A short stint in Saudi (and QR Doha Stopover)

[kookaburra75]

Thanks for taking the time to take us along on your journey - a lot to be learned for sure, especially which hotels to avoid.

 

[VPS]

Another interesting TR with some amazing photos. Not somewhere that is on my list to visit but fascinating none the less.

Thanks

 

[ellen10]

Thanks for sharing your trip report.
I enjoyed following along and seeing all your great photos.

 

[OZDUCK]

Thanks for another fascinating TR with great photos. Your time in Saudi Arabia looked to have been very interesting.

 

[Bindibuys]

Thank you for another great TR.
See you Saturday night.

 

[RooFlyer]

Anyone who would like to buy 150 Saudi Riyals (about A$56) and is going to be at the Sydney dinner, bring some cash!

 

[stu961]

One good thing from the coughpy hotel and lack of pool was that I went out for a couple of long walks. Its been about 8 years or so since I visited Doha, so well worth it. Nice sunny day, about mid 20s I guess.

First was into town using the metro, which was about 15 mins walk way. A day pass cost about A$1

The Mondrian with two adjacent buildings.

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From the Souq Waqif station, past the Abdullah Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Center

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and towards the Museum of Islamic Art. There is an Afghanistan exhibition on, which made a re-visit worth while. Many items lent by the Smithsonian.

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A silver drinking vessel from the 4th century

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Left, 'Timur [Tamerlane] celebrating his conquest of Delhi' , 15th century; Right 'The parrot's judgement' 15th century

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Left: 'Humayun visits his tomb[in Lahore]', 16th century; R section of the Qur'an, 13th century;

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Left: Portion of a stucco panel, Iran, 12th century. Right: Commentary on the 'Canon of Medicine' 15th century

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That last item recalled to me my visit to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where there was a statue of ibn Sina, a Tajik and the compiler of the five volumes of the Canon in the 11th century.

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I was there a couple weeks, actually

That evening, I trudged into the restaurant - there is a 'sports bar' but you needed ear muffs for that - and ordered a basic chicken briyani. It wasn't bad, but the amount would have fed a family.

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Struggled with sleep - aircon off to turn off the noise and icy blast, or on to cool the room down. Then, at abt 6am, my watch pinged loudly and vibrated. What the ... I looked at my watch and there was a big yellow triangle with a ! in it. What the f.... has someone started bombing? Groggily I put on my glasses and checked what the watch said.

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(The time in this shot was when I took the screenshot of the alert on my phone, later).

You scare the cough out of me at 6am because of some ... fog?? @Justinf , stop laughing

As it turns out, when I looked out at about 7:30, there wasn't any fog, so

I had most of the day here, so I went for a walk in the neighbourhood waterfront - the southernmost part of Lusail.

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From the hotel

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At the far end of my walk, a marina

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The Katara Towers, Raffles on the left, Fairmont on the right. Like two fighting peripatus. #

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# Peripatus.
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I was in Doha a couple weeks ago, differently best time of year to go for a stroll. Maybe more so as I had flown from Sweden where we had been skiing, the last day was -18C.

 

[Pushka]

Thanks for the report and looking forward to the next one.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for the report and looking forward to the next one.

Thanks; and to the others. April - Canary Islands and Sicily by boat.

 

[Pushka]

Thanks; and to the others. April - Canary Islands and Sicily by boat.

Cruise year I think? Nice.

 

[RooFlyer]

Cruise year I think? Nice.

Definitely; 5. I front loaded a of of my travel this year when last year, a couple of health things looked like making travel difficult in a few years. That conclusion has receded a bit, so

 

[Justinf]

Awesome TR