A very long walk in Doha
We had 2 days rest on 17 and 18 Dec 2010. 17th was a Friday off day, and 18th was the Qatar National Day.
On the 16th evening, we had to go to Holiday Villa, a hotel where our big big boss was staying, to meet him for a meeting. We had a kind colleauge to drive us to Holiday villa and drop us off. The plan was to catch a taxi from Holiday Villa back to our villa house after the meeting. As Holiday Villa is a hotel, catching a taxi should be relatively easy, compared to trying to get one on a random streets.
After the meeting, we decided to eat our dinner at Holiday Villa. One of the restaurants in Holiday Villa served Malaysia cuisines. Imagine, going to a hotel just to eat Nasi Lemak, Mee mak mak or Nasi goreng.
Nasi lemak with salad, eggs, peanuts, ikan bilis, sambal prawn
and curry chicken (accidentally forgot to include in this shot)
Nasi goreng with cucumbers, eggs, chicken wing, crackers, chilli sauce
Complimentary bread, butter and olive oil + vinegar
Oxtail soup
The total bill was nearly S$50. Though a bit costly, it was a good dinner.
After the dinner, we decided to go for a walk instead of immediately taking a taxi back to our villa because we were really full. So we just walked out of Holiday Villa, and randomly walked towards one direction. It was later that we found out we were walking towards the Corniche.
From the map above, you can see that we started off from Holiday villa and headed north. We walked and walked in the cool windy evening (perhaps about 20 deg C) till we reached Souq Waqif. We hanged around Souq Waqif, went to toilet and visited some tourist shops. Then we walked to the Corniche. The Corniche is a stretch of coastal area (much like ECP but without the beach). There was quite a number of people strolling along the Corniche mostly families and children. As national day is just round the corner, there were some spots set up, like huge screens playing advertisement-like videos, a large musical fountain set in the sea, a huge pearl giving out laser-like beams in the distance (the coast near Sheraton Hotel). They even had booths set up to give out free bottled mineral water for the public.
We walked along the Corniche and it started to get colder and the winds grew stronger. We tried to flag for a taxi for there were no taxis in sight, as expected. We knew it would be difficult. So we continued walking, knowing that we would only be able to get a taxi when we reach the city centre. Finally, we reached Al Dana Club, a place where we are very familiar and got a taxi.
I think we walked a total of about 7km in 3 hours. It was the first time, in all my months in Doha that I enjoyed Doha on foot. Not recommended during Summer.
Acknowledgement: Google map
posted by WSW at 8:33 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, the nasi goreng looks good! And it is indeed a long walk. Guess all the food were digested by the time u were back in the villa?
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