Cushla's Blog :)

2006-11-23T22:08:00.000+03:00

Back to Melbourne via HK

Just for a little information for you so you know my next movements. My contract finishes up here in Doha on the 15th January. I fly out that morning to Hong Kong for a week with some girlfriends for some shopping and general shenanigans. On about the 20th Jan I will then be flying to Melbourne where I’ll be staying with my lovely Uncle Roger and his darling girlfriend Andrea. I may take a road trip to Adelaide to visit my two good friends Lauren and Rebecca and have a look at the great ocean road as I have not yet been along it! This is all depending on employment however!
I will be in Melbourne for at least 6 months. At this stage I have nothing else planned other than a big party with my family in New Zealand in July. For all of you still in Melbourne I still have the same mobile number so we will have to catch up so I can tell you all about what I have been up to and you can share with me all that I have missed out on in the last 7 months! Look forward to seeing everyone soon!

Christmas and New Years

Oooooohhhh I’m so excited. Only one month exactly till I go to Egypt! I have always wanted to go there and I have finally booked my ticket and tour and I’m going. A 14 day tour in Egypt with 4 great chicks! Will tell you all about it when I get back! Will be there for xmas and new years, so exciting.

2006-11-23T22:00:00.000+03:00

Torch Relay

To my excitement last month I received a text message from Q-post the local postal service, to say that I had been selected to run in the torch relay for the 15th Asian Games! Yay!!!
The Doha 2006 Torch Relay is the longest relay in the history of the Games; travelling over 50,000 kilometres to 15 countries and regions in more than 50 days

Torchbearers selected to carry Asian Games' Flame through Qatar.

In an overwhelming response to the call, Qatari residents in the thousands applied to be bearers of the Asian Games Flame through the host country of the 15th Asian Games. The Torchbearers will carry the Flame to its final destination at Khalifa Stadium where it will ignite the Cauldron and officially open the Games on 1 December 2006.

The final selection has been made and 1,000 Torchbearers, members of the community, sponsors, athletes, celebrities and VIPs will relay the Asian Games Flame from 25 November, when it arrives on Qatar's shores, carried by Official Torch Relay Ambassador H.E. Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al-Thani. Qatari residents from 67 countries and regions will carry the Flame through areas including Al Shamal, Dukhan, Al Wakra, Al Khor and finally to Doha and on to Khalifa Stadium for the Opening Ceremony.

Don’t worry there will be lots of pics! I am running on the 1st December, the day of the opening ceremony and mum and dad will be here to catch it all on flim!!

2006-11-23T21:51:00.000+03:00

Hi there peoples, thought It was time I wised you up a little on this country that I live in! Thanks to the help of Wikipedia of course - some random info just for you....

Qatar

Qatar officially the State of Qatar is an emirate in the Middle East and Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the larger Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south; otherwise the Persian Gulf surrounds the state.

History
Qatar forms one of the newer emirates in the Arabian Peninsula. After domination by Persians for thousands of years and more recently by the Ottoman Turks, and finally by the British, Qatar became an independent state on September 3, 1971. Unlike most nearby emirates, Qatar declined to become part of either the United Arab Emirates or of Saudi Arabia.

Although the peninsular land mass that makes up Qatar has sustained humans for thousands of years, for the bulk of its history the arid climate fostered only short-term settlements by nomadic tribes. Clans such as the Al Khalifa and the Al Saud (which would later ascend the thrones of Bahrain and of Saudi Arabia respectively) swept through the Arabian peninsula and camped on the coasts within small fishing and pearling villages. The clans battled each other for lucrative oyster beds and lands, frequently forming and breaking coalitions with one another in their attempts to establish territorial supremacy.

The British initially sought out Qatar and the Persian Gulf as an intermediary vantage point en route to their colonial interests in India, although the discovery of oil and other hydrocarbons in the early twentieth century would re-invigorate their interest. During the nineteenth century, the time of Britain’s formative ventures into the region, the Al Khalifa clan reigned over the Northern Qatari peninsula from the nearby island of Bahrain to the west. Although Qatar had the legal status of a dependency, resentment festered against the Bahraini Al Khalifas along the eastern seaboard of the Qatari peninsula. In 1867, the Al Khalifas launched a successful effort to quash the Qatari rebels sending a massive naval force to Wakrah. However, the Bahraini aggression was in violation on the 1820 Anglo-Bahraini Treaty. The diplomatic response of the British to this violation set into motion the political forces that would eventuate in the founding of the state of Qatar. In addition to censuring Bahrain for its breach of agreement, the British Protectorate (per Colonel Lewis Pelly) asked to negotiate with a representative from Qatar. The request carried with it a tacit recognition of Qatar’s status as distinct from Bahrain. The Qataris chose as their negotiator the respected entrepreneur and long-time resident of Doha, Muhammed bin Thani. His clan, the Al Thanis, had taken relatively little part in Persian Gulf politics, but the diplomatic foray ensured their participation in the movement towards independence and their dominion as the future ruling family, a dynasty that continues to this day. The results of the negotiations left Qatar with a new-found sense of political selfhood, although it did not gain official standing as a British protectorate until 1916.

The reach of the British Empire diminished after the Second World War,especially following Indian independence in 1947. Pressure for a British withdrawal from the
Since 1995, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has ruled Qatar, seizing control of the country from his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani while the latter vacationed in Switzerland. Under Emir Hamad, Qatar has experienced a notable amount of sociopolitical liberalization, including the enfranchisement of women, a new constitution, and the launch of Al Jazeera, the controversial Arabic language satellite television news channel. Qatar ranks as the eleventh richest country in the world per capita.

Qatar served as the headquarters and one of the main launching sites of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In 2005, a suicide-bombing killed a British teacher at the Doha Players Theatre, shocking a country that had not previously experienced acts of terrorism. It is not clear that the bombing was committed by an organized terrorist group, and although the investigation is ongoing there are indications that the attack was the work of an individual, not a group.
The United States Armed Forces Unified Combatant Command unit for the Middle East theater, known as CENTCOM (US Central Command), has its headquarters in Qatar. Qatar also hosts a large United States Air Force base.

Quran

The Qur'ān literally "the recitation"; also called "The Noble Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur'an, in its original Arabic, to be the literal word of God that was revealed to Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years until his death. Muslims regard it as God's final revelation to humankind and view it as the closest thing to a part of God in the world. Muslims also call the Qur'an the "Final Testament", "The Book", "Book of God" or "The Revelation."

The Qu'ranic revelations were originally memorised by Muhammad's companions as Muhammad spoke them, with some being written down by one or more companions on whatever was at hand, from stones to pieces of bark. Compilations of the Qu'ran began under the Caliph Umar, but it was Uthman who decided upon a definitive copy and destroyed all other versions. All Muslims use the same Qur'an with no differences among the sects. The Qu'ran has never changed in substance since. Muslims generally consider it to be the most beautiful book in Arabic.
The Qur'an consists of 114 chapters (surahs) with a total of 6236 verses.

Blood Money

Qisas (blood Money) is an Islamic term, money paid as a fine to the next of kin of somebody who was killed. It literally means "equal" or "balanced".
It is money paid as a fine to the next of kin of somebody who was killed intentionally or unintentionally. Islam has not prescribed any specific amount for Diyat nor has it obligated to discriminate in this matter between a man or a woman, a slave or a free man and a Muslim or a non-Muslim; however its quantity, nature and other related affairs have been left by the Qur’an upon the customs and traditions of a society.

Islamic and Arab tradition

The law of Diyat was in force in Arabia before the advent of Islam. The Qur’an directed to pay Diyat just according to this law both in case of intentional as well as un-intentional murder. In Islamic and Arab traditions, blood money is the fine paid by the killer or his family or clan to the family or the clan of the victim. It is unlawful for a believer to kill a believer except if it happens by accident. And he who kills a believer accidentally must pay Diyat to the heirs of the victim except if they forgive him. The tradition finds repeated endorsement in Islamic tradition; several instances are recorded in the Hadith, which are the acts of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Blood-Money tradition has found its way into legislation in several Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. Some of these countries also define, by lawful legislation, a hierarchy of rates for the lives of people; religious affiliation and gender are usually the main modulating factors for these Blood Money rates. Some examples are presented below.

In Saudi Arabia, when a person has been killed or caused to die by another, the prescribed blood money rates are as follows

· 100,000 riyals if the victim is a Muslim man
· 50,000 riyals if a Muslim woman
· 50,000 riyals if a Christian man
· 25,000 riyals if a Christian woman
· 6,666 riyals if a Hindu man
· 3,333 riyals if a Hindu woman.

Blood money is to be paid not only for murder, but also in case of unnatural death, interpreted to mean death in a fire, industrial or road accident, for instance.
So if someone has a car accident, even if it’s not their fault and people in the cars involved lose their lives it is likely they will have to pay sums of money to the families of those people who lost their lives.

Cannot Run Here

Bec Jess and I decided to go for a run Monday night so we met up at the Qatar sports stadium. We found a small running track and started jogging around it. To our surprise when we got to the other side of the track a man came up to us and told us that we were not allowed to run on the track as there were men training and it was club policy that women were not allowed to be present when they were training.

Maybe we would be too much of a distraction for them!

2006-11-18T18:10:00.000+03:00

Ok so once again there has been delay with my blog postings as I have had another holiday journal to write. This time it was to Oman for 5 days. Such a beautiful country. I have not added photos with each entry just a whole random selection. More to come on the time I have missed since the last entry. Hope you are all doing really well!

2006-11-18T18:09:00.000+03:00

Day One

Flight – Qatar airways 7:40am to Muscat arrived 9:50am

The view out of the window as we began our decent into Muscat was breathtaking. In the lightening morning the clay brown mountains emerged from the morning cloud and appeared taking up the entire view below. At one stage the plan turned and my window came face to face with the seemingly endless beautiful view.

The airport was very fast and easy to get out of. Once again it was a great thing to be a Kiwi, as with Turkey I didn’t have to pay for a visa like the Australian and American traveling with me. This does however have one downside as I don’t get a cool sticker just a measly old stamp in my passport!

Just when we thought we had suffered enough having to endure Ramadan for the past month meaning we could finally eat in public during daylight hours. Eid, the celebration at the end of Ramadan, had begun in Doha that morning but in Oman, as we painfully discovered, they had managed to get it wrong and therefore they still had one more day of Ramadan. This means no eating and drinking in Public and that most of the shops are closed during the day.

We exited the airport and went in search of the allusive mini busses that Steph was determined to find to add a little culture to our trip, and they are dirt cheap. We were harassed by at least a dozen taxis on the way out of the airport gates and after waking along the highway footpath to what we though was a bus stop (actually advertising) we gave in and climbed into a taxi, not before asking the price and checking this against the Lonely Planet recommendation. None of the taxis in Oman are metered so you have to do your bargaining before setting out on your journey.

I had been out for Ifta the night before at the Ritz Carlton, a lovely evening with spectacular food and surroundings. However 4 hours sleep was catching up on me and I regretfully nodded my head on numerous occasions, missing the drive to the lovely cornice Hotel where we would be spending that night.

We walked through the door of the dodgy hotel, checked in and went up to the room. There were only 2 beds so they brought up a mattress and put it on the floor for our third person, what service. I was falling asleep all over the place and opted to have a quick nap while Steph and P.K. went across the street to check out the fish market. They arrived back with bananas for lunch and we started to plan our afternoon.

We set out along the cornice in search of the walled city of Muscat from our hotel in Mutrah. It was about 2km walk along the shoreline and it was a reasonably warm day. We spent a while sitting in the shade of a tree cooling down and trying to avoid these large hornet things which were patrolling the area, and our thirst temptations as it was Ramadan.

There was a museum inside the gate of the city which spanned the width of the road but the area was disserted save for a guard whom I tried to get to strangle PK or point his gun at him for a photo. He was not going to comply!

We continued from the gate through some old traditional houses into the centre of Muscat. There was almost no-one around and the city had an empty feel about it. Almost everything was closed, but we managed to find a shop to buy some water. When we tried to drink it in his shop however he became very concerned that police would show up and he would get in trouble because of Ramadan, I though it would be ok inside the shop when he had just sold it to us, what did he expect us to do with it?

We walked along to the Sultans Palace and took a while to find it as we had expected it to look rather more spectacular. Down on the water a group of young boys were trying their luck at tropical fishing with reasonable success, showing us how they kill the fish by swinging it around hook in mouth on the fishing line and hitting it on the ground, gross.

From there we took a taxi to Al Bustan a famous hotel on the list of 1,000 places to see before you die. We tried to get into the private beach area but were turned away by the security guard when we couldn’t come up with a room number. Walked outside onto the large verandas and roof to take pictures of the beautiful view. Tropical and enchanting.

Took a cab to LuLu Hypermarket to get some lunch. All of us were very thirsty and almost couldn’t stand the teasing of purchasing a cold can of drink and not being able to open it until we got back to the hotel. At my attempt to open the can, the ring pull snapped, so I took to it with my key as though it was the last drink I was going to have. The three of us sat in our crappy hotel room eating butter chicken and Pringles, breaking fast at least 2 hours early!

We sat for a white flipping through the pages of the LP and letting our lunch settle, then it was out again to look around the Souqs. We found frankincense which was interesting as Oman is considered to have the best quality frankincense and was a gift given to baby Jesus.

Frankincense or olibanum is an aromatic resin used in incense as well as in perfume.
Frankincense is tapped from Boswellia trees through slashing the bark and allowing the exuded resins to harden. Tapping is done 2 to 3 times a year with the final taps producing the best resin. High quality resin can be visually discerned through its level of opacity. Omani frankincense is said to be the best in the world, although quality resin is also produced in Yemen and along the north coast of Somalia.
The name for this resin likely comes from “incense of Franks” since it was reintroduced to Europe by Frankish Crusaders. Although it is better known as “frankincense" to westerners the resin is also known as olibanum, which is derived from the Arabic al-lubán ("the milk") a reference to the milky sap tapped from the Boswellia tree. Some have also postulated that the name comes from the Arabic term for "Oil of Lebanon" since Lebanon was the place where the resin was sold and traded with Europeans. Compare with Exodus 30 : 34, where it is clearly named levonah, meaning either "white" or "Lebanese" in Hebrew.
The lost city of Ubar, sometimes identified with Irem in what is now the town of Shisr in Oman, is believed to have been a centre of the frankincense trade along the recently rediscovered 'Incense Road'. Ubar was rediscovered in the early 1990s and is now under archaeological excavation.
Frankincense is used in perfumery and aromatherapy. Olibanum essential oil is obtained by steam distillation of the dry resin. Frankincense was lavishly used in religious rites. According to the Bible's Gospel of Matthew 2:11, gold, frankincense and myrrh were among the gifts to Jesus by the magi 'from out of the east'. The growth of Christianity depressed the market for frankincense during the fourth century CE. Desertification made the caravan routes across the Rub al Khali or 'Empty Quarter' of Arabia more difficult. Additionally, increased raiding by the nomadic Parthians in the Near East caused the frankincense trade to dry up after about 300 CE.

Our next destination was Bayt Az-Zubair a museum which was closed unfortunately, due to Ramadan, earlier on in the day but had said it would be open by 9pm. We told the taxi to return in an hour. The museum was still closed in fact so we wend across the road to the art gallery which I was sure had lights on and a sign out in front a few minutes before. I knocked on the door hardly expecting to have some one open it who was hardly expecting to find me on the other side of it. The owners kindly showed us in and we very much enjoyed taking in some of the local art work and souvenirs.

We walked to the palace area where we had been earlier in the day and sat there taking photos and trying to get the best night settings on our cameras as we had a while to wait before the taxi came back. We then went across the road to a small coffee shop to get some drinks. The streets were filled with kids running and biking and playing games. They loved seeing us and would repeatedly say “hello, how are you” and run away laughing. One small boy came over to us and shook my and P.K's had but wouldn’t shake Steph's, P.K. thought that was hilarious and maybe the highlight of the trip!

It was then time to head back to our lovely residence and get a good sleep for the 2 day tour we started the next day.

2006-11-18T18:08:00.001+03:00

Day Two

After a reasonably unattractive breakfast of greasy omelet, flowery bread and condensed milk in our coffee, yuck!, we checked out of the hotel and jumped into a 4wd with our driver Sulaiman.

We drove towards Sinaw to visit the souqs but decided to turn back as it was the first day of Eid and likely to be closed. Instead we continued on to the next stop on our journey which was Ibra.

To Ibra - gateway to the Sharqiya Region. Many watchtowers on the surrounding hills pay silent tribute to its past strategic importance. Remains of grand fortified houses and forts abound. A testimony to its past close trading links with East Africa are the falaj system, financed by influential merchants residing in Zanzibar, and their fine houses built on returning to their hometown.

On the way we passed the city of Fanja where we could pick out old irrigation systems that had been set into the waddi. Oman is very mountainous and there is a lot of rainfall. During the rainy months of December and January the valley fills with water. The Omani's have set up intricate water ways to capture all this water flowing down from the mountains and direct it into their homes, water ways and gardens.

As we continued to drive we witnessed the magnificent sight of the mountains turning into the dessert. We stopped at the village of Al-Mdayib which was fascinating. An ancient old city that was now mainly ruins but upon which a new city had been built. We met a group of young boys all dressed up for the holy celebration of Eid who were having a great time lighting small fireworks and running away from them as they erupted. They threw a couple into an old tower and then proceeded to take us up to it and after clambering over walls on planks they laid against them we made it to the entrance of the tower. Absolutely pitch black and the stairs were kinda squiggly which was a little unnerving. I had about 5 young kids behind me in the dark so I had to keep going up though it was pretty scary and I wasn’t really sure why I was doing it! Trying not to touch the walls I made my way out into the day light and saw the view of the entire city and then the dessert and the mountains stretching out on either side, with date plantations running through it. On the way back down the tower stairs I was taking photos with the flash to try and put some light on the steps, at one stage I took a picture and there was a bloody bat in the frame flying straight towards me! I got out of there pretty fast! When we came out of the tower we went into an old room and there were more bats, dead and alive all over the place, so grody.

Back in the car and we stopped off at Al Qabil for a lunch of traditional stewed meat and Biryani rice. Then we dove to the Wadi Bani Khaled, one of the largest wadis in Oman. Nestled deep in the mountains, it is a true oasis. Water cascades down the gorge forming cool blue-green pools, fed by underground streams flowing from within the surrounding limestone hills. Perennial flowing streams of spring water carried in aflaj (man-made channels) cling precariously to the rugged terrain and supports villages in the area.

Along the way there was a group of Omani’s slaughtering a goat on the side of the road, apparently they bring it down to the wadi to wash it. Don’t know how effective that is as it then sits out in the sun with flies all over it while they wash the bloody pieces. Gross! The wadi was packed, again as it was the first day of Eid, a massive holiday in the Muslim religion. People everywhere picnicking, swimming, rock jumping and walking up the gorge to see the caves. We did a bit of a climb up one side of the gorge to check out the view.

We passed Al Kamil heading towards the coast and stopped to take pictures of the cliffs in the setting sun and then drove on to the turtle camp where we would be spending the night. We sorted out our room and then went and hung out with Sulaiman. Dinner was at 7pm and consisted of beautiful tender lamb, tika chicken rice and lentils. After dinner we managed to sneak in with the locals for a spot of shisa smoking before getting ready to go to the beach to see turtles laying their eggs. We climbed into the 4wd and drove to a private beach as the main beach was too full, being Eid. We had not been told to bring a torch so it was pretty difficult to walk around as it was pitch black. The sand was uneven and unpacked from the turtles digging their holes so every now and then you would lose a leg into it. We saw 4 enormous turtles but unfortunately they were not laying. Our group was quite large and there were lots of noisy children and people using their torches and camera flashes although we had been advised not to as it distracts them. We stayed on the beach for an hour and the guides then told us to go back to the camp and that we would have another opportunity to see them in the morning at 4:30am.
Back at the camp after being mesmerized by the breathtakingly clear starry sky and seeing some shooting stars, we decided to sleep outside on large wooden slat beds. We pulled our beds apart and took everything outside. Some rude Americans next to us piped up about our use of the camera flash in the dark as we didn’t realize they were there. All the camp lights were turned off after midnight and I had a hell of a time trying to pee by moonlight in the toilets as there was no light anywhere.

2006-11-18T18:08:00.000+03:00

Day Three

It was very dewy during the night and there were lots of bugs so I wrapped my head up in my shawl. Which ended up being a good idea as the pillow was wet when I woke up and I would have had cold wet hair. Steph had set ser alarm for 4:30am as we were able to go out and see the turtles again. There didn’t seem to be anyone around but we got up and ready to leave the camp, found Sulaiman, in the dark and wondered around trying to figure out what was going on. No one could find Ali the man who was supposed to take us to the beach. In the end it was starting to get light so Sulaiman took us to the beach. Unfortunately by the time we go there the tide had come in and all that was left on the beach were some turtle tracks, egg shells and fox prints. Not giving up Sulaiman then took us along to the main beach. A crowd was gathered on the beach so we went to investigate and found a large turtle digging a hole. There were lots of people standing all around it and they all thought they were conservation experts, telling each other what to do where to stand and not to use their camera flash, while doing stupid stuff themselves. Very funny to listen too. The turtle just continued digging its hole and nothing much more was happening. We had spotted a bucket full of babies on the way in and so went back to look at them. There were probably 60 little babies, 1 day old all swimming around and climbing all over each other. So cute and tiny. We were able to pick them up and so took lots of pictures with them.

We came back to the camp a little disappointed that we had not seen any egg laying but happy to at least have seen some little babies. We had a breakfast of cheese, eggs and cornflakes and baby turtle….. just kidding!

After showers and collecting up all our stuff we packed back into the 4WD and were back on the road towards Sur. We stopped there to see an old shipping yard that is not longer highly operational. An ancient port and seafaring town which once played a major part in the trade between Oman, East Africa and India. It started its trading activities with the African coast as early as the 6th century. Today, craftsmen still build dhows following traditional designs without the aid of drawings. We had a chance to walk around the yard and were shown some miniature replicas of the large decorative dhows.

We then drove along the coast to Qalhat - one of the oldest towns and seaports of Oman. Built by the Persians, it was a major and prosperous city during the 13th century and the main port of trade with the Interior, famous for its exports to and imports of spices from India. We stoped at the enigmatic Bibi Mariam Tomb standing high on the cliff top. It wasn’t specifically spectacular but was an interesting stop and another reminder of how ancient this civilization was and the way they lived so many years ago. There are forts all over the country and we often wondered what it was exactly that they were guarding against.

Frequent civil wars between the sultan’s forces and tribal factions left the country vulnerable to the outside hostilities that eventually came in the form of the Portuguese. Alarmed by Oman’s naval strength ad anxious to secure Indian Ocean travel routes, the Portuguese launched a succession of attacks against Omani ports; by 1507 they managed to occupy the major coastal cities of Qalhat (near Sur, and mentioned in the journals of Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo), Muscat and Sohar. By 1650 Oman became a settled, unified state of considerable wealth and cultural accomplishment, with influences extending as far as Africa and Asia. Many of Oman’s greatest forts were built during this period including the impressive Nizwa Fort which we were to see later on in our journey.

From there the journey went off road. At this time the only coastal road between Sur and Muscat is a dirt road over the mountains. The other main highway goes through the centre of the country which is the way we went down. There is currently a road under construction and we could see the developments and the infrastructure as we drove along side it in the dirt. We stopped off at Wadi Shab which means gorge between cliffs. Very picturesque with turquoise water and lush green palms and vegetation. The orange cliffs complete the view glowing in the sun high above the water and trees. I was desperate for the loo and at the though of having to wait 10 – 15 mins to find some smelly dirty toilet in some random village I set off in search of a suitable cover.

Along the coastline we passed Fins and Bimah with many tiny coves tucked beneath the cliffs and stretches of white sandy beaches lapped by an incredible turquoise sea. Near Dibab is a huge sinkhole known as Bait Al Afreet - "house of the demon" - with clear green water. Concrete steps lead down the sides making swimming possible. This was the most beautiful sight and so inviting for swimming but we had to press on to get back to Muscat. Unfortunately our driver was missing out on the Eid holiday with his family and seemed to be in a great rush to get us dropped off. The drive back was a little uncomfortable as was on uneven dirt roads and he wasn’t taking his time. The view from the top of the mountains was breathtaking. We drove though a large gorge that reminded me of the photos I have seen of the grad canyon. The rock is an orange colour and they are huge!

We were dropped off at Muscat airport where we bid farewell to Sulaiman and went to collect our car from the hire company before setting out rather unsuccessfully into the unknown to find some local food, not takeaways! Ended up eating at KFC as we couldn’t find anything suitable. Steph directed us to the beach and we clambered out to have a walk along the sand. The beach stretched out as far as we could see in either direction and the tide was way out providing lots of space for people to walk and play. There were people everywhere enjoying the mid afternoon sun and playing in the water. We had booked a hotel but decided to drive down to Nizwa as it was only 4pm and we were going there the next day anyway. This would give us more time to explore before having to bring Steph back to catch her plane home. The drive down was almost all in the dark and so there wasn’t much to see. We had found an English radio station but it soon went out of range and it was back to Steph's question time! That’s how we spent most of the time traveling, taking turns coming up with questions that we all had to give answers too. When we arrived in Nizwa we checked into our guest house and then headed into the town. There was a large fort in the centre of the town and there were lots of people walking around. Played soccer with some young local boys who were very impressed with my skills at being a girl while the other young girls looked on eager to join in, but reserved and giggling!! So cute. Steph was in love with the Omani children and I was convinced that she was going to try and take one home! Brought fresh juice from a stall and then walked around inside the fort eyeing out the souqs and finding places to return to when open the following day. We found a number of stores with large amounts of pottery and local souvenirs all sitting outside in the open with no one guarding them. Nice to see that there is trust in a society. From there it was back to the hotel to sleep.

2006-11-18T18:07:00.000+03:00

Day Four

Woke up at 6:30am and went down for a lovely breakfast at the guest house then it was out to explore Nizwa. Again because of the Eid holidays most of the markets were closed but we did manage to visit a lovely old fort that had been partly restored and was amazing. There were hundreds of rooms and it was fascinating to see how they had set up the home relating to the times. The wadi water system would have streamed into the fort providing water, toilets and showers through out. There were also kitchens, bedrooms and lounges that we could make out. There were stairs everywhere also on the roof and the view across the city was magnificent. We would have spent an hour or more walking up and down the stairs and exploring every inch of the fort. On the roof, stair cases led up to look out points and we had races up the side stairs. Brought souvenirs from the shop at very reasonable prices and then went to find the animal market. It was almost over but there were a number of trucks left housing some noisy little calves. People had come to purchase them and were poking and prodding the poor things trying to choose a fine specimen. They were making a lot of noise, especially one that was chosen, pulled out the back of the truck, tied up, dragged along the ground and thrown into the boot of someone’s car! I hope the cow did a nice big poo in the boot!!! They are only 2-3 months old, people buy them young and keep them for a couple of years before eating them. Almost went off beef.

We then drove out to Tanuf to see an ancient falaj or aqueduct built into the cliffs. Much of Oman’s bottled water comes from this small village. The channels, cut into the mountain sides, running across miniature aqueducts and double-deckering through tunnels, are responsible for most of the oases in Oman. The precious water is diverted firstly into drinking wells, then into mosque washing areas and at length to plantations, where it is siphoned proportionately among the village farms. There are over 4000 of these channels in Oman, some of which were built over 1,500 years ago. We climbed the channel and walked a fair way along it before turning back as the drop would have been over 100 meters and the walls were not that thick to walk on. Managed to get the car bogged in the stones even after we had laughed at another car that had been bogged and thought up a new route to insure we didn’t do the same thing. Of course PK was driving and not using his brain as usual. There was a lot of wheel spinning and some terrible smells coming from the tyres which we later realized was more break pads as PK had forgotten to remove the hand break.

The next destination was Bahla to visit another fort and a local pottery factory. On the way we stopped to explore some amazing ruins. You could see shelving and walls within the mud and straw moulds.
Bahla had a fort which was being renovated and we couldn’t find the pottery factory which was most likely closed anyway as was the souqs and all the shops in the area due to Eid. P.K. did provide some entertainment which his lack of driving and listening ability and getting lost in the maze of back streets. Upon asking why they were so skinny and it was stupid as you could get your car through. Steph gently reminded him that it was not likely that cars had been invented when when these houses were built!! Ha ha ha

We drove back to Muscat, asking and answering Steph’s questions along the way. We dropped Steph off at the airport and tried to book a room at the Salwadi Beach Resort for that night so that we could do some snorkeling the next day. We set out for the 1 ½ hour drive north to the Resort. There were not many sign posts and the map was not great. When we hadn’t seen a sign for a while we turned down this very dodgy road with no street lights! Got out to ask for directions at a small dairy shop. One gentleman offered for us to follow him but in the end with little help in direction we decided to keep driving. After about 20 mins we started seeing signs directing us to the right place.

Upon requesting a room we were told that they were full. Then they said someone had just cancelled and we could take the room. We had found out about the place in the Lonely Planet and the suggested rate for the room was 20-23 Omani Riyals ($85 AUD). Seemed like they were a little out of date as the best price we were given was $50 OR ($185 AUD) what a rip! But P.K was over driving and there was nothing else in the area so we decided to stay. Then the clincher came, there was only one bed! Ha I tried to tell the nice hotel man that we were brother and sister and could not share the same bed but he just laughed at me! GREAT!

There were heaps of people walking around and a large crowd at dinner watching a band on stage. Entertainment was arranged for a number of tour groups who where there for the Eid holidays. Dinner was out of our budget so we drove up the road in search of some kind of sustenance. Unfortunately the only things we could find were some dodgy “chicken” burgers, some gross stale sweet bread, processed triangle cheese and shitty looking packets of scary unsanitary chips. We took our feast back to the hotel room and ate, some of it. I opted for a melted muesli bar in place of the chicken burger! We headed out for a walk around and to check out the “entertainment” the band was pretty terrible and the dancing was extremely cheesy. Lots of older American and English people spinning around on the dance floor!
We booked in a session of shisa and sat there taking it all in.

2006-11-18T18:06:00.000+03:00

Day Five

We woke up about 10am and had a breakfast of the cheese and gross bread! So gross!!!! Then went for a stroll out to the beach area to check out the scene. Enquired about snorkeling which was also a rip and far more than suggested by Lonely Planet but decided to do it anyway. Went and checked out of the hotel and then boarded a boat out towards some islands just off the coast. The snorkeling was great, lots of very colourful fish only the water was a little cloudy due to the number of boats that obviously flocked to the area. After two or so hours in the water the boat came back to pick us up and take us back to the main beach. We showered and got ready to make the trip back to Muscat.

The next planned stop was Barka to have a look at the interesting sounding town and try our luck at witnessing the bull fighting, or bull-butting as they call it, which was supposedly starting in November but we hoped there might be a training session or something. The fights move around the country but seeing as this was the area it originated we gave it a go. As we drove up to the ring we could see trucks pulling up and unloading these massive bulls with strange humps on their backs, they are called Brahmin bulls and are specially raised here by local farmers. The local men gestured for us to wind down our windows and invited us to return at 4pm when the entertainment would start.

We dove to the other side of the small town to investigate a fort, yes another one. Getting out of the car we spotted that it was near to the water and so we decided to take a stroll down to the water. We didn’t get far before we started smelling the fish sheds that were near to the beach. Thinking it would pass we continued walking and were hit with a whole batch of it as we kept walking. It got worse and worse and we had to turn back before even making it anywhere near the beach. I practically ran in the other direction as it was probably the worst smell I have ever smelt!!

The next thing on the agenda was lunch. I was not looking forward to this as most of the food we had had in Oman was reasonably disappointing and seeing that we were in a small town I didn’t like my chances of anything gourmet!
I decided on chicken fried rice which was ok, well in light of the breakfast I had had was like eating at the Burj!! HA!! But not too bad, the kind of food that you don’t think about, just eat and know that you are building immunity!!! Heehee

At about 4:30pm we headed back to the bull ring and found it teeming with mostly gentlemen in their national dress, possessing walking sticks that they used to prod the bulls. The fighting machines were the ugliest, largest, smelliest, pooey bumy-ist bulls I had ever seen and we didn’t sit in the front row for fear of the direction that their bottoms were pointing as they were tied to branches in the ground around the outside of the ring. One of the bulls near us had the sneezes and it was the funniest thing I have ever heard!!
The bulls were lead one at a time from each end of the circle into the center of the ring to flight. I’m not really sure how they win or what exactly they were doing but it seemed that if the bull lost it went home as one was taken out of the ring each time and loaded back into trucks. There wasn’t much excitement in the stands, a reasonably quite event aside from Mr. Sneezy and we kind of wondered what the point was as its illegal to bet on the bulls?

From Barka we drove back to Muscat and went in search of a movie theater to fill in some time before going to the airport. The only movies that were on finished too late to reasonably get back to the airport so instead we played some pool and table soccer.
It was then time to go to the airport, return the hire car and check in for our flight back to Doha.

We were so tied and were happy to get onto the plane for our short flight home. Oman is a beautiful country and out of the three Middle Eastern countries I have seen I would defiantly recommend Oman as a must see. It’s very picturesque with its mountains, beautiful lush green palms and desert sands. The beaches are stunning with crystal turquoise water and the locals love camping so there are lots of facilities. The local people are very friendly and love to interact with tourists. It was a fantastic holiday!

Other Memories of the Trip

Piles of hole on the beach – Steph freaking out! Don’t know what the piles were from, crabs or something but they looked like load of piles of doggy dun its. Grody!

Demerit points – for all the wrong things that were said!

Right PK!!

Sneezing in the sun – PK sneezes when ever he comes into the sunlight from a darker place??? Ummmm ok…..

Only Omani taxi drivers – in Oman there are certain professions which only Omani’s are allowed to do such as policemen and taxi drivers.

Every Omani gets a plot of land in the area they are registered in at one stage in their life. They can build a house on it, use it as farm land, what ever they like.

Doors and stairs obsession

Cush – “I want to wash my hands,” Steph “why what’s on them,” Cush – “Oman”
Down and up – tahead, fork! (tTe Arabic translation for the former) With the driver making very naughty suggestions at what the words meant and laughing at us and thinking P.K. lucky with two girls.

2006-10-16T14:20:00.000+03:00

Hello!
How are you all doing! This week is starting off great. Well actually as we are already at Monday that means there is only 3 days to go, half way there!

It’s Ellen’s birthday on Wednesday so we are celebrating by staying the night at sealine resort on Thursday and spending following day at the beach and pool and generally hanging out. It such a lovely place and surrounded by dunes. That’s the place where we go out to go dune biking. I took Matt out there while he was here, although we almost didn’t make it due to the shitty sign positing and road diversions it took us 21/2 hours but should have only taken 1! woops

Monday is the end of Ramadan, finally!

Ramadan (in Arabic: رمضان, Ramadhan) is the ninth month of the Islamic (Hijri) calendar, established in the year 638. It is considered the most venerated, blessed and spiritually-beneficial month of the Islamic year. Prayers, fasting, charity, and self-accountability are especially stressed at this time; religious observances associated with Ramadan are kept throughout the month.Eating, drinking, sexual intercourse and smoking are not allowed between dawn (fajr), and sunset (maghrib). During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam as well as refraining from anger, envy, greed, lust, sarcastic retorts, backstabbing and gossip. They are encouraged to read the Qur'an. Sexual intercourse during fasting in the day is not allowed but is permissible after the fast (when referring to sexual intercourse, it is intended to mean with one's spouse alone, as all pre-marital relations are strictly forbidden in Islam). Obscene and irreligious sights and sounds are to be avoided. Purity of both thought and action is important. The fast is an exacting act of deep personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God. The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm. Properly observing the fast brings on a comfortable feeling of peace and calm. It also allows Muslims to practice self-discipline, sacrifice, as well as sympathy for those who are less fortunate, which in turn makes Muslims more generous and charitable.

This means that the shops have funny hours and little is open during the day. We usually order in lunch as there is no where to buy at work, but during Ramadan restaurants are closed during the day and we have a special room for us, non-fasters to eat so we don’t do it in front of those fasting. It is actually illegal to eat or drink in public during this month. They break there fast at sundown which is around 5:30pm and from that point on there is a whole lot of eating and traditional celebration.

There are fabulous tents set up around the place, especially in Hotels and clubs. People attend these tents with groups of friends and family and get together to eat. There are huge amounts of traditional Arabic food and sweets as well as local entertainment. These festivities last long into the night and it is not uncommon to see people frequenting coffee shops and cafes till 1-2am! Our work hours have been cut by an hour and so we only work from 8am – 2pm. At which time often it’s home to have a small snack and then sleep for a couple of hours as there is nothing else to do. Heading out to sport or other engagements at 6 or 7pm and then for dinner at 8 or 9pm. It is unusual for us to be home before 10pm or later and usually in bed by 1am.
Shops don’t open till 7:30-8pm during Ramadan so there is nothing much to do. The only good thing is that there are hardly any cars on the road until about 8pm, then everyone is trying to get somewhere!

So that is Ramadan. It started about the 24th September and will continue till the 22nd or 23rd October at which time they have a four day Eid holiday. I am heading to Oman for 4 days with 2 friends. So I’m really looking forward to that will be good to get away from all the stress and fury of the Village as we boldly head into Games Time Operation and craziness!

2006-10-12T11:10:00.000+03:00

This is how im feeling today! Grrrreeeeaaattttt!

2006-10-11T13:26:00.000+03:00

I think we need these in the village!

2006-10-11T10:32:00.000+03:00

Hi,

A very wise women pointed out that i have yet to set up comments on my blog. After taking a couple of seconds out of my busy day i can now say that everyone is able to post comments.

Click on the blue writing that says 1 comments or 0
Write what you would like to say
Click on Anonymous
Enter in the Word Verification
Click log in and publish

It will be sent to me and i need to accept it before it will be visable on the blog

Happy commenting :)

2006-10-04T12:59:00.000+03:00

Uniform

Yippie, I look like a hamburger with French Fries for legs!! Heehee
Oh well what to do at least we will all look the same. Yay for games uniforms. At the Commonwealth Games we were call Smurfs I wonder what they will come up with for this! You won’t lose us in a sand storm!

2006-10-04T12:41:00.000+03:00

Brownlow Medal Night

In true Melbourne tradition we could not miss the Brownlow Medal Night. For those of you not blessed to know what this wonderful event entails please read below for a short explanation.

Basically this is the best and fairest awards night. A whole lot of fuss goes into the red carpet event before the dinner and there is a good 2 hours of television coverage watching skin and bone models accompany there air head football dates along the red carpet wearing expensive and mostly barely there dresses. Once inside the awards stretch out for hours on end when they read the votes (1 vote, 2 votes, 3 votes) given to plays during a particular game. There are 22 rounds and each round had like 8 games so you can imagine how exciting it is….. not.

Chi and Nick organised a lovely evening, the guests were welcomed in on the Arabic carpet and treated to blinding camera flashes from all angles. Nibbles were provided before the main awards show got underway, the votes from 1986! After the prize giving dinner was served and then it was dancing and singing to bring in the morning. An enchanting evening.

That is vegimite on his face!!!!!

2006-10-04T12:36:00.000+03:00

Dress ups

Bec Tahnee and I decide to go local and see how we looked! So much fun, Bec looks like she is from Bosnia or Turkey and Tahnee looked Arabic, I just looked silly but it was a lot of fun.

Shuaa and Samreen did a presentation on India and dressed me up in a Sari. I enlisted the help of another posing Indian Bec and also a Singaporean posing as a Qatari, Vincent! Heehee what a multicultural bunch we are.

2006-10-04T12:29:00.000+03:00

Inbetween Hopeless and Disappointed, luckily i will only ever reach almost shocked!! Dont think Camels are that attractive really.

2006-10-04T12:22:00.000+03:00

Car
OMG!! Yay we finally have a car. What a relief to finally have wheels and be able to drive around. Was a rather daunting thought to get out on the crazy Qatari roads but we are pleased to announce that it’s not actually that bad and at least we can stick to the speed limit if we drive!! Not like in normal countries where if you get a fine they send it to you, here they stick it on a website and you cannot leave the country until you have paid your fines!! They really are crazy drivers and it’s not unusual to see 3 or 4 smashed up cars, often large 4WD, sitting in a heap on the side of the road. They seem to have little regard for life and their small children are often seen climbing all over the car and don’t have seatbelts on at 120km. My biggest fear on my first driving expedition was the round about. They have no idea what the hell they are doing

Very funny, the other day we were coming back from picking up our uniform for the games and I was driving some work friends back to the office, one is a Qatari, Shuaa. Now this young lady pipes up from the back and says to me, “Cush, why you keep looking out the window?” and my boss Paul, also in the car, explains to her politely that in other countries people actually LOOK before they change lanes, they also use this thing called an INDICATOR which actually helps to let other cars know when you are changing lanes. Shuaa thought this was ridiculous and continued on to explain her crazy driving antics. Of course she has a land cruiser which are know to be the biggest menaces on the road.

My friend Cath put this diagram on her website and urges all Qatari’s to take note!! Cath’s blog is great see http://www.cathmellis.com

2006-09-26T12:29:00.000+03:00

Love my job!!

Dear Dream Team

I continue to be impressed and thankful for all of your hard-work and dedication as we approach the Games of your Life. To enable all of us to stay contactable in the lead-up to and delivery of the Games, I am very pleased to announce that from 1st October all staff members will receive a monthly mobile phone allowance paid with their salaries. This will enable us to use our existing mobile numbers as well. The monthly allowance for staff grades 1 to 7 is QAR500; and for grades 8 and below is QAR400 per month. The allowance will be payable for 3 months, 1st October to 31st December.

2006-09-25T09:30:00.000+03:00

Roomies

Rebecca Amy Healey
Allais: Hummus Healey
Country of Origin: Australia
Kooky habit: cannot cook… much… I often wake to the smell of burning croissants in the oven and smoke pouring over the edge of the oven door. I think this darling girl might just be the first to burn water.

I met Bec working at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne earlier this year although we didn’t really spend much time together. We started talking on-line once we realised we had both landed jobs with DAGOC and decided to be roomies once we got here. I arrived in Doha a week after Bec and we have been buddies ever since.

Tahnee Hofman
Allais: Tahnee Punnaie
Country of Origin: Holland
Most annoying habit: Singing that Fu#k%$£ Madonna song!!!!

Tahnee started working with DAGOC in July. She also came on as a Resident Centre Supervisor. We took Tahnee in as our roomie as we didn’t want to end up with some goober who picks their nose and smells funny. We thought we’d be safe with Tahnee….. and we are of course. We love her so.

Us three chickies have an awesome time, keeping our floor awake with the continual finger clicking and the monotonous tunes of MADONNA!!!

2006-09-25T09:29:00.000+03:00

Desert Trip

Shay’s Birthday!!! She organised a trip into the desert. We left after work on Thursday, about 160 of us. We were in groups of 5 in 34 4WD. It was an awesome precession of vehicles driving along the roads of Doha! When we got to the desert the drivers let some air out of their tires and then it was dune bashing. Soooooo cool, these huge powerful cars driving all over the dunes, sliding down the side of sandy hills and generally causing havoc. Have some amazing video footage backed by a chorus of screaming girls!!!
As the sun began setting we zoomed over the dunes towards our camp. A big sand dug out in the middle of nowhere, run on generators. There were about 10 tents around the outside and enough tables and chairs for the 160 strong party crowd. It didn’t take long for us to pick a spot to sleep on later, grab a drink and hit the dance floor which was lit by four fluro green lamps in each corner. There were coloured lights and a DJ who pumped out tunes from 6pm till the wee hours of 2am the next morning.

It was boiling when we first got there and most strolled around in their swim wear making regular trips out to the inland sea for a splash. Unfortunately the sea is littered with jellyfish and many unaware party goers had mean looking red marks to show for it the next day. Bec and I had invested in a 3 QR spray bottle and were constantly filling it up with iced water to provide a little relief from the heat. Around the edges of the party pit were large banks, people had sand boards out and were pummelling down the side of the dunes. We also hired 4WD buggies to drive all over the dunes like a pack of spoilt school kids. The dance floor was rocking from early on in the evening with most taking a short break to sample some of the food cooked for us in the middle of the desert. We continued drinking, racing around, talking, swimming, dune bashing, dancing, sand boarding, playing soccer and smoking shisha pipes all evening. At one stage they even thought it would be practical to light a fire. It was a huge bonfire which didn’t attract too much attention in 30 degree heat.

I didn’t get any sleep, opting to lie out under the night sky in my sleeping bag and watch the shooting starts. It was actually freezing and I was struggling even being wrapped up in a thick sleeping bag. It’s beautiful out in the desert, the night sky is so clear and the air crisp and cold. The dune buggies were still going into the wee hours of the morning and often the sound of their rumbling motor would penetrate the deadly quite black night. I was one of the only people still alive at that time and enjoyed the serenity of the middle of the desert. As it started to get lighter I climbed to the top of a sand dune and watched the sun rise. It was beautiful.

A large number of people did not end up sleeping in their tents and by morning the place looked like a war zone with bodies scattered all over the place, most not making it into any sort of shelter and some, having passed out, being covered with plastic chairs, heavy pillows and other interesting items. As the sun rose magically over the waters and the desert, the heat came with it and it was not long before there was movement once again in the camp in the general direction of breakfast. Also making movements out of the hot sun with our delicate heads. By 9am we were back in the 4WDs and heading towards the city of Doha.

2006-09-24T11:54:00.001+03:00

School Party

For Michele Rowling’s birthday the newly founded 25th Birthday Organising Committee, organised a school disco. It was strictly by invite only and was a fantastic night. I went to Shays place to get ready and we collect Head Master Rowling’s before heading to the party. Alas we were too early and had to take the birthday boy back home. This meant we had some time to fill and by the time we got back to the party we were feeling very much in party mode! The night was full of boys in skirts, canes, pigtails and lots of dancing. Awesome fun.

Kate, Megan, Shay and me

Carissa and me

Dont know why i stuck the bloody green tape on my face, looks stupid and is in all the photos. it was suposed to be our school house colour and i just decided to stick it there??

2006-09-18T12:36:00.000+03:00

In the taxi to Dalaman to fly back to Istanbul, think the sun got to me!

Boat to butterfly island. Just look at that beautiful water.

Ellen and i dressing up in the Grand Bazaar

The Madien tower. The picture on my bracelet.

Nanine and I out on our first night in
Istanbul

2006-09-18T12:15:00.000+03:00

Turkey Pictures! Globble Gobble

The man and his fish! This guy was really nice, we spent an hour in his gallery drinking tay and talking about Turkey.

The Turkish bath experince! Yes we are wearing something, tiny little towel things they gave us. At this stage we were feeling clean and very exfoliated.

Sophia Mosque. The Empror entrance.

On the 12 island boat curise. Beautiful day!!

Making a carpet! Well one stitch, this one will take about 2 years.!!

2006-09-18T12:12:00.000+03:00

Finally the Turkey blog is done!! Don’t worry you haven’t missed out on the shenanigans of the past 4 weeks they are still to come. I just wanted to get this out of the way. I have done it in order so you won’t need to go to the end of the blog to get Day 1. Have fun reading it, have not added photos throughout as it takes so much longer. I will add photos of turkey soon. Hope everyone is doing well and look forward to sharing more stories in the coming weeks!

2006-09-18T12:10:00.001+03:00

Day 1 – Doha to Dubai to Istanbul

We were so excited to be leaving Doha!! We arrived at the airport and standing in the queue Matt, who had left his exit permit at the office, started to worry about the fact that his looked completely different t ours. Luckily Ellen had grabbed it for him and brought it to the airport, she was now intent on making him sweat. The poor guy was wrought with worry about the possibility of not being able to leave the country!!

We got on the flight in Dubai to find that although we had checked in together we were all sitting in different places. Ellen was sat next to Sophia and a huge guy. He had to be moved for take off and landing as he would not have got out of the emergency exit he was sitting next to. He created a huge amount of fuss about his having to be moved but come one if the plane went down and he tried to get out we would all be stuck!

Arrive in Istanbul at 1:30am. Took us such a long time to get through their customs!!! The queue was about 4 people deep and 30 people wide! The only good thing was that being a Kiwi, we are so great, I didn’t have to pay for a visa! The others, Aussies, English and Swedish paid varying amounts to get a little sticker in their passports. It was a very long wait however Ellen and I felt much better after purchasing a large bottle of Vodka as soon as we reached the other side.

As we came out from the Airport and tried to cross the road I was almost taken out by a local reversing at about 30km up the road over the pedestrian crossing. I had only just gotten used to checking in the other direction when crossing the street and one came from the other side. Luckily I managed to dive out of the way fast enough and was able to continue on with the holiday in one piece.

We were shown a bus that would take us to the area where we were staying. After loading all our bags in the bottom and sitting down we were told it would be at least another hour before they would be leaving. Being so early in the morning we canned the bus idea and walked to the Taxi rank. My god I thought the drivers in Qatar were crazy, this was a mere introduction to the Turkish taxi drivers. Quite a different experience going 170km along the freeway with no seatbelt!

We arrived unscathed at the Istanbul Hostel ready to settle in for the night. We had all made bookings for rooms in previous week. Alas on requesting that the kind gentleman show us our rooms we were told that they had been given away as we had arrived late. Even though we had specifically said in each of those emails that our plane arrived at 1:30am and that we would be checking in late, plus we had paid a deposit. After a little haggling, thoughts of just sleeping in the reception area, and a few desperate phone calls made by the somewhat flustered hostel employee, we were being ushered up the road to another hostel. Sophia, Nanine, Ellen and I bunked up in a 3 person room and had a lovely sleep, some of us even experiencing the wondrous but foreign experience of rain!

2006-09-18T12:10:00.000+03:00

Day 2 – Our first day in the magical city

We awoke full of life and the excitement of intrepid adventures in a new city. We packed and attempted to leave the hostel room, which would not unlock! The 4 of us spent 10 minutes banging on the door and trying every possible turning sequence to get it open. Finally it did and we bundled downstairs to the aroma of free breakfast and brewing coffee. It was a perfect little café on the bottom floor of the hostel overlooking cobbled streets. We met up with Matt, and Simon, who had discovered the wonderful world of hotel roofs and was very excited about the rain from the previous night.
We bimbled (Simon’s word) up the road in search of the Blue Mosque. This is the mosque that most visitors see first. In many cases it's the only mosque that they see. Built on the orders of Sultan Ahmet 1 and still bearing his name, the Blue Mosque of Sultanahmet dominates, in conjunction with Aya Sofya, the Hippodrome area which has always been the center of the city. Mehmet Aga was the architect and the Mosque took 7 years to build. The Sultan himself joined the builders on several occasions to lend a hand but died within 12 months of its completion at the age of 27.
While on our way to marvel at this great building we were stopped by some very brightly dressed men with large metal jugs on their backs. They offered us some cherry juice which they poured from these great jugs by bending over at the hip and letting the juice fall in a long stream into cups. I can’t say the warm sweet fruity drink was particularly refreshing or delicious but the experience was enjoyable none the less.
The mosque was amazing; we entered a large court yard from the gardens at the side of the building. Inside was a large open space surrounded by great walls and beautiful carvings, terraces and trellises.
From the mosque we walked down the hill to the Arasta Markets were we spent an hour looking in all the shops and book marking favorites for purchasing on our return to Istanbul. At the end of the long stretch of shops was the lovely Masele café with low lying tables and delicate sent of fruit flavored tobacco being smoked through large hooker pipes.
After lunch we walked back the square where the Blue Mosque sits and continued past it towards the gardens Topkapı Palace. As we walked though we had to stop and enjoy the cool grass and shady tress as we had been missing them living in the desert. We regained our senses after a grass intake and continued on to catch the ferry from Eminönoü to Üsküdar which is claimed by lonely Planet to be the shortest, cheapest, most romantic boat ride in the world. It was very cheap and very fast but romantic?? Not so sure about that.
After alighting we wandered around for about 30 minutes taking in the sites and buying orange juice. The 5 of us then piled into a taxi and headed up to Camlica Restaurant (Turistick Camlica Caddesi), which is the highest point in the city. The views were beautiful although unreasonably obstructed by trees which cut into pictures and the full view of the city fading in the sunset.
We sat in the warm sun as it disappeared over the city and enjoyed local food and drinks. As the sun sets about 6:30pm in Doha we were quite surprised to realize that it was already 7pm when we looked at our clocks. For once Matt was not the only one saying “really!” with straining neck muscles! After a quick consultation of the trusty Lonely Planet Guide we walked back down the hill to get a taxi to the ferry dock.

We caught the same boat as earlier in the day and sailed back over to Eminönoü where we found the tram line and headed back to the hostel to shower and change. As we moved closer to Eminönoü the sun began setting and it was a magical sight to see the golden orange sun setting over the thorny juts of Istanbul’s plentiful mosques.

For dinner we decided the destination was Taksim. The place was bursting with people and energy and it was great walking around and soaking up the atmosphere while we searched for a good place to do dinner. Most of the restaurants have terraces on the top, usually about the 6-7th floor, a definite selling point, and in most cases you get an uninterrupted view of the magnificent city or of some other wondrous site. We chose a place based on the number of hearty looking locals, and without much hesitation ordered some local beer. Large trays were brought around stacked with scrumptious looking delicacies and we chose a number of plates. The meal was divine, swordfish with dill, moussaka, salads, dips and breads it was sensational. The local beer Effis was very thirst quenching and a great accompaniment to the salty foods. We were nearing the end of the meal when 3 gentlemen came into the restaurant singing and playing instruments. They started off softly and gradually got louder, taking the fancy of a rather rowdy local guy who was sitting behind our table. It was not long before he (and most of his table) were up and dancing around to the beat in the small spaces between the tables.
He tried many times to get us all up and dancing and succeeded in the end. Matt was hoisted up onto a chair as was another of the girls from the his group. Nanine also made it to the chairs and not long after to the table and was dancing in-between the plates with a local Turkish guy while the music got even more rampant. There is some awesome footage of us all frolicking around!! The songs then dried up as did the noise as the musicians collected

money from the audience and continued on to there next location. Our restaurant returned to a quite hum, our tablecloth and plates returned to their original position and dinner resumed as if nothing had happened. Accept for the smirks we all had on our faces and the low chattering about the events that we had all just witnessed. More beer was ordered; we finished our dinner and moved on in high sprits to a quaint 4th floor bar a little further down the street.

Nanine and I tried the local brew which is Düz Raki, very similar to strong ozo. I had to have a can of coke to wash down every mouthful it was bloody strong stuff. From there we moved on to Blanco. We could see this nightclub from the street below. It was on the 5th floor and the party goes spilled out on to an upper and lower terrace which looked down the alleyway where all the restaurants were. A great place to party till the early hours and watch the world go by down on the street below. The moon was full and large that night and I wish I could have captured the feeling and the aura as it was incredible.

Ellen and I decided to go back to the Hostel at about 2:30pm as the next day we had a big day of adventures to accomplish, as well as a late night flight down to the coast. I grabbed a tasty kebab on the way home yummy!

2006-09-18T12:09:00.002+03:00

Day 3 – Day two of exploration and a flight to the coast

Feeling the head a little, Ellen and I sauntered down to the basement of the hostel for breakfast. As we were quickly learning this would consists of the same ingredients for the remainder of our time in Turkey. Triangles of cheese, feta and cheddar, olives, bread, a boiled egg, fresh tomato and all the coffee or Tay we could drink.

On the way to start a day of adventures we were drawn into a local art shop. The man working there allowed me to feed his fish as I obviously looked very interested in his boggle eyed gold and black fish. We spent a good hour in his shop talking about Turkey and the amazing artwork and jewelry he had on display. Each with it’s own story. I ended up purchasing a beautiful hand painted wooden bracelet which tells of the following story:

Maiden Tower

The Sultan had a beautiful daughter. A Fortune teller told him that she would be bitten by a poisonous snake, so he built a tower on a small island in the middle of the sea to protect her. One day the servants brought her a basket of fruit. She reached inside to take a piece and was bitten by a snake hiding in the basket. And MORTO!!
The moral of the story is that you cannot hide from your fate.

From there we meandered over to Saint Sophia for a tour. While in the queue we met Barish who was a tour guide. He took us on a 45 minute tour of the beautiful mosque.

Haghia Sophia
“The Church presents a most glorious spectacle, extraordinary to those who behold and altogether incredible to those who are told of it. In height it rises to the very heavens and overtops the neighbouring houses like a ship anchored among them, appearing above a city it adorns and forms a part of… It is distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size and in the harmony of its measures…”
Procopius – AD.537

It is a beautiful mosque. The marble that lines the doors of the entrance has been warn away from thousands of years of guards standing either side of the door, which only the Emperor can enter. There are 9 doors into the main building of the mosque, 1 in the middle for the Emperor 2 on each side of that one for the priests, 2 more outside those for the sinners, 4 for the general public and 2 for the officials and soldiers. There have been 3 churches built on the site where Sophia sits today. The first was a christen church, the largest in the world, built in 360 AD. This was burnt down by rebels. The 2nd was built in 400-415 AD and was burnt down by nephews of Emperor Justinous. The 3rd was built in 532-537 AD it took 5 years to build and was converted by the Turkish to a mosque in 1453. During its 5 year construction there were over 700 deaths. It is the only place in the world which had both Mohammed Mary and Jesus in the same place. It is amazing to see the both of these religions present in such a prestigious location. It is currently being re-constructed and will take 10-15 years to complete. Inside are the most beautiful mosaics and gold plated pictures of Mary and other christen images. Along side that you would find decorative Islamic passages from the Qur’an. It was awe inspiring. There is a golden plate in the wall with a hole in the centre. It is told that Mary cried a tear and caused the hole to appear in the gold. People place their thumb in this hole and turn it around while wishing and praying. It’s astounding to think of the number of people who have done this before me as the hole had been warn about an inch into the metal. It is supposed if you wish if going to come true that your thumb will be damp when you take it out.
From there we went to the city cisterns. This cistern is thought to have been built after the Nika revolt in 532 AD. It was known as the Basilica Cistern during the Roman period, as there was a Stoa Basilica above the pre-existing one at the time. After the conquest of the city by the Ottoman Turks, it was forgotten of and nobody knew that it existed. Re-discovered in 1545, it was used to water the gardens of Topkapi Palace. Today it has a rather eery and mystical ambiance. Clever spotlighting makes the water shimmer with coloured dancing lights and the water ripples from an occasional fish swishing its tail in exuberance.
We really should have done this first as it was no comparison to the awe-inspiring sites we witnessed at Sophia. It was still amazing however the gloomy dungeon-like building was damp and eerie and all together a little spooky. Ellen was wearing foamy flip flops and was having some trouble navigating the slippery walkways.

After a quick internet stop to get the name of a good local Turkish bath, we were on the road again in search of Cagaloglu Hamam, one of the more famous hammams in the city. It is nearly 270 years old and considered one of the best for a real Turkish massage, steam bath and for tea at the old marble café-bar. When we reached it we were pleasantly surprised it was not only over 200 years old but was also on the list of 1,000 things to do before you die.

This was an interesting experience to say the least. We walked into the old building and up to the counter to select the type of ‘wash’ we wanted. We opted for the works and were handed a ticket and a cotton sheet and ushered off to the ladies section were we were shown to a little room and told to take it all off. Ellen and I wrapped ourselves in the sheet and gingerly headed out into the marbled area in our 6 inch clogs. We clip clopped into the bath house area where we were greeted by a large number of….. large numbers and it was a small shock to the eyes. There was a whole lot of nothing on and we suddenly realized that our friendship was to be taken to a whole new level!!! A wale-like Turkish lady, with her swim suit only on to her waist, eeeekkk, told us to sit in a little area and pour water on ourselves with a bowl. She then motioned for us to remove our sheets and hang them on a peg. We sat there in the sweltering bath house surrounded by naked ladies, tipping cold water on ourselves and trying hard no to ‘look!’ We got a little bashful and decided that total nakedness was not for us so went back to the changing rooms to apply a lower half. Not long after we had returned it was our turn on the stone. The room is large and circular it had bays around the outside with cool running water. Ladies wait here for their massage or use this area to wash themselves. In the center is a large stage area which is elevated about 2 feet off the floor and this is where the massage takes place. It fits about 6 people lying head to toe around the stage. The whole place is made of marble and it’s pretty slippery when the bubbles come out.
The massage started with exfoliation, which was a different experience noting that we didn’t have any tops on. I have never had those areas, exfoliated before, especially by a large, flabby Turkish lady with no teeth!! Ha!!
Then it was on to the oil. I felt rather like a fish slipping around and if I started to slip away she would grab me and pull me back next to her to continue. We were instructed to wash off the old then it was onto the foam massage in which they use this octopus shaped loofer thing to scrub you down. I’m surprised I had any skin left by the end of all that. She then took us over to the fountain and proceeded to wash our hair. I felt like I had been chucked into one of those old washing tubs and was being grated along the scrubbing board! Such a funny experience.

Feeling clean and de scaled we set off in search of the Grand Bazaar. I asked two lovely Turkish ladies to point us in the right direction and they ended up personally escorting us the whole way. During the walk we asked them many questions about their country and the way they live as they did to us. The Bazaar was fascinating. A huge collection of jewelry, antiques, spices, clothing, rugs, brightly coloured crockery and nick knacks assembled along rows and rows of alley ways filled with tourist and locals. We lost ourselves in the shops surrounded by amazing pieces of artwork and cultural artifacts. We mainly took notes for our return to Istanbul as we were not able to carry much shopping with us.

From the Bazaar we wondered along the cobbled streets looking for a nice place to have dinner. We chose one and walked up 5 flights of tiny stairs to the terrace roof. The restaurant had a beautiful view of the Blue Mosque in the setting sun. We didn’t have much time to enjoy it however as it was back to the hotel to collect our bags, on the bus, to the airport, where we managed to pretty much walk from the entrance of the airport onto the plane, very smooth sailing. We had been told to get a bus called Hava’s once we arrived at the Dalaman Airport. When we got to Fetiye we got onto a shuttle bus on the runway and then saw a minivan with Hava’s on the side, so we jumped out of the shuttle and headed toward the mini van. Then realized the shuttle also had Hava’s on the side, as did all the ground staff and most of the other airport vehicles. Ummmmmm what the!

It was 12am and there was nothing open at the tiny airport. We collected our bags and luckily found a bus that was heading to Fetiye. It took about an hour to get there and we were dropped off at the end of the line at an intersection and told to go that way. The bus left us in a puff of exhaust fumes and we were not really sure which way ‘that’ way was… I thought asking a near buy security guard would help. Alas, 30 minutes later they had handed our one and only map between 4 different guards and walked off with it. Finally we got it back but with little help as to the direction of our travels.

Lugging our bags and starting to get very tied, we trudged up a reasonably steep hill. A dog started following us and I freaked out as it kept growling. Ellen got all mummy and was like oh my god come on then and took me behind a gate in someone’s garden to hide from it. It was the funniest thing ever. The two of us with all our gear hiding from a dog in some random garden in the dark at 2 in the morning in the middle of somewhere in turkey. Needless to say I was wetting my self and couldn’t stop laughing!!!! Thankfully the fearsome dog soon wondered off and we could come out from behind the gate and continue towards our hostel.

2006-09-18T12:09:00.001+03:00

Day 4 – Oludeniz

The gallant travelers were up at the crack of dawn, well ok 9am. Up to the terrace for the usual turkey breakfast of cheese and bread set against a magnificent river back drop.
We caught the shuttle bus into town in search of another one bound for Oludeniz. The scenery was breathtaking especially when we came over the hill and spotted the turquoise, crystal waters of the Mediterranean. The shuttle took us down to the beach front and we clambered of the bus with our bags. We were planning to meet up with Nanine and 2 of her friends who had flown in from the US and would be arriving later that day. Luckily we knew the name of the travel agent they booked their cottage though so went of in search of the office. We asked them for some directions and were told we could leave our bags in their office which was great. We donned our bathers, hats and sun cream and headed out to the beach chairs for some serious sun. Ellen and I lapped up the cool water and the lounge side service of slushies and ice coffees.
At about 5pm we went back to the office to check on the arrival of the girls. They had taken our bags up to the cottage already so we were left with little more than beach attire. We had something to eat and hung around until about 8pm and decided we should go up and get some clothes. Felt so bad about crashing the house before the others had got there as we didn’t book it but didn’t have much choice.
We got changed and called the free shuttle to Buzz bar. Managed to squeeze onto a table and got chatting to Nick and Rosie who were traveling from England and had already been in Oludeniz for 12 days!! We got back to the villa about 3am to some empty wine bottles and a couple of ravaged Turkish delight boxes.

2006-09-18T12:09:00.000+03:00

Day 5 – Butterfly Valley

In the morning after introducing ourselves to the Nanine’s friends and apologizing for crashing the villa we headed down to the beach. The 5 of us strolled up and down the walkway of restaurants looking for a breakfast destination. We chose a place that turned out to be the worst pick of the lot with oily omelets that took two attempts to get right, soggy muesli and a greasy waiter who was insistent on showing us his latest magic tricks to our many protests.

We walked along the beach to enquire about the boat to Butterfly Valley. It was to leave at 2pm so we relaxed on the beach for a while. Ellen and I purchased a snorkel set and lilo each.

The boat came up to the shore and a crew of very brown and beachy guys passed our thing between them to load up the boat. It was an art to get onto the ladder as the waves made it rock all over the place. There were some very reggae tunes on the way over from which Ellen and I set the ‘song’ of the trip, Bob Marley!!

Getting off the boat was just as hard and getting on it but we all managed to reach the shore without hazard in some kind awkward fashion. Ellen and I went straight for the lilos but we ended up heading for the beach as we were getting sea sick as they bobbed in the waves.

The 5 of us went for a walk to find the waterfall. We saw about 2 butterflies on the way there. Very disappointing as butterfly valley sort of puts pictures in your mind of thousands! The landscape looked like that on the movie The Beach and we walked along thinking at anytime we would come across a field of marijuana. The place was full of lots of hippies and tree houses. The waterfall left much to the imagination as you couldn’t stand completely under it.

Upon return from our stroll we were brutally confronted with the realization that the boat about to leave was the last one of the day! They had told us the last one was at 6pm, it was only 5pm. They did not add however that 6pm was the last boat BACK to butterfly island. Needless to say we rounded our stuff up in a flurry and sprinted over the stones to the boat. They held the boat for us practically threw us on to it and left. There were 60 others all piled in and with almost nowhere to sit we huddled in a corner feeling like naughty school children.

On the way back to the villa we did some research for the next day’s activity and collected some snacks for a pool side evening. We decided on and then booked a 12 island boat cruise.

2006-09-18T12:08:00.001+03:00

Day 6 – 12 Island Boat Cruise

Up at 8:00am and out to the main road to be picked up by the bus. Once we reached the boat we chose our spots and sunbathed for about an hour waiting for the rest of the passengers. Ellen and I had brought snorkel masks the day before so had them at the ready as we set sail… or rather motored out into the beautiful Mediterranean… along with 50 other boats.

The sun was shining beautifully and we sun bathed and chatted the whole day it was so relaxing! We had a beautiful lunch in a quaint bay, the only noise was a gentle breeze and people splashing in the crisp blue water. We made about 5 stops at different places for about 45 minutes. Nick and Rosie also had snorkel equipment and we all went in search of something interesting at the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to look at, most likely because of the number of boats that move along that route for the cruise.

One of the places we stopped at was surrounded by cliffs with tombs in the side. We decided to swim over and investigate. The swim alone took a bit out of us as it was a fair way across the ocean. Nick, Rosie and I had the smart idea… as it seemed at the time… to climb up the side of the cliff to take a closer look. The bottom part was fine as it was in the shade but as we got up higher we reached the stones that had been sitting in the hot sun all day and they were very hot. There were also a number of trees with prickly leaves which had carelessly dropped them all over the place where we were trying to walk. This made for a rather painful ascent. The tomb was very interesting and it was amazing to look and think about the time when it had been built. There was a spooky body looking shape which had been worn into a large stone block, rather like a casket in shape. Freaky.

The walk back down was worse than up as we had to stand in one place longer, envisaging our next steps. By the time we got to the bottom the cool water was a welcomed relief for our burnt and prickled feet.

Back on the boat we continued sunbathing until it was time to head back to the dock. We went out for dinner to a lovely restaurant and then stopped to stuff some boxes with Turkish delight to nibble on at home.

2006-09-18T12:08:00.000+03:00

Day 7 – Saklikent

Today we drove out to Saklikent the world’s largest gorge. We hired some plastic slip-on shoes as we had seen about 20 float down the river as we crossed the bridge. We paid, entered the gorge and walked along a bridge with about 100 people and came out in a large area with lots of little platforms built out over the water where people were sitting having food and drinks.
Following the crowd we came to an opening where there was a large part of the river to cross. The water comes down from the mountains and is freezing cold. The water was waist deep and moving quite steadily. It was funny to watch everyone walking across holding hands and trying to cope with the cold water. People coming in the other direction had their faces and bodies covered in mud.

We walked up the gorge for about 11/2 hours, having to climb up lots of slippery rocks. The way back was even better as it was sloping downhill so we were able to slide down the large rocks. We were all soaking wet by the time we got back.

We had some food on the platforms, brought some pictures and then had to get back in the car and return to Fetiye as Ellen and I had to fly back to Istanbul.

We ended up catching a taxi to Dalaman with two Korean girls. We were both very tied on the plane. Got to Istanbul about 11:30pm organized a car and hotel and off we went. The driver had a massive fight with a dude in a big car as we were leaving the car park and we feared for our lives. When we go to the hotel we were told they were full!!!!! Oh god again!!! and so we had to wait about 30mins while they found us another one. Lucky for them they did, not far away and it was a lovely one.

2006-09-18T12:07:00.000+03:00

Day 8 – Last day in Istanbul

We thought it was going to rain as we went for breakfast. The norm with cheese and bread… and lots of cats roaming around.

Tired to call and book a car for Dubai but there were none. Went to Saint Sophia to try and find Baris. He took us for coffee and then spice market and then we went over to Pera Palas Hotel. This was the place where Agatha Cristie wrote “Murder on the Orient Express.” The legendary Ataturk founder of the Turkish Republic and its first President, often stayed here, and left his slippers and silk pajamas in Room 101.

From there Baris took us to his uncles carpet shop and Ellen spent some time waking around the room with her shoes off trying to decide which one she wanted. Then to the Grand Bazaar to spend some money. Was surprised at the price of stuff didn’t think much of it was that cheap. Ellen and I spent about 30 minutes in one shop being very well waited on. The gentleman brought us a number of glasses of yummy apple tay and talked at length about the belly dancing costumes we were trying on. The pictures look great! We spent most of the afternoon in the Bazaar collecting many items. We also spent time trying to find the shops we had seen the fist time we went there as it’s like a maze. I had seen a bag I loved and hadn’t found it in the 50 other bag shops we looked in. We happened to spot it just as we were leaving and the Bazaar was starting to clear out and close. Lucky!

When back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and then went to dinner in Taksim with Baris and a friend of his. They took us up to a lovely little terrace to have some drinks. It was fabulous, high up looking over Istanbul it was one of the best views. It was a perfect night and the atmosphere of drinking a cool beer on the roof of the world is spectacular!

We were meant to have a private car pick us up at 10:30pm to go to the airport. Ended up being a bus and we went around and collected 10 other people from the area. On the way to the airport he drove about 150km so told him to slow down. When we go to the airport he was like, what is your job, driving instructor! Heehee
Ellen snatched 50 lira out of his hands as they had lied to us about the drive, so funny he was not happy at all. Thought at one point that we were going to be arrested but he gave up arguing in the end. Sux to him!
Again at an airport, took as long to get out of the country as to get into it. My legs were so tied I could hardly stand. The fat guy was on our flight again.

2006-09-18T12:02:00.000+03:00

Day 9 – Istanbul to the Desert to the Snow!

We arrived in Dubai at 7:30am and it was a Friday so had to wait till 10am for the car hire places to open. Went around there about 10am and they told us we would have to wait till 12 for a car! In the end they took us to their depot about 11:30am and we were able to get a car. Arrived at Ramee about 1pm, very tied, and fell in a heap. Slept till 3pm and then it was out to our favorite place, Emirates Mall. Shopped till 10pm when we went to investigate skiing the next day. There were no lessons scheduled for adults the following day before 3pm and we would miss them as we had to be at the airport by 4pm. Ellen had never skied before and they recommend that you have to have a lesson first. The guy behind th counter could see our enthusiasm for getting onto the snow and suggested that we go anyway and I teach her. So we paid colleted all our ski gear and went up the escalator to the ski field. Soooooo funny. It was freezing inside and as it was so late at night there were only 5 or so people still skiing, perfect. We began with a simple snow plough exercise that had Ellen pummeling down the slope on her butt and filling her pants with snow. I went up the chair lift a couple of times and even tried a jump!
It was awesome fun and we couldn’t stop laughing. We made snow angels and by the end Ellen had mastered the snow plough concept.

Back home to sleep.

Day 10

Bec came in at 7:00am and we slept till 12, back to the Emirates Mall for a look around and lunch. Drove out to the airport, much easier to find this time.

Flight to Doha 5:50pm YAY

Other Memories

Getting trapped in the elevator when we had to fly out that night. We got to the bottom of the rickety thing and tried to push the door open, it wouldn’t open. Then the lights went off and we were standing in the dark wondering if we would ever get out!! Upon trying the door again it swung open and we stepped out thankfully!

The huge man blocking the emergency exit on the plane! He was massive. You could have fit one of me in each trouser leg. The pockets of his pants were like pillow cases. He was sitting next to the emergency exit and we all feared that if there was an acceded he would block us in. The air hostess had to polity ask him to be re positioned for take off and landing.

“So the church was built in 250 BC right??” Woops!! As it was fiercely to me in a bout of hysterical laughter by my true friend Ellen, churches were only built after the introduction of Christianity.

Ellen saying “I like porn!” Actually referring to bling on sunglasses, like porn style, but very funny when that came out of her mouth.

Me taking the baggage trolley through the x-ray machine at the airport and wondering why I was going off. I didn’t see the little opening to the side.

Ellen saying “oh look an empty plane” when we were the first two people to walk onto it.

Dalaman – when we got off the shuttle from the departure hall and the run way we had to identify our baggage to the ground staff.

Ellen getting shitty at the airhostess. Her ticket stub had 9C and mine had 12B so we had to sit in different places, then a family came to the seat she was in and were like, that’s our seat. She got up and fumed at the thought of her ticket being double booked. The she realized she had pulled out an old ticket from a pervious flight we had taken on the 23rd July, it was August!

2006-08-30T17:24:00.000+03:00

You may or may not know that I have recently come back from 10 days in Turkey and Dubai. I have been working on writing about the trip but it’s taking a lot longer than anticipated. Therefore here is a bit of blog worthy stuff to keep you going……..

You know you have lived in the Gulf too long when:

- You need a sweater when it's 27oC
- Your idea of housework is leaving a list for the houseboy
- You send friends a map instead of your address - love google earth!!
- You believe that speed limits are only advisory - 170km, not that fast right???
- Your definition of a nanosecond is the time interval between the time the light turns green and the time that the guy behind you begins to blow his horn
- You're not surprised when you see a goat in a pick up truck - and we are not in New Zealand
- You can't buy anything without asking for a discount
- You expect all stores to stay open till midnight
- You make left turns from the far right lane
- You understand why huge 4x4s must slow down to a snail's pace whilst crossing a speed bump yet hurtle through a wadi (pool of water) at 100kph
- You think it perfectly normal to have a picnic in the middle of a roundabout at 11pm and it’s the perfect place for drop off, pick up and catching a cab!
- You know exactly how much alcohol allowance you have left for the month
- You don’t say Saturday instead of Friday or Monday instead of Sunday anymore
- You accept that there is no point in asking why you are not allowed to do something
- You expect queues to be 1 person deep and 40 people wide
- You realize that the black and white stripes in the road are not a zebra crossing, just bait to get tourists into the firing line
- You know what night is ladies night at every bar in town
- Seeing guys welcome each other with a kiss no longer disgusts you
- You carry 12 passport size photos around with you just in case
- You can tell the time by listening to the local mosque
- You think its a good night if there are fewer than 10 men for every woman in a bar
- Phrases like 'potato peeler', 'dish washer', and 'fly swatter' are no longer household items but job titles
- You start to say "Insha'allah" when you actually mean "No f**king chance!"
- You overtake a police car at 130km/hr
- A problem with your car AC is more serious to you than a problem with the brakes
- You smoke a shisha in public without expecting to be arrested
- You think only men should hold hands in public
- You expect to go to jail when a local hits the back of your car at a stop sign

2006-08-10T13:56:00.000+03:00

SIGNS........

At the airport in Turkey. Guess you have to wear a top hat to cross the road there!!

Stop in Turkish! Love it

Drive slow and reach Safe!!

2006-08-10T10:58:00.000+03:00

Ha the licence saga!

What an experience it is living here. They certainly do things a little differently and if they don’t want to rush it’s, inshallah, which means “in gods will” in Arabic, or “when I can be bothered” in English! Heehee. It’s a great word and always said with many laughs in reference to just about anything in Doha.

I put in my forms to get my Qatar licence about 3 weeks ago. I had to give them a copy of the front of my passport, the page with the Qatari immigration stamp, my Qatar resident permit, my Australian licence, and about 10 photos as usual. Don’t know why but they always ask for more than the usual requirement of pictures and forms when ever anything official is concerned. It just seems to be the Doha way. Bec and I had been waiting for the promised but never to be delivered email invitation to attend the regular Monday licence trip, and, after 4 weeks decided to go and find out what the hold up was. Merely the fact the there was no filing system in existence and the new forms handed in were being added to the top of the pile! After sorting through a couple of hundred other applications she found ours and put it at the top. “Come Monday at 8am.” Ok…… that’s how it works…..

So on Monday we waited in the hall at work after having collected our forms and were then shuttled off to the Qatar license department. We were asked to hand our forms in when we got there and they were in turn handed over to the rather unofficial looking staff before being told to go up stairs. We found with some delay and little direction the “eye test” office and went inside. Not far behind us was some guy with all our application forms. They were given back to us and then to the lady running the show who started looking through them. It was discovered that 3 of the forms didn’t have stamps, Bec’s being one of them and they were handed back to the parties concerned. “Go way” she said and flicked her had at Bec, “you have no stamp.” After trying to get some direction out of her with little response Bec and the other non stamp people were told by another “staff member” that they needed to go back downstairs.
When they returned the lady decided that she didn’t want them to go for their license that day and also took a couple more papers off the pile, mine included, and told us to come tomorrow. It was on! Two of the people who had come with us spent the next hour fighting with her about not being able to get their license. Meanwhile people are getting their eyes tested and it only took about 1 minute for each one. The time they wasted arguing they could have tested half the country.
No one was paying any attention to what was happening so I just took my paper off her desk and handed it to the eye testing guy on the table opposite. He coyly took my form and proceeded with the eye test which consisted of me reading a total of 2 lines of text, one with each eye. Stamped my paper and told me to go downstairs. Bec did the same and he did the test for her as well with even less numbers!

We went downstairs to pay and complete the application and within 2 minutes had our license. Not sure if I’m actually ever going to drive on these crazy roads! The guys who were arguing ended up going to see the head honcho director who signed their forms without even doing an eye test?????

Ummmmmmmm Doha Asian Gamas?????? Thought it was Games??????

2006-08-09T11:20:00.000+03:00

Sometimes it’s a little unnerving as its all in Arabic and you cant read anything that it says.

كوشلا - My name in Arabic, i can read that much.....

Check out these traffic regulations

2006-08-07T13:48:00.000+03:00

STOP THE PRESS

As per your request and HR approval for DAGOC permanent accommodation , we are pleased to inform you that effective Tomorrow 08/08/06 you are requested to approach Administration department DAGOC HQ I , first floor , Mr. Al Tamimi ( Head of Admin) & Ms. Maria (Accommodation Coordinator) in order to receive the Keys for your allocated Flat.

Moreover, you are all requested to check out from your temporary accommodation by this weekend.

Thank you for your patient and enjoy the weekend at your new Flat.

Regards,

Administration Manager
Extn.
Fax No.

Oh my god!! only taken two months. we were ment to be in the guest house for 2 weeks. This is the first thing i have heard from anyone about where we are living. No longer a mystery.... well i'll believe it when i see it! Hope this one doesnt fall down......... YAY

2006-08-06T17:07:00.000+03:00

Our well crafted entry into The One guest book after a fabulous brunch last Saturday. Ellen, Bec and I have a brunch tradition on Saturday mornings. If we cannot make it out of the house for some reason (not alcohol related at all!) then we make the favorite, rice and omelet with chilly sauce…….Best thing for a hangover…. I mean for a day of vigorous activities. You may not understand this if you have not seen the add, but jut roll with me here! :)

2006-08-06T16:52:00.000+03:00

Bec and I were asked to do a shopping centre advertisement!!

This is how we often look after a trip to Landmark. That shopping centre has our two favorite stores, The One, full of the best home stuff you have ever seen….. and the best restaurant to match, brunch girls!! Also has the best clothes shop Massimo Dutti which just rocks!! Watch out credit card!

2006-08-06T16:28:00.000+03:00

OK well time for me to update life in the dust bowl!! Fish bowl more like it. That’s what they call it here as it’s like a life encompassed in glass, where everyone is doing the same thing, knows everything you do and you can’t go anywhere without running into people from work. Hell even when you leave the country there are 10 other people doing the same thing, going to the same place on the same plane. It’s interesting though, lots of very blog worthy stories to tell!!

As there is nothing much to do in this tiny little country most afternoons are filled with some kind of social activity. Here is my usual week,

Sunday - the start of the working week on the bus at 7am to DAGOC HQ1. Catch a connecting bus or car to DAGOC HQ6 which is the Athletes village where I’m now working. We could arrive anywhere between 7:30am and 8:30am which is a pain in the bum sometimes especially as its 50 degrees outside!! That is how my normal morning is. Sometimes my lovely neighbour Alberto will take Bec and I to and from the village which makes the day a lot easier to bear. He’s Italian and thanks to his driving we are able to navigate the crazy Qatari roads with much simplicity!! When making the mistake of driving passed your exit, simply reverse up the other side of it!!

All days at work are pretty much the same and each day I find myself looking forward to whatever activities I have planned for after work!

Sunday
- Football

Monday
- Golf driving range and free wine for ladies
- Trivia night

Tuesday
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Touch rugby

Wednesday
- Caporwera (don’t know how to spell it, the Brazilian martial art/ dance thing) heaps of fun!!
- Gym

Thursday
- Beach volleyball
- Party night as this is like ‘Friday night’

Friday
- Recovery and often to a pool somewhere or some other Doha excursion
- Dinner and more dinks sometimes
- Shopping
- Volleyball

Saturday
- Dinner
- Shopping
- Gym
- Hanging out

Well that’s about it, most days are pretty full. I have been here for 2 months now and I have not been home after work before 8/9pm once on a week day, its great as makes the time here go a lot faster. Does seem like a strange way to live, I look forward to the next social activity to get me closer to the end??

There’s a gym on the roof of our guest house which is great. The equipment is a little dodgy but does the job and nothing like an hour in front of MTV while you’re working out!

2006-07-26T13:55:00.000+03:00

Bec and I were not looking forward to moving to the village, didn’t think it would be good at all!! So took these stickers off our boxes and labelled ourselves so others would no to tread carefully.
2nd day on and were having a great time. Much more room that at DAGOC 1 and we still have our computers at this stage. Better to be amongst the action of the village construction and we have a lunch room. Plus our favourite tea boy Murelli is here so all is good.

2006-07-26T13:52:00.000+03:00

Ummmmmm, click on this for a larger view and dont belive everthing you hear through the DAGOC grape vine!!

2006-07-26T10:57:00.000+03:00

They read backwards so does the clock go anti-clockwise?? What the??

2006-07-26T10:53:00.000+03:00

Detailed Local Forecast

• Today: Sunny. High 104F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.
• Tonight: Generally clear skies. Hot. Low 93F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Tomorrow: Plentiful sunshine. Heat index near 115F. High near 105F. Winds N10 to 15 mph.
• Tomorrow night: Fair to partly cloudy. Low 91F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.
• Friday: More sun than clouds. Highs 106 to 110F and lows in the low 90s.
• Saturday: A few clouds. Highs 106 to 110F and lows in the low 90s.
• Sunday: Sunshine. Highs 107 to 111F and lows in the low 90s.

UMMMMMM something wrong here. Not sure if our sources were particularly reputable……. Still Sex and The City a great idea.

2006-07-26T10:06:00.000+03:00

Ok just received this in my work inbox, a little scary. Bec and I have decided we will live in her room for the day watching Sex and The City and eating popcorn! Bring on the wind!!

Subject: URGENT WARNING
Importance: High

This is an urgent warning on extreme weather conditions expected on Friday and it will last for at least 24 hours!!!

Due to the current weather development very strong winds is expected of Friday, according to the forecast that we have received wind speeds of 60mph and more is expected. This is because of a weather system that is moving down the gulf and it is expected to reach Dubai on Friday!!! Our office in Raslafan Qatar has closed all operations and they are now trying to secure everything as far as possible to prevent fly debris. Waves in excess of 5m are also forecasted.

Please inform everybody about this expected adverse weather condition. According to the forecast the wind speeds are likely to increase as the system moves down the gulf and it is expected wind speeds will be the highest recorded it the region.

The message for the people is to stay in doors on Friday and avoid the beaches.

To hot to go to the beach anyway......

2006-07-26T08:12:00.000+03:00

I LOVE MATT KOLECZKO!!!!!!!

2006-07-24T17:58:00.000+03:00

Weekend in Dubai

A group of 6 of us organized to go to Dubai for the weekend, Ellen, Aisey, Matt, Rob, Bec and I plus a group of 4 guys, Alberto, Azlan, Steve and Simon. P.K. was flying through Dubai on our flight, on his way to Turkey so there was 11 of us. We took a casual day so we could have 4 days 3 nights. We flew out after work on Thursday (the last day of the week here) and arrived in Dubai about 7pm. We were all standing at the check in counter and Matt turns to P.K and asks "which airline are you flying," "ah that would be the same as you seeing as I'm in this line."

We hired 2 cars from the airport, collected them and navigated our way with no map in the general Dubai direction. We had not been given great directions to get to the place we were staying and as a result spent about an hour driving around trying to find the landmarks we had been given. After a couple of stops, map searching and even looking on foot, we found the massive shopping center we were meant to me looking out for (no one had said was actually round the corner from the main road not ON it) we found Ramee Hotel Apartments and parked the cars. We had booked 3 rooms, found them and before long collected together the 6 bottles of spirits we had brought from Duty Free, the other 4 boys that had traveled with us to Dubai and were staying at the Rush-In and we drank and limboed till the 3:15am prayer call.

I had my alarm set for 8:30am so I could make a booking at the Burj for brunch (that is the 7-star hotel which has the tennis court / golf green on the top floor). I struggled to open my eyes let alone converse with non-English hotel staff about the booking we wanted to make. He suggested I call back at 9:30am so I tried to sleep a little more. Called back at 9:30am and was told I would have to fill out a booking confirmation form which he would fax to the hotel. I was to return it with a copy of my credit card and passport. This was some serious booking!! To cut a long story short their system was down and the hotel fax machine wasn’t working, so, after numerous calls to the Burj and to our Hotels reception desk I called the Burj back and told them we were unable to get the form and as it was 10am and the booking was for 11am he should think of another option. The reservations staff spoke to Matt as he had the credit card, asked for a lot of unnecessary information, said he would call back with a booking confirmation number. You can't get onto the island without one. The hotel can only be used by guests and those with restaurant reservations. The number was huge, 9287856143THG like we need all those numbers, not one you can remember anyway! Lunch was fantastic with all the yummy hob nob foods you could imagine, lobster, prawns, some Japanese special beef, your own chef to cook your shell fish or pancakes, cheese, caviar and the biggest dessert bar I have ever seen. We stayed there for about 3 hours, eating and enjoying the view and each of us at one stage just sitting there, taking it all in and thinking how amazing it was!! The view was spectacular, out into the sea as far as you could see, the Palm and World constructions on either side was a magnificent sight. You could also see a fair bit of Dubai.

Lunch concluded about 3pm and we drove from there to the Mall of the Emirates which is the biggest shopping center I have ever been too and even has a ski slope inside. Can you imagine skiing in the desert! It's right in the middle of the shopping centre and there are cafes and shops all around it with huge glass windows so you can see everyone styling down the slope. There is even a chair lift to get you to the top. The picture here is the outside of the slope that you can see from the car park. Very impressive. Us girls had a ball, Friday we didn’t have much time to shop as we were planning to go out about 10pm (and try and have a sleep from the up late limboing the night before). The plan was for the three of us to buy dresses to wear that night. After 2 hours at the mall racing from shop to shop I'm happy to announce that we not only had dresses, shoes and accessories but a range of other items…….love that place.

We didn’t get much time to sleep as it was into the bathroom with make up and hair straighters for us.

Ellen drove the 6 of us to Buda Bar to start the night off and I wish I had taken my camera (at that stage anyway) as it was the most amazing place. There were little sort of rooms all along the entrance corridor with low lying furniture and heaps of cushions to lounge around on. There was a huge buda statue in the centre and awesome décor, with prices to match. Very smoky though and not really the right kind of music for us in our fancy new dresses. So we headed to Madinat Jumeirah to a place called Trilogy where Prodigy is playing next week! It cost us $35 to get in but it was worth it. We had the best night, the music was a little housey, but we danced and danced till 3am. Seriously thinking of going back to Dubai this week just to go there and see Prodigy.

We agreed to meet at 10am the next morning to go to Wild Wadi which is a water park in Jumeriah which is the same area as the Burj, Souks and the night club we went to. 10 got pushed to 11 and then it was meeting at 12 in the lobby. We ended up going for lunch so by 1pm we decided to go to the mall instead as didn’t know what time the water park closed and we still had to go and collect the car we parked at Buda bar the night before.

So we once again hit the Mall of the Emirates, very dangerous place for my credit card!! Spent about 3 hours looking around and a couple of us went skiing. I decided the money could be better spent in Channel, Debenhams and a range of other classy shops where the sales were on, and when Dubai says sale its not just a rack of crap that no one else wants with 12% off!! We had some dinner at the Mall and then headed to Madinat to the Souks. These were not the traditional souks like the ones you find in Doha but castle like mazes complete with hotel and a moat with traditional boats to take guests to their rooms and around the maze of restaurants and shops. You can see the souks in the picture, it’s the brown block of buildings with water around the outside.

There was some amazing artwork, traditional clothing, statues, ornaments and jewelry. We went into one store for Bec to look at a necklace. The lady in the shop asked her if she wanted to try it on, Bec was like "oh, ummm," I was like "yes she does" and they asked me if I wanted to try anything on and I pointed to the $20,000 blue topaz encrusted with diamonds! Love the titanic!! It was ridiculously huge and there was an even larger one, they let me take a picture to show Matt, heehee.

The souks have some bars and restaurants on the water and we chose one to sit down at and have a bottle of wine. It was just beautiful, very fake, but beautiful and the boats looked lovely floating around on the calm water. I asked the waitress how we get to go on the boats and she suggested that they were only for hotel guests. Ah yes, room 703….. Bec, Rob and I boarded a little boat with Abdul the driver and floated off into the maze of Madinat. We had a great driver who insisted there were sharks in the man made moat! He took us for a tour all around and we had a spectacular view of the Burj all lit up. Abdul pointed out places in the hotel and he was like, there is the spa, which you know! Ha we were like, yes, went there today actually….. naughty!

When we got back from the tour we tried to get into trilogy, where we went the first night, alas our dress wasn’t up to standard so it was back to the Hotel to start on the 5 bottles of spirits we brought in duty free on the way through Dubai airport. Unfortunately we couldn’t bring it back to Doha so we had to drink it all.

Once again waking up in the morning was a slight challenge and times were pushed to the limits once again. Bec, Ellen and I went back to the trusty Mall of the Emirates so Ellen could buy the key board she wanted to bring back to Doha. Yes key board, and I'm not talking one you sit on your lap. This puppy was 16.5kg, 2m long and had a stand as well. Bec and I "popped" into Mossimo Dutti, our new favorite store, for 15 minutes….. we had walked by a couple of times the day before but hadn't dared enter, thinking the prices would be way out of our price range. But to our delight, there was a sale and as I described before they have awesome sales here.

Well you can buy a lot in 15 minutes. Bec brought a great leather jacket which was 60% off. It had a small surface stain on it so she asked the manager to give her a better deal. The manager called head office and tried to get 70% off but was unable to so she offered Bec any accessory, jewelry or bottle of perfume from the store.

From there we went to Wild Wadi water park and hung out in the boiling sun until it was time to drive out to the airport. That was a mission as there are three in Dubai and the little aeroplane signs don’t actually have the name of the airport on them in English. We only had a tourist map which was not very useful as we were going to an airport outside Dubai and the journey wasn’t even halfway on the map. Bec did a great job of driving; the person we were following however!!! Don’t think they have been educated in the etiquette of following. After being pushed off the road by a huge truck and trying to get back on with 10 others speeding along in our lane, screeching to a stop from 100km when at the last second and with no indicator Matt decides to take an exit, and 50 lane changes, we made it to the airport.

Aisey obviously wanted to stay longer in Dubai and booked his flight home a month later! He was coming back on the 23^rd August. Matt almost wasn’t coming back at all as he left his boarding pass at the check in counter…… yes they are logistics and we are organizing the 2^nd largest Games in the world……. Yikes…..

2006-07-14T15:41:00.000+03:00

Dinner on the roof of the guest house.

There are 15 apartments at the guest house and most of us have been living there for at least a month. I decided it was time for us all to have a social evening so sent out an email to everyone I could remember from the bus in the mornings and said bring a plate of food to the roof at 7pm on Wednesday night. I send out a list with all the room numbers and got everyone to put what they were bringing against their room numbers so we could plan some variety.
It was a fantastic night, there must have been at least 50 of us and there was enough food to feed the American troops in the neighbouring countries! There are a lot of Italians here that have worked in Torino, and they were 2 hours late as they were preparing food! And you should have seen it! The top floor of the guest house is like a massive apartment which has been converted into a gym. There is also a kitchen and lounge area with a television and two large balconies. We set all the food out on the bench and walked around like it was a buffet. It’s actually quite pleasant in the evenings, about 30 degrees and there was nice breeze, coming from the open door and the air conditioning. It was a great night and we tried to come up with a name for it, some of the options were, dune bar, sand bar, desert, mirage-a-twa, cush bar, camel hump, and many other desert related names. We are thinking of going and purchasing a number of cushions from the Souqs and going up there more often to lounge around.

2006-07-14T15:27:00.000+03:00

What an interesting night I had last night!

Bec and I went out to a friends place for some drinks. At about 12 we decided to head off to a party one our friends was having on the roof of their villa. While waiting on the road for taxis two cars stopped and asked us if they could drive us somewhere. Now I have to explain what it’s like in this country before you start going, you got into a car with random strangers???!!! The locals genuinely want to help and have nothing else to do on a Thursday night so the thought of driving some foreigners around in their car and talking to them about their life and where they come from is appealing to them. There was 10 of us, 4 went of into one car and 6 of us piled into the back seat of the other and off we went in search of this party with Britney and Beyonce busting out a tune on the stereo. Our driver and co driver were, surprise surprise, Mohammed and Mohammed. They are all called Mohammed or Ali!! He was great and didn’t go over 80km the whole time, which trust me is something pretty unusual for the local drivers of this country.
After driving around with little idea of where to go and trying to get directions of people who didn’t even know where they were in the first place, it was getting stuffy, squishy and hot in the back seat and we were over driving around not knowing where to go. The other car in the convoy had already dropped our friends of at a nightclub in the Intercontinental Hotel and had come back to join their friends. We were stopped trying to make a decision as to where to go next and I simply suggested two of us get out into the other car to make it roomier and one of the guys packed a stink got out and walked off into the desert with a bottle of tequila under his arm. We spent the next 45mins trying to look for him and driving all over the large desert patch between the villas and the road. He had left his phone in the car so there was no way to reach him, what a dumb ass!

After scouring the whole area like a search party and calling out for him with little luck we decided that he must have got a taxi back so we bailed on the going out idea and Mohammed and Mohammed drove us back to our friends place, teaching us a little Arabic on the way. They were concerned about our friend and gave us their number incase we needed to go back if he wasn’t home.

Bec and I then found a taxi to take us back to the guest house and tried to stop and get something to eat. We left the cab and walked around to where a couple of fast food outlets are to find that they were all closed. By now it was 4am and we were hanging out for some food. We walked down the road towards a place called turkey central which is our local favorite, and found one food outlet open, shining like a beacon in the darkish dusty morning. We went in an ordered chicken burgers and fries and tried to avoid the stares from two local guys that came in, which the guy working there told us were gay! Ha, that is totally illegal here, imagine that. While we were eating we were talking to the guy who worked there and telling him all the Arabic words we know, crazy, hello, how are you, go. He was getting a little into the conversation so we thought that’s our cue to go. We asked how much and he said, you no pay, no, no you no pay. Bec tried to give him money a number of times and he wouldn’t take it. He followed us out and was asking us our names and where we were going. We said, thank you we bring our friends next time, we come back. He said you give me your number… no we come back tomorrow we bring our friends, and we waved good bye thinking, note to self, one place we are never allowed to go again!!!

Worked out to be a pretty cheap night, drove 3 times around Doha and chowed down on local fast food and only paid for a $2 taxi. Bec and I just had to laugh as we wandered home trough the dusty, lightning morning and listened to the roosters crowing. That’s right roosters, this place never ceases to amaze me and gets stranger everyday. By the time we walked from where we ate to the guest house it was 5am and the sun was up!
What a night.

2006-07-13T12:46:00.000+03:00

Think I might be changing my travel plans!! Lucky we havent actually got around to booking anything yet. Bring on Greece.......

Lebanon

This advice has been reviewed and reissued. It contains new information in the Summary and on Safety and Security: Civil Unrest/Political Tension (deteriorating security environment and closure of Beirut International airport). The overall level of advice for Lebanon has increased.

Summary

We strongly advise you not to travel to Lebanon at this time because of the deteriorating security environment. Beirut International Airport is closed.
If you are in Lebanon you should remain in a secure location indoors and monitor the media and follow the instructions of local authorities.
Commercial and public areas known to be frequented by foreigners are possible terrorist targets.
The Australian Embassy in Beirut has closed until further notice.
Political assassinations continue to occur in Lebanon, including through the use of car bombs. Such incidents can lead to retaliatory attacks or other violence. Bystanders can be caught up in these attacks.
You should avoid any large gatherings and demonstrations as these may turn violent. You should pay close attention to your personal security and monitor the media for updates.

2006-07-12T08:31:00.000+03:00

Bec and I hard at work at the Athletes Village

It’s been so hot out there and there is no air con at the moment. Our job has been to walk around all the apartments laying out stickers of room and apartment numbers. Drinking about 3 liters of water a day and having trouble with the workers walking round after us collecting up the stickers for ‘safety reasons’ and putting them away in a draw! We weren’t there to actually put the stickers on the wall just lay them out for someone else to come around and put them on the wall, talk about time management and double handling. I have seen some interesting stuff since I have been here. They certainly have a different way of doing things. My computer wasn’t connected to the company network system which meant my internet, email and phone was not working. I called ‘helpdesk’ which should be called ‘un-helpful desk’ to tell them the problem. After navigating the language barrier and spelling my name three times they said they would issue me a ticket number… then hung up. The ticket number is so that when you call to follow up the problem they can track it. Not only did they not give it to me over the phone, but three days latter when I was finally back on the network I found 2 emails form ‘helpdesk’

Dear Ms. / Mr. Cushla

This is in regards to the ticket number HD---2777 about ‘Unable to access network’ on 6/28/2006
Please respond to this email to provide us with any updates on the above ticket so we may follow up or close it.
If you have any technical and related inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Well now how am I going to reply to an email about a problem with my email?? After calling using Bec’s phone 3 times and having to speak to three different people and spell my name about 10 times while explaining I was not Rebecca Healy and the reason I was using her phone is the whole reason I was calling in the first place, they sent 3 different people up and one more after they had fixed the problem. You get no help for days and then 4 people rock up none of whom seemed to know anything about the problem and I had to explain it to them again. Oh the fun and games of living in Doha

2006-07-12T08:09:00.000+03:00

I have now been in Qatar for 4 weeks! 1 month out of 6, it has gone so fast and I have done quite a lot already, with more adventures to come.

This weekend we headed out to Sealine Resort which is about a 40 minute drive from Doha. After navigating the crazy Doha traffic we reached the long outstretching roads into the desert. We sped along Al Matar Street in our 2 car convoy, listening to the call to prayer, Islamic readings and philosophies on the local radio station. As usual the roads were not particularly well sign posted and there were lots of diversions due to all the road works. We cleared Al Wakra and Mesaieed, took a wrong turn and ended up at North Camp and a dead end. Started see what the desert really had to offer, not much more than a whole lot of amazing sand dunes. We pulled over to take photos with a group of camels strolling by the side of the road!

Once we reached Sealine we headed straight to the pools to check out the scenery. One of them was strictly for women and families and the other was open to everyone. Needless to say the later was full of all the non-family men and they seemed to have a small problem with their eyes! There was a temperature board by one of the pools, it was 47 degrees at 12pm and the pool temperature was a cool 33 degrees, it actually felt a cooling relief from the heat of the air. We took up a spot under the palm trees and ventured out onto the hot sand and into the sea. The water temperature was actually cooler than the air for a change, usually it’s like a spa bath and not very refreshing. I’d only been in there about 10 minutes and was stung by a jellyfish, I sprung out of the water and onto the beach rather quickly, unfortunately have nothing to show for my brutal attack.

We lounged by the pool and under the trees till about 2pm and then went in search for lunch. After that it was back to the pool for a little more lounging and then out to the front of the resort to book quad bikes. The only condition we had to sign for was not to take the bikes across the border to Saudi Arabia…. as if! The 6 of us then let lose, cutting up the sand dunes and showing the locals a thing or two. Well not really they are mad little buggers!! This place has little regard for safety as the quad bikes race around the dunes and have to dodge the massive 4WD sharing their turf!

We buggied out into the middle of the desert, must have been going about 60km at top speed. Had to get a good run up to make it up the side of the dunes and not get your bike stuck in the sand. After a while made the most of the 5 gears and were huning around and racing each other over the sand. KT managed to flip her quad bike and we rushed over to catch it all on camera while she posed distressed! Ended up having to leave her bike in the middle of the desert and she had to double up with Steve as we couldn’t get it to start!

We left Sea Line at 7pm and drove back to Doha, hot, tied and sunburnt, nick naming our selves the white stripes thanks to the red and white bikinis we were now fashioning.

That evening we had nachos, pizza and drinks on the roof of our apartments and took all the lounge chairs outside to sit under the star (could only see one) and chat.
Saturday we were taken on a tour of 2 local mosques in Doha by Kiser from our office. He talked about the religion of Islam and gave us the opportunity to go inside a mosque and ask all our burning questions. The rest of the Saturday was pretty cursie and that brings us to the beginning of the working week once again. Next weekend we are off to Dubai for a look around, cant wait!

2006-07-03T11:43:00.000+03:00

Pictures from Doha

This is the fruit and vegie market that we went to on our city tour. Heaps of fresh yummy produce and so cheap. I brought a big bag of vegies and fruit for about $5!!

Right - a local guy with Shisha below the Emir. Shisha is that big pipe on the ground, kinda like a big bong with a long hose. They lie around at a cafe or have it the table after dinner. Mostly they smoke flavored tobacco, cinnamon or apple. The picture behind him is a common site in banks, hotels, resturants, almost everywhere, he is the head of the state.

Souq Waqif. An amazing local market selling dried fuit and nuts as well as lots of local perfume, material, cooking stuff and heaps more!! Love this place.

2006-07-02T09:32:00.000+03:00

A very Mexican weekend

Had a great weekend! Thursday night Bec and I went to our friends place and had some drinks then went out to Paloma’s which is a Mexican restaurant in the Intercontinental hotel that turns into a sort of night club. A little dodge though and didn’t want to look at anyone as they totally get the wrong idea!
Spent Friday doing a little recovering and went out to collect supplies for the house warming party that night, also Mexican themed. We drank tequila and Coronas and ate tacos and corn chips. Sing Star was out and featured many a talented voice, thank god (or should I say Allah) for the alcohol and therefore a slightly dulled sense of hearing. Saturday Ellen and I spent most of the afternoon lazing buy the pool and ordering cold ice tea from the comfort of our sunny lounges, tough life. Continuing with the Mexican theme, and the inability to do anything for ourselves this weekend, went back to Paloma’s for Fajitas, more corn chips and an evening of soccer on the big screen.

2006-07-02T09:27:00.000+03:00

We went out for dinner with a whole group of people. I ordered something I can’t even pronounce let alone spell so I won’t bother, but basically I was told meat with some yogurt. Some being the operative word here. However on receipt of my meal I discovered in fact that it was yogurt with meat (little chucks).
Eating is interesting here, no need to order starters, the portions are large and there is so much food brought out complimentary it’s not funny.

The pic is of Mary and Jess eating their yogurt and meat along with all the other accompaniments. Most restaurants bring out a selection of olives, pickled vegetables, a plate with whole lettuce, tomato, cucumber, capsicum and radishes, then, large baskets of hot flat bread which they exchange for new ones before you have a chance to finish the first. It’s crazy, cheap too.

2006-06-23T14:09:00.000+03:00

Jolly well forgot to bring the doc for my camera so I can’t post anymore pics today, will have to do it next time. It’s a long hot walk to the internet café and it’s only going to get hotter!

It’s Friday and I have finished my 2 week of work in Doha. The work load is slowly starting to come on and we are getting used to the way things are done around here, slowly and with signatures from all the top notches. Not possible to do anything without the right signature but you have to go to one person who takes it to the next and so on, it takes ages to get anything done. Bec and I are working on the training for the supervisors and the volunteers that will be running the resident centres at the athletes village. There will be over 100 people that we’ll need to train so it’s going to be exciting.

Work is pretty sweet but it’s freezing in the air conditioning, it’s actually not nice most of the time and we have to rug up to go to work while its 45 degrees outside, quite strange brining a jumper to work. They have tea boys who come around throughout the day and make you tea, coffee, frappes and hibiscus tea. They remember what you like too and so by 7:40am I’m at my desk (usually on hotmail for the fist 30 mins so write to me!) and I have a nice cup of tea. There’s also our own little star bucks in the building next door so we are pretty spoiled, although it’s user pays. They also have bank desks, tour and travel agents, rent a car places and anything else we might need so it’s pretty easy to get organised. I thought we would take a while to get everything we needed but they basically have done it all for us.

At the moment we are waiting to get our residents permit. Once we have that we are able to rent a car, get a house and most importantly get our alcohol license! It’s pretty much a dry country but we are lucky that the Qatari people understand the importance of a cold beer on a hot day. So although they don’t usually engage in it themselves they are happy for us to drink in bars and buy alcohol, the amount of which is calculated by a percentage of your wage, but only from 1 shop in the whole country!! And it’s just as well as im not sure how exciting the football would have been otherwise. I have to admit that I have been supporting the Australians in their plight to get into the next round of the world cup, which I can report after a 2-2 draw with Croatia they have. I’m also afraid to admit that as of now I do believe that I have sung their national anthem far more times than I have recited my own. Damn Aussies!!

Quite a funny story…. The fist time a group of us went to the supermarket and went through different aisles to pay I was the only one to come out with two free mugs! So happy was I and how jealous everyone was of my sparkly new Carrefore (name of the supermarket) mugs. The next time we went to the supermarket and went through different aisles again I was handed a ‘free item’ this time a chocolate bar. However when I later examined my receipt I discovered chocolate bar .50 derhams! Robbed. The truth in this case was that the worth of their half dollar is very little so when the bill comes to say QR10.50 they either round it down to 10 or add something to make it 11. Oh well the chocolate bar was really nice, would have paid more for it ;)

2006-06-23T14:07:00.000+03:00

Time to tell you all about my weekend. We went to the Four Seasons marina to meet the rest of the people coming and our tour operator Khalifa, not really a tour operator, a local Qatari guy who works in my department. He kindly takes out his boat and jet skis each weekend so people can hang out and enjoy the wonderful Qatari water! A few of Khalifa’s friends also brought out their boats and jet skis. We left the marina about 5pm and it took 20mins to get to the sand bar, which is a large strip of land in the middle of the sea. There were heaps of boats and jet skis everywhere it was quite a site. Maybe 60 boats all anchored along the sand bar with people having BBQ’s swimming and jet skiing. The water must have been about 35 degrees, not very refreshing, and with the constant threat of jellyfish. Luckily we didn’t see any, last week two people were stung while they were swimming. We spend the whole day on the jet skis, there were 3 of them. On the fastest on we got up to about 135km which is pretty scary. I only managed to get to 90km before backing off! When it started getting dark the numbers dwindled and we were some of the only boats left. An amazing site with the lights of the city in the background and a few boat lights dotted along the sand bar. People were sill jet skiing under the moonlight. When it was really dark the water glowed when you moved in it. I think it’s called phosphor essence it’s like this green sparkly stuff in the water that glows when the water is moved. It looks amazing when the jet skis or the boats are moving and it all sprays up behind it. We were in the water for like 6 hours, much nicer after the sun went down as it cooled a lot. The water is like a spa its so warm. The boats we were out on were soooo cool, with massive motors and brand new shiny white with room down starts, very flash!!
We headed back to the marina about 1am and the other boat + 2 of the jet skis ran out of petrol so we had to tow them back! It was a mission trying to get a large speed boat back to its berth with no fuel heehee.
We then spent 2 hours in the pool of the four seasons hotel a very enjoyable day.

Saturday (like Sunday as the weekend is fir, sat) Bec, Ellen and I went out to the intercontinental. The girls got massages while I sat browning by the pool. Its almost too hot though and there is no way you can sit in the sun before 3pm. The sun comes up about 4:30 – 5am so by 11am its bloody hot. The sun sets about 5:30-6pm no daylight saving here. We had a lovely lunch at the Italian restaurant and then headed home. Didn’t do much the rest of the day and then back to work on Sunday.

2006-06-17T17:10:00.000+03:00

PICTURES!!

Ok this is the like seriously the 10th time i have tried to load this picture!!!! My god how hard can it be. Hope i dont totally bore you with the info overload below but i just had so much to say!

YAY YAY YAY ok this is a pic of Doha city as we flew in from Dubai. Its strange to see the sprouting little citys and compounds in the middle of the desert!! There is nothing for miles then pop a little plot of buildings.

This is a rather hazy picture of Doha city with all the cranes! We were on our way to the sand bar for a boat party and jet skiing but that is a story for another day. See how like evey building has a crane!! There is so much construction going on here it like a kids set of Lego city!! This is at about 5pm the haze is mostly dust from the sandy land and from all the construction.

This is the lounge room of our guest house where we are staying. It's pretty flash. We are ment to be there for 2 weeks before we move into our company housing but as its falling down we will be here for about a month. Not a bad thing really and means we are all together and its free so puts rent of for a little longer :)
I share a house with KT from Melbourne and Rafeala from Torino Italy.

This picture was taken at the camel, goat and sheep market. Locals come to purchase these camels for meat. They are massive. We later went to a Souq which is the name for a local market and saw some of the pots and pans they use to cook them, massive! When it cools down a little we are going to go for a camel ride out in the desert. It's too hot now and they have suspended them till september. Its not unusual for it to reach 50 degrees in the summer!

Will publish more pics soon, they keep deleting on me, plus its starting to get dark and dont want the hebegebes to get me!

2006-06-17T17:06:00.000+03:00

My first week

I arrived in Doha on Saturday at 9am and was met by a driver to take me to the guest house where i’m now staying. There were about 15 of us from a couple of different flights. The men and women were separated into two different busses and we were taken to the Luxurious Apartments. Its lovely here, there are 3 apartments on each floor, 5 floors with a gym on the top floor. I share with two other girls, one from Melbourne and the other from the Torino Italy Winter Olympics. We each have a room, there are 3 toilets a massive kitchen, lounge and dining room, big tv! It’s fully furnished and so flash. A little cold at times as everyone in this country insists on having the air-conditioning set to minus 10!! Ok 21 but that’s cold when you come inside from a muggy 35 degrees. We stay here for free for 2 weeks while we find accommodation or wait to be placed in DAGOC Company housing. Due to the little “falling down” incident it’s likely we’ll be here for about a month. Free! Sounds good to me!

Saturday we were picked up by Lauren who has been living in Doha about 6 weeks. She took us to a big shopping centre so we could have some lunch and go to the supermarket ect. She then took us on a quick tour of the offices and the HUGE Athletes Village which is where i’m working. The village for the Asian Games will house over 10,300 athletes and officials so its going to be a big job, twice the size of the Commonwealth Games.

Here the week starts on Sunday and goes till Thursday. Sunday morning we caught the work shuttle from the guest house at 6:45am! Work hours here are 7:30-2:30. We were taken to a medical centre to have a blood test and an x-ray as they test for certain things for us to be allegeable for our residency permits. There was a lot of waiting around, almost 5 hours so we were thankful to get home to have a rest before going into town again.

Monday we had a city tour. We were taken first to the camel, sheep and goat sale yards. These camels are brought for meat and later we were shown the huge pots and pans they use for cooking and I mean HUGE!!! Camel meat is quite popular in the local families but it’s illegal to sell it in restaurants. Next we were taken to the Fruit and Vegetable Souqs. Souq is the word for market and there are fish, gold, vegetable and fruit and goods souqs. The prices are very reasonable and I brought lots of very fresh vegetables and fruit for only 16QR. The gold markets were amazing, I have never seen anything like the jewelry they have here it’s unbelievable. I spoke to one of the store men about the diamonds he was selling and the best quality one he had sparkled like nothing I have ever seen before, it was about the size of 2 pin heads and was US$7,000. Didn’t spend too long looking in that shop. It was funny walking around thought and being hassled into coming into their stores with such invites as “missy please come you no buy just take a look, its ok just take a look, the pretty lady discount store.” Heehee

We visited the Souq Waqif where you can buy dried fruit, nuts and spices, clothing, fabric and cooking equipment, big enough to cook a camel! It was full of amazing sites and smells. Before settling down for a cold drink we walked into a bird store. The local people have falcons and eagles for pets and this store was full of birds and birding accessories such as little hats and cages. Many of the places you stop for drinks and food also sell Sisha which is a traditional pipe for smoking tobacco, often flavored. You often see men sharing these pipes in the coffee houses.
Monday afternoon we went out to the Diplomatic club, one of the many country clubs in Qatar. One of the girls i’m living with organized her membership from the USA and we went with her to collect her membership card and have a look around. Very posh, even had its own private beach. There was a swimming pool, gym, sports facilities and sail, canoe, windsurfing hire as well as 3 lovely restaurants. We had lunch at one on the beach. We ordered drinks and before we had even ordered food they brought out plates of bread, pickled vegetables, olives and fresh vegetables, bringing more baskets of bread before we had event finished the first one.

Tuesday was our induction day; we arrived at work as usual at 7am and waited till 8am to start the session. We were given masses of forms to fill out and told about the company and the games. This finished about 11am and we were taken back to the guesthouse. A friend and I decided to go out in search of an internet café. Risking our lives in the sweltering heat and to cross the ever threatening Qatari roads where you have to look in the other direction, got to get used to that. That evening I went to a training centre to help with the first induction of our volunteers for the village and to meet others in my department.

Wednesday we were taken to immigration for finger printing and blood typing. Another day with lots of waiting around. We had every possible section of our fingers and palms inked and printed about 3 times. Then taken to another medical centre to get a finger prick for blood typing. Not sure why they needed that and would really trust the results as his documenting methods left many chances for sabotage, mostly by the air-conditioning fan blowing right onto his desk. He would take the register sheet from us and put it at the bottom of his pile, no number or anything. Prick our finger and rub it on the slide which he then placed in a line with all the others, also with no numbers?????? Dodgy system.

Over all this place is going great and i’m loving it. It’s great to be a newy with everyone else, also knowing that there are new people coming all the time. Work is pretty slow at the moment in our department so I’ve been told to make my stack of manual and policy reading take as long as I can. Apparently there is a lunch lady that will cook you lunch everyday for a monthly fee. It’s all very easy and we are being very well looked after. Cannot complain. Hopefully they will build our house a little stronger than the other one!

Unfortunately due to the coming summer months and the heat many of the desert tours have been suspended until September. We are entitled to 25 days annual leave which we cannot take until our 2 month probationary period is up which is about the 11 August. We found out today that all leave is suspended from the 17th August until the end of the games as we are needed to work so that shortens my holiday plans a little. There are the weekends though and we can get trips to Dubai and other surrounding countries for a good price to travel on the weekend.
The camel racing season begins in October and there are countless beaches, social clubs, classes and water sports to keep us entertained. Life here is going to be great.

2006-06-17T16:53:00.000+03:00

Doha, State of Qatar

This is such an amazing place and nothing like what I ever imagined. Not that I’m really sure what I thought it would be like. Its getting into summer and the temperature is about 35 degrees most days. In the summer months of July August it can reach as high as 50 and it’s much more humid than I was expecting, because it is a peninsular and almost totally surrounded by water. Doha is the capital and more than 50% of the countries population lives here in this city. There are about 800,000 people living in this country only 200,000 of which are actually Qatari people. The rest of them come from all over the world.

The land is sandy and covered with rubble. There is little grass except outside wealthy homes and some buildings, which is watered constantly. Petrol is so cheep here I thought they were exaggerating when they said petrol is cheaper than water, they weren’t. It costs about 20 Qatari Riyals for a pint of beer and only 25 to fill a normal sized sedan. Water costs about 1 Qatari Riyals per liter!! (There are approx 2.7 QR to the Australian dollar) so that makes a tank of petrol about $9.25 aussie to fill your tank. I’ll try my best to bring some back ok! Taxis are very cheap a 15 minute ride only 7QR and if you hire a limousine (not really a limo by our standards it just means a big flash Toyota) then its about 35 QR / hour. There is a bus system but it has only been in service for about 5 months and most people don’t know about it. Some of the taxi drivers speak a little English, but they don’t know the names of the roads they navigate by landmarks. To get to the place where we are staying we say, KFC roundabout (yes as in the chicken place) and we can direct them from there. Probably a good thing as it we’d have a hard time trying to pronounce the Arabic street names.

The best way I can describe Qatar is unfinished and random. It’s a tiny country only about 11,500 sq kilometers but at present there must be at least 50 buildings under construction just in the city of Doha. There are huge holes everywhere and the roads are being dug up and changed which makes getting around a little tricky. Sometimes you would drive down a road then come to a road block and have to drive all the way back and find another route. The road system works on 5 rings around the city inside each other and then many long straight road sprouting from the rings going out as far as you can see.
They seem to use much of the traditional way of building on many of the new constructions, which I’m sure would never pass any sort of standards in our country. The new DAGOC (the company I work for) housing had to be evacuated last week as its falling down. People have only just moved in there and it’s brand new. A little scary. Thankfully all the hotels and stadiums we are building are a little more stable, though i’m not sure where I’ll be living for a while.

It’s a strange place to look at and as I said looks very unfinished. There isn’t any dirt as such so when they have finished a building it just stands in the middle of a sandy rocky plot unless they bring in the landscapers or pave/tar seal the surrounding land. There is a huge amount of development going on for the games and it will be interesting to see the country develop over the next 7 months.

They are currently constructing an island called the Pearl. Similar to “The World” and “The Palm” in Dubai which holds hundreds of houses, apartments as well as shopping centers on a man made pearl shaped island.

It’s a very safe place, you often see people park their car outside a building, leave the key in the ignition and the doors unlooked while they pop into the bank or a store so they don’t have to turn off the air conditioning. One of the people at my company, who has been working for a while, went on holiday for 5 weeks and forgot to lock his house. He discovered his door unlocked when he returned and nothing had been touched. There is almost no crime and the punishments are very strict.

Here people drive on the U.S.A side of the road, fast and I almost think they just close their eyes and put their foot down. Lots of very busy round abouts where people sometimes park their cars, and drop people off!! Most people have massive 4wd’s hummers, big jeeps and land cruisers. There are also busses just like the ones on The Simpson’s, the big yellow school busses for local school kids.

2006-06-17T16:51:00.000+03:00

It has been more than a month since my last entry. I have moved to the Middle East to live in Doha, Qatar to work with the Asian Games.

I had a great time in New Zealand for two months with mum! It was really good to spend some time with her and get away from Melbourne for a while. It was very busy Jan-April with the Commonwealth Games, moving house and country, and having a little car accident. New Zealand was relaxing and mum looked after me really well!
I went back to Melbourne on the 4th June for my university graduation. Finally have my little pieces of paper. I flew out from Melbourne on the 9th June to Dubai on Emirates. The flight took 13 hours but was ok as left at 11pm and there were over 600 channels of movies, television, news and radio to be entertained by. After a 3 ½ hour stopover in Dubai we took off to Doha.

2006-05-03T13:13:00.000+03:00

Maruia springs.

For mothers day me and mum decided to take a drive down to maruia springs. We got in the car and drove for about 2 ½ hours the last half thinking “it cant be much further than this!” It was spitting most of the way but was lovely driving through the hills with a slight mist. When we got there we checked into our “executive” not, rooms and then headed back to reception to collect our key for our private spa. How romantic. That was lovely but there was black stuff floating around in the water and it was really cloudy. Apparently the bacteria and the stuff that lives in the “natural” hot water springs. Ummmmmm not sure how much of that I believe, but it was lovely and relaxing and our little bath house had a lovely view out over the river and up into the hills. Didn’t quite work up enough courage to get our kit off in the men and women separate bath house as that’s going a little to far for me! No one has seen me in the bath in my birthday suit for quite a number of years, well almost no one.

The spa went for about 40 mins and I spent about 10 trying to work out how to turn off the jets that I had activated to HIGH. We then adorned our kimonos and headed back up to the main house for 30 mins of bliss. Well mine was there was a lot of chopping coming from mums side of the massage table. I loved mine, she covered me with hot towels. LOVELY…..

Then it was back to the room to get ready for dinner. Not that we needed to get ready really im sure we would have been accepted in our kimonos! Heehee oh such a snob. The dinner was lovely, fried tofu was so nice and tempura prawns. The dinner was in steamboat style with lots of veges, chicken, beef and salmon. Really enjoyed the meal. We tried to brave the cold and rain for a dip in the water but we decided to reserve that adventure for the next morning.
it was still raining in the morning but there had been snow overnight and the hills were all capped with lovely white snow. We plopped ourselves in the lovely hot spring water and relaxed looking around at the gorgeous view.

Loved my kimono so much that I had to buy one. So cool!

2006-04-17T14:49:00.000+03:00

This was the cutest car in the world!! It had the number plate WEE QT it was so little!!

Went to the WOW museum in Nelson today which also has a classic car section. WOW is the world of wearable arts. An awards show where people enter these amazing costumes made out of anything you could imagine! Mum is very interested in this as she is designing costumes of this award show as part of her costume design degree. Really enjoyed looking at al the outrageous costumes. Nelson is where this awards show was fist run and it has since moved to Wellington as it needed a bigger venue. There were also some great old cars.

2006-04-16T14:44:00.000+03:00

What a day I have had! For dads 50th we arranged a weekend of things to do, sailing on Thursday, an 1 ½ hour boat ride out to a lovely café for lunch on Friday, Saturday we relaxed in the morning then went exploring around Nelson and back for a party last night. Then today, Sunday we had one more surprise for dad… Sky diving. Which he insisted he did not want to do alone and so I was enrolled to go along with him!

Well let me say I was a little nervous on the way to the airport. It all went pretty quick, we were strapped into our gear, met our instructor and then into the plane we piled. My instructor was Matt, he told me he had a massive crush on a girl called Cushla when he was younger. How fitting. So cush and Matt climbed to 13,000 feet and then for some reason opened the door and jumped out!

When we got to 5,000 feet it already looked more than high enough to me. When we got to 13,000 it was cold enough that you could see your breath coming out of your mouth!

It was the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life. No time for being scared as they just shuffle along to the door and out you go free falling for 50 seconds from 13,000 feet to 5,000 feet where they open the parachute. So much fun!

Why jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane???

2006-04-14T14:25:00.000+03:00

Today we went out to a lovely café in the Tasman National Park for lunch. You could only get to this place by boat so we caught a water taxi. Angie and I were all dressed up looking nice for a lunch for dad’s birthday. We arrived at the place to catch the taxi and everyone was dressed in their tramping gear, as most people are there to do the walks in the national park. When we had to get off the boat we felt like such little princesses as we both had jeans and high shoes on (substituted for jandels/thongs a bit later on) and the water came up to our keens. So dad had to piggy back us from the boat onto the shore. The other people must have been thinking “what a bunch of prisses!”

On the way to the café we were taken past this awesome rock which was huge and had been split straight down the middle. It's called split apple rock. We were also shown a large colony of fur seals. They were so cute.

2006-04-13T09:13:00.000+03:00

Hey everyone,

Hope you all have a really awesome easter and eat lots of chocolate. Have fun wherever you are and whatever you’re doing and remember Cushie loves you xxx

This is my lovely house in Nelson. Mum has moved here from Wellington (New Zealand) to do a degree in costume design. Dad is still in Hong Kong and Angie is doing uni in Wellington and flatting with some friends.

This is the other hose next door which we are pulling down and then building another one that mum can use as a studio and gallery and maybe a bed and breakfast which she has always wanted to do. Dad wants to build it to look like a “just landed spaceship” and I think he needs to stop drinking so much wine! But the drawings he has done look really cool. A bit different anyway ;)

And this is the lovely view from our house over Tasmin Bay. It’s so beautiful! But I don’t have curtains and the sun pours in at some ungodly hour of the morning and the neighbors might be getting more of a view than they paid for!!!!

Angie, Dad and I went for a wee walk to the centre of New Zealand yesterday. It was pretty steep but the views from the top over Nelson were awesome.

Today was dad’s 50th birthday! We had breakfast with our friend Moet which was awesome!! We then circumnavigated the harbour in basically no wind and dad got the rather adventurous idea of sailing to a little island and tying the yacht to the jetty’s wooden ladder. After many attempts, and hitting the rocks, we were able to drag the boat close enough to tie it to the posts. I now know why my father has got as far as he has as he takes no from no one!

Have been to a few job interviews but nothing so far. A little hard as im only here such a short time. I think waitressing or bar work is about all I will get.

Really loving it here though. It’s so quiet and relaxing. Thought I might shrivel up and die in this small little town (Angie calls it the retirement home heehee) but it’s fine.
Missing everyone heaps and cant wait to see you all when I get to where you are. My vague outline of an itinerary is:

Definitely – Fly to Melbourne on the 4th of June for my graduation on the 7th

Don’t have a date for the rest but I will be flying to Hong Kong to stay with Dad about the 10th of June for a week.
I then go to England (or to Doha hopefully depending on getting a job!)
November 6th Phuket for Ravens wedding!! Yay I get to be a beachy bridesmaid!

Keep in touch so I can catch up with all of you when I’m traveling. Those of you not in those countries I will see you on the way back maybe! Keep in touch!
Lots of love Cushla

2006-04-10T08:25:00.000+03:00

Hello all my beloved peoples!

Hope you are all missing me like crazy. I miss you! Thought I would get this blog thing going as everyone else has one and I want to be cool like them. Seriously no, just want to keep you in the know of my shenanigans as I travel the world. Make sure you write to me and I will write back to you I promise. And then whenever I get to where you are we will party Cushie style and show everyone else on the dance floor how to do it. (m2006 – especially if there is a wall! haahaa)

Love always Cushla xxx