2/3 April

Fly from CTI to Doha with Quatar Airways after greeting the family, the 12 hour flight went well although sleeping was tough taking into account a heightened sense of anticipation. After landing at Doha we were escorted by bus to our hotel (Royal Quatar Hotel) where we were greeted by the staff, informed of dinner times and shown to our room.

No sooner had we laid down our bags, than we proceeded into town. Not knowing where to go we turned to the locals to ask for directions to the market. It was evident that most did not understand English, but one very helpful local escorted us in the rain to a group of cafés's. Another local pointed us in the direction of street restaurants which we set out to find.

After testing the prices of a few café's we chose a quaint Moroccan restaurant which was reasonable with it's prices and seemed to attract many locals (a sure sign of the one we were looking for). There we sat not knowing what to order nor being able to fully communicate with our waiter. We eventually decided upon the traditional Moroccan tea. The tea arrives in a large brass teapot which is lifted about 30 cm from the small glass cup and poured in, by doing this you reduce the number of leaves in you tea. The tea was divine, being sweetened by honey with no bitter aftertaste.

After some time at the restaurant I started talking to a man sitting adjacent to us dressed in traditional Arabian attire (most of them were). Abdul was a architect who traveled regularly and although we were not always able to cross the language barrier we were able to have a fascinating conversation.

At most of the restaurants the use of a shesha is common place, better known to those at home as a "hubbly", here its much lighter than the ones we are used to.

After Abdul had left for prayer at the mosque we ordered another shesha as well as a local delicacy, warm milk with ginger, this is left for 10 minutes to allow the ginger to settle in the bottom. According to Abdul this is very good for the heart and artiries. Upon paying the bill we find that Abdul had already settled our previous account and all that we needed to pay for was our newest purchases.

We return to the hotel for dinner and a quick afternoon nap (14h00 to 18h00), after which we return once more to the market only to discover that a concert was being held with many locals gathering on chairs set outside the restaurants around the stage. After taking a seat, quite a good one, taking into consideration the masses of people who arrived to listen. We order another Shesha, Kuwaiti coffee - creamy in nature (quite delicious) and Turkish coffee - appears muddy with many chunks that you wish you had not swallowed.

The concert consisting of 10 musicians, 3 chorus, 4 Arabian guitar, 1 flute, 1 traditional drummer and the main singer also with a traditional guitar started not longer that 15 minutes after we had arrived. The music being difficult to describe was similar to Indian music except more controlled/planned and less chaotic.

At 10h30 we returned to our hotel for supper and collected our backpacks before being dropped off at the airport. At the airport we booked in, went to check whether we could enter a premium lounge but unfortunately Investec was not associated with Quatar airways, they however gave us some rather good news, the flight had been overbooked and we had therefore been upgraded to business class. We then went to our boarding area where we waited anxiously to see whether we would be sitting in business class. Sure enough we left the other passengers and headed for the elusive area divided by a curtain. Here we were greeted by cheerful hostesses and shown to our seats. This was followed with a glass of French Champaign. Dinner was served after take-off with silver cutlery only to be followed with some of the better wines the planet has to offer, yes we did indulge in a Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. After a hearty meal of salmon we watched the last hour of our big screen movies and retired for the night. The next morning we were awakened with a French breakfast of chocolate croissants, fruits and breads.