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Qatar
Sunday, June 17, 2007
I must apologize for the long absence but professional reason kept me away and busy for a while. Most importantly, I had the occasion of visiting Qatar for about two weeks.
Although I know the Middle East region quite well, I had never been to Qatar. I was precisely located in Doha, the capital. This place is quite interesting and amazing in what it has been able and is still in the process of accomplishing. Most impressive. Here’s a breif break-down of the trip. I might take several days to get through this.
The flight from Paris takes about 6 and a half hours. When landing, all I could see was lots and lots of sand. In fact, there was a small sand storm when I landed so this impression was even more dramatic. Once out of the airport, traffic became an issue. Like many of these countries, they did not think very far ahead when they built their roads. As a result, a few years later, when the traffic quantity has increased dramatically, traffic is constant. It takes way too long to cover short distances. That being said, the first drive was not that bad.
I was able to drive along the “Corniche” area of Doha which is a beach strip that has been recently revamped and embellished. This beach strip is absolutely breath-taking. On the other side, we can see other buildings such as the Sheraton Hotel, Four Seasons, or Movenpick tower. At the end of the beach strip is the trendy area which is stil under construction. The amount of sky scrapers under construction here is amazing. It reminded me of how Dubai was about 8 years ago. Building after building after building…
Interesting fact - China and Qatar alone used up ALL of the world’s supply of steel in 2006. This scarcity has caused all of the construction in the city to halt and be delayed for at least 10 months.
I will continue this some other time… in the meantime, some pictures are available in the Travel Log of http://gallery.nickology.com/
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