20071222: Winter Solstice has arrived

The time of the TONG YUEN is here again!
This year, I cannot relish it back home in Malaysia, as I am stuck in the Winter of the Middle East in Doha, Qatar.
I have however found a couple of links for the recipes here and here.

My favourite is the latter one.
The history of the festival can be found here.

If you can't bother jumping to that link, here is a summary:
"The Winter Festival, or Dong Zhi falls on the twelfth day of the eleventh lunar month. It coincides with the Winter Solstice when the sun is at its southernmost point, above the Tropic of
Capricorn - two or three days before Christmas and ten days before the New Year in the Gregorian Calendar. This festival marks the turning point between winter and spring, daylight and darkness. Days begin to gain hours as the sun retraces its path northwards."

20071221: Sunset in Doha

SO what does the dusk bring, when the sun sets so early during the winter months at 4:55pm?

Take a look here:
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20071220: Qatar, Doha, City Centre, Shanghai Garden

Lunch Buffet here at QR39/pax or add QR10 for the dinner buffet.
Met up with some old chums and had a jolly good time.
The food variety was fair, and my only grouse was the lack of Chinese tea in the menu.

Amongst the food served were:

1. 2 types of starchy soup, including corn soup
2. Deep fried Belt fish
3. Prawns in tomato sauce (best of the lot)
4. Stir fried crabs
5. Stewed beef with bamboo shoots
6. Lemon Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken
7. Shiu Mai dumplings
8. Beancurd with mushrooms
9. Fried noodles
10. Fried rice
11. White rice
12. Cold Chinese appetisers (like gizzards, blood, etc.)
13. Oily Chinese salad
14. Western salad
15. Dumplings
16. Savoury desserts and pastries
17. Agar Agar jelly
18. Fresh fruits (grapes and oranges)
19. Free flow of cold soft drinks (no water provided)

Photos pending

20071219: Fish Market, Corniche, Doha

Went for a quick sandwich breakfast before driving over to the Corniche in the Mitsubishi Lancer (fortunately it's on automatic transmission)
Loads of fishermen selling their fresh catch of the day here.
They come in their motorboats to the steps on the Corniche, lay out a canvas sheet and dump all their produce from the ice box.

Visited on both 19th & 20th December, during the Eid Festival.



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20071218: Back to Doha, Qatar after 18 months!

Off to KLIA again on the ERL using a return ticket, paid with Diners Club.
Managed to use the free KLIA Wifi for a few emails prior to departure.
Lunch was only served at 2pm (Malaysian time) 1hr 50mins after the takeoff.
First time encountered a faulty WC on the Airbus A340 with a 2-4-2 configuration.
Food was fair with 1 lunch and 1 refreshment served prior to touchdown in Manama, Bahrain.
Managed to squeeze in 3 in-flight movies on the pathetic 6 inch LCD.
Watched: Shortcut to Happiness (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Bourne Ultimatum (Julia Stiles) and Stardust (Claire Danes). Yeah, I only noted the female stars!
Landed in Manama about 3pm (Manama time) Transited for 90 minutes before boarding GF514 at Gate 16 for Doha at 5pm. The departure lounge has a Chilli's outlet. More expensive though!
Detected a few Wifi base stations but couldn't connect. Managed to get a 3 pin plug point to charge the notebook until 95% charged status.

Arrived safely in Doha at 545pm on the Airbus A320 (3-3 config) with only a serving of orange juice and a pack of tidbits prepacked in England!
Immigration was swift with the renovated terminal building. Entry for Malaysians is now QR100 providing a 1 month visa.
Was fetched by my new colleague here in his patriotic left hand drive grey Waja.
Scooted off to the Adam Residences apartment. Located at: Lat: 25.2825° Lon: 51.5417°

Nice cosy place nestled on the 5th floor, with a small 20 m pool at the Mezzanine level. After settling in and introduce to 2 new buddies, we went downstairs to catch some grub for dinner. As the nearby Kebab shop was already patronised earlier, the only other option was the Indian restaurant next door, unless you wanted to exercise your appetite another block away.
So the Rolex restaurant provided us with some good food and of course, I took my fresh mango juice.
After tucking in to a QR 44 meal for 3 (which is reasonable, considering the amount we took), we strolled back to the apartment within 5 minutes!
Took a nice warm shower and checked some email! Luckily the apartment has got broadband! Very convenient! Speed ranges from 1 Kb/s to 70Kb/s depending on what time you log in!
Note that the time difference of 5 hours took it's toll on my sanity, and I had to get into bed (super single size) by 1030pm! Good nite!

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