailey. One of the guys was trash talking all ... read more

It’s no secret that Qatar is a very, very rich country. I think I heard that it’s the richest country in the world per capita. This is evidenced by the lack of coinage. Seriously. There is no change. Rather than give change, grocery stores, for instance, will give you back single packages of chicklets. Can you believe that? Although the locals here are beyond rich, there is still a very large disparity between the classes. The classes being locals and non-western ex-pats, namely Indians and Philipinos. Again, it’s only what I’ve heard, but supposedly it’s legislated that these groups are not allowed to receive more than 600 Qatari Riyals per month—that’s only $200 Cnd.! I think this is going to be an issue that I’m not going to able to get over while I’m here. I ... read more

I can't believe that I'll be heading to Doha, Qatar a month tomorrow! Throw a birthday, Christmas, New Year's, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Vegas in there and the time is going to fly by! Currently, I'm desperately trying to get everything packed up, so I can hand over my place to my new tenant on January 1st. I really do despise moving, although I love adventure, so I'm conflicted since adventure usually means packing and moving. Poor me, huh? This is my 7th move in 5 years though, so that's why I complain. I try to go on a big purgefest every time I move, but I seem to continue to amass bags and bags of junk. I just threw out three garbage bags of trash, three boxes of paper (don't worry, I recycled), and I ... read more

Just passing through, really. I had a brief stop-over in Dhoa on my way to Bangkok. To be honest, this entry is mostly just to give me "credit" for another country. Qatar airways is apparently one of the few "5-star" airlines in the world. Whatever that means... I had a decent time with them. I got a cheap flight from Istanbul, which for some reason included a hotel stay in Doha. Our flight was randomly delayed for an hour in Istanbul, but I didn't care because my connecting flight to BKK wasn't until the next day. I was supposed to stay in the airport Hotel, but due to the delay a bunch of peolpe missed connecting flights and the airline put them all in a 5-star Sheraton. I somehow got included in this group. In the ... read more

My trip to Qatar was in 1980 - a while back but since no post were listed for this country I thought I'd let folks know that I have been there.... read more