10:00 PM Update...all Teams checked in healthy, safe and happy...we are on our way to Europe!

Earlier Post:

As I don't really know what our teams are seeing and doing today...although I have a good idea :) ! This post will be a day of observations as I have just looked over some of my notes during breakfast...I apologize for not mentioning these earlier, but sometimes life on the road gets nuts and bolts busy and I lose my train of thought with so much to see and do...there is no cohesion here, except that the things I notice a observations that were ironic, odd, sad or funny—to me!

Anyway, good morning...after a nice swim last night at sunset in front of our hotel, I chose the real Persian Gulf pool over one of the five--or is it six?—artificial versions the hotel offers here, I headed out to the Souq Watqif. (More on that later.) By the way, I swim alone but shared my patch of beach with five other women all clad from head-to-foot in their black burqas--those all encompassing garments that reveal only the eyes. They all giggled and laughed along with me and my awkwardness. These types of encounters when traveling beg more questions than are ever asked. I also thought how wonderful and expressive their eyes all were. Do we notice people's eyes alone anymore? I thought it might make a stunning book of faces, sans the faces and just the eyes coffee table book. What are they thinking? But as for the ages of my ladies I could not begin to know...but I am pretty sure they were all smiling, because I know smiling eyes. I have my Pamela after all...

BTW: It gets so hot here in the summer months that the Four Seasons Doha actually has an ice room I found out! Yep, it really does...officially, it’s for closing pores after a heat spa treatment—like anybody really needs that when it is 50° outside (that's 120ish as in hot-hot-hot for we United States of Americans) in the summer—but I’m sure it’d be just as good for reducing blood pressure after a bad day at the office or after watching your team’s defeat. Speaking of defeat, stick a fork in the 2012-13 LA Lakers season. RIP...Nash was too old to have signed. The wrong coach. Dwight is not Shaq. Kobe cannot do it all by himself at 34. A snake bit season like I have never seen...and I have seen them all since 1971! We are not accustomed to using that saying that Boston fans know know all too well...what is it? Oh yeah..."Next year!"

So today I am vigorously trying to track down a ticket to the 28th final of the famous Heir Apparent Cup futbol match held here in Doha this evening. Wish me luck...it's a Qatar Stars League (QSL) championship match between that will be a type of revenge match between to bitter rivals Raul-led Sadd versus Al Rayyan Lions. It should be an interesting game to watch...wish me luck and of course I will update the scores on Twitter as it happens.

Observations and Asides:

Okay, so I finally finished reading my Nepali newspaper (The Republic)...two things surprised me: one, I was amazed to learn that in January there were just 373 road accidents in all of Nepal that injured 100 and left 7 people dead. Now that of course is terrible, but anyone who has actually been there and experienced the driving conditions...that number seems surprising low! Second...the malaria scourge has been biting (sorry) the mountain people of Nepal. As you may know, mosquitoes are usually only found in areas with temperatures between 20 and 30 Celsius and have been all but irradiated from many/most parts of the world. But due to something the scientists/meteorologists are calling "global warming" (Seems I missed that in USA Today?), the higher altitude Himalayan villages of Nepal are seeing more and more cases higher and higher up each year—now at over 2,000 meters! Hmmm...

Not a plug, but I sure do like this app my tech-savvy daughter downloaded for me that makes me enter my hotel room number in each place I visit. No more getting on an elevator without even a clue which floor I should get off at. No more walking down a long corridor with all the certainty in the world...and then realizing that, nope wrong room, wrong floor, wrong hotel! No more repeated visits to the front desk asking, "Sorry to bother you again, but what room am I in again?" And all those things have been known to occur...I know a Sharpie on the hand works just as effectively and needs no recharging!

Yep the weather here was a little unexpected for most of our travelers, but many of us old Middle East hands know that the end of April always brings what is locally known of course as Al Saryat—usually cloudy conditions and drips and drabs of scattered rains and high wind conditions. It annually marks the end of the "wet season" and tells these desert-dwellers that the hot season is coming! (Better head to Florida.) But right now it is rather comfortable here...not something you can say 11.5 months of the year.

Was thinking last night as I wandered through the souq and then stopped and had a limeade & mint drink, that Qatar may be the luckiest nation on the planet.  It has been independent from Britain (peacefully) since1971 and was once married to their nearby cousins UAE and Bahrain. But the Emir (really nice palace by the way) had other ideas. So what makes Qatar so lucky? Well, first they are traders and the waters nearby are extremely blue and rich with pearls. People really like pearls and they sell a lot of them. Then of course came the oil, and now it is natural gas—a lot of it! As I mentioned early, Qataris enjoy the highest per capita income in the world. They are obscenely Nuevo riche (ala Jed Clampett rich). They are just one of all those Nuevo riche petroleum kingdoms...Dubai, Abu Dhabi (aka "son of Dubai"). But I have heard from knowledge sources (okay a British executive with ties to nobility who will go unmentioned because Samuel doesn't want his name mentioned because he does a lot of business here) that Qataris are often described by their progressive (sic) neighbors as the rednecks of the Middle East. So they are kind of the Arabic Beverly Hillbillies if you will. I think that description comes from the fact that they are relatively new to their seemingly endless wealth and they have a deep penchant (oaky, love) of their double-wide trailers, that are located everywhere out by the dunes. Forget old-style Bedouin tents when you can have a double-wide with waterbed and microwave!

Number 345 of the changes I have noticed during the last ten years doing The Global Scavenger Hunt. Ten years ago digital cameras were just arriving on the scene...now they are of course ubiquitous. Well, I noticed that this has significantly hurt the local merchants with stands nearby "tourist sites" because they can't sell travelers any camera batteries anymore and film. I know that is an advance for us not needing batteries (charge them at the hotel) or film (chips hold 1,000's of megapixel photos)...but that is bad for them. Ah, creative destruction. The winners and losers of capitalism and its unintended consequences.

Best sign of the trip so far: it was a cemetery/mortuary/crematory in Kuala Lumpur called Nirvana! Indeed...

Recycling at its best: My ice cold bottle of Nepali-brewed Everest brand/labeled beer served me at the Kathmandu Guest House was in a bottle of Kingfisher beer from India?

Really noticeable...The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming! Where you ask? Everywhere! Fact is that outbound Chinese tourism is growing 12% a year (USA outbound international tourism has shrunk since 9/11) and that means last year alone 82 million Chinese tourists traveled aboard to foreign destinations. And they spent more than $102 billion in those destinations. It makes them #1 in the world followed by the Germans. If you haven't noticed them in your travelers so far...you will!

A word about a new fashion accessory that is sure to spread...we noticed them in Japan years ago. People wearing surgical face masks in an honorable attempt not to spread their cold/flu to other citizens. Then we saw it pop up in China a few years ago...because the pollution is so bad and it helps keep those large floaties from entering your lungs. Then we saw it spread to other nations over the past few years that are also grappling with severe urban pollution from twin-stroke motorcycles, antiquated diesel-fueled buses and trucks. And now this year we noticed it in Shanghai...designer surgical masks no less...to prevent catching H7N9 bird/avian flu. My best guess is that the use of such masks will continue to spread to more and more urban places over the years and will be just part of our new 21st century dress code/fashion accessory. Self-preservation. A pessimistic dystopian vision you say? For those that know me, you know that's not me, as if I am anything, I am a hopeful positive guy. But on the other hand: maybe, maybe not?

Never thought I'd see the day? Hopefully some other travelers can independently verify this too...saw someone parasailing. Not behind a boat—which is loads of fun. But behind a dune buggy, okay 4-wheel truck in the desert! Wow!

Okay...I am out for now...but here a few photos so far from Qatar:


And you thought ziggurats where a thing of the past!


No pigseaten here...but a lot of goat.


Think of all the empty offices in those buildings!
(A commerical real estate brokers nightmare.)


One of these years some team will send me a photo of themon a 4-legged beastie? An
Event Director can dream can't he?


I dunno either? (BTW: really BAD drivers here!)


Something really cool here...Falconary is BIG!

Okay later...have a great day. I know we are all...