Doha to Mekah & Madinah via road

If you plan to drive to Saudi for umrah or visit, this map is helpful. This is a simplied version and guide. Off course we need the necessary travel documents like umrah visa or visit visa to Saudi. Transit visa is only applicable if we want to cross Saudi en route to UAE or any destination within driving distant eg Oman, Kuwait, Yemen & Bahrain.

Latest Shopping Attraction in Doha

We found out this new shopping attraction today. It is along C Ring between Ramada Junction & Lamborghini Showroom or directly opposite Burger King & sandwiched between two towers. The towers are called Al Mana Towers & the shopping mall called The Boulevard.

What attracted me to visit this newly opened shopping mall was the word SALES. The new mall houses BHS, Mango, Benetton etc. You can also find Gloria Jeans coffee shop. The BHS is now offering 25% discount for all purchase. I would say it was a grand opening sales.

Go & have a look at the latest mall to kill your time during weekend..

Doha Summer Festival 2008

Here comes the Doha Summer Festival!!!! The festival runs from 15 July - 5 August.

The Summer Festival also hosts an international trade fair at Doha Exhibition Centre. Some 345 pavilions will be selling home appliances, garments, cosmetics, accessories and other goods.

There will also be a Qatari Heritage Village showcasing the country’s history and culture.

The attractions :

1. The Hyatt Plaza - A puppet show & story telling
2. The Mall -The Chinese dragon, acrobat show & education workshop
3. The City Center - The Smurfs cartoon show
4. The Villagio - The Children’s circus
5. The Landmark - The magic show
6. The City Centre - The acrobats
7. Doha Exhibition Centre - The jugglers, stilt walkers and clown magicians

On top of the above, there will be caricature and painting shows at all the venues, drum beatings by girls at City Center and Villagio, and mime artistes and live statues at the Landmark, Hyatt Plaza and The Mall. Shows will also be staged at the City Center ice rink.

The programmes run daily from 6pm to 10pm & FOC.

Hopefully, the hot summer days will be spent indoors. As most of them shows are at the shoping centres, don't forget to bring some cash & credit cards..

One Weekend & Three Birthdays

Sound too much? Not so. That kept us over occupied last weekend. Birthday, birthday & birthday. The 1st birthday celebration was meant as a surprise birthday party for my wife. It was jointly organised by Rizal & Dills... The original venue was Seri Kebaya. Unfortunately, Seri Kebaya was fully booked that night. So we changed the venue to Al Majles...

What made it special was that all our Dohas' 'family members' were there. It was due to careful planning by Rizal & Dills. That was the night I declared Shah as the winner for the night. He managed to eat the most lamb... I was not so sure what we call it though..

Dan, a friend of mine invited us for the birthday celebration for their 1 year old daugther. They are new to Doha. They have been in Doha for only 1 month & 12 days yesterday.

Lastly, we also celebrated Farhain's birthday!!! She also turned 1 last weekend. Happy Birthday, Farhain! Sorry folks, no pix.