Doha Photos 1

A batch of photos I took during my time in Doha. Will upload more over the coming days. More available on my flickr

Camping trip update!

Been back for two days now but was busy with other stuff so had no time to update.

The trip was a blast! We didn't do any snorkeling because the red tide was still in town after nearly a month. What is the red tide you say?

""Red tide" is a common name for a phenomenon known as an algal bloom, an event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water coulmn, or "bloom"... Some red tides are associated with the production of natural toxins, depletion of dissolved oxygen or other harmful impacts, and are generally described as harmful algal blooms. The most conspicuous effects of red tides are the associated wildlife mortalities among marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals and other organisms."

Taken from wiki.

Therefore most of the sea creatures were dead and the water was a murky green color. However we ended up doing other outdoor activities and just lazing in the sun. And ofcourse, we had to get stuck in the soft beach sand. Luckily my Baba is an expert in handling this situation and the car was unsunk in a matter of minutes.

We set up camp; three two person tents and one eight person tent, then went off exploring the beach. Here a couple of shots of the dead sea creatures I found.












When the tide was out a huge area of rocks and tidal pools unveiled to us! We just had to explore it and found some awesome creatures. Lots of live eels were slithering around us. I admit I was rather scared of them. Also saw a Mudskipper (amphibious fish) and lots of crabs.














At night the sky was so full of stars! I always get mesmerized by it. Since it was so dark at night and also rather cold, we each had a little map and sweater and jacket as demonstrated by my brother here (that's him actually posing)





We had built a bonfire that warmed us up while we sat together around the camping table and talked and listened to music. Here is a vid oh my little brother busting some moves.





A shot of the sunrise, beach hopscotch and a couple of shot of the gang.









More photos can be found on my flickr.

Camping trip

I just know I should have slept a bit earlier ._.

I slept at 1 am and just woke up (7.20 am) to the voice of my Baba telling me to get ready. I was supposed to be up by 7 am, but I kinda rolled over and went back to sleep again in my comfertable Queen bed.

I feel so groggy and snappy and my voice is all husky and manly. I need my 8 hours of sleep or else I am not a happy camper. Not a good start to a camping trip I have been looking forward to for the past week xD

We're going to an area called Seefa, which is about an hour's drive away from the capital Muscat, and camp for two nights. It's gonna be the first camping trip for my 6 year old sister and 5 year old brother, so they are pretty darn excited. I can't believe my brother is already up at this hour of the morning. It would take a nucleur bomb to wake him up during normal school days at such an hour =/ He's already downstairs, all dressed eating his Bee'9 (Egg).

I haven't been camping in three long years! We're gonna do a bit of fishing as well as snorkelling. I hope the beach we will camp on will have some caves to explore.

Packed lots of warm clothes, since the nights are here are pretty chilly, as well as a huge can of mosquito repellant as it is the season for them at the moment.

Ok I better go take a shower and wake myself up a bit. Can't risk the danger of hearing Baba yelling my name up the stairs since that would mean I am late and will be in for a lecture on punctuality.

Back in 2 nights, if I dont get eaten by a shark or stung to death by a jelly fish =D

Home

I am back home =)

It's been three hours now. My whole family (except for one sister) came to pick me up from the airport. I was pleasantly suprised as each kept popping up from the background (they wandered away to the food court coz I was kinda late walking out due to luggage being late as usual). Biggest surprise is seeing my sister in a cast xD She broke her foot poor thing. And my little brother just had to do a powerslide on the floor when running up to me to give me a hug, grabbing ost of the attention.

Got loads of pressies for everyone from Thailand, it felt good making them all happy. I remember, when I was young, being estatic when my Mom or Dad got me something from their travels around the globe. That hasn't changed much lol.

Just took a lovely shower, and now am sitting on my bed in my lovely bedroom facing my black Sakura Tree. Time to sleep. Night night ^_^

Gone Asian.

Anyone who knows me pretty well sure does have an idea of how much I love my own food and in this summer, unlike anyother time I enojyed experiencing Three different, new to me, far eastren resturants which happen to exist in three different countries.

Had I known how delicious this can get, I would've visit what I had of options in Doha frequently, sad enough and knowing how lazy I can get, It just never happend. I always had fantasies of trying certain things -thanks to anime-. Fortunatly, it all started when two of my friends while my recent visit to Jordan were with me, one of them was totally new to the country and the other is more used than me about it.

WOX Chinese Restuarnat in Jordan:

WOX[best image I found]

The place was elegant and classy. Not so known as well for there are better Chinese resturants in Jordan, as says the web, but it was worth trying. No it was fantastic. We ordered some noodles and weird beef stew and mushroom soup. Now that didn't sound so chinese, but at least the noodles did and that what was my friend's order to us as he offered to order on our behalf. I enjoyed the service and it was not pocket-holing. I'd give it seven juciy points out of ten. This resturant is also known for its delievery and hence the best dinner for a date.

My Thai Snack(Amjad)

Thanks to my friend who introduced this to me, appeartnly this existed in Doha since forever, but I always thought of it as a massage center only and not a side resturant. People usually like Thai food the least out of other countries in the far east. The prices were very normal. I had two dishes when I first tried it: Squid Noodle Soup & Pad Se Eiw Chicken. Very tasty I must say.


I visited the best japanese resturant in lebanon, but I can't recall its name. I had 10 different kinds of sushis as I recall with the guys. I will update this post whenever I remember.

What I want to taste the most?

Ichiraku Ramen. With beef. Japanese dish.

Journey

Am home =) In my bedroom in Muscat, Listening to Incubus - Wish You Were Here. This song violently reminds me of Austraila, I used to listen to it alot when I spent a summer in Sydney a while back. I can see Darling Harbour with the sunlight reflecting on the water and the annoying seagulls all around and feel a cool breeze blowing in my face. If I ever go to Sydney again, I must listen to this song while sitting at one of the Cafes overlooking the harbour. It's on my list of things to do before I die =P

It's so wonderful to be back. It actually feels like I never left ... as though NZ is one hella long dream I've been having. Very weird feeling I must say.

Haha am so proud of me coz I did not over pack! My bag was really light and empty this time, not full to the point where I needed to sit on top of it in order to close it. Am finally starting to learn how to travel lightly =P While packing I came across this intresting creature crawling on a white dress of mine. I see this metallic colored round dot moving around. I had to do a double take to make sure the thing was actually moving coz I though it was one of those designy stuff they stick on clothes, not sure what they are called lol. I let it crawl unto my finger to have a closer look at it. It looks exactly like a Lady Bug, except that instead of having a red outer coating with black spots, this bug had a beatuiful metallic green outer coating. Hmm ... perhaps it's some sort of mutant Lady Bug, or this particular Lady Bug decided to rebel against fashion conformities and just be different and unique. Whatever the case, I carried the little thing out.

As much as I would love to bitch and moan about how terrible the flight was from Auckland to Thailand ... I don't really have any right to. It was suprisingly pleasant, Al-7amdullah. Usually these flights feel like a lifetime to me. I literally count the minutes until we land, as I can't sleep and feel too disgusted by the smell of the air in an airplane and the icky airplane food. I didn't even take notice of the too clean air smell this time, ate a little of the aiplane food (bread and dessert) and I slept through the rest of the trip after watching Ratatouille (when on an airplane one needs to watch movies and shows that require no brain power whatsoever, just lots of pretty colors and lame lines and jokes) Arrived in Thailand at 8.30 pm, was in my Hotel by 9.30, and asleep by 11 pm ^_^

I went shopping the next morning. Last time I was in Bangkok with friends, we decided to take a took took to take us to the shopping mall.

Scariest.Ride.Of.My.Life.

I swear at one point the took took was so close to tipping over because of the sharpness of the turns the driver kept taking. And he freaking drove into oncoming traffic and turned into an alleyway at the last few moments.

So what do I do? I grab a took took this time to take me to my shopping destination =P It wasn't bad at all, the driver was civil, but OMG THE POLLUTION! Thai's air pollution situation is terrible, really terrible. And the the way people drive there is incredible. One word: pandemonium. There isn't any real order system when it comes to driving there. People just jump out from anywhere wether in a vehicle or walking along/across a road and it's just plain crazy lol. I wondered about the accident statistics in Bangkok while in the took took. The number of fatalites must be pretty high, espically when it comes to scooters and motorcycles. I arrived at my destination in one piece 7amdullah and spent four hours shopping. Most of my purchases were pressies for family and friends in addition to some computer games for myself.

Flight from Bangkok to Muscat was pleasant as well. Sat next to a Singaporian Professor of Radiology and chatted with him through most of the trip. One of my career choices was to become a Radioligist, so it was cool to learn more about what he does.

Boy were the butterflies fluttering in my tummy when the Pilot announced that we are gonna land in Muscat soon. I started getting major excited from seeing Muscat's night lights. Tried in vain to a grab a shot of it using the night mode of my camera =P Silly attempt lol, but got this instead.

I went through the whole passport control thing, got my luggage and haha , it was time walk out to the public area. I walked out to this little girl with 5aroof hair (Sheep hair), a lovely golden tan and a huge grin on her face standing not far ahead of me. She stared at me for a few seconds, bitting the nail on one of her finger then started running towards me and into my arms. A few seconds later I felt another pair of arms surround me and it was my other sister. I was laughing from the joy I felt at seeing them, and not too far away I could see my Mother standing with her hands behind her back and smiling at us. I gave her a huge hug as well, and she went "Uff...you smell like Thailand!" HAHA! That made me feel like I never left Oman and that am just salaming her after being out of the house for a little while.

I came home to greet the rest of my Family, except for baby sis, and started gushing to everyone about how my trip was and giving out the gifts I bought each.

The next morning, I walked out of my bedroom to see my baby sister on her high chair, watching Barney. Lol she gave me a weird look when I went over and kissed her, and after staring at me for a while she went "Mama?" ^_^ The confusion lasted the whole day, where she kept calling me "Sahla" when me and Mama are in her vicinity, while she would call me "Mama" if it was me on my own. But she's all good now and knows I am "Sahla" =P

Ok am tired of typing ... done with this post ... talk more later =P