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!
