Landing in Doha, Qatar
Before landing, Qatar Airways played a cute animated video explaining the process of deplaning and moving forward once in Doha, capital of Qatar. Qatar, pronounced phonetically 'cutter', is an interesting place. Qatar's relatively small population of 1m has the highest per capita income of any country in the world - a little more than twice that of the US!
Doha airport is currently under construction. After landing, everyone on the plane would board various vehicles based on both final destination and cabin class. Boarding pass envelopes and carry on luggage tags are color coded tag - so all staff knows if you're in the right building/area. In a nutshell, if a passengers final destination is Qatar than they would need to clear customs and potentially acquire a visa. Boarding pass envelops and luggage tags are green in this case.
If Qatar is not the final destination, just like elsewhere in the world, clearing customs is not necessary and such passengers are taken to the terminal area. Such passengers have a yellow boarding pass envelope and luggage slip. Since I had about 3 hours of time to kill I figured I could stroll through town quickly, see the skyline, and than head back with time to spare. After seeing how the color coding system worked though, I was dubious. After I cleared security and was in the terminal area I asked one of the airport staff if it was possible to leave the airport and how much time I should expect to allow for getting back through security to the gate. He confirmed my final destination and that thought I had more than enough time. He escorted me back to the shuttle bus and explained what to do.
I left the departures building via a shuttle bus for the arrivals building, where I would clear customs for my 1 hour soiree in Doha. When I entered the building I was astounded by how long the customs line was - there were hundreds of people in the line in front of me. Knowing I had 3 hours, I figured I had nothing to loose by waiting. It took over 2 hours to clear customs, not to mention a 100 riyal fee for a visa. At the time, I had no idea what 100 riyals meant in US dollars and was a bit concerned, I'd later find out it's about $26. After clearing customs I realized I couldn't go out the area I came in through - I had to board a shuttle bus that departed every 15 minutes or so for the departure area. I had about 40 minutes so I was beginning to sweat - if there was a line to clear security I might be screwed. I was mentally beginning to prepare for a night in Qatar. After waiting about 10 minutes for the shuttle bus to start moving, we drove around the city block and on the highway to the short term parking lot - right across from the terminal building and close enough for me to walk. There were two terminal buildings though, so I was sorta chancing it. Lucky for me, Qatar is in the first building, all other airlines are in the second. Upon entering the building I asked a man for directions to the gate. There was no line in security, but knowing I was in a hurry he helped me skirt through - with full water bottles and all. I checked the monitor - it indicated the gate was closed! D'oh! I jetted off to the gate anyway to see what they could do, maybe I could do some sweet talking. There was a couple talking to the gate agent and they were not happy. A second gate attendant appeared out of nowhere. For reasons unknown, she knew who I was without telling her. Boy did this woman give me a verbal lashing. I accept it - it was well deserved. She let me board the bus and off I was to the plane!
Flight to Dubai
The bus was going to the plane had about 10 people in it - so I wasn't the last strangler on the plane. Planes are not connected to the gates at Doha because of the construction - everyone boards a bus than walks up a stairway on the ramp outside. I suspect the buildings used now are temporary while the main terminal is constructed. Once everyone had boarded we'd find out the flight was delayed! In the end, we left about an hour late. Aside from the delay, the flight to Dubai was short (1 hr or so) and uneventful.
Arriving in Dubai
I had arrived in Dubai, one of the 7 emirate states that forms the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The first thing I noticed getting off the plane was a huge sign in the terminal for a driving school. The ad showed a blond adult women with car keys in her hand. 'Get your license in Dubai', the advertisement read. I'm guessing it's well targeted marketing. Clearing passport control in Dubai was fast - it took an entire 5 minutes for the woman running the customs both to stamp my passport. As I approached the customs exit, two men in military type uniforms were holding hands. I quickly remembered hand holding is a sign of friendship in the Arab world. This was the first time I had seen it in person.
After leaving customs, I had to purchase a SIM card for my phone and pickup the rental car. At this
point I could see sunlight outside - it was almost 6am. The UAE has 2 cell providers, Etisalat (my Egyptian provider) and a company called Du. Esisalat could not do any activations since their system was down for maintenance so Du it was. The SIM card and 1GB of prepaid data cost about $40
- a bit more than all the other countries. Since I'd be in Dubai for 9 days I saw it as a necessity. Being able to use Google maps, tripadvisor, Google Voice, etc. without worrying about being connected to WiFi makes traveling so much easier.
I had booked the rental car through Kayak and the provider again was...Europcar. After the experience I had renting with them in Cyprus I had hoped to never do business with them again. There were two people in the tiny booth, an Indian man and an Asian woman. The Indian man spoke British English with a very heavy accent. He was not very helpful and rather argumentative. First, he insisted I upgrade to an automatic because the car I booked was a manual. Second, he didn't like my credit card...he didn't believe it was a Visa. The card I have is Chase Sapphire Preferred that looks a bit different than most credit cards and does not have the Visa logo on the front. The visa logo is visible on the back though and has raised numbers to allow for carbon copy imprints when necessary. The card is great for international travel because the incentives are fantastic and there is no currency conversion fee. After insisting it is indeed a Visa, he struggled to take an imprint. He than insists firmly that I must use a different card. My domestic default American Express will have to do this time. The man's directions were poor - it took me about a half hour to find the car. The car wasn't much different than the car I had in Cyprus. One oddity, the car actually had an aftermarket radio with detachable face.
To the Hotel
I had booked a hotel for the first night via Kayak at $53, very cheap for the area. The hotel was named Time Square Dubai. I figured 5 hours of sleep and a shower before checking out would start the first day in Dubai the best it would be. Since the flight was late it would be more like 4 hours before checkout. The hotel was in an older area of Dubai - "original Dubai" someone would later call it. I double parked and checked in, asking if late check out was available. The man behind the counter asked when I wished to check out - I didn't have an answer. He suggested 5, which confused me entirely. I've never heard of such a late check out. I tell him I'm extremely grateful and that I was exhausted from the flight - he smiled and gave me a card to check in. I went to the room, dropped my bags off, and than parked the car. I ended up in a pay lot and negotiated parking down from 70 dirhams ($20 USD) to 40 dirhams. Back to the hotel and off to bed I was!
Waking up in Dubai
I woke up naturally and somewhat rested about 6 hours later - around 2pm. I took a shower, and, for the first time since leaving Cyprus, I shaved. The hotel didn't have free WiFi and my phone had yet to be activated prior to waking up. Thankfully, the phone was activated when I finished the shower and I sent my friend who lives in Abu Dhabi, Amit, an email saying I had arrived. Amit offered to host me while I was in Abu Dhabi - that sounded great to me. Except for the time he spent in college, he was born and raised in Abu Dhabi. Nothing better than having a local show you around and explain how things work! Amit and I know each other through a common friend, Hardy. Amit actually roomed with Hardy for a couple of years when they were doing their undergrad at UIUC. I spent a summer taking a course at UIUC and actually lived in their apartment - although Amit was in California for the summer. The first memory I have of Amit is rather funny. Hardy is tall, well over six foot. Hardy towers over Amit, as he does most people - so I was surprised when Amit started beating up on Hardy. Amit's also an extremely outgoing and social guy - very fun to be around. Amit and his wife, Khamsay, have a 20 month old boy named Shawn.
Dubai is about an hour and a half from Abu Dhabi, so I figured I'd spent some time in Dubai before heading to Abu Dhabi. I head for the Mall of the Emirates, got some food, walked around a bit, spent some time updating the blog at Starbucks, and just relaxed. This trip I would spend a 3-4 days in Abu Dhabi and about 4 days in Dubai.
Mall of Emirates
Several people I have known over the years who had lived and worked in the UAE had told me about the Mall of Emirates. It's been on numerous travel and documentary programs largely because it has an indoor ski slope. The mall also has many very high end stores. The first store that caught my eye was Vertu. Years back when I browsing through Harrods in London I saw Vertu cell phones for sale. The phones are mostly bling and can cost $10,000 USD. I was getting hungry so I strolled by a restaurant called Shake Shack and enjoyed a lovely hamburger for the first time since I left the states. The burger was so good!
I met Amit in a public park, parking was quite easy and inexpensive. We met up with Khamsay, his wife, for some Korean food. The food was great, grilled bacon is actually booked at the table. Shortly thereafter we head back to his apartment. Amit and Khamsay have a very spacious apartment with around 4 bedrooms. The layout of the typical UAE apartment is worth noting. Each room has a door that can close, including both the kitchen and family room. No rooms are directly connected to each other - a single hallway connects all rooms. Their place is very nice. We caught up a bit and called it a night early. It was nice to see familiar faces!
Before landing, Qatar Airways played a cute animated video explaining the process of deplaning and moving forward once in Doha, capital of Qatar. Qatar, pronounced phonetically 'cutter', is an interesting place. Qatar's relatively small population of 1m has the highest per capita income of any country in the world - a little more than twice that of the US!
Doha airport is currently under construction. After landing, everyone on the plane would board various vehicles based on both final destination and cabin class. Boarding pass envelopes and carry on luggage tags are color coded tag - so all staff knows if you're in the right building/area. In a nutshell, if a passengers final destination is Qatar than they would need to clear customs and potentially acquire a visa. Boarding pass envelops and luggage tags are green in this case.
If Qatar is not the final destination, just like elsewhere in the world, clearing customs is not necessary and such passengers are taken to the terminal area. Such passengers have a yellow boarding pass envelope and luggage slip. Since I had about 3 hours of time to kill I figured I could stroll through town quickly, see the skyline, and than head back with time to spare. After seeing how the color coding system worked though, I was dubious. After I cleared security and was in the terminal area I asked one of the airport staff if it was possible to leave the airport and how much time I should expect to allow for getting back through security to the gate. He confirmed my final destination and that thought I had more than enough time. He escorted me back to the shuttle bus and explained what to do.
Arriving in Qatar
Clearing CustomsI left the departures building via a shuttle bus for the arrivals building, where I would clear customs for my 1 hour soiree in Doha. When I entered the building I was astounded by how long the customs line was - there were hundreds of people in the line in front of me. Knowing I had 3 hours, I figured I had nothing to loose by waiting. It took over 2 hours to clear customs, not to mention a 100 riyal fee for a visa. At the time, I had no idea what 100 riyals meant in US dollars and was a bit concerned, I'd later find out it's about $26. After clearing customs I realized I couldn't go out the area I came in through - I had to board a shuttle bus that departed every 15 minutes or so for the departure area. I had about 40 minutes so I was beginning to sweat - if there was a line to clear security I might be screwed. I was mentally beginning to prepare for a night in Qatar. After waiting about 10 minutes for the shuttle bus to start moving, we drove around the city block and on the highway to the short term parking lot - right across from the terminal building and close enough for me to walk. There were two terminal buildings though, so I was sorta chancing it. Lucky for me, Qatar is in the first building, all other airlines are in the second. Upon entering the building I asked a man for directions to the gate. There was no line in security, but knowing I was in a hurry he helped me skirt through - with full water bottles and all. I checked the monitor - it indicated the gate was closed! D'oh! I jetted off to the gate anyway to see what they could do, maybe I could do some sweet talking. There was a couple talking to the gate agent and they were not happy. A second gate attendant appeared out of nowhere. For reasons unknown, she knew who I was without telling her. Boy did this woman give me a verbal lashing. I accept it - it was well deserved. She let me board the bus and off I was to the plane!
Flight to Dubai
The bus was going to the plane had about 10 people in it - so I wasn't the last strangler on the plane. Planes are not connected to the gates at Doha because of the construction - everyone boards a bus than walks up a stairway on the ramp outside. I suspect the buildings used now are temporary while the main terminal is constructed. Once everyone had boarded we'd find out the flight was delayed! In the end, we left about an hour late. Aside from the delay, the flight to Dubai was short (1 hr or so) and uneventful.
Arriving in Dubai
I had arrived in Dubai, one of the 7 emirate states that forms the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The first thing I noticed getting off the plane was a huge sign in the terminal for a driving school. The ad showed a blond adult women with car keys in her hand. 'Get your license in Dubai', the advertisement read. I'm guessing it's well targeted marketing. Clearing passport control in Dubai was fast - it took an entire 5 minutes for the woman running the customs both to stamp my passport. As I approached the customs exit, two men in military type uniforms were holding hands. I quickly remembered hand holding is a sign of friendship in the Arab world. This was the first time I had seen it in person.
Entering Dubai
I had booked the rental car through Kayak and the provider again was...Europcar. After the experience I had renting with them in Cyprus I had hoped to never do business with them again. There were two people in the tiny booth, an Indian man and an Asian woman. The Indian man spoke British English with a very heavy accent. He was not very helpful and rather argumentative. First, he insisted I upgrade to an automatic because the car I booked was a manual. Second, he didn't like my credit card...he didn't believe it was a Visa. The card I have is Chase Sapphire Preferred that looks a bit different than most credit cards and does not have the Visa logo on the front. The visa logo is visible on the back though and has raised numbers to allow for carbon copy imprints when necessary. The card is great for international travel because the incentives are fantastic and there is no currency conversion fee. After insisting it is indeed a Visa, he struggled to take an imprint. He than insists firmly that I must use a different card. My domestic default American Express will have to do this time. The man's directions were poor - it took me about a half hour to find the car. The car wasn't much different than the car I had in Cyprus. One oddity, the car actually had an aftermarket radio with detachable face.
Another manual trans Kia!
To the Hotel
Time Square Dubai
(not my photo)
I had booked a hotel for the first night via Kayak at $53, very cheap for the area. The hotel was named Time Square Dubai. I figured 5 hours of sleep and a shower before checking out would start the first day in Dubai the best it would be. Since the flight was late it would be more like 4 hours before checkout. The hotel was in an older area of Dubai - "original Dubai" someone would later call it. I double parked and checked in, asking if late check out was available. The man behind the counter asked when I wished to check out - I didn't have an answer. He suggested 5, which confused me entirely. I've never heard of such a late check out. I tell him I'm extremely grateful and that I was exhausted from the flight - he smiled and gave me a card to check in. I went to the room, dropped my bags off, and than parked the car. I ended up in a pay lot and negotiated parking down from 70 dirhams ($20 USD) to 40 dirhams. Back to the hotel and off to bed I was!
Bedroom
Bathroom
Waking up in Dubai
I woke up naturally and somewhat rested about 6 hours later - around 2pm. I took a shower, and, for the first time since leaving Cyprus, I shaved. The hotel didn't have free WiFi and my phone had yet to be activated prior to waking up. Thankfully, the phone was activated when I finished the shower and I sent my friend who lives in Abu Dhabi, Amit, an email saying I had arrived. Amit offered to host me while I was in Abu Dhabi - that sounded great to me. Except for the time he spent in college, he was born and raised in Abu Dhabi. Nothing better than having a local show you around and explain how things work! Amit and I know each other through a common friend, Hardy. Amit actually roomed with Hardy for a couple of years when they were doing their undergrad at UIUC. I spent a summer taking a course at UIUC and actually lived in their apartment - although Amit was in California for the summer. The first memory I have of Amit is rather funny. Hardy is tall, well over six foot. Hardy towers over Amit, as he does most people - so I was surprised when Amit started beating up on Hardy. Amit's also an extremely outgoing and social guy - very fun to be around. Amit and his wife, Khamsay, have a 20 month old boy named Shawn.
Dubai is about an hour and a half from Abu Dhabi, so I figured I'd spent some time in Dubai before heading to Abu Dhabi. I head for the Mall of the Emirates, got some food, walked around a bit, spent some time updating the blog at Starbucks, and just relaxed. This trip I would spend a 3-4 days in Abu Dhabi and about 4 days in Dubai.
Mall of Emirates
Several people I have known over the years who had lived and worked in the UAE had told me about the Mall of Emirates. It's been on numerous travel and documentary programs largely because it has an indoor ski slope. The mall also has many very high end stores. The first store that caught my eye was Vertu. Years back when I browsing through Harrods in London I saw Vertu cell phones for sale. The phones are mostly bling and can cost $10,000 USD. I was getting hungry so I strolled by a restaurant called Shake Shack and enjoyed a lovely hamburger for the first time since I left the states. The burger was so good!
Vertu
Shake Shack
Ski Slope
Heading to Abu Dhabi
After strolling through the mall I stopped by the Starbucks and took a break. I hadn't updated my blog in some time so now would be a good time. Around this time Amit called and mentioned he was free to hang out. Since I didn't have lodging booked, going to Abu Dhabi was not a problem. I head off and was there in about an hour and a half. Prior to leaving, Amit had warned streets are not labeled well and that to make sure I had good directions everywhere I went. I wasn't about to take chances after the issues I had in Cyprus. To my surprise, driving in the UAE was nice and easy! During the drive to Abu Dhabi, I saw the Burj Khalifa - the worlds tallest building.
Burj Khalifa
Meeting Amit
I met Amit in a public park, parking was quite easy and inexpensive. We met up with Khamsay, his wife, for some Korean food. The food was great, grilled bacon is actually booked at the table. Shortly thereafter we head back to his apartment. Amit and Khamsay have a very spacious apartment with around 4 bedrooms. The layout of the typical UAE apartment is worth noting. Each room has a door that can close, including both the kitchen and family room. No rooms are directly connected to each other - a single hallway connects all rooms. Their place is very nice. We caught up a bit and called it a night early. It was nice to see familiar faces!
Hi,The Law recognizes different variants of the Public Shareholding company including Public Shareholding Company with Registered Agents in Qatar and Private or Closed Public Shareholding Company.The Public Shareholding Company is also as a Joint Stock Company or Qatari Shareholding company. Thanks....
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