So I left the fabulous Borneo Rainforest Lodge on Friday and took the looooong windy, bumpy road back to Lhad Datu. Two and half hours later (and after passing more elephant dung, but no elephants) we were at the little, and I mean LITTLE airport (I think my office is almost as big as the checkin area). Anyway, by 4:10 we were airborne and by 5:00 we had landed in Kota Kinabalu. I grabbed my luggage and walked to the departures area and checked in for my 7:05 flight to Kula Lumpur and by 10:00 p.m. I had arrived in KL, retrieved my luggage and was in my room at the airport hotel.
On Saturday morning I checked in for my flight to Doha, Qatar and once on board, found someone had unilaterally changed my seat from 2K (window seat) to 1E (a cubicle in the middle without a window). I immediately called foul and had the flight attendants try and figure out what happened. The cubicles in the middle of the plane are like closets without windows and are incredibly claustrophobic so there was no way I wanted to spend 8 hours in one. After much back and forth (including some guy trying to tell me that the woman now sitting in my seat had paid for the seat despite the fact I was showing this guy my confirmed seat assignment) they were able to move me to 8K. Thank God. I would have gone crazy for 8 hours sitting in a closet. (I know first world problems, but if you could see the difference between the window and the middle cubicle, it is pretty drastic.)
Anyway, I landed in Doha only to find out that our gate was a 35 minute walk to immigration and baggage claim … seriously. And there were no carts to wheel baggage and there were none of those escalator like walkways. Good grief. Fortunately, some kind man from Sweden took pity on me after seeing me repeatedly stop to readjust my carry on bag (that had no wheels). He grabbed my bag and set it on top his roller bag and walked with me to immigration. Thanks again fella. You are a gem!
Once I was through immigration and had my bag, I found a taxi, gave him the name of my hotel and proceeded to be taken … to the wrong hotel. I was staying at the Tivoli Najd in the old Souk Waqif (the original old market area of Doha) and he took me to a sister hotel Tivoli Najada (also in the old souk). I kept insisting to the cabbie I was at the wrong hotel, but he told me I was wrong and essentially booted me out. So I went into the hotel only to the told (as I knew I would be) that I was at the wrong hotel and I had to walk across the the courtyard and around the corner. What the guy forgot to tell me is that once through the courtyard, I was not required to turn the corner until I crossed the street and walked another block. Long story short, I walked around for 25 minutes hauling my luggage before going back to where I started and asking for help.
Fortunately, the general manager of the Tivoli Najada hotel overheard me telling my story to the front desk clerk and sprung into action. He took my bags, ordered up a golf court and we were soon zipping to my hotel. Now once there, he insisted on upgrading me to fix the situation so not only did I end up in a suite, but he recommended a change in hotels from the Najd Boutique Hotel to Al Jasra Boutique Hotel. another of the Tivoli sister hotels right around the corner (there are 5 Tivoli boutique hotels in the souk) so that I could have a balcony view over Souk Waqif. I have always found middle eastern hospitality to be above and beyond and this guy again proved it!
Anyway, once in my hotel I took in the views from the balcony, including views of the Corniche (walking area along the waterfront) and the nearby camel stables) and waited for the 6:00ish call to prayer so Doha would wake up.
Now as I previously mentioned, Ramadan started in the Muslim countries on March 11, but for the most part, it has been a pretty innocuous affair for me. Kota Kinabalu was pretty relaxed for Ramadan vis a vis tourists and while there were certainly a lot of food stalls that sprung up as the evening prayer was called (announcing the end of the daily fast), Qatar is another animal. There is ZERO tolerance for drinking or eating in public. There are small, closed off areas in hotels for tourists to eat, but that is it (although you can order room service).
And talk about deserted. The streets were virtually empty while I was being driven to my (wrong) hotel. But, once that call to prayer hit at 6:00ish, Doha woke up. By 7:30, streets were alive, women with food stalls were hawking their specialities in the square, the souk was alive with shops selling gold, and perfume and spices and carpets and on and on.
I ended up going for a walk around the souk, which had turned into a party like atmosphere (or as much of a party like atmosphere as you can have without alcohol) with families walking and buying food and ice cream for the kids. At one end of the souk,I visited the Gold Souke (which sadly had been moved into a shopping mallish type building – much less atmospheric than the Dubai Gold Souk), found some “stuff” and then hit the big score of the night. I walked down one of the narrow alleys the souk is known for and … da da dada … found Christmas ornaments!!!! Still a solid 100%. I figured this one was going to be a challenge, but nope. Found an assortment of hand blown glass ornaments, some with camels on them and some with beautiful Arabic designs, including the word Qatar in Arabic. I opted for the designs and was thrilled to cross that off my list.
I then wandered by the food stalls and watched a woman make these amazing Arabic crepes called Khubuz Regaag. She would drop a bit of dough on a flaming hot griddle, spread the dough out paper thin, crack an egg on the thin dough, scramble up the egg, add some spreadable cheese, fold the crepe over and call it good. And they were indeed good.
By now, it was close to 9:00 and I was done it. With the time change (by 5:00 hours) it was actually 2:00 a.m. for me, but the only way to get over jet lag is to push through so I managed to hang in there until 9:30, before hitting the bed. Tomorrow I have a city tour of Doha and the Souk.
