Distance: Flying Home!
Country: Qatar
Song of the Day: Take Me Home - Phil Collins
Left Africa today. Got on a flight that took me to the Middle East, so technically Asia. I am feeling a little bit ambivalent about it. I am very happy to be going home. I have missed my family and friends a great deal. At the same time I have very much enjoyed the trip through the "Dark Continent". The strange places I have seen. The weird situations I have gotten into. The wonderful people I have met. The sense of ultimate freedom. It makes me a little sad.
I got to Doha after dark, but it was still amazingly hot and humid. Frankly, I wasn't used to it. For being on the equator, East Africa is generally much cooler. The Middle East, no so much. The temperature here had me sweating. Not that it helped much as it was so humid. Did I mention that it was after dark?
The airline did put me up in a (thankfully air conditioned) hotel over night. That included a buffet dinner which I ate a huge amount of.
After dinner I went up to my room and got on the internet. I had sent a few people on Couch Surfing an e-mail asking for cool things to do. I may have mentioned it before, but when I go to a place, I really want to see it. Sure, I only had 13 hours in Doha, but I still wanted to see as much of it as I could. No one had responded though, so I thought I might go to bed. Just then I got an e-mail reply from a guy named Tom. He just got back from Oman Jordan, but wanted to hang out. How cool is that?
So Tom and a girl he worked with picked me up. (Of course I immediately forgot her name. I have a bad habit of forgetting the names of
attractive young women. I don't know why. I can't imagine that trait is genetically selected for...) The three of us headed out to the old souk. If you remember from Morocco, that is the market. It was nothing like the markets in Morocco though. It was surprisingly clean. It still did have a bit of the winding alley ways. These were generally pretty wide, well paved and lit. Most of them were lined with cafes and high end craft shops.We stopped at a cafe and got a seat up on the roof. I had a cold coke while Tom could somehow stand to drink warm tea in the heat. They did have air conditioning on the roof, but that seemed a bit silly. How are you going to cool the outside? I guess it might make something locally cooler. Anyway, we had a good time. I guess my companions both work for Qatar airlines. The company has apparently expanded quite a bit in the last ten years. It was a fun night and a good way to see at least some of the city. I didn't get back to the hotel until after 2:00 AM.
-Dravis
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