New City! Doha

So I am in Doha tonight. I was in Saudi Arabia this week visiting stores. Flights back into Dubai were impossible to get, so I had to connect through Doha to get home. I was excited when I first book the ticket 1- because I have never been to Doha, and 2- because I got to fly on Qatar Airways which is "the worlds first 5 star airline." As I've said before, my days are super long when I travel and visit stores. So I started my day with an 8am breakfast meeting with the Riyadh Exec team. Then, we traveled stores for 6 hrs, then I headed to the airport. Flight delayed 2 hrs, means I missed my connecting flights, no problem, they re-booked me on the midnight flight. Which, with the 1hr time difference, means I'll land at 2am. Go through customs, and a 40 minute cab ride back to my house, I'll be home probably around 330am. I did have some moments of humor in this 22hr work day that are worth mentioning. (although this is hour 18, so maybe they are just funny to me because I'm exhausted- so sorry if not hilarious :-)

This picture is of the line- the line to get into the airport in Riyadh. This was far more unpleasant than I anticipated knowing that it was going to be busy as all flights were booked. I had gotten there early enough that I just got in line, and was going to be good- ei not be looking for the security guard who would see I was a white business man in a suit and pull me to the front of the line. (I am moving back in a few months, need to learn to be normal again.) As I'm waiting in line I hear "sir- you- sir- in the suit- come!" And sure enough a guard is waving me up while everyone- even women with children are looking at the spectacle that is me. I wave him off- no- "lala- shackrun" I say in arabic, to which he continues to yell and wave me in and then starts walking towards me. Dear god, I think, this is ridiculous. He comes up to me and grabs my suit case and starts walking to the door, not even looking to see if I'm following him. So of course I follow him up to the front front of the line, and go through. Nice, but not necessary. The lines at the counters were even longer, but I get in line like a good boy. The First Class ticket agent immediately stands up and is like "sir- you- sir- come. Come come." and again, everyone in line turns to look at who this jackass is that is getting to cut the line. It's Me! So I go up, and done and walking to the terminal before I know it. Sitting in the completely crowded terminal, I'm checking my emails and a little arabic boy and girl walk by me. Then they walk by me again, and the third time I looked up as they walked by and they were just staring at me. When they saw I was looking, they froze and just stared at me! LOL It was so funny! It reminded me of my first time being in Riyadh and this same thing happened. Granted, I'm probably the first white guy they'd seen, and I'm bald (which there are very few bald Arab guys, they usually have a full head of hair, beard, etc), and I'm 6'4, and was wearing a suit which again, they had probably only seen men in white dishdashes. So to wrap it all up I probably looked like one of those hairless albino' cats you see on the discovery channel, only a gigantic one! But it was really cute that they kept walking buy to "get a look at it". :-) As I got into Doha, I am tired. I haven't eaten real food since a 1/2 a chicken wrap at 2pm, and all I really want is a Diet Coke and a Snickers. Simple enough right? No. I start walking around- Duty free, another duty free, a Farooj Restuarant, anther duty free, no Diet coke. After having a pissy moment, I asked a security guard where I can get a "Oh- there's a diet coke cooler right there in the corner". Step one complete. Candy bars... candy bars... All I'm finding are those gigantic novelty 5lbs M&M's and foot long by 6" Snickers, and Mars bars that probably weigh 5lbs too. And then I did it, I bought the 5lb Mars bar. I'm sitting here eating it like it's nothing special, just me and my gigantic candy bar, like I do this everyday. LOL I'm waiting for some Japanese tourists to start walking by me like those kids did to be like "is he really eating that by himself??!"