Arabian Gulf '06

Arabian Gulf - Qatar

Day 7 Thr 23 Feb 2006

My last day in Qatar, I was going to got for a walk and then checkout and head for the Mall (I needed to obtain a Starbucks mug for my friend), but it's raining Cats and Dogs with thunder and lightning. It must be quite rare, as a number of people came out of the hotel to take photos on their mobile phones! So Plan B - checkout and do the Mall now. I need to exchange the Next sunglasses I bought the other day, they are more like prescription lenses! The taxi driver wanted 20QAR to get to the Mall (10 was the norm) but he soon dropped it to 15 when I opened the door and started to get out.

Mug purchased, glasses returned (I got cash in hand!), I'm now just waiting for the rain to stop - some hope! I may have a Pizza Express for lunch! Almost completed the alphabet, only one more letter/country to go, and in about seven hours I'll be there! At mid day I did have a Pizza, and then took a taxi to the airport.

Checked in (again no queue!) and through immigration with no issues. Doha airport really can't handle the number of people trying to use it. There seems to be only one set of toilets for the whole place! The usual bus out to the plane, and got first row of economy. Only in the air for about an hour.

Downtown Kuwait City

Kuwait airport is very interesting, there is no segregation between arrivals and departures. I followed the signs to "Visa Purchase", took my ticket number (704) and waited for my turn - there were only two people in front of me, so unlike Qatar! 5KWD got me a visa stamp and a side of A4 with a lot of arabic on it. With this in hand I head down to passport control, and am told to go straight to the front of the (long) queue, where I am waived through. I skip baggage claim and head out pass customs. Spotted my hotel pick up and got driven into town, checked into the hotel an hour after landing - perfect!

The sun is just setting as I hit the streets in search of the water front (I fail!), there are very few people on the streets.