KLAPPE TRIPS

Saturday January 29th, 2011. Arrival in Qatar

We left Oman without any problems but unknowingly they were breeding in the future The flight from Oman to Doha, Qatar is rather odd. It’s only 15 min away, but first you fly to Manama, Bahrain, hang around for an hr, then board another plane for Doha. That flight is 45 min. So the overall time takes over 3hrs. A new visa had to be purchased here before being able to enter the country. The lady in the black outfit asked for my credit card, put it in the machine, tried it 3 times but it was refused. Bring out another credit card tried it and it didn’t work. Finally she looked at me and said your cards are refused. She called over a man and told him of the problem. He took the cards to another machine and there was no problem. Final conclusion, Her credit card reader was busted. Next came our luggage. Mine was there almost immediately. While waiting for mine I took out my black folder to check out the name of the hotel we had reserved etc. My black folder also contained the passport, visas, flight tickets etc. Just then Al called that his luggage had arrived. Together with our luggage we walked out side to get a cab and within 10 min we were at our hotel. First things first. Our room had been rented out to another, so for tonight one of us could sleep on a bed, the other on a mattress on the floor in what would be the kitchen. I refused that room and demanded something else and better. He would try. Now he wanted my passport to make a copy. You know it, I couldn’t find the black folder. Some how I had forgotten it at the airport. I asked Al to look after the luggage while the hotelier was told to get us a room and I grabbed a taxi and high-tailed it back to the airport Breaking a few security laws I walked in back to where I had waited for the luggage but was now stopped by security. A few explanations and heartbeats later the security guard took me into the back to a couple of official looking chaps and my brown folder was back into my possession. I took the taxi back to the hotel and now still had to deal with our room issue as nothing had been done while I was away. I asked the clerk to wake the manager up, which he reluctantly. I gave him a piece of my mind and the next thing I know, we are being transported to another of their hotels. It is now midnight. Now we were in a superior hotel & room. Personally I didn’t like this one much better and there were around 10 complaints that were legit that I found in about ten minutes. After breakfast I spoke to the manager, took him up to the room and showed him the problems. This time they found us two rooms, with king size beds and internet, for the same prizs of course. Time to go out for a walk now and see some of the sights. A few hrs later we returned only to find a bowl of fruit and a Bluetooth media player, compliments of the management. Sunday, January 30th This morning soon after breakfast we walked to an area close to the hotel to do a little sightseeing. We found the souk and explored it a bit then carried on to the Islam Cultural centre. It is amazing that when you read about their religion how peaceful it is. Nowhere does it say to kill, only to spread love. Have no fear, I am not about to be converted but I do enjoy learning the other cultures. Al and I continued down the road to see where the boat races had been in the bay and inspected some of the old wooden ships. From here we could see the huge and tall bldgs of Qatar. I think it must be in competition with Dubai. The shoreline has many interesting designs and each one is taller than the other. There is still a fair amount of oil here but the natural gas is feeding the economy. Qatar ships 10 million liquefied ltrs of gas on a daily basis and has enough for the next 70 years. Therefore there is no such thing as personal income tax, no sales tax, etc etc. for that matter every country so far is the same. If it was not for the foreigners the countries could not survive as there would be a shortage of people. Each country thus far has people from the Philippines, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Most of them work for $ 5/10 per day but that is at least twice if not three times a day more than what they would have earned at home. Even the stewardess on the plane was from Romania. All of them work in the service industry. Sometimes I get the feeling that we are in India. In the evening we met up with the sun of a lady that Lenora hikes with. He has been here for 3 yrs. He took us back to the souq and showed us what it is like at night time. It reminded me a lot of the Medina in Marrakesh, Morocco. A million little businesses, narrow little alleyways and a hundred thousand people milling around looking for something or anything, then finally sit down at a restaurant, outdoors of course, to have something to eat. Thank God for French fries. We took a taxi to a place called The Pearl. Here you can purchase and rent condos. It really is an adult community but you must fit in. We walked around the waterfront of the Pearl and stood in awe of the mode of transport these people have. Many, many yachts, some as large as 135 ft. hundreds of sailboats, cars like Rolls Royce, Masaraties, Jaguars, etc,etc . Then on to the Villagio by taxi. Sorry Lenora, we are not walking as much as when you and I go but then there is no other form of transportation, so a taxi it is. The Villagio is a shopping mall that was built for the Asia Cup in 2006. the moment you walk in you are in Italy. All the stores have Italian fronts the lagoon is filled with the gondolas, the ceilings are painted to look like the sky. Even though you are inside, it feels like the outside. There is even a full sized skating rink inside as well as a carnival with all the rides including the roller coaster. After admiring a few more buildings, watching where the new stadium for the World Cup in 2022 will be build, we headed back to the hotel. That evening glen picked us up for dinner with another couple from Canada. This time to a Turkish place. Afterwards we said our good byes and once back at the hotel started to pack as in the morning we would be leaving for Bahrain.