Category: travel

Granted, I’ve only been in my hotel and the airport here in Doha, but here are some of the differences that stick out. Just like in Sana’a, the people here in Doha are friendly. The difference is that they are friendly and efficient here. They do their jobs without prompting, it’s really nice. A related point is that things here don’t just look clean, they are actually clean. Everything in Sana’a is either dusty and/or loaded with bacteria. I’ve heard that the Movenpick in Sana’a is clean… for Sana’a. People who stay there tell me that it still isn’t actually clean, but they do very well by Sana’a standards.

The most amazing thing here in Doha is the humidity. There is actual moisture in the air! My skin, eyes, mouth, lungs, and nose are absorbing every water molecule they can. I may have put on 3 pounds just breathing!:-) Seriously, it’s really nice not waking up desiccated. Don’t get me wrong, I think I would much rather have Sana’a’s weather overall, but sitting in this air conditioned hotel room feels sooo good right now…

This time it’s from Qatar, which is pronounced just like it’s spelled incidentally. None of this “cutter” nonsense… Anyway, I am indeed in a hotel room that Qatar airways got for me due to the amazingly long layover. Everything has gone fine so far, I had no problems coming in, getting the voucher, or getting to the hotel. I gotta say, so far, this beats the hell out of hanging out in the Dubai airport for 12 hours… They gave me dinner and will also give me breakfast. There are three restaurants, but the voucher is only good at one of them. If I were coming from the US, the food would have to rate a solid c-, but because I am coming from 6 months in Sana’a, it felt much better. The sad thing is that, save for Tami’s cooking, this is the best meal I’ve had in the last 6 months. The desserts were particularly good…

I’m a total idiot, I forgot to put my shorts in my carry one, that means no swimming for Isaac. I will def. remember for the way back though! From what I saw of Doha, it looks like a cleaned up Hadda street. In other words, no style, just storefront after storefront. They do seem to be bigger here, and it is certainly cleaner as well. The traffic was mercifully quiet, but our driver seemed as though he was imported from Yemen. He drove like a madman, a quite madman, but still…

So far, this beats the hell out of hanging out in the Dubai airport for 12 hours. The only thing I can really complain about is the spotty internet connection here at the hotel. In other words, I don’t have much to complain about:-) The flight from Sana’a to Doha had decent food, but it did not have the fancy entertainment system that the Emirates flight does. We just had what looked to be an awful Cuba Gooding Jr. film, it had something to do with a kid’s camp, I didn’t plug my headphones in to pay more attention. Tomorrow (after sleeping for 8 hours) I will be shuttled back to the airport and get on the nonstop to DC, I like this new service!

With any luck, my next post will be from Doha. Qatar airways is putting me up in a place with a pool and is nearby the main souk. I’m hoping that I can see some of the city, have a swim, and eat at one of the restaurants in the hotel. Odds are that I won’t have as much time as I think, but I’d like to do at least two of the three things:-) I’m assuming that they’ll have internet there and I hope to be able to post some thoughts on Doha from there.

I’ve got most of my stuff moved over to the new place, I only have a few odds and ends left and I’ll move them over tomorrow before I go. Then all I have to do is pack and I’m going home baby!

Qatar airways came through and got me a hotel room! Thank God, because with a 17 hour layover, I don’t know what I would do without one… This should make the trip relatively enjoyable and hopefully I won’t be totally wiped out when I get to DC. If this works out as well as I’m hoping, Qatar is my new airline!

Went and booked my flight today. I really, really wish that I had booked it a month ago. The delay cost me another $400 or so. I didn’t want to put down the money until I knew I had a job and was coming back, SIGH. Anyway, I’ll be leaving here on the 13th of Dec. and I will fly back on the 15th of Jan. I decided to go with Qatar airways instead of Emirates even though they ended up being slightly more expensive. I’ll fly straight from Doha to DC. This allows me to avoid the hell that is JFK. If I flew into JFK, I would have to pick up my bags and recheck them and that has always been a circus. Plus, in order to recheck my bags, I had to go to another terminal which is a royal pain. The total time is about the same because I have a longer layover in Doha, but there is less airport weirdness…. Now I just have to remember to book my flight in July early to get a good price….

Score! Qatar airways now flies from Doha to DC direct. A Sana’a-Doha-DC trip sounds much more appealing than a Sana’a-Dubai-NYC-DC trip. Plus, it’s about $600 cheaper round trip! Oh this is good news, think I’ll go down to their office pretty soon…

I didn’t really do much. The hotel I’m in is closer to the airport than the city. It’s a nice enough hotel, but it makes getting into town a bit of a pain. The bus ride into downtown Athens is not only 45 minutes, but it costs the equivalent of 5 bucks each way. I went down there today with some specific goals. I wanted to eat at McDonald’s, buy some books, and find some decent chocolate. Greek chocolate sucks, it’s that simple. I was really happy to find a Nestle’s crunch bar, and I don’t consider that good chocolate at all. I wanted to eat at McDonald’s because I have been craving a cheeseburger for a long time. I don’t think that McDonald’s is very good, but it was one of the better meals I’ve had here… I needed some books for not only my 8 hour layover in Istanbul, but for living in Yemen. There have been many times that I wished I had something to read other than the Arabic equivalent of “See Dick run.” People have asked me if I want them to send me some books, but I always say no. Not because I don’t want the books, but because it will be way too expensive to send them here. If books are sent through the regular mail (the only reasonable way to send anything to me), they have to go through the censor. And I do think that it is THE censor. It seems to be common knowledge that if books go to the censor, I’ll never see them. If you send them through one of the courier companies (DHL, FedEx, UPS, etc.) they don’t go through the censor, but they cost a million dollars to ship to Yemen. Anyway, for the first time in years, some fiction really appealed to me. I picked up “The Name of the Rose” by Eco, and “David Copperfield” and “Nicholas Nichalby” both by Dickens. All of them are books that I have meant to get to for a long time. I’ve always liked Dickens, the last book I read by him was “A Tale of Two Cities” back in my sophomore year of high school! Anyway, I hope that these will last me until I can get back to the states. Tomorrow I leave for Yemen. I’ll be coming back in the middle of Ramadan, should be fun…

I’ve had fun in Greece, but I’ve learned a few things about traveling here as well. I missed a lot of the Athens trip, but everyone agreed that we probably should have only spent a couple of days in Athens. There really isn’t all that much to do except shop if you’re not really into ruins. To be fair, the shopping can be quite good, but it really isn’t worth coming here just for that. Crete, on the other hand, had much more to offer. The scenery was beautiful, and the villages we went through were quite memorable. I don’t know much about the mainland, but I think that the mainland would probably be much like Crete.

I was surprised at much I really didn’t care about the ruins. The “good” ones are nothing more than stones outlining squares and rectangles on the ground, and the bad ones (like Knossos IMO) were filled with concrete reproductions, they didn’t even have the stone squares there! I did think that the temple of Zeus was quite amazing, for about 10 minutes. It’s amazing how quickly an ancient temple of magnificent proportions becomes a a handful of columns guarded by tired, overweight women selling tickets. I’m sure the Acropolis would have been more impressive, and for a little longer, but inevitably I would have the same reaction I’m sure.

And then there is the food. When we first got here, I emailed Tyler Cowen about eating in Athens. He’s an economist, art collector, food critic, traveller, and blogger extraordinaire over at marginal revolution. His response was that he has never gotten a good meal in Athens. “OK then,” I thought to myself, “that’s what you get for asking a food critic..” I figured that he couldn’t find any haute cuisine to his liking. Well, as it turns out, he meant that he couldn’t find a good meal here. We were unimpressed, the best meals I had were a club sandwich (which wasn’t all that good) and some chicken Madras at an Indian restaurant. We went there our last night together here because we really couldn’t take it anymore. Tonight I tried some Greek fast food. There is only one restaurant near this hotel, it’s a chain called “Goody’s.” I had what had to be the worst hamburger I’ve ever tasted, and that’s saying something. The McDonald’s I had for lunch was miles above it, I really wonder how they stay in business.

So what did I like? I really enjoyed hiking in Crete. The landscape is wonderful, and the terrain is not all that difficult. I loved going to the two monasteries that we went to. I’m bummed that we didn’t get to see any churches. We were always wearing shorts, and Butler was usually in a tank top so when we did see a church, we weren’t really appropriately dressed. If I came back here (and I might one day), I would seriously think about planning the trip around monasteries and churches. The icons here can be breathtaking. Butler (a lifelong Episcopal) went into this trip thinking that the Orthodox Church basically made things up, but she left saying, “I get it now.” The icons can really have an effect on you. The icons in the monasteries (and I assume the churches) that is. There are plenty of junk icons around in the tourist areas, don’t let them give you the wrong idea…

I really enjoyed the villages as well. They have a really nice vibe to them, very relaxed and very informal. The cities are a nightmare of noise and congestion. I really noticed the traffic in Crete. We drove through the countryside and there was hardly any traffic at all, but once you hit a city, it was congestion city. Both Herakian and Chania were nightmares to drive in, mostly because of the traffic. Athens is, of course, very hectic as well. If you come here, really try to get a hotel out of a major city. They may not be as fancy, but you will have a much nicer vacation.

I’ve had a great time here, and it was great seeing Dad and Butler, thanks guys! I’m back to Yemen tomorrow and this blog will get back on topic:-)

Today we went to the little village of Margarites and the city of Chania. Both are over on the western side of the island, so there was some driving involved. Butler wanted to hike a gorge over there, but it would take too long to drive there, hike it, and then come back. So they decided that we’d spend one night over in Chania. On the way there, we stopped in at a village called Margarites. I think the guide said that there are only 301 people living there, but they make a tremendous amount of ceramics there with a special kind of clay. The ceramics didn’t do much for me, but Butler really enjoys that type of stuff. I occupied myself by wandering around and enjoying the place.

We eventually ended up in Chania, wow. We all agree that this is the place that we should have stayed, not Herakaion. This place is beautiful, and out hotel (the Amphora) is amazing. This is probably the nicest room I have ever stayed in from a “charm” point of view. I have a balcony that overlooks the old harbor, a loft, and a great view! Check out the pictures… Anyway, there are a gazillion shops and restaurants around here. I’ll do some looking around tomorrow before we go and pick up Butler. Pictures should be up, but I don’t have enough time left on the wireles to put tags on them, I’ll do that later. Tomorrow will be our last day in Crete, and sadly it will be mostly in the car and in Herakaion. The day after we fly back to Athens. Dad and Butler leave that same day, I stick around for one more before I go. This trip has gone by too fast!

I knew that Greece was more “open” to things like nudity and sexuality than the US, and I knew that coming from Yemen, it might be a bit of a shock. I was not prepared for just how open they are. When I was in Athens, there were several “Greek Women” calendars that featured totally naked women on the covers. It wasn’t bad, they weren’t in any sort of sexual situation, just perfect bodies out at the beach. When we got to Crete, things were a bit different. There’s a newsstand right in front of the hotel that sells magazines. In addition to the usual Playboy and Hustler (the European versions with lots O’ nudity on the covers) there were a bunch of much “harder” magazines as well. We’re talking full penetration, right on the cover, right out front.

I was shocked on several levels. There’s the obvious, I find it odd that that kind of graphicness doesn’t faze anyone. I’m also shocked that those sorts of magazines are still being made. I would have thought that the dirty magazine would have gone the way of the adult theater. The internet has made it incredibly easy to have access to pornography. That has obvious downsides, but a not so obvious upside is that it takes that material and puts it people’s bedrooms directly without the need for a shop or newsstand. I wonder why people who want that sort of thing still buy magazines?

I remember a shop that I used to go to when I was in college. It was in Johnson city and I’d drive down from Ithaca on occasion to look for LPs and singles. All he sold was records (not cds, records) and old girly magazines. It was a great place to go to score quality jazz and classical LPs. His usual clientele seemed to be after “Frampton Comes Alive,” Styx’s “Paradise Theatre.” anything by Rush, and maybe a couple old copies of Penthouse forum. I went back there a couple of years ago and sure enough, it was gone. He just couldn’t compete with the internet…

We had been seeing many restaurants advertising “toast” on their boards outside. We thought that was a rather strange thing to advertise. Today I found out that it meant toasted sandwiches. That makes more sense…

There are innumerable roadside shrines here. They don’t look like much, just a white box on a pole with a small cross on top. There is usually a door with a small window in it on there and through it you can see what is inside, usually an icon and some candles. I don’t know what the significance of these things are, or who sets them up and maintains them. You can see many Orthodox priests around, all of them in long robes. I have yet to see one without a full beard.

Will add more as I think of stuff…