Shopping by Taxi Cabs, Eish Maaaaaan - *Town, Town, Town*

Good day to our friends and family in SA. Well, things are only getting hotter out here in the desert. We woke up to another stunning day and @ around 8:30 am the mercury was climbing to a steady 38C. When you leave the Hotel, sunglasses even steam up, instantly. It seems that I am the only smoker in the group so my walks culminate with sweaty palms and hazy eye-sight.
Our first shopping outing was to Villagio today, otherwise known as "Little Italy."

In the pics attached you will see that a canal flows through the mall and if you feel the need to be transported via Gondola instead of leg power you are free to do so.

Bear in mind that the glorious skyline is in fact painted and the clouds move as do the times of day when strolling around. In one section you find yourself in daylight, the next wing it is night time.

 

This mall is indeed a shoppers paradise - I may even show my feminine side in becoming a shopper (Sports Stores only). Another amazing feature is that there is a full on ice rink in the food quarter, home to the "DOHA FLYING CAMEL Ice Hockey Team" - I ask you  HAHAHA. There logo says it all for me.

We will also be visiting the theme park found within the Mall.

You may ask how we arrived at the Mall? Well, that was an interesting trip to say the least! We took a local KARWA Taxi! (Like a metered cab in SA) This was a journey to behold as well. Not your average SA E20 ride (Eish! Say this in the most African accent you can come up with!) , but wilder, faster yet a load safer. The Arabs seem to know just how close they are able to get to another car's bumper before zooting into a different lane and everyone allows this manic driving to continue. One driver is as mad as the other. On two occasions we thought the we would end up on the wrong side of the road, upside down or in a fender bender! Here's to travelling in Qatar! *Cheers*

 "Do Not Block Intersection" Where have you ever seen such a sign????

Tariffs are all displayed on a sticker in the window as well as all the Do's and Dont's while being ferried to another place.

To all the lads and lasses @ OG, you will be well informed that we have found BIER and ladies drinks similar to Brutal Fruit - yet they are all non-alcoholic - which is fine. We will be cheap dates in December. We haven't ventured to any of the pubs (Usually only found in Hotels) that sell proper BIER yet but we will. We will definitely.

We have another dinner arranged for tonight in the Hotel as it seems most of our colleagues have finally arrived from across the globe. We are also starting our first week of preparation tomorrow at the Lagoon Campus (G's Campus) - look forward to seeing the difference in buildings and resources as opposed to home.

G & R xxx

Here are some more pictures taken at Villagio:

 Magnificent Shopping lobby - only 1 of the several wings in Villagio.

 

 Gerard Admiring the Gondola.

 

 A family on a Gondola - note the Brand shops in the background.

 

 Gerard bought a burger for lunch which qualified him to enter the draw to win this Nissan double cab. It's a MONSTER Truck!

 Hey Chandler, Do you remember this place????

 The Beautifully painted Villagio Sky!

 Enjoying the shopping experience so far!

 The Gondolas - the Gondolier was on a lunch break.

 

 That Pepsi is HUGE!!!! And was free with the burger Gerard had for lunch.

 

 They even have Quiksilver & Roxy in the sandy desert!

 Roz watching the Gondola.

 

 Gerard near the entrance we arrived at.

 

 "The Butcher Shop & Grill" is a South African Steak House - See that smile developing yet????

Villagio - the Posh mall in the Desert.

Outbound

What an amazing trip! After a somewhat delayed, and testing start to our morning (Shaun Gilbert - you wouldn't call it anything else would you?) we arrived at the airport. We checked in, said some emotional good byes, had a "last glass of South African Coke" before heading through the Security Check Point. We found ourselves comfortable at our gate awaiting boarding.

 

The pilot who flew us to Durban is clearly well experienced! The clouds we could see out of our windows were very fluffy. This pilot managed to avoid ALL turbulence (Bonus for the Travel-Sensitive! *yay*)  We hardly felt the wheels touch down... Brilliant! King Shaka International does however leave much to be desired. "Duty Free" is small and choices are very limited. Thankfully we didn't have much time at this airport..

 

At least G found smokes that he does like - but alas, no Camel Filter Soft packs in sight!

Emirates Airlines is a superb host and definitely one to be used again... We took off with no problems. The plane was crammed full with nearly 700 people on board. The pilots were both South African. Naturally we were rather exhausted by the time we arrived in Dubai - we landed at 3:30am SA Time in 36 degree humid heat. Neither of us managed to sleep too much during the flight, but the trip was fairly chilled. We both loved the On-board cameras - there was a camera mounted under the fuselage & one on the nose of the plane. Both these camera views allowed us to see exactly what the pilots could see during  take off, the flight and the landing. There is zero chance of us swimming in the Persian Gulf after seeing the size of the creatures that live in these waters, thanks to the under-carriage camera!

Our bags all arrived safely in Doha. We were lucky enough to be able to book our bags directly from PE to Doha. This meant that at each stop we didn't have to cart bags around and re-book luggage. We did wait FOREVER for our bags to come through - Arab timing in worse than African Timing, particularly in this heat. Gerard's padlock was missing off his luggage but on checking, we are happy too report that nothing has been stolen (*thank goodness for guardian angels* - Thanks Gail!)

We were escorted directly to a hotel from the airport. We're staying at K108 (Kamal Hotel) near the Qatar National Museum. Our apartments were still being kitted out with new furnishings. We've been told that we should be moving to our new home tomorrow sometime. There are 70 odd of us staying over in the hotel tonight.

School Management have been great in that they have emailed us our time tables for the week, and left few questions unanswered. We will be heading to school at 8:30am on Sunday to meet the rest of the teams and find our classrooms.

Tomorrow (Being Saturday 31 August 2013) will hopefully see us exploring the Corniche (Beach Front) and a few shops. We had a lovely walk this evening to the local cafe to get some water, fruit juice (with real fruit pieces in it) and some non-alcoholic beers (these taste a little like Hunters Gold!) We bought 1.5L water, 4 tins of juice, 4 "Beers" and 2 pepsi's for a mere QR19 (currently exchanging at R2.82 = QR1). We were pretty impressed!  Sean Grogan - we even have plenty Dove in the corner cafes :P

Thanks to everyone who has sent "Travel safe" messages and kept us in their thoughts 

G & R xx

 The most expensive Coke we've ever had! R49 for 2 x 300ml!

 

 

Through Customs Safely..

Leaving for Doha, Qatar

So we've been counting down since 169 days to go..

This is not in excitement to leave the family behind (as we're actually quite sad to be doing this!)

but out of excitement to get started with a new chapter in our lives together.

 

Here is a picture sent to us by a friend in Doha already of what the Corniche looks like.

This is their Beach promenade. (Dankie Carlize!)

Who wouldn't want to live in such a picturesque area???

 

 

Why Doha, Qatar I hear you ask. It's quite simple, but Gerard & I have family in Qatar & in Abu Dhabi. Heading to the Middle East isn't such a scary thought when you have family close by. Suzane, Fred & Morne, Let's hope we don't get too home sick and need your shoulders too often!

As qualified Natural Science and Physical Education teachers, we did some research and found that Oman &  Qatar are the 2 best paid countries for South African teachers to work in. With this in mind, we set about finding a school whose morals & values are kind of similar to who we are. We were looking for positions that we would be happy doing for at least the next 2 years - This was a big task, but we succeeded in finding a mutually beneficial school.

Some call it fate, we say it's in the blood! Newton International it is for the next 2 years. Funny how Gerard's Dad was the Head master in South Africa (Port Elizabeth) of Newton Technical High School - fate perhaps???

We are both looking forward to this challenge and everything it will bring with it - change in culture, change in surroundings, and new friends. We do wish an opportunity like this would happen a little closer to home though so that Chandler could be a part of it. But soon, he too will be travelling the world again.. To both our folks, you guys will be on a plane to have some fun in the sun soon too! Vasbyt!