I had been to Malaysia/Singapore on Vacation during December 2004 for 7 days. It was a lovely trip via Doha. We flew by Qatar Airways which has excellent Inflight Service. Qatar Airways flies you via DOHA (Capital of Qatar). We stopped at DOHA for 10 hours where we were issued temporary visa/permit and then we proceeded towards our Hotel ’’The Oasis’’ one of many chain of hotels located on the Coast with it’s own private beach.
It takes around 4 hours from Bombay to Doha by flight. It is a rare site that you get to see after few hours. You will see the Arabian Sea below and then suddenly a coastline will appear starting with what seem to be numerous hills. Then suddenly you realize that they are all golden in color and are actually sand dunes!!. Soon there are only sanddunes below. You will see occassional small square buildings with pipelines running across the desert.
When you land at Doha you see widely spaced Houses that are on the desert. When you land you can see the wealth of this small nation. Every vehicle at the Airport is a BMW. You can see helicopters flying in every 2 minutes. The DOHA INTERNATIONAL Airport is really cool. It looks beautiful with it’s glass structure. The currency of Qatar is Riyal. I purchased a Canon Camera for 150R. There are many Duty Free shops inside the Airport. Then we were whisked away to our Hotel.
At the Hotel Oasis you have all facilities. You get a nice view of the Beach & Club. We landed at 10:00 AM, relaxed and then had food in our hotel. I tried some Seafood soup also!!
After that we spent the after noon playing indoor games in the Hotels play area that is near the swimming pool and where you can see the sea side and ships docking nearby filling Oil. What a cool sight. (I have even done a painting based on that and is on my bedroom wall). Then we relaxed on the beach sand till evening with cool breeze coming in from the Sea. Then back to the Airport at 8 pm for my flight for KualaLumpur, Malaysia.
Same way on my way back from Singapore it was via Doha to Bombay. On my way back I stayed at the Sofitel Hotel and did some shopping in the local neighbourhood. From the hotel you can see the building and desert on the skyline. They say that there are occassional sandstorms in the Evenings.
However it seemed to be pleasant in December. If you have time you can do many activities like shopping, sanddune surfing, go around the city. The roads are very clean and you see all the latest vehicles and fancy luxury cars you can dream of. On the side of the road you will see palm trees and occassional traces of sand. You have all the big shopping malls, automobile showrooms (Bahwan Auto), Toyota Building, .. I really enjoyed my brief stay of 2 days thanks to Qatar Airways that managed everything perfectly. On my way back to Mumbai we fly over two major cities Sharjah and Dubai. As you
approach Dubai you see many roads converging from the desert to the shoreline like a spider’s web. Then you see a coastline with numerous high-rise buildings. We also saw the Palm/Diera a huge artificial manmade island off the Coast of Dubai. What a lovely sight indeed.
That marked the end of a lovely journey to Doha, Qatar which I will never forget.